Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #15

[gitana1]

If I hadn’t watched the cat gingerly pick up the animal and trot off, I wouldn’t have believed it possible either. Honestly, I know next to nothing about horned animals. It was at very the very least equal in weight to the cat. I know adult mountain lions can be quite large so I wonder what they can carry in their mouths and haul off. I agree about tracks and drag marks.

It’s pretty scary how powerful they are.

 

[Feistyomi]

Female pronghorns are at minimum about 75 pounds, per Wikipedia. I guess we call them antelope. I can’t see a cat carrying one away without there being drag marks. Can you? Also, they should find paw prints, IMO.

There were some light showers the next day, in the area. But it doesn’t seem enough to destroy all paw prints.

Sorry, I answered my own question while typing....dog prints visible, no cat, sorry

 

[Feistyomi]

I will be honest and say that I am on the fence and not leaning either way BUT it’s the little that we do already know and BM’s chat with Ty that is pointing the finger back at himself and this is where the questions come up.....we will soon hear ( I hope ) and either way I hope SM is located / recovered . If BM is involved then it’s so sad that she survived cancer twice ,only to suffer such a fate and it makes me question is in fact BM took out large life Insurance policies on SM thinking that she would die from the cancer and both times she was strong enough to beat it thus scuppering his plans and therefore he committed the ultimate sin , all for money ? I am again not saying that this is the case , it’s merely thoughts on paper and I apologise for the graphic nature of those thoughts but we have to examine all aspects and not just the nicer parts but the ugly parts of the investigation too I’m afraid!

Whell, we started out w/ cougar attack/death, so we’ve had a few threads to toughen up. Some of us came here from the Gannon Stauch case. I hope we never get inured to it. It is what it is...sadly.

 

[oviedo]

Correct, maybe didn’t want his voice recorded and analyzed for posterity?

Excellent point IMO

 

[DetectiveFoyleWannabe]

In thinking about ways they may find her (and at this point I really do think one can assume she is no longer alive), I just noticed that Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020. One tool to find a body is to have a known suspect agree to lead LE to the location perhaps in exchange for leniency on that. Won’t have that option here. I think this case is going to take some time to build with old fashioned shoe leather and wide nets cast through surveillance video, DNA, circumstantial evidence as well. Similar to the Dulos case. We’ll see.

 

[Moonchime]

I think BM had the neighbor call since she was the only person in Salida. Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't you be connected to the 911 call center closest to your current located? Since BM and daughters were out of town, the neighbor would have been the only person who would directly reach Salida 911 when calling.

Very good point.

 

[Moonchime]

I think BM had the neighbor call since she was the only person in Salida. Correct me if I am wrong, but wouldn't you be connected to the 911 call center closest to your current located? Since BM and daughters were out of town, the neighbor would have been the only person who would directly reach Salida 911 when calling.

Very good point.

 

[Moonchime]

Not anymore. BM could have called 911 and asked to be connected to Salida, dialed the out of area emergency number for Salida, or texted 911 with the Salida suffix code that puts caller through to the same dispatch that answers calls in Salida. There's simply no reason why BM (or daughters) couldn't make the call.

Wow, I didn't know this. Thank you for this information!

 

[Cassady]

I deny watching The Real Housewives of NYC but never miss an episode.

In the last 10 years, the jurors who do watch particular shows are very dedicated. TWD, GOT, BB, Vikings and others seem to have some hard-core fans that I did not see in the early years of my practice. In those days people that were really dedicated to something on TV tended to be sports fans. IMO Netflex, other online streaming services and better programming from cable companies is leading to this trend. I always love to hear what jurors watch on TV and it provides interesting data to contemplate during voir dire.

SM is now usuring in a whole new line of inquiry for attorneys picking juries....."so Juror #28, how long have you had an account on Websleuths?"

 

[branmuffin]

JMO

I think BM was there when the bike was found. It's very possible that LE may have found it with the help from BM. All after 9 pm. If BM had to give lots of tips, or led LE to where the bike was, then that is his first fatal mistake.

BM describes, in the video, the scene when the bike was discovered down the hill. It looks like he is witnessing it all.
"The wheel was facing.."
"They pulled it up and we had cars over here. Well the shefiff let everybody drive through here covering up or messing up all the evidence. They were walking all over this area...."
"They let ten other people touch..."

Then right away he says to TD "I was in Denver, so I didn't get here until nine that night". I think he said this in his defense, to make sure his audience understands that he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance.

It would have been black as pitch at 9 pm in that environment: no street lights, no ambient lighting from other residences or businesses. I don't know for certain, but I'm sure it would have been a waste of man power to search that environment after dark. If anything, finding a bike in those conditions based on BM's intel would have put him at the forefront of my POI for this disappearance.

 

[FelicityLemon]

Nevermind that we're talking about one of the community's emergency responders (volunteer firefighter) that could not ask another firefighter or LE officer to do a welfare check on his wife?!!
In the age of technology, even I from states away can call or text Salida 911 and request a welfare check on somebody I'm concerned about.
Also, from previous accounts that BM's continues driving his big truck still adorning his IN tags (for more than two years), I'm pretty sure that he's recognized as a firefighter -- all knowing that many foreign plates in town belong to firefighters that are exempt from securing Colorado tags for their vehicles.

bbm: that may have been his next step if the neighbor hadn't found something to warrant calling LE. Even if the neighbor saw nothing worrying other than SM wasn't answering the door or phone when her car was there, I'd tell her to call LE because she's right there now and could relay the actual information she saw, heard or knew, whereas he was 100+ miles away and his input wasn't as important at that moment. He'd be talking to LE soon enough if she was okay or otherwise. *queen of run-on sentences*. SM could have fallen inside the house and be injured, for example.

If my sister and I were in these circumstances, we would call a neighbor before calling our Dad who we knew was over 100 miles away and couldn't do anything other than what they were doing: calling the neighbor. We wouldn't want to worry him needlessly. On the other hand, we might call Dad to ask if he knew if Mom was going out that day or to ask him if he'd talked to her during the hours we couldn't reach her.

Okay, I just talked to my sister and she agreed that we'd call the neighbor first.

 

[Cassady]

And then there are the defense attorneys...I KID I KID...lol

An interesting analysis would be to examine how many cases are overturned because of ineffective assistance of counsel v. prosecutorial misconduct? Both are hard to prove on appeal. However, IAC can be ethical or a variety of other reasons, like inexperience, etc. PM often involves something nefarious from LE or prosecutor, usually involving Brady material violations or fabricating. Again, both a rarely grounds for a conviction to be overturned, but it would be interesting to study.

 

[MichelleBlue]

And he would know that since he would have been quite familiar with the 911 system as he was a volunteer firefighter.

Yes, this is a big one for me. As a first responder, he has knowledge of the 911 system & fire fighter buddies that he could've called to check on things instead of having a neighbor call 911. I have a close relative who is a first responder. I had to call 911 the other day, but it was not an urgent emergency. I called my family member. He said, let me take care of it. Done. BM could've very easily handled this very differently.

 

[insearchoflight]

Did BM tell the neighbor to call 911? Maybe the neighbor just decided on her own, I’d better call 911.

I may have missed that information

 

[Lilypad13]

I deny watching The Real Housewives of NYC but never miss an episode.

I would never admit to watching The Bachelor either! Lol

 

[DellaC]

As I remember, it's suggested that the nieghbor was used for making the 911 call only after the daughters were running late...seems like the daughters were expected to make that call when they arrived to an empty house. For some reason BM did not seem to want to be in charge of calling 911. Moo

I wonder. My sister lives in a small town about the size of Maysville and in a county with a population similar to that of Chaffee County. She's taught school in her area for over 30 years. She knows every teacher, minister, store owner, police officer and public official for several towns over. Heck, she's had half of 'em in her classroom. If she had to call 911, she'd likely be talking to someone she knew. Don't know if the Morphew neighbor was a transplant, but could she been super comfortable calling 911 because she knew the dispatch operator?

 

[Moonchime]

Female pronghorns are at minimum about 75 pounds, per Wikipedia. I guess we call them antelope. I can’t see a cat carrying one away without there being drag marks. Can you? Also, they should find paw prints, IMO.

There were some light showers the next day, in the area. But it doesn’t seem enough to destroy all paw prints.

Also, a mountain lion wouldn't eat clothing, a helmet, shoes, etc. There would be physical evidence of SM having been in the area before the animal took her away. They didn't find evidence that a mountain lion was involved. MOO

 

[Moonchime]

That's why I thought that he didn't want to call 911. He wasn't ready with his alibi as to the who, what, where, when, why.

He needed time to come up with what he was going to say. He has done nothing but distance himself from his (missing) wife.

She's been gone for at least five weeks. I don't think that LE are looking for a "missing" person. It's a matter of recovering her. I am wondering if she will be found because I'm afraid that the perpetrator had a headstart on hiding her.

This bothers me greatly. I want SM found! She deserves to be brought home for a proper burial. Her daughters need to know where their mom is.

 

[Hoosierfan72]

My thoughts on the canvassing other than the obvious reasons are that when you are building a case and you have what you as an investigator believes to be a solid case, you then have either a review officer and/or the DA/ Prosecutor who will go through the evidence to date and will say things such as- “You need to tighten up on this piece of evidence and try and support it or see if you can support it by canvassing the immediate area “ OR it may be a case of dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s because sometimes is prudent to ensure that you have covered every single angle so that when you do have a suspect who you charge (arraign) and put before the court, you don’t want the defence sowing seeds of doubt by saying - “ How do you know that “XYZ” wasn’t witnessed ? You don’t because you never canvassed the area “ etc and they may then find a DEFENSE witness in amongst a community canvas who is willing to back up the suspect by saying- “ It couldn’t have been him because I saw him in Costco or Target for example just before the time you are asking about and I followed him along the route home “ etc
Do you get where I am coming from? This could be something where the defence could “ guild the lilly’” and make something innocuous into such a hullabaloo that it creates huge reasonable doubt. So the point I am making is that sometimes you do certain things in an investigation to buffer the evidence to ensure that it is solid on the advice of the DA / Prosecution or you do it to prevent the defence from using it as a tactic to create reasonable doubt....ie. “ Your honour, with respect , my learned friend has not even got evidence of who was around at that time because the basics of a community canvas were not done. If the basics haven’t been done then what else has been omitted ? Has it not been done your honour because it’s all a fabrication of evidence against my client and the Police have had tunnel vision and gone down one route only ?” Etc ....

Just my own thoughts as a retired SIO Detective Chief with 30 years experience of investigating murders and major crime .

MOO

BBM
Any post with "guild the lilly" and "hullabaloo" in it rates as awesome in my book. Aside from that, also appreciate the expertise and perspective.

 

[Cindizzi]

In thinking about ways they may find her (and at this point I really do think one can assume she is no longer alive), I just noticed that Colorado abolished the death penalty in 2020. One tool to find a body is to have a known suspect agree to lead LE to the location perhaps in exchange for leniency on that. Won’t have that option here. I think this case is going to take some time to build with old fashioned shoe leather and wide nets cast through surveillance video, DNA, circumstantial evidence as well. Similar to the Dulos case. We’ll see.

Actually, the DP can still be used in Colorado for crimes committed BEFORE July 1, 2020.
Just last week the prosecutor in the Stauch case said he has not ruled it out for her.
IMO he won’t, considering our Governor has already commuted the sentences of death row inmates to LWOP.
Prosecutors not ruling out possible death penalty case against Letecia Stauch