Mr. Simpson, who won fame and riches on the football field, in the movies and on television, is charged with killing Nicole Brown Simpson, 35, who divorced him two years ago, and her friend, Ronald L. Goldman, a 25-year-old waiter, outside her home in the Brentwood section here late Sunday night. His disappearance today came only 24 hours after he attended her funeral, walking hand in hand with their two children.

At a news conference early this evening, Mr. Simpson's lawyer, Mr. Shapiro, who was with him at a house in the San Fernando Valley this morning before the suspect slipped away, described him as severely depressed, even suicidal, and urged him to surrender.

Mr. Shapiro was joined at the news conference by an associate of Mr. Simpson, Robert Kardashian, who read a handwritten letter from him that he left behind when he fled the house, in the town of Encino. 'Why Do I End Up Like This?'

"I think of my life and feel I've done most of the right things," Mr. Simpson wrote. "So why do I end up like this? I can't go on. No matter what the outcome, people will look and point. I can't take that. I can't subject my children to that."

Making what he described as a final wish, Mr. Simpson asked news organizations to let his children alone. He also maintained that he was innocent. "I have nothing to do with her murder," the letter said of his former wife. "I love her."

Mr. Simpson concluded the letter by telling the public: "Don't feel sorry for me. I've had a great life. Please think of the real O. J. and not this lost person. Thanks for making my life special. I hope I helped yours. Peace and love, O. J."

Like many of the day's other developments in the Simpson case, Mr. Kardahsian's reading of the letter was nationally televised. One viewer was Mr. Simpson's 72-year-old mother, Eunice Simpson, a resident of the San Francisco area who was reported by the CBS affiliate there to have collapsed in distress as she watched. Sam Singer, a spokesman at California Pacific Medical Center, confirmed tonight that Mrs. Simpson was admitted late this afternoon. He said her condition was stable. Episode of Flight