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

[crhedBngr]

I am sure Suzanne Morphew was a responsible gun owner. I wonder how likely she is to have taken a gun on her trail ride.
For protection I think it would depend on how populated she expected the trail to be.
Her family would know her habit around carrying a gun. She also might have taken it if she meant self harm.
Hopefully they find answers soon.

RBBM

Did Suzanne own guns? I do speed read at times, but I don't recall reading this.

Apologies if I missed it.

 

[whitelilac]

Thank you. The Sheriff said they strongly believe that this was not a mountain lion attack, locals do not believe this was a mountain lion attack, and we didn't hear BM issuing a plea to a mountain lion. And here is why:
1. Mountain lions leave drag marks, especially when their prey is human or big game. This is easily tracked in dirt or vegetation by wildlife management types.
2. Mountain lions do not "hide" their prey in the sense that humans do. Moving their prey is motivated by their feeding habits--to keep other predators away, provide shade and shelter for the lion while it feeds, and they only drag the carcass a couple hundred yards tops--mostly much less--depending on the terrain. While they are engaging in their own animal version of concealing the carcass, their methods do not do a very good job of concealing from humans and leave plenty of evidence to the human eye.
3. Mountain lions eat what they want, and then other predators/scavengers arrive. These scavengers will be noticed in a fairly populated area with a professional SAR operation happening.
4. Mountain lions tend not to attack near busy roads or human population, although yes, Scott Lancaster was an exception.
5. Mountain lion attacks have been studied by wildlife biologists, the CO Division of Wildlife (who have offices in both Salida and Gunnison) and other experts for decades and these people know exactly what they are looking for.

If anyone still has questions on the characteristics of mountain lion attacks and the body of evidence on them, please consult the following resources:
MLF Feature: Mountain Lion Kill-Site Forensics: Identifying Predation, Scavenging and Kleptoparasitism - Words and Photographs by Phil Johnston
https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5251229.pdf
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1259&context=hwi

RE: mountain lions
I'm bringing this forward. I found it very informative.
for @margarita25 in particular.

 

[lucidtx]

Is everybody here sold on foul play? I have some thoughts re: the terrain, etc. but don’t want stones thrown at me lol jk.

Nah, I still think something like an accident is within the realm of possibilities. That was my best guess until the FBI and DA investigators got involved. I think there's likely a significant reason they're on it that we don't know about, but who knows? Sometimes things that initially look suspicious aren't.

 

[whitelilac]

We don't know if Suzanne had a road bike or a mountain bike. If a road bike, I don't believe she would have ridden on those hairy challenging trails. She may have gotten off her bike if a road bike, and stopped to hike a trail, but we just don't know.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Well, maybe...we see searchers miss people...

We have Rita Gutierrez for example who is known to have likely been disposed of around Rabbit Mountain—she has still not been found. That WAS FP, but it goes to demonstrate these terrains are vast. Amy Ahonen was never found until the 2013 floods scattered her bones across three different counties...we still don’t know if her death was an accident or not...

Again, this appears to be potentially challenging terrain. We see missing hikers in CO...Additionally, there is much wildlife as we know.

Have you guys talked about mountain lion dens? (Again, please don’t throw stones at me lol).

While mountain lion attacks are rare, they do happen. I can link examples,’some including bicycles.
They stalk you—you don’t see them but they see you. When they attack, they get you by the jugular then try to drag you off to their “dens”. I don’t think these dens are always visible?

Sorry for any rehash, just looking at all possibilities.

—-

Would like to study this—

Could anyone be so kind as to please circle related areas here on this topographic map? Tia.

Monarch Pass Topo Map in Chaffee

—-

I wonder if she feel in a crevice.

For whatever reasons they're not sharing with the public, the Sheriff's office already pretty much ruled out animal attack.
I suspect it was because they discovered something pretty solid that leads them in a different direction.
Toward the kind of animal that walks on two legs, instead of four.

 

[Boxer]

RBBM

Did Suzanne own guns? I do speed read at times, but I don't recall reading this.

Apologies if I missed it.

Its a MOO. I will go back and make it clearer that it just my opinion.
MOO to me her rural background, as well as living in an isolated house in Colorado suggest it.

MOO I would hope her husband had her practice and keep it close while he was gone.

 

[margarita25]

What about fell in a trap? Slipped into a crevice?

 

[kkdj]

Is everybody here sold on foul play? I have some thoughts re: the terrain, etc. but don’t want stones thrown at me lol jk.

What are you thinking?

 

[Seattle1]

Does anyone know dependable the cell phone reception is in that area? What I'm getting at is whether she might have brought a cell phone along on her bike ride.

I suspect the "personal item" that was found was a device that had GPS, like a cell phone or apple watch. That would be the first thing a kidnapper would want to get rid of.

This was one of the first questions discussed last week (now thread #3) but I think it's safe to state that the cell coverage here is no better or worse than any other mountain town or about 75% chance of coverage regardless of the carrier and where "roaming" also is a factor of service. Both the sheriff's fb and local outlets have blogs dedicated to the area phone service, no service, outages, etc.

While there's no evidence that any electronic device of SM's was located it would be great if LE does have possession of her phone which can reveal critical information including when, where, and party she last communicated with.

MOO

 

[margarita25]

What are you thinking?

I don’t know, the terrain just really stands out to me as the type where we’ve seen hikers, etc. go missing/run into trouble (non-FP), moo.

ETA: There’s one lady I’m thinking about specifically, Barbara?? Will think about it.

Conversely, we’ve seen creeps like Daniel Nations and Gary Ridgeway active in these terrains...

 

[Ravenesque]

We don't know if Suzanne had a road bike or a mountain bike. If a road bike, I don't believe she would have ridden on those hairy challenging trails. She may have gotten off her bike if a road bike, and stopped to hike a trail, but we just don't know.

As a retired mountain biker in CO we would never go alone. There is just so much more risk in it than road biking, in my experience.

 

[Iamlysaloo]

We all must remember the case of Heidi Broussard. Many people, like myself immediately thought of the dad, and took clues from his police interview. It turned out that he was as much a victim as the baby and Heidi. There are cases when your gut feeling is wrong.

 

[ab01]

This was one of the first questions discussed last week (now thread #3) but I think it's safe to state that the cell coverage here is no better or worse than any other mountain town or about 75% chance of coverage regardless of the carrier and where "roaming" also is a factor of service. Both the sheriff's fb and local outlets have blogs dedicated to the area phone service, no service, outages, etc.

While there's no evidence that any electronic device of SM's was located it would be great if LE does have possession of her phone which can reveal critical information including when, where, and party she last communicated with.

MOO

Agreed! I think cell phone information will end up being very crucial in this case. MOO

 

[kkdj]

I don’t know, the terrain just really stands out to me as the type where we’ve seen hikers, etc. go missing/run into trouble (non-FP), moo.

ETA: Thera’s one lady I’m thinking about specifically, Barbara??

Conversely, we’ve seen creeps like Daniel Nations and Gary Ridgeway in these terrains...

But why would she get off of her bike to do that?
And yes, we've seen some creeps in this kind of terrain.
I'm questioning when she was actually last seen tho.

 

[zecats]

I don’t know, the terrain just really stands out to me as the type where we’ve seen hikers, etc. go missing/run into trouble (non-FP), moo.

ETA: Thera’s one lady I’m thinking about specifically, Barbara?? Will think about it.

Conversely, we’ve seen creeps like Daniel Nations and Gary Ridgeway active in these terrains...

So as in she got off her bike, left it wherever it was found, and then fell or slipped? If so, the bike's location would present a great spot to start a search into dangerous terrain nearby. Not knowing where that would be doesn't help progress with that theory. JMO

 

[MimosaMornings]

Its a MOO. I will go back and make it clearer that it just my opinion.
MOO to me her rural background, as well as living in an isolated house in Colorado suggest it.

MOO I would hope her husband had her practice and keep it close while he was gone.

MOO
Previously they lived on a farm with acreage, perhaps one of them had a gun, conceal carry, hunting license, something along those lines, etc.
MOO

 

[margarita25]

So as in she got off her bike, left it wherever it was found, and then fell or slipped? If so, the bike's location would present a great spot to start a search into dangerous terrain nearby. Not knowing where that would be doesn't help progress with that theory. JMO

Went to go pee and fell in an animal trap, crevice, slipped off a ledge?

All I can say is I can picture these types of areas due to my own experience hiking in Colorado mountains, which I stopped doing alone btw bc there were too many creepos. One time I heard some rustling in the bushes and peeked in and saw a face peering back at me!

Remember that guy who fell in a crevice and had to cut his own arm off to get out?

Last summer I was talking with a Rocky Mountain SAR, and we were discussing the challenge of (thermal) aerial detection as related to rock coverings and crevices. Additionally, dogs and ground searchers can’t get into some of these areas which is why they use rock climbers/repellers to go down the sides of the mountains.

This is why I’m interested in the topographic layout.

I haven’t had a chance yet to really look at the terrain, but it does give me pause based on the basics I’ve seen, and based on other cases. Jmo.

 

[j_in_c]

I don’t know, the terrain just really stands out to me as the type where we’ve seen hikers, etc. go missing/run into trouble (non-FP), moo.

ETA: Thera’s one lady I’m thinking about specifically, Barbara?? Will think about it.

Conversely, we’ve seen creeps like Daniel Nations and Gary Ridgeway active in these terrains...

I always suspect just plain getting lost when it is a sparsely populated remote area like this. I wonder since they were new'ish to the area if she was not as well-versed in outdoor safety as those who have lived/played in the mountains longer.

In this case, with LE confirming they have her bike and not seeing a full SAR operation initiated, I suspect LE's investigation is pointing in a different direction than "lost in the wilderness". All MOO.

 

[Spartygirl]

Holy Moly ! I have spent all afternoon getting caught up in Suzanne's case, left off in thread 2 for a break, came back and now it's Thread 3 already !!!!
I have wandered through news, press releases, etc and find it odd that family, daughters included are not saying anything, and the only reason I can guess why is that LE has told them not to do so as to not interfere with the investigation of the case.
I know LE has said it is a criminal investigation so they have to have something either material wise or cyber-wise via phone, computer, GPS to indicate to them some criminal activity happened while on the bike ride, if in fact she even went on a bike ride as we don't know the last visual of her that anyone had. JMO
I may have missed it if mentioned about last visual, who last saw her, who last spoke to her ???
I skimmed through this thread briefly as they are moving so fast.

 

[margarita25]

Remember Aubree Corona?

It is assumed she got lost. She was found deceased 1.3 miles from her vehicle.

(ETA: Wyoming wilderness)