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

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This case just seems to have a curtain of silence like I haven't seen before. It gives me the impression that LE and family are trying to keep SM safe, as in she is being held against her will.

But to be honest it is all gut feeling, I genuinely see him talk and don't think he is lying. I also don't see any evidence presented to us that makes me believe he is guilty.

I have to admit, after being wrong on the HB case about her fiancee, if I am wrong here and he is guilty which the majority think, I will never again trust my judgment on human beings!

MOO
We are all learning give yourself a break, the brain is built for bias it takes conscious effort to wire up the frontal lobe and put it to work, easier to put everything and everyone into categories. I started out this case with extreme bias, but you know what? It doesn't work. You just shut down your brain and never have a chance to learn how to sleuth.
Just think how fun it is to realize you have the chance to spark up those neurons again and learn something new. Know thyself. Get to know how you think, your biases, open up your mind. Were you one of those students who never got one question wrong on an exam? Do you always have to be right?
I like Gavin DeBeckers approach, he prompts us to learn what our unrealistic fears are so we can be better in touch with what may be a real fear and a real danger. Likewise, realize we all have judgement and bias because it is easier and the brain groups things first and analyzes later if you make it. But we do have the choice to broaden our minds and learn new things.
The human brain utilizes a lot of energy (compared to chimpanzees) if you use it. It can get lazy to conserve energy. It can also get distracted and manipulated.
So you want to get better at sleuthing? Just keep trying and have patience. Can my ego take it if I am wrong? I sure hope so, cuz I'd rather learn how to get it right eventually. So many interesting things I am learning along the way.

*** I go by my gut feeling too, and understand where you are coming from
 
The Chaffee county court should be able to verify the existence of a sealed SW for that property.

Consent search of a property not connected with POI or suspect is low/no risk. Even in murder cases my experience is that LE will use consent searches to gather evidence.

Here if the landowner withdrew consent when they started cutting the concrete the search would have to stop.

But if LE already had enough to get SW prior to the start of the consent search they can simply apply and return with warrant and resume search. If they did not have enough PC for SW prior to the start of consent search, they really have not lost any ground by starting the consent search.

In fact, whatever they discover in the consent search can be used for PC for SW. Thus, consent searches are popular tools for LE.

And consent searches have been challenged repeatedly in case after case, leading the courts to act as the supervisors of challenged consent searches.

This is a murder case. Not a drug bust or whatever. This is huge.

They’re not going to risk evidence being thrown out because someone claimed the consent was coerced. And as someone else mentioned, do you really think they’d bring all that equipment and personnel out there to use sonar on cement and then rip it apart without a warrant, risking the property owner putting a sudden stop to it?
 
Not necessarily.

IMO:
Likely they're still running tips down as they continue to come in. They get lots of crackpot type tips, along with the "instructions/directions" given by members of the public who think LE needs to be told what to do.

If any of them were fruitful, they wouldn't tell us. So there's really not much to be inferred from the raw number.
 
BBM:

Really unfortunate choice of words by Uncle Bob there.

And once again, note the pugilistic stance BM's family members have assumed against LE.

First, it was his nephew TN, demanding that people on Social Media, "Ask the sheriff about the condition of her bike!" or whatever he was spouting.

Then it's Uncle Bob here putting in his .02 worth, in the form of "Tell that" to the Sheriff.

Not to be eclipsed, BM himself then tells TD that LE screwed everything up.

The air of hostility being directed at LE by #TeamBarry is palpable.

JMO.
ITA - I'm not sure I've seen this level of hostility being vocalized before - at least so directly
IMO
 
And consent searches have been challenged repeatedly in case after case, leading the courts to act as the supervisors of challenged consent searches.

This is a murder case. Not a drug bust or whatever. This is huge.

They’re not going to risk evidence being thrown out because someone claimed the consent was coerced. And as someone else mentioned, do you really think they’d bring all that equipment and personnel out their to use sonar on cement and then rip it apart without a warrant, risking the property owner putting a sudden stop to it?

In my experience, yes they would, especially if the owner of property signs the consent to search and is not a suspect. They do not have anything to lose at that point and they could potentially gain valuable evidence for their investigation.
 
There do seem to be striking similarities between this case and the 1997 disappearance of Amy Bechtel. Since that era, LE has made huge developmental changes in the resources available to small, remote police units for investigating big cases. The most important lesson for today's LE is to always be vigilant to the possibility of an investigation being derailed by initial pre-conceptions.
People wanting to more about that case should be advised to search using "Amy Wroe Bechtel" or "Amy Wroe". News media used her maiden name; in an unintentional, but blatant effort to disassociate the victim from her spouse, who is "always the POI until proven otherwise". IMO

Actually it's because she was a well known track athlete before her marriage and was best known under her own name.
 
To play devil’s advocate it has happened before in a few cases where an abductor rams his car into a woman who is riding a bike and once she’s incapacitated, he takes her away to do god knows what with her.

Right, but as I said in my post, there would be evidence of this on the bicycle, i.e., the bicycle would have damage. But there is none of this, so this can't be what occurred.
 
I've handled many serious cases, including murder charges, were consent searches were used to gather evidence. Consent searches are constitutional and widely accepted in state and federal courts. They are used extensively by law enforcement.
I see you are new here - Welcome to WS! You may want to become verified as your posts seem to be stating things as fact rather than your opinion? @gitana1 is a verified attorney.
JMO
 
In my experience, yes they would, especially if the owner of property signs the consent to search and is not a suspect. They do not have anything to lose at that point and they could potentially gain valuable evidence for their investigation.

Sorry if I missed it, but I notice you say "in my experience" and I'm just wondering what your profession is, to have such experience?
I'm assuming you're also a lawyer?
 
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Okay, I’ll bite on your challenge. This is all my opinion only:
1. this stalker waited down the road and snatched her off her bike?
No, this stalker probably waited down the road for her to come riding by going away from her house on her bike, and hatched his plan to intercept her on her return.
how did he know what time she would be going for a ride?
The fire chief said it was common knowledge that she rode her bike every Sunday morning before church
how did he know she'd be alone?
It is apparent to me that she preferred to ride alone. That in itself is unusual, as mountain bikers seem to prefer riding in groups
2. how long was he waiting there?
He had to have waited more than two hours, the time it would take her to return from a “short ride”
did he have a car?
A car, or a van, I think. We’ve heard both and can’t confirm either.
if so, wouldn't passersby have seen this car?
A passerby DID see a strange vehicle, that didn’t seem to belong on CR 225. He reported it to LE, but there has been a lot of discussion in this thread over whether he reported it before or after the disappearance. Does the time he reported what he saw truly make any difference at all?
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.
A bridge would be an ideal place to stop a bicycle. For a full width bridge, as simple length of rope would block a bicycle. For a bicycle bridge, just standing on the bridge would block it. As we saw in the last Fooses Creek Video that I posted, a fallen tree works, too.
We don’t know anything about the placement of the bike. We heard from the nephew that the brakes were locked up, and we heard from BLM that at least five LE officers handled it without gloves, which means that it probably was not on near a road where one officer with gloves could pick it up and place it in an LE vehicle. My guess is LE carried at a ways to their vehicle, handing it off as they went. One television report cited a distance from the house of 2,000 feet to the bike. That would encompass all of the area I’ve mentioned so far.
Adder question: How did this person choose SM?
The man probably had met her, but it’s likely that he didn’t know her or anyone in her family very well.
He could be a clerk at the grocery store, the janitor where she gets her hair done, or the guy that’s always sitting on a bench where she parks her car and plugs the meter. He could be almost anyone, and he might be hiding almost anywhere.
The house itself is not visible from Highway 50, and we have heard no reports of prowler activity. My guess is that the man knew her from some ordinary activity that she routinely did in town, learned enough about her to stalk, and ended up parked on CR 225 on Sunday morning, looking for a chance to make his move.
It’s all just my opinion, which was formed entirely by common information in this case and involved no reading between any lines. I think it’s a very viable possibility that needs to be looked at. Could it be wrong? Sure, but so can any other theory that is based on so little actual information.

I appreciate the time you put into this, but I still don't find the a-stalker-abducted-her-while-she-was-out-on-a-a-bike-ride theory to be very plausible. Just my opinion, though.
 
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If I never followed true crime cases, and a loved one of mine went missing, I may be inclined to be an armchair quarterback in the investigation, but I'd have to remind myself that the LE members working the case know a heck of a lot more than I do, on how to conduct an investigation, processing of evidence, interviews, searches, etc.

I always find it odd how, folks that have literally no idea how to investigate a crime (as in, zero professional experience) often seem to think they know better than the actual LE members investigating the crime.

We don't seem to do that with other professions (plumbers, electricians,


Sorry if I missed it, but I notice you say "in my experience" and I'm just wondering what your profession is, to have such experience?
I'm assuming you're also a lawyer?

Yeah I can just imagine looking over the shoulder of the plumber and telling them they’re doing it wrong and need me to hand them their tools!!!
 
Right, but as I said in my post, there would be evidence of this on the bicycle, i.e., the bicycle would have damage. But there is none of this, so this can't be what occurred.

We don't know that.

We don't know if there were tire tracks, we don't know if there was damage, we don't know if she was ever on the bike. We don't even know where it was found--we have people alleging it was found in a certain location, but nothing confirmed.
 
We do not.
If there was damage to the bicycle, one can safely assume that BM would have mentioned this to Tyson Draper in that interview given that BM is literally doing everything he can to suggest she was either abducted or taken by a mountain lion. BM does not mention any damage to the bicycle, however; therefore I think we can safely assume that there was no damage to the bicycle. JMO.
 
And consent searches have been challenged repeatedly in case after case, leading the courts to act as the supervisors of challenged consent searches.

This is a murder case. Not a drug bust or whatever. This is huge.

They’re not going to risk evidence being thrown out because someone claimed the consent was coerced. And as someone else mentioned, do you really think they’d bring all that equipment and personnel out there to use sonar on cement and then rip it apart without a warrant, risking the property owner putting a sudden stop to it?

Agree completely. You'd never tear up someone's foundation without a warrant. You can just see it coming: the homeowner consents until they start calculating how much damage is being done to their new foundation or deck or whatever thing is being destroyed and then changes her mind.
 
oh the bike... the bike... the bike...
Was the nephews' plea to ask LE about the bike on the Find Missing page??? - I know I remember it.
IMO
Amber Jo Cooper@AmberJoCooper
30m
I am headed to an area near Salida, where the County Sheriff’s office tells me they are searching for a missing woman. A neighbor reported that 49-year-old Suzanne Morphew went on a bike ride and never returned home. https://bit.ly/2LCyQxD #SuzanneMorphew #Colorado
@FOX21News
------
The search continued Tuesday with only dogs. Sheriff John Spezze said there is no need for volunteers. Sheriff Spezze would not comment on whether or not Morphew bike was recovered. By late afternoon Tuesday, Morphew had not been found.

This is an ongoing investigation and the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office asks that any person or persons who may have information please call the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office at 719-539-2596 or Chaffee County Crime Stoppers at 719-539-2599.
More than 100 help search for missing woman in Chaffee County
-----------------
Gregory Nieto on Twitter

Newly posted fliers: Missing Chaffee County Mom/Wife/Cyclist. $100k Reward for “Safe Return.” @channel2kwgn @KDVR @ChaffeeSheriff @KOAColorado @denverpost
--------------------------

John Fenton@higuysimjohn
Nephew of missing Chaffee County woman Suzanne Morphew who disappeared on bike ride Sunday confirms her bike has been found.Still no sign of Suzanne. Reward now increased to $200,000 for her safe return.
——-
Find Suzanne Morphew

Dozens Search For Suzanne Morphew After Discovery Of 'Personal Item'

- Family confirms the item is not the bike, which was found Sunday

- Highway 50 is shut down for the search

- CBI and FBI have joined the investigation

Tip line: 719-312-7530

More: cbsloc.al/2WzH2ET

Anica Padilla on Twitter
 
Yeah I can just imagine looking over the shoulder of the plumber and telling them they’re doing it wrong and need me to hand them their tools!!!

Not sure what happened there but I opted to delete that and then it didn't delete :(

But yes, that's exactly what I meant. We don't push the electrician out of the way and do it ourselves, but for some reason, we'd like to sit around and tell the police how to run an investigation. It doesn't make any sense.
 
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