CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 , MEDIA,MAPS,TIMELINE *NO DISCUSSION*
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TRIAL OF CHAD DAYBELL CHARGED WITH MURDER OF JJ VALLOW, TYLEE RYAN AND TAMMY DAYBELL #5- Latest: nodamselindistress
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Long-awaited Suzanne Morphew toxicology report raises new questions in homicide case
Will a long-awaited toxicology report on Suzanne Morphew’s remains upend the nearly four-year-old case, which many believe would never be solved?
denvergazette.com
4/29/24
The autopsy report, performed by the El Paso County Coroner's office, found Suzanne Morphew’s cause of death to be undetermined and the manner of death to be homicide.
The autopsy report was finished on Sept. 27, 2023 just days after Morphew's remains were discovered by accident by an investigative team from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation looking for a different person.
The autopsy results took a long time to be released — seven months — as investigators waited for test results. It's unclear whether the new information will lead to reopening the case.
Butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine are the same substances that Suzanne's husband, Barry Morphew, told investigators he routinely used to immobilize deer before he removed their antlers.
The chemical mixture is often sold in kit form with the acronym "BAM."
[..]
Eytan added, "Special veterinarians have the ability to prescribe these controlled substances. If they do their job and don’t have blinders on, they’ll be able to get the prescription record, which farmers and ranchers had it and especially in that area."
[...]
According to the 129-page arrest affidavit, when investigators questioned Barry Morphew about the tranquilizer on May 5, 2021, he told them, “I’ve shot two deer with my tranq gun ‘cause I used to raise deer and I collect horns and I’ll tell you exactly what I did."
"They’re in the yard. I shoot them, they go to sleep. I cut their horns off and I wake 'em up and they go off with no horns on their head. ... You’re gonna find tranq darts around my property because I’ve done that,” he added.
The chemicals were the crux of the prosecutors’ case in the high-profile trial, which 11th Judicial District Judge Ramsey Lama dismissed without prejudice nine days before it was scheduled to begin. Barry Morphew walked out of the courthouse a free man on April 19, 2022.
Dismissed without prejudice means that a case is dismissed but can be refiled at some point.
[..]
Wolfe authored a report on BAM as a safe and effective way to immobilize black bears.
Wolfe was one of 14 expert witnesses struck by 11th Judicial District Judge Ramsey Lama in the weeks before the trial. In a 20-page order, Lama gave a scathing rebuke to the prosecution for what he called a "sloppy" and "reckless" pattern of discovery violations.
Lama did not find a discovery violation regarding Wolfe's testimony, but considered the tranquilizer injection theory "too speculative" and "too tenuous" and thought that its admission would be "error" according to Eytan's complaint.
Also ousted from testifying as experts were witnesses who were going to give their opinions on cellphone records, DNA, and telematix, which is vehicle movement. With such a weakened case, prosecutors asked Lama to dismiss it without prejudice and the request was granted.
Whether the toxicology findings would bring new life to what has at times appeared to be a doomed case is unclear. There is a good possibly that if the Morphew case is retried, that it won't happen in the 11th Judicial District, where the investigators believe Suzanne Morphew was killed. An alternative would be to start over in the neighboring 12th District, where her remains were found.
[..]
Barry Morphew, 56, now lives in Indiana and as next of kin, received the results of his wife's autopsy report last week. He is planning a celebration of her life on Saturday, May 4.
Tuesday would have been Suzanne Morphew's 54th birthday.