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

[gitana1]

Probably giving their father the benefit of the doubt. It seems to happen far more often than not.

I should’ve read ahead.

 

[Jimbythelake]

It always comes back to that dang bike, doesn’t it? We don’t know who found the bike. We don’t know the condition it was in. We don’t know that SM rode it to where it was found. BM’s derisive comments about how LE bungled the scene as stated in the TD tape to me are very interesting. Throwing that out there the way he did could mask his fear that, by finding no evidence at the scene, LE could rule out contributors such as mountain lion attack, accident, or abduction. This would make LE look a little closer at BM. He, himself, is attempting to put all those possibilities back into play during his conversation with TD despite evidence to the contrary.
By his admission on TD’s tape, he returned home at 9:00 p.m. on May 10th. Sunset was about 8:05 that night and twilight ended at about 8:34 so it was very dark when BM arrived home. The nephew TN let the cat out of the bag when he revealed the bike was found Sunday night. Was it found before BM got home? How much could he see on this dark, unpaved road? Who told him that x amount of people trampled the scene and destroyed possible evidence? The early presumption was that she disappeared on a bike ride because that was what LE was told by the neighbor who made the report. If they were sweeping the roadsides where SM normally rode and spotted the bike, allegedly down a hill, the first response by searchers/rescuers would be to scramble down that hill to see if they could render aid. Remember, preservation of life always supersedes preservation of evidence.
I also found it interesting how BM described the position of the bike when it was found. First he said he was going to show TD where it happened. After he began to describe how it was down the hill, wheels up, he stopped and seemed to catch himself. How did he have this knowledge?
So again, @Jimbythelake, we can agree to disagree.
P.s. I would like to add that it is possible that evidence may have been inadvertently destroyed during the bike recovery. Hopefully it was not due to carelessness.

There is so little evidence being shared OldCop. LE 's actions clearly speak to their suspicions, as so many point out, and also what they've ruled out. The whole situation is horrible. Someone on here pointed out a case they know of where a family member was wrongly suspected for the better part of a year, while the real killer ran free........this is the only way I can see this could be worse than it already is. I try to have faith that LE knows exactly what's happening, and will solve this soon.

 

[brooks]

JMO
Just wanted to add a point about gravel roads which I think contradicts at least one point that was being made in the interview with TD.

I often have to drive over gravel roads and depending on the type of gravel they really do not leave good tire track impressions most of the time. I may have to look back at the TD interview to see if we can see the type of gravel it was. Most of the ones I drive on would not leave good tire impressions unless you happen to drive off near the shoulder or hit an area where there was enough dust that could leave an impression.

During the interview I think it was implied that tire tracks could have been found on the road itself but gravel roads IMO sometimes do a good job of hiding the type of car tire that would have run over it. Unless you hit a certain spot that would pick up an impression.

Gravel is obviously better than pavement to try to find tire tracks but I think a dirt road would be much easier to try to find tire tracks than gravel. The gravel roads I am used to would be very difficult to find any good tire tracks on unless you were near the shoulder or hit a patch that had more dust than gravel.
JMO of course.

I don't even consider the bike path a gravel road. It is a dirt road.

 

[Synergizer Bunny]

Probably giving their father the benefit of the doubt. It seems to happen far more often than not.

Kids are usually very quick to defend a parent and refuse to believe it even if he or she is convicted in a court of law. It's almost unbelievable in some of the cases where the evidence is so obvious.

 

[branmuffin]

Search
I was doing a search in the local Salida newspaper, the Mountain Mail, under “Morphew” and something very interesting came up. Look at the last sports article dated Aug 23, 2018. There are two last names that will clearly pop at you.

Now, it makes a lot of sense to me why someone was working very hard on this case from the start.

What am I looking for? The names of two of the players are names that have come up in this investigation? You might have to lead me by the nose.

ETA: I do find it strange that there are no comments under the articles regarding SM's disappearance. Not even a "Lovely woman, hope she's found soon" kind of thing.

 

[MassGuy]

Kids are usually very quick to defend a parent and refuse to believe it even if they are convicted in a court of law. It's almost unbelievable in some of the cases where the evidence is so obvious.

Ha! Anyone who has watched Dateline knows that you’re right.

These kids are like “my dad is wrongfully accused, and we’ll spend the rest of our lives fighting for him,” and I’m there saying “I wouldn’t mind being the one to pull the switch.”

 

[10ofRods]

Search
I was doing a search in the local Salida newspaper, the Mountain Mail, under “Morphew” and something very interesting came up. Look at the last sports article dated Aug 23, 2018. There are two last names that will clearly pop at you.

Now, it makes a lot of sense to me why someone was working very hard on this case from the start.

It is interesting.

 

[happyday]

Search
I was doing a search in the local Salida newspaper, the Mountain Mail, under “Morphew” and something very interesting came up. Look at the last sports article dated Aug 23, 2018. There are two last names that will clearly pop at you.

Now, it makes a lot of sense to me why someone was working very hard on this case from the start.

Very interesting. It’s a small town for sure! Interesting to think if maybe all the players in this case, including LE, already knew each other.
Good sleuthing!

 

[Sillybilly]

Crimeonline has indicated BM is an "avid hunter, a claim that is supported by photos on Morphew's social media accounts."

Members may discuss him being a hunter but sleuthing his social media and discussing details from it is still off limits here.

 

[Moonchime]

Guilty or not, I don't see BM fleeing or disappearing. He needs to be surrounded by his oversized dwelling and trappings as all this "stuff" is his self-reflection. If anything, he'll slowly liquidate and recreate the same in a different location. JMO

Great take on BM's personality. I totally agree that he'll recreate his "living large" lifestyle in another location. He'll also likely find a suitable (in his eyes, anyway) replacement for Suzanne. He doesn't strike me as a man who could go it alone in life. He seems to need a good looking, obedient wife by his side. MOO

 

[Moonchime]

Sounds like he's being so very careful in what he says. Walking a very thin line in trying to sound sincere and being careful not to say too much. OTOH, he may be so distraught, he can't remember what he said. It's hard to know. I think he's walking a very thin tightrope trying to keep things straight.

I wonder if LE is interviewing Trevor Noel extensively? He may know far more than he is saying publicly. I find it strange that he seems to have abandoned the Find Suzanne Morphew Facebook Page. As a family spokesperson, why isn't he pleading publicly for SM's safe return? This entire case is murky and odd.

 

[Moonchime]

Which makes me wonder if the bike wasn't there that long. moo

I feel that the bike was staged to look as if SM somehow met with foul play. My fear is that SM was dead long before the staging of her bike. MOO

 

[marylamby]

Some things that I notice about Barry Morphew that I haven't read others speaking about. I started out thinking Barry was guilty, especially with how the LE have handled everything. Then after the TD video, I re-thought it a bit.#1 - BM is an alpha male of the highest calibre, and highly successful. To hear that he is aggressive around the job site, or flat out mean, should not be a surprise to anyone. Guys like him are cut from a different cloth. I would bet he works 12 or 14 hour days – or more if needed, and then organizes for a few more in the evenings. 10 – 15 employee's at times I've read? That's not a casual little landscaping guy w/ a skid steer, he has to also be into large type civil construction. You don't generate that kind of wealth w/ a tiny operation. He wouldn't survive doing “dirt” work were he not ULTRA aggressive, competitive, and still hungry. It might take a special type of person to put up with him.

#2 – <modsnip: sleuthing BM's social media is not allowed as he has not been officially named a POI / suspect>

#3 – Have you ever suffered a huge trauma? I see nothing in either his plea for help, or the TD video, other than a man who's used to being in complete control, completely out of control, and very likely in shock....I'm surprised he can remember his own name.....

I'm not quite sure what you're trying to say.
First off, we have no idea how successful he currently is. He was in a big hurry to complete an IN home sale recently, so much so he took guardianship of his (incapacitated) wife.
We don't have his tax returns nor do we know how his business is doing and we don't know how many hours he works.
Not sure where you got the information about how many employees he has but if you'd like to share, I'm sure we'd appreciate that info.
I agree that he's an ultra aggressive, type A personality who's used to complete control.
I find his behavior and actions fully atypical of a husband who wants to locate his wife, not only due to your succinctly suggested personality traits (to which I concur), but also due to his lack of action, resolve, determination and want of finding his wife.

 

[Moonchime]

Oh my gosh folks. Anyone can pick this case to pieces for a very long time. In my opinion it comes back simply to Occam's Razor. Someone had the opportunity and probably a motive ( that no one here will ever truly understand .) She wasn't carried off in some rushing creek. She wasn't carried off in the mouth of some mountain lion. She didn't crash on the highway on her bike - and then was carried off to be hidden. She didn't run away - and out of her life. She didn't commit suicide. The chances some weirdo in the area took her ?? Very incredibly low. A narrative has been driven by one person - not LE. Either that person did it alone or hired some help.

Great post. Thank you for sharing.

 

[marylamby]

Haha. Nicely laid out @Jimbythelake This is what I love about WS. Two people can look at the very same pieces of information and form two very different opinions. For all the reasons you gave, (see what was RBBM), I still in MOO think that those signs point to the type of person who could commit this type of crime and think they will get away with it. Yes, it’s been said he is controlling and I believe that what he lost control over was Suzanne. That would drive a person like him crazy.
I also believe that if he wanted control over finding out what happened to Suzanne, he would have been out there on Day One screaming to the heavens about her. He would be leading the charge. He wouldn’t be saying, “It’s too soon” or recording carefully controlled pleas to imagined kidnappers.
I hope I am wrong and you are right. I love that, for the most part, we can sit on opposite sides of our theories here on WS and be able to engage in intelligent debate.

There needs to be a 'love' option! Wish I'd seen this before I bothered to comment.

 

[J.M. Bee]

It always comes back to that dang bike, doesn’t it? We don’t know who found the bike. We don’t know the condition it was in. We don’t know that SM rode it to where it was found. BM’s derisive comments about how LE bungled the scene as stated in the TD tape to me are very interesting. Throwing that out there the way he did could mask his fear that, by finding no evidence at the scene, LE could rule out contributors such as mountain lion attack, accident, or abduction. This would make LE look a little closer at BM. He, himself, is attempting to put all those possibilities back into play during his conversation with TD despite evidence to the contrary.
By his admission on TD’s tape, he returned home at 9:00 p.m. on May 10th. Sunset was about 8:05 that night and twilight ended at about 8:34 so it was very dark when BM arrived home. The nephew TN let the cat out of the bag when he revealed the bike was found Sunday night. Was it found before BM got home? How much could he see on this dark, unpaved road? Who told him that x amount of people trampled the scene and destroyed possible evidence? The early presumption was that she disappeared on a bike ride because that was what LE was told by the neighbor who made the report. If they were sweeping the roadsides where SM normally rode and spotted the bike, allegedly down a hill, the first response by searchers/rescuers would be to scramble down that hill to see if they could render aid. Remember, preservation of life always supersedes preservation of evidence.
I also found it interesting how BM described the position of the bike when it was found. First he said he was going to show TD where it happened. After he began to describe how it was down the hill, wheels up, he stopped and seemed to catch himself. How did he have this knowledge?
So again, @Jimbythelake, we can agree to disagree.
P.s. I would like to add that it is possible that evidence may have been inadvertently destroyed during the bike recovery. Hopefully it was not due to carelessness.

Good post, but I'd like to say a little bit more about the bike, as I think it's one of the keys to this case. I personally think LE found the bike, and I'll explain why I think that in a moment, but I am curious: why do you think it matters who found the bike? Maybe you think it matters because if BM found it, that would explain how he knew what way the wheel was facing? Maybe, but again, I think there's reason to believe that LE found it and that they found it before BM got home.

Let's look at what BM said in the interview with Tyson Draper. "The bike," he told Draper, "was found at the bottom of the hill by that tree where the peak is." He indicated which tree he meant when he said "that tree" because Draper later made a video in which he walks down the hill to the tree in question. Later in the interview, Barry began describing how the bike was situated when it was found. Of this he said, "it was on the ground. The wheel was facing---," and then he cut himself off and changed the subject as if he has just thought of something. It's at this point that he began criticizing LE's handling of the scene, saying, "the sheriff's department ... they screwed everything up ... they shouldn't have touched it. They should've left it. It's evidence. They pulled it up and we had cars over here." He continued to criticize LE's handling of the scene as follows: "They were walking all over this area, which if somebody abducted her they would have had foot tracks. They would have fingerprints on the bike. They let ten other people touch the bike. I mean we was really upset that first night." It is then at this point that he said: "I was in Denver, so I didn't get here until nine o'clock that night." That, for me, implies that the events above transpired before he arrived home.

Thus I believe one can infer at least two things from BM's words above: one, that it was LE that found the bike; and two, that LE found the bike before BM got home that night.

Interview Between Draper & Morphew [w/ transcript]

 

[marylamby]

gitana1, they are not looking for a vehicle w/ a 265/85/R-17 Goodyear wrangler tire, or an individual wearing size 9 Adidas Gazelle running shoe....sold only in 5 shops in the state, or anything of the sort. The evidence at the scene was either destroyed, or is being kept secret. It's a gravel road, the tracks where there at one time.

Someone who wears a size 9 running shoe must be on the smaller side.

 

[marylamby]

Guilty or not, I don't see BM fleeing or disappearing. He needs to be surrounded by his oversized dwelling and trappings as all this "stuff" is his self-reflection. If anything, he'll slowly liquidate and recreate the same in a different location. JMO

While I see what you're saying, I'm not so sure he has much of a cheering section left. By that I mean, I think his image is everything to him, or at least, his type, IMO. Without an audience, what good does it do him.
It's like looking in the mirror expecting some sort of gratification.
I could see him flee, if the going gets too tough to handle.

 

[Seattle1]

While I see what you're saying, I'm not so sure he has much of a cheering section left. By that I mean, I think his image is everything to him, or at least, his type, IMO. Without an audience, what good does it do him.
It's like looking in the mirror expecting some sort of gratification.
I could see him flee, if the going gets too tough to handle.

I don't see BM remaining alone very long (audience intact). It will be like nothing ever happened except for new coffee mugs.

 

[marylamby]

I don't see BM remaining alone very long. It will be like nothing ever happened except for new coffee mugs.

Exactly. Mugs, plural.