Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #3

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10ofRods said:
The only thing I know is that, AFAIK, she hadn't made it to an actual trail. She was headed toward one. Her bike was found near the intersection of two regular roads, and I'm unclear about the trail of evidence found away from the bike, but I think it too was near the 50.

Her brakes were found "super-jammed" according to a nephew (that's in MSM at this point). Any thoughts on how that could happen?

We don't know that she had any kind of electronic device. She may have been living by herself, as an immune-compromised person. It's not clear at all.

She could have had any number of tracking devices but I am absolutely sure that LE and the FBI evidence retrieval team have figured that part out - they may be waiting for responses from those companies (Apple, Strava, MapMyRide, whatever she uses).
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RBBM

Someone possibly tried running her off the road with an intent to seriously hurt her.

JMVHO.
 
10ofRods said:
Dialing 911 for a welfare check/possible missing person is not the same as "filing a missing person report." In this case, it's very likely that someone in the family, worried about Suzanne, called the nearest neighbor and that neighbor, upon not finding Suzanne, dialed 911. LE can file missing persons reports based on that and should do that.

I think we need to know way more before saying the neighbor would be #1 suspect. If the neighbor is a 90 year old lady, I'm not going down that road. If the neighbor is a teenage friend of the family, I'm also quite skeptical.

The neighbor got put in the middle of this, IMO.

And for anyone interested in the path that Suzanne apparently road her bike, another WSer (sorry I didn't keep the poster's name) posted this excellent map:

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/attachments/suzanne-search-area-jpg.247034/

If someone can remind us who that was, we can all say thanks. Anyway, thank you for the map!
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This! I don’t know why people are dissecting the neighbor calling police. I have called neighbors before when my mother wasn’t answering. As you said, the neighbor innocently got involved with this, IMO.

Also, I find nothing alarming about their finances. I know people who have struck gold in the oil industry and were able to quit their jobs (police officer and teacher), yet they did not go around sharing this information. Because honestly, it’s nobody’s business.

Now that I’ve said that, I will go back to just reading and scrolling. :)
 
GordianKnot said:
I think the op believes this is a case of self-harm/suicide.

For the record, I strongly disagree.

Self-harm/suicide is tanking at the very bottom of my list of possible scenarios.

I have it ranked somewhere just south of alien abduction and human trafficking.

Not North: South.
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The Sheriff also disagreed when asked at the presser on Friday evening.
Nothing leading them that way, anyway, after nearly a week of searching/investigating.
 
TruthIsStranger said:
I wonder if a text message was sent to the neighbor by SM's phone (not necessarily SM herself), saying, "Hey, I'm going on a bike ride. If you don't hear back from me in an hour, please call 911." This would explain why the neighbor called 911, not the family.
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I don't think she would go for a ride in the first place if she anticipated an emergency or something that would require police to be called.

I think the family either called the neighbor after trying to reach Suzanne, or the neighbor saw her leave hours earlier and realized she wasn't back yet. Or maybe it was both. A family member called the neighbor and the neighbor told them they saw her leave hours ago.

Imo
 
whitelilac said:
Is it possible Suzanne received very bad news regarding her health, given her past? Would LE be privy to that given the circumstances, or would that still be under HIPAA guidelines?
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I suppose her husband would tell them that. The sheriff didn’t seem to believe that she hurt herself though.
 
MsBetsy said:
I don't think she would go for a ride in the first place if she anticipated an emergency or something that would require police to be called.

I think the family either called the neighbor after trying to reach Suzanne, or the neighbor saw her leave hours earlier and realized she wasn't back yet. Or maybe it was both. A family member called the neighbor and the neighbor told them they saw her leave hours ago.

Imo
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Well, sure, she might have worded it differently, but if you were all alone, no family nearby that day, and going biking in the wilderness, it wouldn't be unusual for a woman to let her neighbor know what she was doing. She might have joked and said, "start searching for me" or something to that effect. It explains why the neighbor called police, not the family. It's odd that the family didn't call 911 themselves.
 
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RickshawFan said:
Maybe she hadn't used the bike recently, so the brakes were jammed at the handlebars, or they were unresponsive at the calipers. Or, if she had disc brakes, they weren't releasing. Or, the brake pads could have hardened. All of these are "she hadn't used it for a while".
It's not even clear she was biking any time recently. Sure, there's a photo of her floating around with a bike helmet, but there's never been any indication when this was taken. It could have been 10 years ago.
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Thank you. Great points.
 
LietKynes said:
bbm
Agreed.

The most recent photo of Suzanne provided to LE and msm was taken in 2018.
It was also on her FB page and dated.
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Were there more current pictures? Maybe they picked that particular one because it showed her facial features clearly? I don’t think her height/weight/etc was listed on the flyer.

I’ve seen DL pictures used on other missing person’s flyers as well as some that looked completely different to the point I would not have recognized the person.
 
whitelilac said:
Maybe. It looks that way.
But one could also consider that maybe the husband is desperate and is trying to get her back anyway he can.....offering a huge amount of money for her safe return.
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Yes maybe you are absolutely right. I am having a hard time with that because I am not familiar with the type of wealth these people have. I think that’s why I think the way I do. My husband would not be able to say Honey I love you and I will give you any amount you need to bring my wife back. Why does he say that ? Does he think money will bring her back? That’s what bothers me. That’s why I think it’s strange that he is pleading for her release for $. Does he know it’s about $ or is he trying to push toward this being about $ ?
 
whitelilac said:
Is it possible Suzanne received very bad news regarding her health, given her past? Would LE be privy to that given the circumstances, or would that still be under HIPAA guidelines?
Click to expand...

That thought did cross my mind early on when it was posted (from her own FB, IIRC) that she was a two time cancer survivor.
I'm a cancer widow, so I do know first hand how the news of a recurrence can hit a person.
I once described it like a freight train ripping through your heart, in slow motion.
It's pretty hard core, and can cause a person to have some pretty dark thoughts.
So, I guess it can't be discounted, given her medical history and that chance it could have come back.
 
MsBetsy said:
I don't think she would go for a ride in the first place if she anticipated an emergency or something that would require police to be called.

I think the family either called the neighbor after trying to reach Suzanne, or the neighbor saw her leave hours earlier and realized she wasn't back yet. Or maybe it was both. A family member called the neighbor and the neighbor told them they saw her leave hours ago.

Imo
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People who ride, run, hike, etc. in places where they might run into mechanical trouble or have an accident where cell coverage is limited often, as a basic safety precaution, tell somebody where they're going, when they expect to be back, and what to do if they aren't. It might be family, friend, neighbor, or a note on the trailhead sign-in board. But it's a very common precaution.
 
clearskies1 said:
RS & BBM. We do not know if she went on a bike ride. The bike could have been placed where it was found by a perpetrator. To my knowledge no one has said that they saw her riding her bike. The neighbor only told LE that Suzanne had reportedly gone for a bike ride in the area and failed to return home. The identity of the person who reported the "bike ride/failure to return" to the neighbor has not been disclosed to the public.
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bbm
Prob. for good reason.
I feel for that neighbor. :(

I'm wavering on a wobbly fence about abduction.
Yes a perp could have placed her bike and other items as a red herring.
But it stretches credulity.

Trying to think like a kidnapper here and prob. failing :
Why not grab her and take off in your vehicle ?
Who cares about planting evidence ?
Suzanne was slim and not a large victim to seize.
Any planting of evidence would risk you being noticed.

Even if it was a revenge hit which I doubt-- same thing.
Take the person you're abducting and get the heck out of Dodge ?

Also trying to think of any other cases where a woman of her age was kidnapped.
It doesn't happen often.
Sadly it's usually younger 20-somethings or teens.

Imo.
 
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