I completely agree that Mr. Morphew’s means, motive, and opportunity to kill his wife are fully established. The defense seems to rely on a position that someone else also had motive, which boils down to an unknown assailant and/or serial killer (UA/SK).
However, a UA/SK would have no motive to stage the bike “incident” (the ride she ostensibly took without a phone, water or working brakes) nor would that person likely have a motive for burying the body. In the vast majority of stranger murders, the body is dumped at or relatively near the location of the killing, not buried.
The one caveat I would add is that the State needs to establish Mr. Morphew had the means and opportunity to dispose of the body at the gravesite. The 4 hour “unaccounted for” window beginning on May 9 is part of that but a plausible vehicle to transport the body needs to be firmly established. The postulation that she was sedated but not dead when transported could perhaps be an explanation for why cadaver dogs did not hit on the vehicles. Clearly, anything that connects Mr. Morphew to this area, whether found during recent search or from his past history, would likely foreclose the UA/SK scenario.
The stories that Saguache County is a dumping ground for killers appears to be a side show. From what I can tell from limited reading the recently found body of James Montoya about 20 miles from where Suzanne Morphew was found was dumped, not buried.
