Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *Case dismissed w/o prejudice* #108

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Barry. Talking to a Snitch? In Prison?

@Skigh Yes, I see your point and tend to agree, but then again----

I'm thinking about the PCA's recital of numerous conversations, inteviews, interrogations, that Barry had w verious members of LE agents &agencies over a year long period.
When arrested, Barry expressed surprise/shock, saying something to the effect, I thought you (you guys or a named LEO?) were my friend(s).

Could have been a phony-baloney comment, but maybe could have been an indication of his misjudgment of circumstances or misreading of ppl? IDK.

And IIRC Barry himself was in a county jail, not prison.
If the "prison snitch" as a source is true, Barry MAY have made spilled info to someone "out" at time of BM's stmts. but who subsequently was in jail or in prison.

Just spitballing here.
Not assigning much weight to a prison snitch as a source helping to locate SM's remains but not totally dismissing it as a possibility. imo.
Barry expected the police to believe every word he said and treat him as an equal due to him being a firefighter. He thought he would be given the 'old boy 'treatment and not be investigated. He would think any fellow prisoner to be completely beneath him and would not be sitting with anyone of them exchanging confidences.
 
OK. I have several phones from different providers (don't ask why; should definitely drop Verizon, lol).

So: say, I make a photo with iPhone and re-photo is with 'Droid, and then edit with... whatever editor. The 'droid photo won't have the metadata about the original iPhone photo, as it will be a new photograph. Now, granted, there will probably be info in cloud and Google photos about the original one, but tbh honest, me and Google fight. They want me to buy more storage, and I don't. So technically, you can clean off a lot. I do.
Right - that's how I'd think the metadata would work with a rephoto of a photo.
 
I agree. Plus if the location came from a CI, I'd expect there to be a near-simultaneous arrest. Any informant who could lead them to Suzanne's body would almost certainly possess enough information to make the already-decent case against Barry rock solid.

Seems more likely to me that the official story is true and this was just a lucky find.
Yes, if a tip that lead to the discovery of the body was related to the SM investigation, then BM would already be back in jail...IMO

However, every news outlet has reported that the discovery happened while investigating another case. Thus, the area of the search could have, and likely did IMO, come from tips/ci/etc in another case.
 
Barry expected the police to believe every word he said and treat him as an equal due to him being a firefighter. He thought he would be given the 'old boy 'treatment and not be investigated. He would think any fellow prisoner to be completely beneath him and would not be sitting with anyone of them exchanging confidences.

Yes, I don't think it would be a prison snitch. Either someone who knew it all initially, or...imagine, Barry knows he's being watched. He knows he shouldn't approach Salida. But LE is searching close to initial place he hid her. Would he, potentially, ask an old "friend" or anyone to help, for $$$$, to move the body? The person might have taken the $$$$ then realized it made them an accessory...

For some reason, I am thinking, the hunters. Remember them being scared of him?
 
Interesting points. I think he wanted her bones scattered by animals, or at least, factored that into his rambling statements about what might have happened to her. He knew there would at least be birds. Seeing carrion birds circling in that area is a daily occurrence (and actually, as I live near some open fields, I see turkey vultures circling almost daily - never think a thing about it). But, by digging a shallow grave, the murderer made it obvious that this was no animal predation event. I know it makes the murderer look stupid, but even the smartest murderers do really dumb things (thankfully for Justice). I feel that this murderer could not resist attempting a "decent burial."

I keep thinking about those tools, as well. Microscopic analysis of the shovel (if it is now in the hands of LE, which I don't know) could say something about the soil into which it last dug. And there could be teensy particles of that soil in micro-grooves on the shovel (but if he had, say, steel wool or something, I think that evidence could be disappeared). OTOH, the steel wool would reveal that someone thought it necessary to thoroughly scrub the shovel (gee, could it be BARRY, the guy who took a shovel into a hotel room on the day his wife disappeared??)

The whole bleach thing is confusing. Someone posted yesterday the interview with the asst manager of the hotel who said that particular room "always smelled like bleach" (due to the pool) but I have my doubts about that person's reliability. What sort of hotel allows noxious fumes to accumulate in a guest room? And why would there be THAT much bleach in the pool. Pools that are off-gassing chlorine to that extent are dangerous and that's not how pool chemistry is supposed to be managed (makes the hotel look really bad). What a lucky thing for Barry, right, if true?

But then Andy Moorman says that LE told him that the Puma Path house also wreaked of bleach. Hmmm.

JP and MG mention the bleach smell in that one room.

No other guest reviews of that hotel mention it (I would be on google reviews so fast if my room smelled of bleach!) I can think of all kinds of reasons why the asst manager might have made that statement to a reporter, though. I can think of reasons why some reporters would want a tidbit like that.

At the time of Suzanne's disappearance, Salida had two small town newspapers (digital; one can barely call them newspapers, as they were more like news blogs, each run by mainly one person, each with more opinion pieces than news, IIRC).

The two papers had competing viewpoints on nearly everything. Some of Barry's known friends (and IMO, Barry himself) were more associated with one of those papers than the other (IMO). The newspapers were both covering (before Suzanne's disappearance) the hiring of Sheriff Spezzi (and the two papers took vastly different viewpoints on it - with Spezzi's chief competitor for the position being supported by the one paper and Spezzi by the other). I think one of the online newspapers is no longer in existence, I haven't checked recently.

Even now, there is a local online entity (newspaper-ish) that has links to some extraordinarily biased/angled coverage involving Suzanne. It may be the same newspaper under a new name, but it has taken up the "cause" of besmirching Suzanne in a way that I find shocking - but not unbelievable.

IMO.



Yes, but he's OUR @Barry and it is very good to see him here.



But, IMO, hair would likely NOT leave a record of a tranquilizer injected just hours before death. Sadly. Her hair might, for example, show signs if cannabis use (something that Suzanne wanted to try for her chemotherapy nausea and which Barry forbid her to do, IIRC). So it will support the narrative that Barry started (of Suzanne's moral depravity - from his point of view).

So I am not confident that hair will yield the kind of evidence that I'd like to see. It would be the bone marrow and the blood that would reveal the animal anesthetic. In my view, it's possible that BM shot her with a commonly used deer anesthetic (which IIRC, he had procured from his "mentor" in Indiana, the guy who ran a deer farm). In researching post-mortem detection of anesthestics, I find that most doctors and others investigating this issue say it's really difficult to detect. The best technique involves using whole blood from a recently deceased person.

Bone marrow gives a good record of recent chemical use, but what I'm finding is that every single human research project on this topic involves a newly deceased person as well. There are some animal studies, though, on longer-dead animals, and that's promising (that the marrow chambers could still retain some evidence of toxins/anesthesia, etc).

While looking into this topic (still reading), I found that it's not uncommon for someone to have severe allergic reactions to anesthesia (anaphylaxis) AND that there's a reason we do not use the same chemistry for human anesthesia!

It made me wonder whether Barry's real plan was to make Suzanne unconscious, thinking she'd wake up an hour later, like a deer. Then, he'd interrogate her, waving her journals in her face, etc. She ended up dead instead (from the deer anesthetic). He could not rouse her. He panicked. Anyone who would shoot a human with a deer dart (and don't get me started on whether he then put more of that stuff in her port) HAD to have realized the risk of death. So he didn't care if she died. But did he intend for her to die right when she did? Did she ever come to and did he interrogate her? Did he then simply give her more anesthesia, take her off premises, and give her still more?

By doing this, he found out what he wanted, punished her before she died, and created a complex crime with no chance of cadaverine right in the house. If it is true that dogs hit on his truck, it's because he interacted with her body at least 12 hours after her death. It's possible the initial dose of deer anesthetic killed her and the clock started to tick (surely he knew from his volunteer fire training about cadaver dogs and their capacities - otherwise, it's easy enough to google). If he did expect her to wake up (like a deer), and she instead went deeper into coma, I think he was prepared for that. He knew that even deer do not always wake up, and he knew he was using a product unusable on humans and likely to cause death.

IMO.

(Sorry for the super long post - I am appreciating the discussion here so much, as with so many others on WS, this case is really deeply embedded in my heart and soul, and I find myself crying as I read the medical literature on what can be found post-mortem with this amount of time passing - it's obviously something we anthropologists try to improve on, as we deal mostly with older bones).
I don't think BM has that much self control to interrogate her like that. BM seemed hot headed and explosive as others described him. What I read in the affidavit that he was very controlling and even monitored Suzanne her phone. I wonder if he expanded with placing cameras around the house to check on Suzanne. Since he was accusing her for having a affair on 6th of May 2020.
 
Yes, if a tip that lead to the discovery of the body was related to the SM investigation, then BM would already be back in jail...IMO

However, every news outlet has reported that the discovery happened while investigating another case. Thus, the area of the search could have, and likely did IMO, come from tips/ci/etc in another case.
Could it be that in investigating another case ,forensic evidence such as soil or pollen samples tied up with samples they had on record from Suzanne's case and matched with those taken from the Moffat area.
 
Oh and I don't doubt that BM suspected Suzanne of having an affair, I just don't think he knew who it was. And yes, he did crash the FL trip.

eta: I believe, as others have said, if BM knew who Suzanne's lover was, he's the type of guy to either physically hurt or ruin the other guy's marriage.
IMO, Typically, men like B will pick the weaker option, eg their wives, rather than confront the other man. Typically, men like B, will revel in playing the victim.

I agree, that B suspected an affair was taking place but didn’t know who it was.

IMO, the fact that Suzanne was having an affair was secondary to the fact that Suzanne wanted to leave and (rightly) have her share of the marital assets.
 
I cannot help wondering what her colleagues are thinking about her actions?
They must be completely blown away..
Outrageous.
Tantrums!
Tantrum sounds about right to me.

Her statements hurled against LE hinge on the belief that investigating a missing person and suspecting the spouse is somehow wrong and a violation of civil rights. It's not! This is what the taxpayers pay them to do. Now that there is a body, it's no longer a missing person case, it's a murder and now the air is leaking from her 15 million dollar balloon.

She cannot appear as his defense attorney until he is charged with a criminal offense. This means Iris is out of the loop. Her own client didn't inform her about the location of SM's body. It's adding up to Iris appearing as too emotionally involved with her woman abusing/killing clients and she'd be wise to put her ethical boundaries in check.
 
There are no current criminal charges against BM, so IE has no basis to act as his defense attorney. However, she can act as his Civil attorney for which her statememts both #1 and #2 seem inappropriate.
She can still act as his CD attorney even if charges have not been made against him. Her statements are appropriate if BM has instructed her to issue such statements on his behalf.
 
I guess I worded that poorly, sorry. I meant he would make sure the wife and children of JL would find out. Agree, that JL ruined his own marriage.
You and I meant the same thing, but just used different words. BM is the type who rather than confront JL, he would be sneaky, manipulative and destructive. Showing up during a rendezvous, tipping off the wife, etc.
 
We are definitely of the same opinion.

Regarding the Florida trip, from the AA:


Barry admitted to questioning Suzanne about the Louisiana trip she took, where she met up with JL, which seems to imply that BM was at the least very suspicious. Furthermore, he explicitly admits he had intuition about the affair, then realizes he's said too much.


Additionally, this continues to haunt me from the AA:
I think almost everyone agrees that he was controlling, suspicious and jealous. He may have suspected she was having an affair, but I personally don't think he specifically knew about Suzanne's affair with JL. One reason for that is I think he would have made sure LE knew about it. They didn't find out about JL until months into the investigation. Barry was pointing the finger at anyone he could think of, including some poor guy who sold CBD. I don't think he'd have been able to keep his mouth shut about JL if he knew about him.
 
Could it be that in investigating another case ,forensic evidence such as soil or pollen samples tied up with samples they had on record from Suzanne's case and matched with those taken from the Moffat area.
I do not recall any evidence presented in the AA or prelim that menitoned soil or pollen samples. I also do not recall any mention of Saguache county during the proceedings.

However, contemporary to SM going missing, there were a series of arrests and discovery of bodies in the Alamosa area. That investigation seems to be ongoing and apparently involves multiple murders and people being buried and dumped in remote areas of Alamosa and Saguache counties...IMO
 
Barry expected the police to believe every word he said and treat him as an equal due to him being a firefighter. He thought he would be given the 'old boy 'treatment and not be investigated. He would think any fellow prisoner to be completely beneath him and would not be sitting with anyone of them exchanging confidences.
He was a suspect within an hour of LE showing up. And whatever it is they saw, it was enough for them to get warrants to dig everywhere he had been recently, including someone's new home. Absolutely nobody there believed him.
 
He'd be a real dummy to leave the port, but you know what? He was likely confused and a bit out of his mind at that point in time.

Tooth pulp is great for IDing a body - not so great for finding compounds/toxins that might have been in the body at the time of death.
The story on Crime Report with Nancy Grace stated “Dental records and Morphew's cancer port made identification possible”, so it appears that the port was still with the body.”
 
He was a suspect within an hour of LE showing up. And whatever it is they saw, it was enough for them to get warrants to dig everywhere he had been recently, including someone's new home. Absolutely nobody there believed him.
I agree that is what happened in reality ,but I do not think it was what Barry expected .
 
Because it matched to incarcerated people who weren't in the region?

Because it was only a partial match and would implicate hundreds of people? It was run through CODIS - where it got two hits. If it was run through a big database, it would have had many more.

Perhaps mine. Perhaps yours.

Why WOULD DNA on the owners' manual be the killer's? How odd that a person who had touched the owner's manual and was otherwise a stranger would (without leaving any more DNA) come on Mother's Day and kill Suzanne Morphew? How would that technician even find her?

Unknown DNA that's a partial match potentially implicates hundreds or thousands of people. It was not an exact match to anyone in CODIS.
And that same unknown person went into Suzanne’s bedroom, took her journal and burned it in the fireplace.
 
The thing about the photo is it is not only the photo meta-data that matters here

the photo was sent to JL from SM's linkedin account - so Linkedin logs will show her phone logged in to the account. If BM was also logged in to it from a different device and a different IP address to spoof the photo, i believe the logs would show that. And he would have been able to keep up the charade into sunday

But the thing is, had BM actually done that it would have been smoking gun evidence of his guilt
 
Pretty much. More the blood than the soil (which is denser particulate matter). But a trip through a full bathtub with a heavy dose of bleach would remove most (heme) evidence of red blood cells (what luminol looks for). Would it remove *all* DNA? Maybe, maybe not. I'm learning that experiments on this topic are actually fairly limited, and each forensic situation is different.

But yeah, he could probably clean that shovel well enough that none of his own DNA would remain (and since it was his own shovel - that's to be expected anyway, so sort of a forensic dead end).

It would be Suzanne's blood that LE would want to find (or other sign that she interacted biologically with that shovel).
Thank you. He definitely used bleach for something. I can’t remember if he actually left the tools for his workers or took them back home with him.
I’m asking because wouldn’t LE have smelled bleach from his truck if tools were bleached? And wouldn’t the workers have smelled it on the tools?
 
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