Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #22

[Seattle1]

Is a search warrant required to gather location information from a service provider of an electronic device? Maybe not so much if the owner of the device allows it or the information matches the story? Just wondering.

^^bbm

Yes! A search warrant is now generally required to obtain cell phone tracking information pursuant to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling.

Prior to this ruling, investigators obtained records from a service provider by use of a court order that requires a lower standard than the "probable cause" needed to obtain a warrant.

Courts previously relied on a dated Supreme Court decision that ruled phone records were different than a phone conversation (requiring a search warrant) because people had no expectation of privacy in the records of calls made and kept by the phone company. Investigators had been treating cell tower records
as phone records.

The Supreme Court in recent years has acknowledged technology's effects on privacy. In 2014, Roberts also wrote the opinion that police must generally get a warrant to search the cellphones of people they arrest. Other items people carry with them may be looked at without a warrant, after an arrest.

Roberts said then that a cellphone is almost "a feature of human anatomy." On Friday, he returned to the metaphor to note that a phone "faithfully follows its owner beyond public thoroughfares and into private residences, doctor's offices, political headquarters, and other potentially revealing locales."

As a result, he said, "when the government tracks the location of a cell phone it achieves near perfect surveillance, as if it had attached an ankle monitor to the phone's user."

US Supreme Court rules police generally need a warrant to track cell phones — a big win for privacy activists

 

[marylamby]

BBM
I hadn’t heard that a neighbor had seen anyone. Is it the same neighbor LS interviewed that heard the noise?

I honestly can't remember for sure. I think someone else here posted it and I found it very interesting.
Anyone else remember?

 

[Charlot123]

Just another crazy late night thought on the bike. I have two mountain bikes, one is just shy of 25 lbs the other is just north of 30 lbs with all the racks for gear. The women I have biked with seem to be pretty concerned with the seat and bike weight, the guys will be chirping up about suspension and geometry and mostly fo the gals mentions seats and can you carry my bag of stuff kind of talk. With the perceived finances that M's appear to have, I would only imagine that she has a fairly nice lightweight bike, which could be as light as at least 17lbs, I bike with some guys that have roadies down to 14lbs.

Also, it wouldn't take a pretty big hit to bend a wheel on mountain bike? I know my wheels have tougher spokes and I have unwillingly hit some rather large bumps and not suffer a bent wheel. If its a lightweight bike the wheels could be lighter built, not sure, just a crazy thought.

You mention what I am always thinking about. SM had nice things. Nice things have better protection.

Her car should have had GPS, and her bike - MOO - must have been not cheap and possibly, had GPS installed as well.

I wonder what they show.

 

[Deleted member 102539]

And could have been in a rage...
MOO

Maybe much more of a hurry than rage, when doing the staging, after the crime already occurred?

 

[Steph9676]

The bike being down a steep embankment but no rider says foul play immediately.

But then sheriff not immediately going all out on an abduction scenario is the odd thing.
Abduction means immediate review of local rings and pleas to bike clubs, hikers, road crews people driving by at the time for info.

I’m not sure why someone would throw a bike down a ravine so close to home. To me a missing person and missing bike would make more sense of a disappearance then planting a bike so close to home.

 

[Cindizzi]

i do not remember reading that specific info! would love to know where you read that, if you can find it.

From LS FB comments. I know screenshots are not allowed and I don’t know how to link this, but can confirm that it is verbatim from Lauren answering a question on her FB.

URL="CO - CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #22"]CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #22[/URL]

 

[Quiet Time]

dbm

 

[Seattle1]

i do not remember reading that specific info! would love to know where you read that, if you can find it.

Bridget Bulker (housekeeper)
"I went there (dumpster) it was late up in the evening and when I throw the thing over, she and her husband came to see who was throwing trash in there and I had like seven bags to throw in. They didn't know who I was. They asked why I was dumping? I said I manage properties up the road and they said oh okay! Now that we know who you are.

When I heard that she went missing, I said dang, I just talked to her a couple of days ago. People come and camp and they put things in the dumpster, so they were wondering if that was the case. That's all it is. They were going for a walk, on an evening walk."

When I asked if I could do an interview on camera she said NO I'm a mess... I've been cleaning. Can I report what you've said she replied yes.

"I think it was a Wednesday afternoon before she went missing. I had some guests that were here that had to leave because of corona. But then I came up here to take out all of the food that was inside, to take everything out. I was throwing things out because I didn't know so that's why I was there.

Those two is rental properties and their house and around here there are two people who live there. All of the people who live in this area are friendly. They'll talk to you because they all know each other. As I said, the dumpster they all pay for it. So it is a community. They all know each other."
End Quote.
There is no media link to post.

The housekeeper did not want to appear on camera during LS 2 part series and OP posted details from Fox21/LS fb.

 

[Boxer]

i just listened again, and lauren said she was trying to figure out who had stayed in the properties close to the morphew home, and no one had stayed in the rentals from march 15 to june, due to covid. (starts at about 18:00).

mike responds that that's interesting bc it takes us away from the "boogeyman" in the neighborhood and any stranger that could have been renting one of the properties or travelling through doing construction work.

If there were people in the rentals, hope they are in the radar.

 

[Seattle1]

bbm
Why did the cleaning lady take 7 -seven!- filled trash bags out, partly with rests of food (afaik), on May 7th? And why did she tell, people just had to leave because of Covid19? - I wonder.

My understanding is the property manager/cleaner saw the Morphews together on Wednesday evening at the dumpsters. She had no guests coming in for Mother's Day weekend because of cancellations due to the pandemic.

I imagine there was not much incentive to stay in Salida because of the closures except for essential services.

Relative to 7 bags of garbage, that's understandable because there's a significant difference in what's required cleaning rental properties pre-COVID19 compared to cleaning and disinfecting the units post-COVID19.

Post COVID19 the property cleaner stated she also removed and tossed all of the food from the properties.

MOO

 

[Poedelini]

Yes, or maybe SM went and saw Scott on the Thursday and he said he couldn't fix it till after Mother's Day, was too busy or had to get some parts in ..... so many possibilities. We need to hear from Scott.

I agree, im curious what Scott have to say. Jmo

 

[Seattle1]

So to be clear, you are saying that Colorado has laws and rules in place that make arrest records and SW’s much less available legally to the general public- basically.

I live here, this makes me uncomfortable.

Is this true in other states as well?

I would not say that there's anything about Colorado criminal records access that should make one uncomfortable. MOO

Every state's legislation is responsible for writing its own open records rules.

In Colorado, it's the Colorado Open Records Act ("CORA"), and the statute relative to criminal records is the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act ("CCJRA"), [sections 24-72-301 to 309, C.R.S.].

Colorado Open Records Act & Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act - Colorado Attorney General | Colorado Attorney General

 

[Deleted member 102539]

My understanding is the property manager/cleaner saw the Morphews together on Wednesday evening at the dumpsters. She had no guests coming in for Mother's Day weekend because of cancellations due to the pandemic.

I imagine there was not much incentive to stay in Salida because of the closures except for essential services.

Relative to 7 bags of garbage, that's understandable because there's a significant difference in what's required cleaning rental properties pre-COVID19 compared to cleaning and disinfecting the units post-COVID19.

Post COVID19 the property cleaner stated she also removed and tossed all of the food from the properties.

MOO

I find it a little strange, to take rests of food out in May, when the rentals allegedly were without guests since March. Had thought, food hasn't to remain at an empty rental, as soon as each guest is leaving. I wouldn't want to eat something from an unknown guest, but would expect the rental to be clean and without any rests of food.

 

[lamlawindy]

Sure there is. Who wants potential criminals to know what evidence has been gathered? Not LE. Not a prosecutor.

Double-check what you wrote. The adversarial criminal justice system (as opposed to an inquisitorial system that exists in other nations) is premised on the fact that the interplay between the state and defendant will produce something approximating the "truth." That cannot occur if the government has knowledge superior to that of the defense.

 

[lamlawindy]

Until the person is a defendant, they have no more right than the rest of us to "see the evidence." These days, with SM, it would make for chaos. If someone thinks there's been an illegal search of their house (in this case, it would be BM), then they can approach the court to demand to see the reasons why the search took place (IOW, to hear the Judge's reasoning). Of course, many people would think they need a lawyer for this - but in fact, any person can approach the Court.

I do, respectfully, disagree. My first question is: Who do you propose will "guard the guardians themselves" if there is no disclosure? Indeed, it is in cases where searches reveal nothing and charges are never filed that disclosure of judicial actions is perhaps more necessary,
as those cases do not lead to public hearings.

Second, taxpayers fund the courts, so it's not unreasonable for them to be able to conduct oversight to ensure that the judicial officers are acting appropriately, especially in an area of operations that affects their personal liberty.

Third, you are correct that a person may request the documents from a court, but that argument assumes that the burden should be on the person seeking disclosure. IMHO, the legal burden of keeping documents related to judicial actions secret should not be on the person seeking disclosure but on the person seeking to prevent it. Simply put, if judges have done no wrong, then they should be unafraid to make their decisions open to public scrutiny.

Finally, recall that my
position regarding disclosure is limited to judicial actions. That's why I've harped continuously about the sealing of the warrants and PCAs in this case. I do not believe, for example, that each and every investigator involved in this case must give a public retelling under oath about what s/he thought or did.

I simply do not think it is fitting for judicial actions to be sealed for such a long time after the searches they authorized have already been conducted. I recognize that Colorado custom says otherwise. FWIW, I think that the citizens of Colorado, through their legislature, should change this custom.

 

[lamlawindy]

Oh, I get this point - but that's simply not legal or judicial reality right now. As long as a case has no arrests, all of the people who could be arrested and all of the people who might be silenced/murdered by the future arrestee cannot have every scrap of information.

When I'm at home on my couch, I totally want more "disclosure." When I'm a pre-arrest consultant to the Court, I'd prefer to be left out of the media. Many people's words will not make it into evidence/public testimony and to expose all those people and put them in harm's way (because murderers are not nice people) is a bad idea. If I were a witness to a crime or some aspect of a crime (and I have been - although not always privy to the fact that I was working with a suspect/criminal), I would want protection, not disclosure.

Judges are the ones who balance that and I think most of them do a pretty darned good job.

Redaction can certainly be used to protect witnesses that may be endangered. Let's be clear, though: that's not what has occurred here. In this case, we have a blanket ban on the release of the search warrants and PCAs.

 

[Deleted member 102539]

Redaction can certainly be used to protect witnesses that may be endangered. Let's be clear, though: that's not what has occurred here. In this case, we have a blanket ban on the release of the search warrants and PCAs.

If someone other than BM is involved, maybe even mainly, and that would become public knowledge (and should not under all circumstances), is that a reason, to seal the SW for longer than common?

 

[DizzyB]

I assume LE has spoken to Scot. I wonder if Barry and his team have paid Scot a visit. TN wanted the public to question LE about the condition of the bike-I would think that Scot might have an opinion on how the bike was damaged (if it was). I’m sure he has seen plenty of damaged bikes and would be able to offer insight with his many years of experience in the field. If I were Barry and I wanted to find my wife, I would want to pink Scot’s brain as to what may have happened. Also it appears that Scot is by appointment only on Thursdays.

 

[MuddyTires]

Double-check what you wrote. The adversarial criminal justice system (as opposed to an inquisitorial system that exists in other nations) is premised on the fact that the interplay between the state and defendant will produce something approximating the "truth." That cannot occur if the government has knowledge superior to that of the defense.

Have any charges been brought?

 

[ethereal*22]

From LS FB comments. I know screenshots are not allowed and I don’t know how to link this, but can confirm that it is verbatim from Lauren answering a question on her FB.

URL="CO - CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #22"]CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #22[/URL]

So yes, according to the “cleaning lady”interviewed by LS, she was cleaning out the rental property near the M’s home after guests had just left for whatever Covid related reasons. And she was discarding trash accumulated from their stay in the shared dumpster when SM and BM came upon her and questioned her business.

I feel it’s fair to conclude there were non residents staying in the immediate area at the time of her disappearance between the short term rentals and the RV type park.

I’ve always been shocked they chose a residence in such close proximity to that RV Park- no way, no how in my world, that would have been a deal breaker!! LE will always tell you to take a good long look at the what/who is around you before you live anywhere........!!!!!!