Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #26

[happyday]

Yes - if he had her Durable Power of Attorney - and the fact that he did not....speaks volumes to the state of their relationship IMO

Yeah.

 

[Barry]

IMO, an interesting fact is that SM hasn't been found. There seems to be an information or knowledge gap with that. If BM is innocent (or not directly involved), that would make some sense. If he is directly involved, that tells me that LE is not aware of all his movements during the times of interest. They are missing information - all MOO.

I want to be completely clear on this post:

I 100% feel that LE is on top of this. IMO they know the who, and the why. Obviously not the how, and where she is. Not yet, but they will. I would not be totally surprised if they have enough to charge someone. MOO, they are trying to find SM to seal the deal (so to speak), and eliminate any bargaining chip whatsoever.

 

[Ontario Mom]

This is Channel 9 (NBC) aerial footage of the foundation/slab search by LE of BM’s job site. Have any of you looked how close the water edge is to the property where “machinery” was running the hard-of-hearing neighbor talked about? I was surprised, the property is right at the water’s edge.

Yep, discussed at length the day it was reported where they were searching.

 

[Goldenseal]

IMO, if BM is involved and the only person involved, there's a hard limit on how far away SM can reasonably be from her house, especially given the last known contact. Assume, I guess that she wasn't at home for that, there's the suspect statement from BM that he saw her at 5am that morning. Either way, a very tight time frame for being any great distance away. All MOO.

If BM is guilty, the timeline is indeed very tight. IMHO, it's entirely possible that they had that fight and he accidentally injured and killed her without meaning to. The honorable thing to do in that case is, of course, to call the cops, confess, and take your punishment. If he panicked and hid the body but the cops can't find it -- well, he did a damn good job. AFAIK, if he was on his way to Denver, stopping along the way for any longer than it takes to pee will alert the cops by GPS of any place that might be of interest. If he had former knowledge of an area (say, an abandoned mine near the road) he could possibly have used the mine. But otherwise, it ends up looking like he planned it. MOO.

 

[Boxer]

There are miles of river front highway going south on highway 50.

 

[oviedo]

for those who may be unfamiliar with a power of attorney - I will share some recent experiences - a sister gave her sister her POA. she was not married at the time. the sister receiving the POA quit claimed her sister's house to someone and signed the deed under her POA. sister now does not own that house. sister does not even know it was done because the QC deed is recorded and sister doesn't check public records. who does?
here's another one - son has mom's POA. Son goes to bank with the POA and withdraws her money and sets up a new account at another bank. Mom passes away. Son takes the same POA to another bank (Mom had multiple bank accounts) and uses that to take remaining money from account. Now the bank had no way of knowing mom was dead (POA dies with you) so son still has the money. Siblings now have to file a lawsuit to get that money back. It's very powerful and usually it is between husbands and wives, or parents and children if parent is ailing. It can be very powerful and specific depending on the state. It can also be used by parties who are up to no good.
JMO

 

[Goldenseal]

Someone has to help me with that info. It was I believe a property listing and then recent photos.

I may be remembering incorrectly, but I think I saw that walkway on the helicopter (or drone?) footage. I have no idea how to find that footage, though.

 

[OldCop]

Nothing confirmed but I'd be willing to bet that they do.

Convenient way to transport a body in that area without using your truck and it annoying GPS.

 

[Dylansmom08]

Finding Suzanne Morphew: Investigators Search Home Again, Say No One Has Been Ruled Out As Suspect
How unusual is it for investigators to search a home twice? I know there is a lot of things have to be proven to just get a search warrant in the first place but is it odd they would get a second chance to search the property? I don't think I have ever seen this done before.

 

[magnetic]

There's no ambiguity with one fact in this case: BM's behavior. He is clearly avoiding anything that puts him in the spotlight. Is he innocent? Is he guilty? Is he both innocent and guilty? A lot of other things in this case can be at least plausibly explained. The behavior cannot. Whatever the reason for this behavior, it doesn't point in a positive direction for someone that is under scrutiny. All MOO,

A man like BM might behave like this if it finally dawned on him his wife might have run off and left him.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Finding Suzanne Morphew: Investigators Search Home Again, Say No One Has Been Ruled Out As Suspect
How unusual is it for investigators to search a home twice? I know there is a lot of things have to be proven to just get a search warrant in the first place but is it odd they would get a second chance to search the property? I don't think I have ever seen this done before.

It's not unusual when something discovered in the first search leads them directly back to the source to require a second search. It happens often, but what is significant is, whatever evidence they believe they have that supports an additional search warrant. I think something happened in that house, likely the night before Mother's Day.

jmo

 

[Boxer]

Do we know if the Morphews have an ATV?

MOO a 2003 Honda apparently around.

 

[enelram]

Finding Suzanne Morphew: Investigators Search Home Again, Say No One Has Been Ruled Out As Suspect
How unusual is it for investigators to search a home twice? I know there is a lot of things have to be proven to just get a search warrant in the first place but is it odd they would get a second chance to search the property? I don't think I have ever seen this done before.

actually, it's pretty common that LE goes back a second or third time to double check that they didn't miss something the first time.
LE are human and make mistakes too.

 

[Knox]

for those who may be unfamiliar with a power of attorney - I will share some recent experiences - a sister gave her sister her POA. she was not married at the time. the sister receiving the POA quit claimed her sister's house to someone and signed the deed under her POA. sister now does not own that house. sister does not even know it was done because the QC deed is recorded and sister doesn't check public records. who does?
here's another one - son has mom's POA. Son goes to bank with the POA and withdraws her money and sets up a new account at another bank. Mom passes away. Son takes the same POA to another bank (Mom had multiple bank accounts) and uses that to take remaining money from account. Now the bank had no way of knowing mom was dead (POA dies with you) so son still has the money. Siblings now have to file a lawsuit to get that money back. It's very powerful and usually it is between husbands and wives, or parents and children if parent is ailing. It can be very powerful and specific depending on the state. It can also be used by parties who are up to no good.
JMO

Great examples, thank you. Care to hazard a guess as to why BM no longer has a POA? Did she she revoke it after she was declared cancer free?

 

[Knox]

actually, it's pretty common that LE goes back a second or third time to double check that they didn't miss something the first time.
LE are human and make mistakes too.

More likly related to a new discovery or new evidence, they didn't know about the first time.

 

[skyvoyager]

dang double post

 

[oviedo]

Great examples, thank you. Care to hazard a guess as to why BM no longer has a POA? Did she she revoke it after she was declared cancer free?

My guess? He never had a DPOA for her - just a specific POA for a specific piece of property. He could not use that on this new transaction. Maybe he tried and discovered that the very specificity of this POA would not allow him to sign for her ? But, if he did have a DPOA that was not specific (whatever the IN or CO statute requires) she would need to sign a revocation of it and mail it (or hand it to him) - it isn't recorded but we have had clients choose to record the revocation in the public records because they want to make sure that original DPOA cannot be honored anywhere.

We don't really know if either of them had estate plans. It would be an interesting turn of events if we found out she did one on her own?
JMO

 

[OldCop]

actually, it's pretty common that LE goes back a second or third time to double check that they didn't miss something the first time.
LE are human and make mistakes too.

They can search public areas as often as they like, but they must have a search warrant to search private property. To get a search warrant they must have probable cause. Search warrants are issued for a specific time period, usually 14 days. If you want to search a residence a second time, you must go back to the court with NEW probable cause.

 

[K9Enzo]

It’s @K9Enzo. I am curious too if the dogs can smell through metal and does lime hide scent from dogs? Maybe she’ll see this and respond. Or maybe she will think I’ve already explained all this 100 times.

Hello – my disclaimer: I’m not an expert or certified but just give my opinion

Is there ever really a process that completely removes all traces of a human body (just a general question, not to you specifically)? Dogs are even used for wildfire searches where burned bodies are covered under massive debris. I don’t think there is. **With a well-trained, squared away dog and handler, especially a dog/handler team that have trained with various remains and conditions, I believe it’s very difficult to mask the scent of human remains. Whether it’s tissue, bone fragments, etc. With lime? What a gnarly scene that would be, but I believe the scent would still “leak” and rise and be detectable. Remember, human remains is the target odor, everything else gets eliminated. Metal? Nah but nice try The science behind this and how a dog can detect this – I have no idea. It’s truly fascinating. People often get disappointed in the dogs but they of course are not 100% but IMO, they are 90+% on point. Note my * above on training, etc. I know of another dog team that got to experience a blind search on placenta that was placed in buckets over several acres. A friend shared breast implants were part of a HRD training work shop. Interesting.

Now a scenario where a dead body was there, then later removed to a different location. Imagine spraying a pump or two of perfume in the air. The smell will linger but eventually will go away completely. Well in this case, it might be hard to detect human remains after a period of time.

A dream for most HRD handlers is the experience of training at the Body Farm. A dog I know (that sounds weird to say I know) reaction to seeing her first full body cadaver was interesting. She froze and her body language was “Fred.is.right.there.OMGEE”. She recovered and was able to regain her focus. Good girlie. (find fred is the term this dog/handler use to get into work mode)

At the end of the day *I* think it’s difficult to mask the odor of remains from a dog.

IMO

 

[OldCop]

MOO a 2003 Honda apparently around.

Do we know the model? Do we know if it is an atv? Even if it was trailered somewhere with BM’s truck, he could take off deep into the woods with it. LE would know where the truck was parked but there would be hundreds of acres of rough terrain where he could deposit a body.
Of course he could also take off on any one of those trails right near his house. If he left a body deep in the woods anywhere it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If LE has searched areas near where they know his truck was parked, they know he wouldn’t carry a body too far. An atv would open up a much wider area of possibilities. MOO