Gregory Shinn, inset, allegedly murdered his girlfriend Katrin Simpson and tried to make it look like she died by suicide, Florida cops say. (Shinn: St. Petersburg police; Screenshot: WFLA/YouTube)
A Florida man murdered his girlfriend and then tried to make it look like a suicide by hanging, according to police.
Gregory Shinn, 48, is facing a first-degree murder charge in the death of 59-year-old Katrin Simpson in February at their home in St. Petersburg.
Police and paramedics responded shortly before 11:30 p.m. Feb. 20 to the 3700 block of Whiting Drive to find Simpson hanging by a black wire attached to the wooded beam in the garage. According to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by Law&Crime, paramedics cut Simpson down, but their lifesaving measures were unsuccessful and they pronounced her dead. Shinn told cops he found Simpson hanging in the garage and ran to a neighbor’s house to call 911. He also said Simpson had previously expressed suicidal thoughts and had cut herself in the hand on purpose the previous day.
Cops noticed she had bruising on her face and blood around her nose and mouth, the affidavit said. Detectives interviewed Shinn, who said Simpson’s injuries to her face may have happened when she was using a sledgehammer while renovating the home earlier that day.
A neighbor in an interview with detectives on Feb. 21 said Simpson previously told her that if she ended up dead “Shinn did it,” according to the affidavit. The neighbor also said that on Jan. 15, Simpson came to her home and told her Shinn put duct tape around her mouth and eyes and chocked the victim with an extension cord, the affidavit said. Shinn had previously been arrested twice for domestic violence against Simpson in 2021 and 2022, police said.
The medical examiner told detectives Simpson’s injuries were “not consistent” with a suicide, the affidavit said. Simpson suffered several injuries, including brain hemorrhaging and rib fractures, detectives wrote. Investigators obtained a search warrant for the house where they obtained spools of electrical wire, cameras and a fitted sheet which contained blood on it.
Simpson again spoke with detectives who said he spent the day of Simpson’s death working on his renovation of the bedroom and bathroom. He said Simpson spent most of her day in the garage working on her art projects. He said she helped him for a while and then returned to the garage, the affidavit said. Shinn allegedly said she was in the garage for about 30 or 45 minutes and went to check on her which is when he saw her body.
He said he never touched the wire the victim was hanging to but tried unsuccessfully to bring her down before going to get help. He denied fighting with the victim the night of her death.
In a third interview a couple of days later, Shinn tried to explain his girlfriend’s additional injuries, detectives said. He claimed he saw Simpson nodding off earlier the day of her death so he gave her two doses of Narcan. Later in the day he said Simpson was calling him names so he pulled her “off the bed by both of her ankles very forcefully and she hit her head on the floor,” the affidavit said. He then proceeded to pull her by her ankles down the hallway, he allegedly told detectives. He tried to pick her up but his knee “buckled” and came down on her with his full weight, the affidavit said.
Investigators later learned that Shinn’s DNA was on the wire tied to the beam, despite him telling them he never touched it.
On March 21, Shinn called detectives from the hospital. He told them he tried to commit suicide because he felt “guilty” about what he said to Simpson “that night,” the affidavit said.
The medical examiner on Tuesday ruled the manner of death as a homicide and the cause of death as strangulation with contributing factors of blunt force trauma and multi-drug toxicity. Cops arrested Tuesday Shinn and took him to the Pinellas County Jail where he is being held without bond.
Her friends were elated about the arrest.
“We have been waiting for this for so long,” Johanna Monighan told local NBC affiliate WFLA. “It almost seemed unreal.”
Stacey McKnight knew Simpson for over two decades.
“Our neighbors are so happy,” she told Fox affiliate WTVT. “They can finally rest in peace and Katrin can now, her soul can rest in peace.”
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