In the first week of June, 1826, William Simpson, a South Carolinian had come to Virginia to purchase slaves.  Mr. Simpson met William Fitzhugh in Leesburg, Virginia, where William Fitzhugh was employed as a writer in the Clerk's Office in the Leesburg Courthouse in Loudoun County.  Apparently Hooe offered to show Simpson, a stranger to the area, around and help him in his business. 

They traveled together to Centreville, Fairfax County, where they lodged at Lane's Ordinary (the old Newgate Tavern).  On the evening of March 5, the were seen at Mr. Grigsby's tavern.  They left, and Hooe returned alone.  Hooe returned the next day to Leesburg. 

By March 8, when Simpson had still not appeared, a search was begun.  His body was found, "shot in the left shoulder, and stabbed eleven times in the neck and six times in the chest."  William Fitzhugh was arrested in Leesburg and arraigned for murder and highway robbery on May 24, 1825.  The trial the next year was apparently sensational, since "the accused was young and a member of the gentry, and county citizens were in an uproar over the callousness of the crime."  The evidence against William Fitzhugh was "circumstantial but overwhelming."  He maintained his innocence until after the trial, when he acknowledged his guilt to the Reverend Mr. Burch, a Methodist minister.  Between two and three thousand people "were camped outside the jail, waiting to witness the execution," which took place on June 30, 1826.