Nicole Brown Simpson was a tall, beautiful blonde. A homecoming queen in high school, Brown Simpson always seemed to attract attention. One of her friends remembered her, at her death at age 35, as a "very vivacious woman."

Brown Simpson met O.J. Simpson soon after her graduation from high school. She was 18, he was 30. The two were married soon afterwards on February 2, 1985, with a child following a just months after their marriage. Her family and friends remember her as a devoted mother who loved her children, Sydney and Justin.

Divorced in 1992, Brown Simpson won a $433,000 cash settlement and $10,000 per month in child support. Friends and family recall their rocky marriage as Brown Simpson was a target of spousal abuse by Simpson. In one of the most poignant tapes played for the jury, Brown Simpson told a 911 operator that she needed assistance quickly as O.J was "going to beat the shit out of me."

The night of her murder, Brown Simpson was found outside of her condominium, barefooted, just outside the front door. Her throat had been slashed by a knife. Investigators believed that she had been conversing with her attacker prior to her murder.

One of the men Brown Simpson dated after her divorce was one of O.J.'s rivals, Marcus Allen, running back for the Kansas City Chiefs.