Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #23

[PaulaDC]

Yes they have. They removed the bike ride, and that Barry has been cleared.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=209955173768021

Awesome! See guys, the squeeky wheel does get the grease! Just as I was taught growing up.

 

[MassGuy]

Awesome! See guys, the squeeky wheel does get the grease! Just as I was taught growing up.

That was a situation where ID was riding its bike, and everyone on social media was throwing rocks and trying to knock them off.

They did!

 

[PaulaDC]

Yes they have. They removed the bike ride, and that Barry has been cleared.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=209955173768021

They also removed the bike was found. {{Yippy}}

 

[Frolic Ruski]

They also removed the bike was found. {{Yippy}}

It's amazing it took almost three months to decide on whether it was found or not

( Edited due to a spelling mistake)

 

[marylamby]

That was a situation where ID was riding it’s bike, and everyone on social media was throwing rocks and trying to knock them off.

They did!

Due to Covid19, they might be down to inexperienced interns trying to churn out something, anything lol.

 

[lamlawindy]

That supports the conclusion that LE had sufficient cause to seize the property which quickly merited a search warrant.

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on when & how investigators learned of facts that established probable cause for the search warrant and what exactly those facts could have been.

The rule allowing officers to temporarily "freeze" a situation is a defense to the accusation of an illegal seizure. In other words, the defense seeks to suppress evidence and argues that the home was unreasonably seized; for example, the homeowner was barred from entering his home for too long. The State would then have to show that the seizure was reasonable in terms of time, less restrictive means, etc.

 

[lamlawindy]

WS has several threads of Colorado cases and specific to Colorado, the grand juror process is used sparingly. Indictments by information are the preferred method according to the statutes. I can remember a grand jury only once and it was 20 years ago after the University of Colorado football recruiting scandal. I'm sure there have been others but that's the only one I recall.

Grand Jurys & Indictments In Colorado Criminal Cases

In some states, all felony cases go in front of a grand jury and are charged by indictment, but in Colorado, the vast majority of cases are filed via information.

When a case is filed by information, the police officers will bring police reports and witness statements to the District Attorney’s Office.

We will then make a decision whether charges are warranted or not and what those charges should be. We file a complaint and information with the court that outlines the charges against the defendant. This is the preferred method to file charges in Colorado according to the statues.

In those cases that are of public importance, involve public corruption or where witnesses need to be protected, a grand jury can be used.

It's the same here in Indiana. Grand juries are typically used for politically sensitive cases only. As a prosecutor, I only tried 1 case that was brought by indictment; as a defense attorney, all of my clients have always been charged by information.

 

[lamlawindy]

BBM

This part doesn't make much sense to me. You can't seal off someone's home for 10 days without a warrant, right? That's definitely a seizure. Maybe you could argue exigent circumstances right after SM's bike was found (although even that would be difficult without some evidence that the house itself was a crime scene), but certainly not for 10 days. And if LE had enough probable cause to get a warrant to seal the house on the 10th, you'd think they would have had enough to get a search warrant as well.

Maybe they asked the family to stay elsewhere initially and they consented? Or maybe it's just misreporting and the family had access to the house until the 20th?

In the big picture I don't know that it really matters since they obviously found probable cause by the 20th, and again on July 9th. But whether or not the house was sealed off on the 10th gives us a hint as to when they began to suspect that something had happened in the house. I tend to think it came later, but that's purely a guess.

Yes, IMHO, a 10-day seizure in order to simply obtain a warrant would be extraordinary. The point of temporarily "freezing" a situation is simply to provide investigators with time to obtain a warrant. Obviously, many things were still shut down in May due to coronavirus, but a 10-day period seems unreasonable, especially for a residence.

 

[Warwick7]

That is precisely why they can do that. They hold the premises as they try to determine if a crime has been committed and to prevent the destruction of evidence.

Agreed! And I feel that this is exactly what happened in this case.

 

[waldojabba]

What has happened to the perspective when it is assumed that LE lies routinely and random YouTubers always carefully research their information? IMO

BBM I am finding this general black and white statement to be confusing even if only your opinion. Who is assuming that LE lies routinely?

 

[IronOreBetty]

LOL! As the author of the unqualified snoop comment, of course there's a difference between being nosy (I prefer the term "inquisitive" ) and inserting yourself into a criminal investigation, creeping around a possible crime scene, and chatting up strangers (including a possible POI/grieving spouse, however you see it). A qualified criminal reporter has experience and is accountable to his or her superiors to uphold professional standards.

My message to TD: you are not a character full of high jinx in some fictional murder mystery. You are not a junior crime-fighter. Seriously, stay home and maybe, I don't know, get a job.

Correct. I think some of the “unqualified snoops” that take action beyond speculative posting and insert themselves into cases or begin reporting off the wall possibilities are actually a hindrance to solving cases.

 

[WhoToYou25]

Long time lurker and now I am going to finally attempt to join in the conversation.

If law enforcement had any type of evidence against Barry Morphew they would have arrested him right?

I don't understand why everyone wants to blame Barry.

Isn't the most likely scenario that Suzanne left on her own?

 

[FelicityLemon]

Maybe, maybe not. It depends on when & how investigators learned of facts that established probable cause for the search warrant and what exactly those facts could have been.

The rule allowing officers to temporarily "freeze" a situation is a defense to the accusation of an illegal seizure. In other words, the defense seeks to suppress evidence and argues that the home was unreasonably seized; for example, the homeowner was barred from entering his home for too long. The State would then have to show that the seizure was reasonable in terms of time, less restrictive means, etc.

Does it ever happen that someone would say to investigators: "Please, do whatever you need to do! Search my entire property; I'll go stay with friends and you guys do whatever needs to be done! I won't be back until you clear it. " Do some willingly vacate even before a SW is issued?

Maybe I'm projecting, but I could see BM doing this. He's an intelligent, educated adult and would know he would be the first assumed suspect that would need to be cleared (or not) and the sooner the better to not divert attention away from finding his wife.

 

[Warwick7]

Long time lurker and now I am going to finally attempt to join in the conversation.

If law enforcement had any type of evidence against Barry Morphew they would have arrested him right?

I don't understand why everyone wants to blame Barry.

Isn't the most likely scenario that Suzanne left on her own?

With two sealed search warrants on the home, no, I'm guessing she never left on her own.

 

[FelicityLemon]

.dbm

 

[FelicityLemon]

Long time lurker and now I am going to finally attempt to join in the conversation.

If law enforcement had any type of evidence against Barry Morphew they would have arrested him right?

I don't understand why everyone wants to blame Barry.

Isn't the most likely scenario that Suzanne left on her own?

*Waving at you, WhoToYou25*.

Welcome!

 

[Ontario Mom]

Long time lurker and now I am going to finally attempt to join in the conversation.

If law enforcement had any type of evidence against Barry Morphew they would have arrested him right?

I don't understand why everyone wants to blame Barry.

Isn't the most likely scenario that Suzanne left on her own?

No. When a woman goes missing, statistically, the most likely scenario is her spouse/partner had something to do with it.
Obviously that is not always the case, but the partner is always the first person LE attempt to rule out, if possible.
I don't want to blame BM, but he makes it very hard to assume his innocence.
As far as what LE does or does not have for evidence right now, no one can really say.
I've followed cases over the years where LE knows exactly who is responsible but the evidence building process can be very lengthy.
Months, even years in many cases.

jmo

 

[Ontario Mom]

With two sealed search warrants on the home, no, I'm guessing she never left on her own.

It SO bugs me that they're sealed.
In any case I have ever followed, a sealed warrant contains some really damning information.
Obviously that's why they're sealed, but just knowing there are 2 of them already (that we know of) is rather curious.

jmo

 

[Ontario Mom]

Does it ever happen that someone would say to investigators: "Please, do whatever you need to do! Search my entire property; I'll go stay with friends and you guys do whatever needs to be done! I won't be back until you clear it. " Do some willingly vacate even before a SW is issued?

Maybe I'm projecting, but I could see BM doing this. He's an intelligent, educated adult and would know he would be the first assumed suspect that would need to be cleared (or not) and the sooner the better to not divert attention away from finding his wife.

While I don't have a clue what BM would do, since I don't know him, I know that I would likely say and do exactly what you stated here.
I'd give LE free reign over my entire property if it meant finding my loved one or finding clues that might help.
Only because of the way the MSM articles have been worded "not allowed into the home when he returned from Denver" (paraphrased) makes me think BM didn't actually volunteer up the house for them to search.
And he returned from Denver on the same Sunday SM was reported missing so, they already had physical custody of the house before he got there.
I'm not sure how that's all possible without a search warrant but I guess if the CCSO had probable cause to seize the house without a warrant?
(I'm sure this has already been discussed and I just missed it - it's easy to miss finer points when the thread moves fast!)

jmo

 

[MassGuy]

Long time lurker and now I am going to finally attempt to join in the conversation.

If law enforcement had any type of evidence against Barry Morphew they would have arrested him right?

I don't understand why everyone wants to blame Barry.

Isn't the most likely scenario that Suzanne left on her own?

No. Not without a body.

This could go on for many more months, and it isn’t indicative of anyone being innocent.

No body cases tend to take a lot of time, as you have to prove that a particular person committed a murder, and that the victim is dead in the first place.

Law enforcement does not believe she left on her own volition. If they did, they wouldn’t have executed two search warrants on the home, and excavated a construction site Barry worked on.

The most likely scenario, based on both statistics and the behavior of law enforcement, is that Barry murdered his wife and staged the bike.

He must have done a horrible job too, because they were on to him right away (never treated this as an abduction).