Woman’s burning body identified

Upper Arlington police on Monday identified the woman whose body was found burning Sunday near a walking trail in Burbank Park.

Bobbie Renee Simpson, 23, was not a resident of Upper Arlington, Upper Arlington police community relations Officer Bryan J. McKean said in a news release. He declined to disclose where Simpson lived when contacted by The Dispatch, citing the ongoing investigation.

However, Franklin County Municipal Court records indicate Simpson lived on the streets of Columbus and had been charged three times within the past year for soliciting prostitution on the Sullivant Avenue corridor in the Hilltop: on Nov. 10, 2017 and this year on July 11 and Aug. 23, according to court records. She was convicted in the 2017 case and served six days in jail. The July case was dismissed by the judge and the August case was pending at the time of her death.

In all three cases, Simpson was cited for offering intercourse for $40 or $50 to an undercover Columbus police vice unit detective, court records show. The undercover officer in the November 2017 case was Andrew Mitchell.

Mitchell was suspended on Sept. 26 because of an investigation by the FBI into the Columbus police vice unit. He was under investigation for fatally shooting Donna Castleberry, 23, in an undercover police car on Aug. 23 in Franklinton after she stabbed him in his hand with a knife. A week before the shooting, a criminal complaint had been filed against the 30-year career officer, police said.