Still Missing CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *arrest* #97

[MassGuy]

Waiting longer would have resolved the evidence issues, as you're talking about enough evidence for several murder cases (4 terabytes or whatever). Yeah, it's nice to have the lab results back too, but we've seen plenty of cases where that's an ongoing thing after arrest.

Although I think it's pretty clear Barry was skipping town, I don't see that as a legitimate reason to rush the arrest. He could have been extradited from wherever, and it's not like he would have been hard to find.

As for the idea that Barry was going to keep talking. No.

He was done talking to the Sheriff's department, and with CBI, and had been for some time.

Grusing (FBI) handled the later interviews, and those were done. Barry went over the evidence one last time (multiple exhibits), and crippled himself. Grusing showed much of his hand, and the audit was completed.

Here's how it closed: Barry said, "Yeah. Well, what happens from here? When you guys go to them, what's the next step?" SA Grusing explains that Agents will share the results with the district attorney's office and it will be up to them. SA Harris offers again that Barry could take a polygraph. Barry said that he would pray about it and that he needs to get going. Barry tells agents to be careful going back. The interview ends (page 122).

So the case would have been better organized, and the process would have gone smoother. That being said, the case wasn't going to get any stronger. They had what they had, and I'm glad they had the balls to move forward.

Premature? Yes.

Is it a case killing move? No.

 

[sk716]

Could we maybe start referencing the Mother's Day "bike ride" in quotes? Maybe we can get it to catch on around the community.

 

[susiQ]

The reporter said he joked during breaks but was otherwise serious.

Well, I would certainly hope he could muster some decorum when court is in session, but it is still very inappropriate to be “joking” during breaks. This is not a possession of MJ charge. He’s been charged with the murder of his wife. There just isn’t ANYTHING funny about that!!

 

[MassGuy]

Could we maybe start referencing the Mother's Day "bike ride" in quotes? Maybe we can get it to catch on around the community.

Lol. Yes.

 

[BDAJAG]

I checked the weather forecast on 5/10/20 (Salida). Between 8-9 am the temperature was in the 40s...It didn't reach 50 degrees until about 10am. The most comfortable period of the day was 12pm till 6 pm with 3pm being the ideal time with temperature in the high 60s tipping at 70 degrees max. Kind of explains why Suzanne was biking in the mid afternoon in May consistently. Was she biking in the morning with temperatures in the 40s...knowing full well that the temperature would rise another 25 degrees that afternoon? I tried to paste a graph....not very good at it.

Yes.
Just years back, even with a neoprene face-mask & booties, my go/no-go for an 18 mi. ride/19 mph avg. was 55F. The windchill is is crippling. The mask got full of snot, and my toes were so numb I'd have to assume a 'dead-horse' position in a warm kitchen for a half hr. before the pain would subside.
But I guess I was just a 'wuss...

 

[10ofRods]

Didn’t she just get her bike back from being worked on? So maybe taking it for a spin near the house to check everything was working correctly before driving to the trail? Why would she put on her camelback for that?

If I was the defense that is the tact I would take on the bike. The rest would be much harder to explain away.

IMO

I think the answer to your first question is "no," she had taken her bike in and ordered a part, but I am not sure that the evidence we have in the AA shows that a repair had been undertaken.

At any rate, any person can ride their bike near their home, unless they are dead. For Suzanne. to have steered her own bike into the little ravine, we need one more fact:

What happened next? She wasn't dead or she'd be right there by the bike. There's no evidence she staggered up to the road, bleeding, badly injured. There's no evidence at all that the bike went down to the ravine via road that day.

There is however, evidence that Barry Morphew, in the middle of the night, early on Mother's Day, went down to that exact spot.

And this is why we have trials. Perhaps you think that means jurors will conclude Suzanne was riding her bike early on Mother's Day (unavailable by phone or social media to her daughters, to JL, and to anyone else) and somehow ran her bike down a hill and then also somehow disappeared (and then there's the fact someone burned her journals and other paperwork inside the PP House...hmmm)

 

[waldojabba]

Legally perhaps speculative but he is still with CBI so probably still heard things.

He is not still with CBI. He resigned from CBI in December and I think you may recall that he was removed from the case and transferred to the marijuana unit before he resigned.
Morphew case investigator resigned over personal weapon discharge, letter reveals

 

[swedeheart]

 

[Momofthreeboys]

He is not still with CBI. He resigned from CBI in December and I think you may recall that he was removed from the case and transferred to the marijuana unit before he resigned.
Morphew case investigator resigned over personal weapon discharge, letter reveals

Thanks you are right in all of that I forgot he resigned.

 

[sk716]

We only see a small portion of one tire, but there is not a single pebble from the road.

I hope that any pebbles that were found in the bike tires are in evidence, proving they came from Puma Path, or from a different location (like the last place Suzanne actually rode her bike).

If Barry was smart, he would have walked the bike down there so that any residue on the tires would have come from Puma Path.

Mountain bike tires are unlikely to collect a pebble by design. The pic you quoted just has the closest shot of the tire tread. The tires are still brand new, but they have been ridden on at least once. The body cam footage has a few decently clear shots of the tires as well. The dirt appears evenly dispersed across the entire surface of the rubber, that requires weight on the wheels to push the rubber into the ground and kick up the dust.

In the pic below (click to make it huge), you can see a little mud caked where the bike had rested, I can't recall any mud around the "crash" scene or up on the dirt road. I'm gonna guess that wherever she last biked, there were still mud puddles in the parking area.

http://www./wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_89.png

MOO

ETA:

Dry.

 

[BDAJAG]

After reading the Defense Motions for Sanctions and the State's response, all I have to say is that E&N are spending a lot of BM's blood money for nothing. Good, wonder what his tab is up to these days?

They are so dramatic and over-hyped, often like the tornados they are compared to.

Cahill's statements were not discoverable here IMO. This case would have/still will move forward. It's like the old saying, 'throw a bunch of spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks' and seems like excessive overreaching.

Not for nothing, ole' BARE seems to have aged 30 years lately. Yikes!

MOO

[Felix]: HA! This isn't spaghetti ! It's linguine!
[Immediately, as said plate of linguine is flung violently against the wall by his roommate...
[Oscar]: "Now it's garbage!"

Totally timeless...​

 

[swedeheart]

*Per the live, LE has been searching mines (after Barry's arrest).

*Cahill was being moved to marijuana before the preliminary hearing even began.

*DNA (glove box) is excluded.

*The second highest ranking CBI officer (Schaffer, I think) was requested by Spezze, and was called to the Morphew house on May 11, 2020, only 12 hours after Suzanne went missing.

Conclusion: Judge will order a written ruling on sanctions and dismissal of case, and will be made public.

 

[BDAJAG]

Oh I believe he was headed for Gunnison or Arizona. No doubt in my mind. But heck have the LE in Chaffee County never heard of extradition?

Ah... uh-uh...
imo mucho, mucho further over the horizon than Gunny or AZ..

 

[Cindizzi]

https://twitter.com/marcsallinger/status/1499957733163945984?s=21

8 witnesses testified at Barry Morphew’s hearing today, including @CBI_Colorado Director, CBI Deputy Director, Chafee Sheriff, DA Stanley

Investigators all thought there was probable cause to arrest Morphew, but disagreed on timing of arrest

MY STORY:

Barry Morphew case: Prosecutors disagreed on timing of arrest | 9news.com


https://twitter.com/marcsallinger/status/1499959026414669827?s=21
The court heard testimony today on Morphew’s defense teams’ motion to dismiss the case

They argue “exculpatory evidence” was hidden from the court and defense attorneys up until recently

Judge Lama has not yet ruled on the motion

 

[BDAJAG]

I think because CBI’s comment were prior to the arrest and the preliminary. When an arrest warrant is written LE is saying they have a case and are ready to proceed to trial. If the investigators are saying they weren’t ready that is a problem.

..."investigators",
or " investigator",
as @ present?​

 

[BDAJAG]

Waiting longer would have resolved the evidence issues, as you're talking about enough evidence for several murder cases (4 terabytes or whatever). Yeah, it's nice to have the lab results back too, but we've seen plenty of cases where that's an ongoing thing after arrest.

Although I think it's pretty clear Barry was skipping town, I don't see that as a legitimate reason to rush the arrest. [He could have been extradited from wherever, and it's not like he would have been hard to find.]*

As for the idea that Barry was going to keep talking. No.

He was done talking to the Sheriff's department, and with CBI, and had been for some time.

Grusing (FBI) handled the later interviews, and those were done. Barry went over the evidence one last time (multiple exhibits), and crippled himself. Grusing showed much of his hand, and the audit was completed.

Here's how it closed: Barry said, "Yeah. Well, what happens from here? When you guys go to them, what's the next step?" SA Grusing explains that Agents will share the results with the district attorney's office and it will be up to them. SA Harris offers again that Barry could take a polygraph. Barry said that he would pray about it and that he needs to get going. Barry tells agents to be careful going back. The interview ends (page 122).

So the case would have been better organized, and the process would have gone smoother. That being said, the case wasn't going to get any stronger. They had what they had, and I'm glad they had the balls to move forward.

Premature? Yes.

Is it a case killing move? No.

*Ahh...uh-uh
<resp'y referring to my last #354, supra.>

 

[Cindizzi]

Barry Morphew case: Prosecutors disagreed on timing of arrest | 9news.com
Cahill and his partner on the case, Agent Derek Graham elevated their concerns to their superiors at CBI. Their conversations led CBI Director John Camper and Deputy Director Chris Schaefer to call Sheriff Spezze in the days before the arrest warrant was issued and ask him to hold off on arresting Morphew. CBI Agents said there was still more investigative work to be done, test results they were waiting on, that they were hoping to interview more people, as well as other reasons they wanted to wait.

“I understood that they were about to make an arrest… so I call him and told him that Barry Morphew was still speaking to our investigators and I didn’t want that to come to a close,” Camper said in court. “He disagreed… one of the main concerns he expressed was that Mr. Morphew would flee. I wasn’t as concerned about that.”

“There was no rush,” Sheriff Spezze testified in court.

Spezze said that while he didn’t have any specific concerns about Morphew fleeing and running away from authorities, he said that is always a concern. Morphew was arrested nearly a year to-the-date after his wife went missing.

Judge Ramsey Lama said he would take the motion under advisement and rule on the motion “in due time.”

 

[DizzyB]

I think the answer to your first question is "no," she had taken her bike in and ordered a part, but I am not sure that the evidence we have in the AA shows that a repair had been undertaken.

At any rate, any person can ride their bike near their home, unless they are dead. For Suzanne. to have steered her own bike into the little ravine, we need one more fact:

What happened next? She wasn't dead or she'd be right there by the bike. There's no evidence she staggered up to the road, bleeding, badly injured. There's no evidence at all that the bike went down to the ravine via road that day.

There is however, evidence that Barry Morphew, in the middle of the night, early on Mother's Day, went down to that exact spot.

And this is why we have trials. Perhaps you think that means jurors will conclude Suzanne was riding her bike early on Mother's Day (unavailable by phone or social media to her daughters, to JL, and to anyone else) and somehow ran her bike down a hill and then also somehow disappeared (and then there's the fact someone burned her journals and other paperwork inside the PP House...hmmm)

The one thing that I have to say about this is that i have returned from a somewhat drunken Friday night to see a post from 10ofRods and this brings me so much happiness. You have been missed.

 

[Megnut]

https://twitter.com/marcsallinger/status/1499957733163945984?s=21

8 witnesses testified at Barry Morphew’s hearing today, including @CBI_Colorado Director, CBI Deputy Director, Chafee Sheriff, DA Stanley

Investigators all thought there was probable cause to arrest Morphew, but disagreed on timing of arrest

MY STORY:

Barry Morphew case: Prosecutors disagreed on timing of arrest | 9news.com


https://twitter.com/marcsallinger/status/1499959026414669827?s=21
The court heard testimony today on Morphew’s defense teams’ motion to dismiss the case

They argue “exculpatory evidence” was hidden from the court and defense attorneys up until recently

Judge Lama has not yet ruled on the motion

Exculpatory evidence! Defense wishes!

Barry did such a thorough job of hogging MTW there's no room for any other theory!

Grusing called it. Intimate partner homicide.

Hey, Barry, were you the last person to see Suzanne?

Well, exactly.

JMO

 

[Cindizzi]

https://twitter.com/laurenscharftv/status/1499968549934174210?s=21

ICYMI: An organization dedicated to helping victims of domestic abuse is questioning Judge Ramsey Lama's decision to prevent evidence of allegations of domestic violence from being admitted in #BarryMorphew murder trial.

Domestic violence group condemns judge in Morphew trial, calls recent decision 'pretty disappointing'