Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #14

[al66pine]

BLM seeks help identifying mine shafts. Jun 17, 2015

"...estimates that there are hundreds of abandoned mine shafts within Chaffee County and these shafts can be dangerous because they have been abandoned since the early 1900s with no maintenance....
"....brought to the public’s attention after a dog fell 26 feet into a mine shaft near Midland Trail and was rescued by two Buena Vista volunteers on May 22. The dog was at the bottom of the shaft for more than 24 hours."

On a previous thread someone (sorry, forgot who) mentioned idea of searching for SM in mine shafts. Just ran across ^ this Chaffee County Times article, decided to link, FWIW.
BLM seeks help identifying mine shafts

 

[Tate123]

Lauren Scharf:
Folks in Salida, CO are telling me that deputies are handing out these flyers at grocery stores asking people for information on #SuzanneMorphew Note there is no reward listed on this flyer.
https://twitter.com/LaurenScharfTV/status/1270879958831792128

 

[theyellowtape]

Hee. Nice use of humor to make a serious point.

Just because WE don't know doesn't mean LE doesn't know.

It can just as easily be said, just because LE is not sharing a clue doesn't mean they have one to hide.

 

[gamma gal]

Just wondering if Sarah Parcak's technology could be used to locate a buried person over a larger area SM's house?

Real-Life 'Indiana Jones' Wins Coveted TED Prize

 

[Feistyomi]

Hee. Nice use of humor to make a serious point.

Just because WE don't know doesn't mean LE doesn't know.

Hee. Nice use of humor to make a serious point.

Just because WE don't know doesn't mean LE doesn't know.

to piggy tail on that
Just because WE think WE know what LE knows, doesn’t mean WE know what LE knows

 

[Feistyomi]

@Seattle1 Thx for explaining, as that was a case I did not follow.

That was distressing, that they missed her the first time in that apt...? Have they explained that? She was already dead, but still? Because of suicide and no trial will we know?

 

[J.M. Bee]

IMO, the current situation is a chess match. LE likely has an idea of what happened, but needs some missing pieces. The “canvassing” thing could be a chess move, designed to test the behavior of someone (and getting them to think about if any of their previous moves was a mistake). It would not surprise me if there isn’t much real execution on the “canvassing”.

I like this thought, but I think they might have both things in mind: that is, I think they might be announcing that "canvassing" will take place in order to see if someone does something in response to this announcement that tips said person's hand. But I also think they might believe that they need more information and that some of that information might come from canvassing.

Now, the question is, what kind of canvassing do they have in mind? What parts of Salida and the surrounding area will they be canvassing? What kind of questions will they be asking?

They mention that they're interested not only in information about her disappearance but also "new information". Questions I could see them asking neighbors include:

• did you see Suzanne on Sunday?
• did you see any movement in or around the Morphew house on Sunday?
• did you see anything unusual late Saturday night or early Sunday morning?
• did you see any cars leaving late at night or early in the morning Friday, Saturday or Sunday?

Questions I could see them asking neighbors or others in the community include:

• do you know anything that might be relevant to Suzanne's disappearance?
• do you know anyone who might know something relevant to Suzanne's disappearance?
• do you know of any rumors that might be relevant to Suzanne's disappearance?
• did you see or hear anything out of the ordinary on the weekend of her disappearance?

While we might think people who know something relevant would have already called it in as a tip, ordinary folks don't always know what is relevant and what is not and sometimes they have seen or heard something that is more important than they realize.

 

[al66pine]

Shifting gears to backtrack to another issue about who raised the alarm (911 call) and what the neighbor looked for or saw. Zillow/MLS pix show exterior front of the 3 bay garage, w no windows in the doors. One pic there shows garage interior w a single window on side wall of garage.
Soooo when neighbor peeked thru window (azz-uming she actually trekked to M house and either knew or was given description of SM's bike), were the bikes positioned so an observer would be able to detect the presence or absence of SM's bike? Or perhaps she had a key or the security code, to open and enter the garage. Just wondering.

 

[Wowno17]

I just don't know what it is with this case. I still believe BM is innocent. Maybe me and 2 other people on here!

If you asked me why, I would say gut feeling. Which I myself know is silly and not enough.
I know that's not how it works here. Especially when everything LE are doing is pointing towards him being a suspect.

I just feel there is something else we don't understand going on behind the scene. There are many little things that nag at me.

The fact there haven't been any ill words said against their marriage or word of an affair also makes me they genuinely are happily married.

But I think the major part of my hesitation is the recent awful case of Heidi Broussard.

I absolutely had the fiancee already convicted in my mind. The interviews he gave, the turning the phone on silent, referring to his baby daughter as a woman. I was sure he was guilty. We all know how the case ended.

I also think that is why the MODS are so hot on this thread about not sleuthing the husband. Because you never, ever know.

MOO

It is very lonely on this side of the fence and I accept I'll probably come crawling, embarrassed over to the other side in the future. Not yet though.

 

[Mind your biscuits]

Possible. It would still be an unusual move. I mean, surely they're not just knocking on doors and asking, "Sir or Madame, what do you think happened to Suzanne, a woman from Mayville who went on a bike ride and did not return?"

Because if they don't have actual tips leading to specific questions, it's a useless activity and I don't think that's what they're doing.

They are not back to square zero IMO.



^^^^THIS! As many of us know, things have been said on SM. These are fairly consistent things and have been said by people whose FB profiles seem to establish (to my satisfaction at least) that they are locals. There are quite a few of them, but some of what they are saying...well, it should be possible to both talk to the actual social media users, but also to get much-needed corroboration from completely different people who must surely be aware of some of the same things.

It's like contact tracing, where you have a certain group of people who you know are acquainted with POI's X, Y and Z, and you go get information from their contacts. SO much unusual information becomes available when this is done.

LE may even find out counter-information to what's being said on social media, and be able to pursue entirely new directions in this case, either through new POI's or through new information about current POI's.

I think more than one person out there may be sweating a little bit, and I thought that was probably one of the goals of this press release. People who have certain kinds of info get tired of the sheer anxiety of holding onto it, and often tell one or two other trusted people. Or break, when LE comes knocking. It can be a fairly minor piece of information, but it still becomes a major break in the case. If 5 different people all report hearing the same offhand comment or seeing the same odd thing at a particular time, even though they think it's tangential to the case, LE is fishing for something specific, trying to check out specific rumors and they think some people have info they need.

Awesome post. I'm way behind the current thread though.

 

[j_in_c]

Thank you! I’m sure you have had many missions where you used your own PTO time or took unpaid time off to search. I’m sure it’s never easy when IC calls the search until more info starts a search back up again. Again, thank you.

Thank you for sharing your expertise and working with these amazing K9s. I've been a member on a dog team and it is so cool to watch them work (never the trailing dogs, always HRD or air-scent).

Also, I've been meaning to ask as I have never encountered this on any searches - does the missing subject being on a bike affect a dog's ability to pick up scent (either trailing or air scent)?

 

[J.M. Bee]

I just don't know what it is with this case. I still believe BM is innocent. Maybe me and 2 other people on here!

If you asked me why, I would say gut feeling.

It is very lonely on this side of the fence and I accept I'll probably come crawling, embarrassed over to the other side in the future. Not yet though.

Stick to your intuition then. My question, though, is this: if BM is not the culprit, what do you think happened to Suzanne?

 

[TechGirl]

Member, but infrequent poster... Love reading everyone’s posts.

Wording in the latest Press Release is interesting to me. Is there a perpetrator already under surveillance and the hope is that a community canvas will make him/her nervous enough to visit the scene of the crime again or lead them to a body...

CHAFFEE COUNTY SHERIFF’S OFFICE

Salida, Colorado
PRESS RELEASE
June 10, 2020

“Investigators plan to conduct a community canvas in the county to contact residents and others to not only share information about Ms. Morphew’s disappearance, but also focus on obtaining any new information in her case.”

 

[carbuff]

I won't say I think BM is innocent, but I haven't seen any evidence that points to his guilt, either. There aren't enough facts made public for that.

I'm inclined to think abduction and murder, probably by somebody who had stalked her and planned ahead.

 

[Dave F.]

I would venture to say that all dogs trained for this type of work are well trained, and I have no doubt the dogs used in the search for SM were equally well trained and up for the task at hand. If they were unable to pick up a scent, it’s likely because she was never in the areas searched and has nothing to do with their training and everything to do with SM never having gone on a “bike ride.” JMHO

Dogs are trained and used for very specific types of search, rescue, or investigation.

The dogs from the Colorado DOC are trained to search for sign and locate scent “markers” along the trail. The best example is the obvious one…...they can follow escaped prisoners who are alive and moving. The dogs are led to a small area where the person was last known to be. In this case, that might be SM’s garage, her driveway near the garage, or her personal automobile. The handler guides the dogs on a preset course, filling out one line of a grid. The dogs walk back and forth, sniffing for another point where they detect that person passed through. When they detect a “hit” the handler places a highly visible marker and radios, so that the exact geographic position can be established by GPS and logged on a topographic map that is steadily filling up with advancing grid lines and hits. Each one of those “hits” is followed up later by LE investigation. Frankly, most of them tend to be extraneous, but the dog cannot be expected to be 100% correct.

The Colorado SAR dogs are similar but different. Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado is the “Go to” source for finding lost people in high mountain terrain, avalanche victims, etc. They generally search for live people, so they are keenly attune to signs and clues and far more versatile in some modes of search. Colorado SAR participated in one of the searches for Serenity Dennard in the Black Hills of South Dakota, in February 2020. In that case, a five mile radius area of forest has been covered over and over, by many different types of searches. LE remains convinced that she never made it out of that area due to adverse weather. The Colorado SAR has participated in prior searches, and may have had a higher “hit rate” than other dog teams which caused LE to ask them back to cover the same ground again.

Neither of these organizations specializes in “cadaver dog searches” or “evidence of criminal activity searches”, but that doesn’t mean that those type of searches haven’t been done. When the Berreth murder was tried recently, I was very surprised by the number of dogs used, and the variety of tasks that they performed. Even good journalists tend to understate the uses of dogs in investigations. IMO

I cannot provide a link to the Colorado Dep[artment of Corrections Escape Team, but I have add link that mentions the teams principal role in the capture of an escapee (for general information).

I have also provided a link to the bio of John Lutenberg, former head K9 trainer for the Corrections Escape Team (also for general information).

Escaped Canon City Inmate Captured After 2 Nights Outside

https://www.caninetrainingacademy.com/our-trainers

Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado |

 

[Wowno17]

Stick to your intuition then. My question, though, is this: if BM is not the culprit, what do you think happened to Suzanne?

That's the thing, I only have wild theories, I think it was a stalker or someone who had been watching her.

But even as I write it I know it's so outlandish. Why would LE be digging at BM workplace?!

But I just think if he is guilty, there would have been some red flags and we would have had more people coming out of the woodwork to talk about him or them as a couple.

It just all feels weird.

MOO

 

[J.M. Bee]

I won't say I think BM is innocent, but I haven't seen any evidence that points to his guilt, either. There aren't enough facts made public for that.

I'm inclined to think abduction and murder, probably by somebody who had stalked her and planned ahead.

Fair enough, but a few questions about this theory:

1. this stalker waited down the road and snatched her off her bike? how did he know what time she would be going for a ride? how did he know she'd be alone?
2. how long was he waiting there? did he have a car? if so, wouldn't passersby have seen this car?
3. how exactly do you abduct someone who is riding a bicycle? please describe how you think this might have occurred & how this matches up with what we know about the placement of the bike.

 

[oviedo]

That's the thing, I only have wild theories, I think it was a stalker or someone who had been watching her.

But even as I write it I know it's so outlandish. Why would LE be digging at BM workplace?!

But I just think if he is guilty, there would have been some red flags and we would have had more people coming out of the woodwork to talk about him or them as a couple.

It just all feels weird.

MOO

It’s so hard at this stage - which way do we go? No POI named so no sleuthing / so I just go off of prior cases I’ve followed pretty meticulously (see my media timeline threads) and slowly eliminate the possibilities - in this case IMO we are so very lucky to have CBI involved plus this outstanding local LE - CBI has had very high profile cases in CO (Shannon watts and Kelsey Berreth (guilty husband- guilty SO) and is in process with our boy Gannon Stauch. I believe they know what they are doing and am being patient as they investigate- while I don’t think we will find Her (I didn’t think Gannon would be found either but he was) I’m confident they will figure out exactly what did happen to her by accumulating painstaking evidence of cell phone data from towers local to her, computer forensics, camera footage from businesses and residences and any and all DNA on surfaces where she may have been - it’s now a waiting game unless we have more than one involved ...
jMO

 

[Madeleine74]

It's okay not to make any decisions about someone's guilt or innocence. I can see where the investigation is going and I acknowledge that; I also know the intimate partner is often involved and I will suspect someone. But I'm not going to declare someone guilty without first seeing the evidence; that's my own line in the sand and where I'm comfortable.

I'm not on a fence, I don't do fences. When I get to hear about or see evidence in a case, then I will be able to evaluate and decide.

 

[Wowno17]

It’s so hard at this stage - which way do we go? No POI named so no sleuthing / so I just go off of prior cases I’ve followed pretty meticulously (see my media timeline threads) and slowly eliminate the possibilities - in this case IMO we are so very lucky to have CBI involved plus this outstanding local LE - CBI has had very high profile cases in CO (Shannon watts and Kelsey Berreth (guilty husband- guilty SO) and is in process with our boy Gannon Stauch. I believe they know what they are doing and am being patient as they investigate- while I don’t think we will find Her (I didn’t think Gannon would be found either but he was) I’m confident they will figure out exactly what did happen to her by accumulating painstaking evidence of cell phone data from towers local to her, computer forensics, camera footage from businesses and residences and any and all DNA on surfaces where she may have been - it’s now a waiting game unless we have more than one involved ...
jMO

Your words are comforting, thank you.
I don't want to be wrong or right, this isn't going to end well either way. I just want what we all wish for,
..for Suzanne to come home to her family who love her.

MOO