SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA — What began as a typical Super Bowl Sunday for thousands in the Bay Area has spiralled into a haunting mystery with more questions than answers. Forty-four-year-old Thomas Simpkins, a devoted father from Santa Clara, vanished after attending a friend’s barbecue on February 8, only to be discovered six days later lifeless in the waters of San Tomas Aquino Creek near Levi’s Stadium — the site of this year’s football spectacle.
Simpkins was last heard from around 9 p.m. that night, when he took an Uber home and sent familiar messages to his family. But when he failed to show up for work the following day and his phone went unanswered, concern quickly mounted. His sister, Brandi Stroud, travelled from Oregon and launched an exhaustive search, plastering flyers, scouring trails and flooding social media with pleas for help as loved ones feared the worst.
Nearly a week later, a stranger’s message changed everything: scanner audio shared by a well-wisher pointed to human remains discovered behind the stadium. Stroud identified her brother at the medical examiner’s office by the bold tattoo that spelled his name across his back — confirmation that turned fear into heartbreak.
The circumstances of Simpkins’s death are far from clear. When his body was found, his cellphone and wallet were gone, deepening a sense of unease about how he ended up in such a heavily surveilled area during a major event weekend. Police have not yet determined a cause of death, and authorities are treating the case as an active investigation with the possibility of homicide under consideration, though no official ruling has been released.
Simpkins leaves behind a 19-year-old son and was in the midst of a divorce, family members said, accentuating the tragedy felt across multiple households. As his loved ones struggle to make sense of his final days, their central question remains painfully simple yet unresolved: how did a man last seen heading home from a barbecue end up lifeless near one of the biggest sporting venues in the nation — and why are the key pieces of his life missing?
