Nicole Brown Simpson's sister warms to the O.J. helper theory while the lead detective calls it baseless

Two people with deep ties to the O.J. Simpson case are landing in very different places on the latest claim that he had help after the 1994 killings.

A sister has second thoughts

Tanya Brown is the younger sister of Nicole Brown Simpson. For years she was sure Simpson acted alone when Nicole and Ron Goldman were killed. A recent New York Times investigation has her rethinking one piece of that. She now wonders if another person helped get rid of the bloody clothing and the weapon afterward.

The report centers on Joseph "Joey" Ippolito, a man who knew Simpson. According to his brother Sam, Joey showed up at home late that night holding a weighty bag with blood on his hands. Sam says he later threw that bag into a dumpster. None of it has been proven.

Brown said she does not believe Simpson was the one who got rid of the bag. She also said she could picture lawyers on the case waving off a tip like that because they felt too sure they would win.

Doubts about the brother

Brown still has questions about Sam. She wants to know why he is speaking up only now when Joey has died and cannot answer for himself. She suggested he may simply want attention. She added that she has no plans to talk with him.

She also shared something personal. Brown said this year she finally made room to grieve her sister and she is now sober. She credits that with leaving her more open to the idea that a second person handled the evidence.

The detective is not buying it

Tom Lange led the LAPD investigation and is now retired. Asked on Monday how much weight he gives the Ippolito theory, he answered "Pretty close to zero."

Lange said the account makes for a good story but nothing backs it up. He explained that Joey's name did surface in a handful of tips during the original probe. Nothing tied him to the murders and detectives never sat down with him.

What Lange finds more telling

Lange pointed to a detail from the first investigation instead. He said a witness saw Simpson at the airport not long after the killings. According to that witness, Simpson took things out of a bag and dropped them into a trash can before he got on a flight to Chicago.

No one knows what those items were. Lange said that sighting is far more compelling to him than an unproven tale about a mystery cleaner with links to Simpson and the mob.

Where the case stands

Malcolm LaVergne, who once represented Simpson, has already urged people to drop the speculation. He argued that new theories do little to give the families closure.

A criminal jury acquitted Simpson of both murders in 1995. A civil jury later found him liable for the deaths. He died in 2024.