Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #17

[JosieMae]

DBM

 

[Hatfield]

RE: phone records, true, and hope so
RE: mine entrances - most of the ones I've seen here are tunnels, not deep wells. The one "drop in" one I've seen was filled in to only 10 or so feet deep, and the sideways portion of it may have only been that deep. The terrain is pretty steep once you leave the area around the river, so it seems most of the mines tunnel in rather than down. Exceptions likelyexist, of course. So you could actually easily hunt w/good lighting and waders.

Yeah during Erin's case and researching mines I noticed some of the mine shafts were not totally straight down but rather went down at a steep angle so a camera on string would not work too well because some of the mine shafts are not straight down. They were more angled down steeply.

Maybe for mine openings like those they could maybe use some kind of robot that could crawl down the opening with a camera.

There is a group of mine searchers that helped during Erin's case and they would be the right people for LE to consult with. They had tons of experience.

 

[DizzyB]

Say what you will about the DM, at least they are attempting to continue awareness of a missing person. More than anyone involved seems to be doing.

 

[MrsWatson]

I can see we're circling back around a bit. I think the idea of her being lured into the great outdoors has been floated before. I'd actually forgotten about it until now.

Yep, you could go for a nice ride in the spring sunshine, a little picnic after a short hike. Bottle of wine, a blanket. Quite cosy. With or without a mine shaft nearby.

IMO

 

[GordianKnot]

Maybe she was lured on a hike to a remote location where there were several mineshafts nearby. That would be a better plan than harming your spouse inside of your home. JMO

BBM:

That's exactly what happened in the Erin Corwin case out of Twentynine Palms:
GUILTY - CA - Erin Corwin, 19, pregnant, Twentynine Palms, 28 June 2014 - #14

Miraculously, searchers were still able to discover her body down in a mineshaft out in the middle of that desert.

JMO.

 

[Hatfield]

BBM:

If this was a spontaneous crime of passion, then for the reasons you've outlined, transporting a body to a remote off-trail location would be difficult.

If this wasn't a crime of passion, the perpetrator might have been able to get SM to a location like that without carrying her there.

If some measure of pre-planning went into SM's disappearance, then someone might have lured her to a remote location on the pretense of a hike, bike ride, or some other type of activity.

I'm really hoping this was a crime of passion, but I'm not convinced that's the case.

JMO.

JMO

Re BBM
That is a really good point.

If this was pre-planned and if we assume LE was looking at BM then what better way to lure SM to a remote area than asking her if she wants to do some serious mountain biking in a remote rough area.

That would end up making sense because after the perp killed her then he would already have her bicycle that he would need to get rid of. And he would not want to leave the bicycle where he killed her because it was too far away for her to ride the bike there herself. So maybe he brought the bike back to make it look like she rode her bike that day from the house.

Another thing that would make sense with that theory is if you are preplanning this then you have many options that would not involve a bicycle. Like the perp could have just disappeared her. But since the bicycle is already a part of this case then it comes into it somehow and so with the preplanning theory it accomplishes two different goals the perp would have. 1 is to lure her away from the home and close to where he was going to kill her and hide her body and 2 is it gives him a way to try to show she went riding on her own and disappeared from the bike ride which throws suspicion away from people in the home being involved.

Gosh i hope this was not preplanning but some things would better fit with what little we know so far.

 

[Dave F.]

RE: phone records, true, and hope so
RE: mine entrances - most of the ones I've seen here are tunnels, not deep wells. The one "drop in" one I've seen was filled in to only 10 or so feet deep, and the sideways portion of it may have only been that deep. The terrain is pretty steep once you leave the area around the river, so it seems most of the mines tunnel in rather than down. Exceptions likelyexist, of course. So you could actually easily hunt w/good lighting and waders.

Many Colorado mines were barehead adit and shaft mines, which means that they are a vertical network of adits (horizontal borings) and shafts (vertical or vertically angled borings). Barehead means that ground control (timbers, beams and metals panels lining the shafts for reinforcement) were not used. A typical small mine might have three adits, each above the other, and 18 or more shafts. Nearly all hardrock mines have to have the water removed constantly by pumping. When the pumping ceases, the mine fills with bracken, often poisonous water to the depth of the natural water table. Exploring any abandoned hardrock mine is extremely dangerous and should ONLY be attempted by experienced professional (of which there are not very many worldwide due to a worldwide long term slump in the extractive metals industries. I worked in the mining industry for several years, both in supply and in mine labor contracting, and have personally visited well over half of all of the mines that ever existed in the state of Montana, one of the richest mining areas on earth.
The greatest expert on Colorado abandoned mines was Muriel Sibell Wolle (1898-1977). Her third of six books on Colorado mines "Stampede to Timberline: the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado. 1949" is a must read for anyone trying to become knowledgeable on the subject. It is available on Amazon.com
Mrs. Wolle was both a skilled automobile navigator and writer, so her descriptions provide precise locations that are easily searchable, usually on Google Earth. She used 7 minute USGS topo maps, which are now online connected to most Colorado mountain county websites.
Muriel Sibell Wolle - Wikipedia
https://www.amazon.com/STAMPEDE-TIMERLINE-GHOST-MINING-COLORADO/dp/B01A7PIY5A

 

[GordianKnot]

Many Colorado mines were barehead adit and shaft mines, which means that they are a vertical network of adits (horizontal borings) and shafts (vertical or vertically angled borings). Barehead means that ground control (timbers, beams and metals panels lining the shafts for reinforcement) were not used. A typical small mine might have three adits, each above the other, and 18 or more shafts. Nearly all hardrock mines have to have the water removed constantly by pumping. When the pumping ceases, the mine fills with bracken, often poisonous water to the depth of the natural water table. Exploring any abandoned hardrock mine is extremely dangerous and should ONLY be attempted by experienced professional (of which there are not very many worldwide due to a worldwide long term slump in the extractive metals industries. I worked in the mining industry for several years, both in supply and in mine labor contracting, and have personally visited well over half of all of the mines that ever existed in the state of Montana, one of the richest mining areas on earth.
The greatest expert on Colorado abandoned mines was Muriel Sibell Wolle (1898-1977). Her third of six books on Colorado mines "Stampede to Timberline: the ghost towns and mining camps of Colorado. 1949" is a must read for anyone trying to become knowledgeable on the subject. It is available on Amazon.com
Mrs. Wolle was both a skilled automobile navigator and writer, so her descriptions provide precise locations that are easily searchable, usually on Google Earth. She used 7 minute USGS topo maps, which are now online connected to most Colorado mountain county websites.
Muriel Sibell Wolle - Wikipedia
https://www.amazon.com/STAMPEDE-TIMERLINE-GHOST-MINING-COLORADO/dp/B01A7PIY5A

BBM:

Interesting info, thanks! Definite food for thought.

I'd sure love to know what LE's deep dive into BM's online search history unearthed.

No pun intended.

JMO.

 

[Goldenseal]

JMO
It would obviously be a monumental task for LE to check as many abandoned mines as they could but maybe based on the Cell Phone records they would only have to check in a certain general area. If LE is still considering BM and if they were able to track his movements on the days in question then maybe the number of abandoned mines would be a handful. It all depends on how accurate they have been able to track his movements.

One way to search an abandoned mine is to consider that a perp is likely just to throw a body down one so by getting a simple camera on the end of a string, they could lower a camera down the shaft and have a look-see around.

I hope LE is able to do that if they are pursuing options like that.

This case for Erin Corwin was a successful mine search that found her. Its another sad case where she was horribly murdered by a selfish male perp trying to keep his affair secret. He fooled her on the day he killed her and made her think he was going to ask her to marry her that day. Another monster perp.

GUILTY - CA - Erin Corwin, 19, pregnant, Twentynine Palms, 28 June 2014 - #14

I believe that an even easier way to check mine shafts is to bring cadaver dogs -- they will catch the odor, and that's all you'd need to know. Fast and easy.

 

[Lilypad13]

I think it would be very hard to collect life insurance without a death certificate or some kind of proof that the missing person is deceased. The typical waiting period is seven years when no body is found, from what I've heard.

And yes, it would probably be easier for someone to collect when a body has been found and they are cleared as a suspect, or there is evidence of another suspect.

Do we know that there is a life insurance policy or how much it is?

Imo

Seven years??!! Oh my gosh then he would need her body to be found. Well so much for life insurance money as a main motive. Maybe assets, house, savings, retirement or another woman. No, I have not heard or read anything about whether or not SM had a life insurance policy. I would think they both would since they were married so long and have a big expensive home and children - also Suzanne had cancer twice so if she didn’t have life insurance before the first cancer diagnosis it might be harder to get. I’m not sure how that works - maybe you can still get some coverage but it’s more expensive? I was just wondering today IF SM was murdered and it was premeditated then what would be worth going to such an extreme instead of just getting a divorce? I thought it was suspicious that BM offered such a large reward...possibly to show everyone he has a lot of money and doesn’t need her life insurance. I am leaning more towards an argument leading to an accidental killing and it was just a coincidence that the daughters were out of town. Or maybe SM chose that time when they were alone to have a serious discussion that led to a fight that got out of hand. I have really tried to see this as an abduction but I can’t get there due to BM’s behavior and LE’s searches, etc. If it was a kidnapping for ransom six weeks wouldn’t go by without any demands. There is just too much we don’t know. Anyway thanks for responding MsBetsy.

 

[Seattle1]

Family of missing Colorado mom Suzanne Morphew still holding out hope for her safe return | Daily Mail Online

Finally the family makes an update - apparently the nephew.

I believe this best described as DM read TN's update of last week on the GET fund and republished their old report-- minus corrections/edits, under the new headline.

I was hoping for new photos as nobody beats the DM on scoring and publishing photos!

MOO

 

[Madeleine74]

Say what you will about the DM, at least they are attempting to continue awareness of a missing person. More than anyone involved seems to be doing.

IMO:

There is quite a large presence on various social media about the missing SM. No one is forgetting SM, but there's also not news about the case every day or even every week. Contrast SM's case with those that have never made it to WS in the first place.

SM's husband isn't saying anything publicly and doesn't appear to want any media, and that is very telling, IMO. But aside from that I don't fault other family members or friends for staying silent, not talking to the media, and letting LE and its agencies do their jobs which is, presumably, finding the remains of SM and amassing enough evidence to charge the perp with her homicide.

/IMO

 

[gitana1]

Yes, looking at common characteristics among victims is all part of the profiling. It's just as important to determine the type of victim the perp is drawn to or is most likely to target. In fact that's usually the first step. Not only do they analyze the crime scenes but they look extensively into the victims pasts.

Many serial killers have a preference or may choose victims such as prostitutes, drug addicts, or those they think won't be missed, others target younger vulnerable victims, some don't seem to have a preference at all.

Others are known for picking random victims, or stalking them and attacking them in isolated areas, such as Israel Keyes.

However, in this case as far as we know they are only looking at one victim and possibly one suspect. If investigators suspect BM is involved, they would likely be investigating an intimate-partner homicide. I don't doubt they look at other cases to look for similarities. I'm sure they do. Once they have exhausted all leads, they may move on to a different approach.

Imo

Yes. So they may have started profiling in general and then ended up in a specific direction that pointed toward intimate partner violence?

 

[10ofRods]

Good way to avoid the search-dog issue as well.

Although a cadaver dog team with a good map could find the more accessible mines (of any type) and certainly by now, there would be enough decomp to smell from quite a distance away (not miles, but probably within half a mile, for sure, probably more).

If a body is in cold water, it may take longer for dogs to sense. In fact, there's no way of knowing how frequently cadaver dogs miss such targets. I do believe some people have gone missing in bodies of water and never been found, and there are so many variables to such a search.

I'd bet on a body being found more easily in a mine shaft within a couple of months of deposit (or longer), as opposed to one in a deep body of water (or in any unknown length of water).

 

[Hannah3105]

I keep thinking back to TN’s comment, where he urged people to ask LE about the “condition of the bike” or words to that effect.

I don’t believe the bike ride ever took place, so I keep thinking back to his statement there and what motivated him to ask that.

Is it that LE weren’t telling the family about the condition of the bike and he wanted to know? Or is it that it was clear when found that the bike was not in a rideable condition and was therefore clearly planted? And he was almost trying to give the public a clue as to what had happened?

I still believe that TN’s sudden silence and the general silence of the family is because they know what happened, or LE has at least given them an indication of what they believe MAY have happened. The family and LE are keeping silent until LE have their ducks in a row. JMO...

 

[MassGuy]

IMO:

There is quite a large presence on various social media about the missing SM. No one is forgetting SM, but there's also not news about the case every day or even every week. Contrast SM's case with those that have never made it to WS in the first place.

SM's husband isn't saying anything publicly and doesn't appear to want any media, and that is very telling, IMO. But aside from that I don't fault other family members or friends for staying silent, not talking to the media, and letting LE and its agencies do their jobs which is, presumably, finding the remains of SM and amassing enough evidence to charge the perp with her homicide.

/IMO

Yeah, nothing kills media attention like the passage of time with no new information, and the continued silence of family members.

Can’t fault the rest of the media here, as there are no public developments to speak of.

 

[enelram]

Yeah, nothing kills media attention like the passage of time with no new information, and the continued silence of family members.

Can’t fault the rest of the media here, as there are no public developments to speak of.

Don't ya think LE is busy behind the scenes pursuing their
target right now and family may have gotten wind of what's going on so therefore nobody
has a "need" of additional media coverage. ??
That's what I'm reading.

 

[MassGuy]

Don't ya think LE is busy behind the scenes pursuing their
target right now and family may have gotten wind of what's going on so therefore nobody
has a "need" of additional media coverage. ??
That's what I'm reading.

Yes, I suspect they know what this is, and what this isn’t: a kidnapping.

That’s the only thing that makes sense to me, as I can think of countless homicide cases where family and friends have gone silent.

So I definitely don’t think this is apathy or anything, except on the part of the killer, who is hoping this all goes away.

 

[Subiechik21]

Also for you, @gitana1
Here is an overhead with a little wider view and which includes the Morphew home.
These were done by me back when we were discussing possible bike routes SM may take from her home.

Those are great! I must have missed them somehow. Thank you for those, they help me understand the area as well.

 

[GordianKnot]

Yeah, nothing kills media attention like the passage of time with no new information, and the continued silence of family members.

Can’t fault the rest of the media here, as there are no public developments to speak of.

BBM:

Sure! Just ask Barbara Thomas' husband.

Once again, the ugly similarities between the two cases are hard to ignore.

"No questions asked."

Sorry, guys: That ain't how it works.

I'm going to keep asking questions…the fact that neither husband is answering them, notwithstanding.

JMO.