Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #30

[Area52]

The timeline seems really off. If she was texting a friend 9:00 pm Saturday LE should be able

The timeline seems really off. If she was texting a friend 9:00 pm Saturday LE should be able to know if she texted at home or a different location. Also, they should know what date he checked into the hotel as well and his phone pings. The article is very ambiguous and I’m not sure I believe it.

maybe he checked in early in the morning Sunday the 10th ( there should be a record of the time) and left around 6:00 ish when the girls called. I feel like I need more concrete details.

Good question -- I'll ask Chris.
In response to when communication stopped -- Chris replied 2:30 pm Eastern (Indiana). This would be *12:30 pm in Colorado.

ETA: *

 

[Boxer]

He may have collected his mail and was sloppy leaving it behind. Or he may have paid the insurance premium and intentionally left it. BM is good at compartmentalizing. He has his priorities!

MOO mail behind just sounds like a lack of a last room sweep.
Has he been telling police about this and the family another story?

 

[Fireflize]

Thanks @Fireflize you are too kind. I was going to delete it and try again but it took so long to type.

LOL, I could imagine you coming in from shopping and finding WS exploding. Just think how it will be when he's arrested! Moo

 

[branmuffin]

If he did any sort of dismemberment, my bet is there is a hacksaw somewhere. Cutting through bone requires a saw like a hacksaw. A regular saw wont work because the teeth in the saw blade are too far apart. A hacksaw blade would do the trick.

An electric hand held circular saw would probably work too and Im sure he had a hand held circular saw for other regular jobs where he needed to cut through any wood.
JMO

Paul Bernardo used a common household circular saw to dismember one of his victims.

 

[oviedo]

Wasn’t it around that time ( July 18 ) that we noticed that the Puma Path address no longer came up on Google Maps? And I made a joke on here about the DM lurking in the bushes with cameras or drones! I just typed Puma Path in Google Maps just now and look what it shows!

that's interesting...

 

[ivegotthemic]

I’m just curious but did this worker get paid for his daily mail article? And why is it just coming out?

insurance papers on a house come once a year so to me that’s not a red flag. They also come when you refinance a house or change insurance. He also owned multiple homes so he would get a lot more mail.

BM doesn’t seem like he would be that stupid to make up several fake alibis. I think anyone this day and age would know cars have gps, cell towers ping phones, Hotel reservations have time stamps, check in has time stamp, LE would talk to his job site and be able to tell when it was booked ect.

I just have a hard time thinking that anyone would be that sloppy. Unless something happend and it was in the heat of the moment. Then I can see someone being sloppy trying to cover their tracks but if it wasn’t pre-meditated then having a hotel reservation prior makes no sense. I also just do not trust this worker at all. Is there any proof that there was chlorine smell or is it just his word?

Is there also proof of this conversation Sunday morning. Recording or text messages. The call could have taken place but it could have been about work or something. I feel like I’m this particular case I need proof or evidence.

I think it would be really difficult to be the first person to come out against BM when everyone else is has been silent. Theres no guarantee anyone would have followed his lead or that he would be believed by the general public. And not only are you talking about a friend but its also your Boss. We dont know his employment situation, the could still be working for Barry and theres a chance if he spoke out BM could have made sure other industry professionals whom were friends also refused to employ him. I think its alot to ask some acquaintance of the family to be the first to speak out publicly. He noticed things were off, he took the evidence, he gave it to LE and interviewed with them. To me this is someone just trying to do the right thing in whats probably a very uncomfortable situation

 

[swedeheart]

I don't know what I would do. I like to grill and he has to eat. I mean it's possible he doesn't really cook and Suzanne did that so the only thing he really knows is grilling? I think it's rather creepy for someone to be hiding with a camera and zooming in to take a photo of him grilling at his house. I don't know if he is guilty, but I am not sure I can say him grilling more than 2 months after his wife went missing is a sign he doesn't care about his missing wife.


Exactly! I don't know much about JP at this point, but who stays around a hotel for 2 days just waiting? If I lived in Salida and my boss's wife was missing and I knew he hurried back to Salida and didn't leave tools and apparently didn't communicate with him any more after that, but did pay him.... I feel like I would have driven back to salida the next day to help search. Remember massive searches were happening. Why would you stay there? Why would you keep his mail? Why would you not go back to Salida?

maybe BM was telling JP to stay put at the room, and dismissing any real urgency of SM being missing in those early days, and JP didn't really think to question his boss on that? maybe this is one buddy that wasn't gonna buy the BS story that BM, and his other buddy that showed up immediately (before BM even), were selling? (like their reactions and such). it sure does seem like BM wanted JP out of the picture for a solid few days. so, yeah, why?

eta: whatever the reason was, i think BM's plan was thwarted in a big way when his daughters decided to call the neighbor so soon. i don't think he meant to have to the leave the room in such a state, and he ran out of time to finish cleaning it up, and figured he could tell JP anything and he'd believe him. i think the neighbor panicked more than he'd expected her to, and he had to rush home.

 

[Kimmer]

Just catching up to the DM article but @oviedo made a great observation.
Snipped from article:
“A manager at the $92-a-night property confirmed to DailyMail.com that they do not use chlorine to clean guest rooms and have handed security footage from the weekend of May 9 to police.”

There would be no reason to hand over security footage for May 9 if he didn’t check in until May 10. I take it BM did check in on May 9, the reason the May 9 video was turned in to police!
Husband of missing Colorado mom spent the night before her disappearance at cheap Denver hotel | Daily Mail Online

They don't clean with chlorine but that would be a way to destroy evidence on your body. No need to worry about LE looking is the sink or shower drains for blood I would like to know if LE took photos of Barry soon after he returned to Colorado to see if there were any defensive wounds, Suzanne seems like she would be a fighter if her life was in danger.

 

[Knox]

BBM:

I think the employee is in CYA mode, which is understandable, because let's face it, he needs to cover his backside, given the way BM manipulated him.

I believe this account, because there's no reason for this employee to come out with a story like this.

I'd love to be a fly on the wall in Sheriff Spezze's office right now.

JMO.

Can you expound on the CYA mode and how BM manipulated him? IYO of course ...

 

[Diddian]

The colleague JP says BM called him in THAT MORNING ‘due to a family emergency.’ That’ll be before anyone realised Suzanne was missing.

I don't think that is correct.

According to the article, "Jeff Puckett, 49, of Salida, Colorado, said he was ordered to Denver by Barry that morning but didn’t see him because he had already left ‘due to a family emergency’."

So, I think JP is explaining that the family emergency accounts for why BM was not at the Holiday Inn when JP arrived there late in the day; it has nothing to do with when BM ordered JP to come there that morning.

 

[Seattle1]

As always I appreciate you posts. I have been thinking about this since our last exchange. On this point we will just have to disagree. In fact, I think I disagree completely, especially when I try to zoom out and think about a law that applies broadly to a whole population when not just focused on this one case.

I think the June 3 action made perfect sense. There was no need to derail activity that was already in motion. That worked exactly as I think it should. If there was any evidence, the evidence was that Suzanne was already on board with that real estate activity. This was almost a textbook example of how things should happen.

Further, I think it could often be darn near impossible to establish your items (a) (b) and (c) above. If such things could be known, it seems an adult daughter or parent would be most likely to know, in which case the current setup works just fine. They would have to actually take some action, though, or the whole thing is moot anyway. Beyond that, I'm not convinced guardianship is primarily about those things (wishes and feelings and beliefs and values). Often times the guardian is put in place because the ward is not making (or has been deemed incapable of making) good decisions for himself. Therefore, I think there are "right" actions for a guardian to take that are best for a ward but would NOT be what the ward would do himself according to wishes, feelings, beliefs, and values.

I can see some logic in a missing person being assigned to a class other than incapacitated. This would only make sense, though, if there was a specific set of guidelines that would be meaningfully different than the guidelines for incapacitated persons. I struggle to understand what those would be, though. Certainly there has to be some action taken in a relatively short time and the answer cannot be to put everything on pause. Someone needs to be able to make decisions for the missing person.

All IMO

I believe you missed the gist of my post. Guardianship as written or provided for in IC works as intended for incapacitated individuals. We've adopted an Act specifically for Missing persons that was not written for someone lacking mental capacity that includes the provisions you disagree would work.

And somebody should be able to make decisions for the missing but I believe most already have an instrument in place for these situations with a durable power of attorney. To be clear, POA was not a foreign concept to BM/SM. There's evidence they previously made use of this.

ETA: I can't think of a time in history (i.e., global pandemic) where initiating POA has never been more relevant for both the young and old.

 

[TIGER0822]

@Ontario Mom I doubt that there is much of a market for houses with dead bodies lying around!

 

[Knox]

MOO mail behind just sounds like a lack of a last room sweep.
Has he been telling police about this and the family another story?

He was in a hurry to get back and help them discover the "bike evidence"

 

[Warwick7]

This is what I think as well. He checked in on Friday, drove back home and killed her Saturday night and then dove back to the motel. This is probably why the GPS records weren’t matching up. I’m thinking he disposed of her body somewhere on the way back to the motel. MOO
This also shows it was all planned. MOO

All this, YES!!!
Exactly!!
BAM!

 

[10ofRods]

I wonder if he was there with someone else and perhaps Suzanne figured it out and showed up. I can’t imagine he walked into a motel with blood on him so did the deed happen in his room?? This is getting even more horrible IMO.

Why not try and imagine it? If there was blood or other body fluid/tissue on his person or clothes, he certainly would not want to wash it off back at home, for obvious reasons (I hope LE has gone to this hotel and at least tested the drain traps).

If the crime was relatively non-bloody, the perp might still worry about spittle or small amounts of exhaled blood (in, say, a strangulation or if death came post-beating).

Where should he clean up? I think a Holiday Inn Express is as good a place as any, especially if he had already changed clothes and was mostly worried about his hair and skin. I also think that if he had to replace certain tools back in his garage (or at a work site), and they had any sort of DNA evidence on them, he'd have cleaned them off in the hotel room as well.

In order to keep hotel staff from cleaning the room and discovering all this, he invites his unsuspecting "co-worker" to come to the room (thereby also introducing someone else's DNA into the picture - perhaps with the hope of trying to shift blame to that person).

In these days of CoVid, daily cleaning of hotel rooms is not a thing. Customers usually have to request a cleaning and most do not, for obvious reasons.

Wise.

Nope.

Whys.

Why call a worker to Bloomfield at all?

Stunt double?

Why get a hotel room, attached to your name?

Why leave a hotel room in disarray? Run out of time?

Why bring mail in?

The bleach. The tools.

It's not going to end well.

JMO

Wow. Yes - I think BM had to leave to go back home earlier than he thought. I think the girls may not have been expected for Mother's Day, but changed their plans. Perhaps they were already worried on Saturday afternoon and evening. I know my daughters would have been.

But your point about the Stunt Double - wow. JP has the same build and haircut, same coloring and head shape as BM. They look a lot alike. A hotel worker wouldn't even notice the difference. And that might have been in BM's mind (that when called to the stand, a hotel worker might not be able to remember who was who - and frankly, I bet that's the case).

However, if true that BM rented that room on Saturday and was there by late Saturday/early Sunday morning...that's a huge change in the timeline. Is that the sense you're getting?

I need to read the article again, but it's unclear to me when BM called JP, but it sure does sound like it was earlier on Sunday than, say, 6 pm.

 

[oviedo]

The vastness has limits, rural people notice cars on roads with limited destinations.
Access to public lands are trail heads and pullouts.
Bridges or dranage overpasses offer going in off the beaten track, but the vehicle will be out of place. Boldness works, it's possible to find a gap between people, but there is always a risk of random mountain biker, hiker, homeless or fence mender. So to me points MOO a night trip. Night trip more likely to be close to a road.

all true - and he had plenty of time because she wasn't reported missing until that Sunday 911 call - 5:46pm IIRC. 29 hours or so..
JMO

 

[BHughes]

Our Governor deemed hotels essential businesses so they were not closed during Stay at Home orders.

And most of Colorado was back open May 8, correct?

My questions is, many businesses re hotels, motels, etc. had their own rules like for pools, fitness rooms, laundry areas, did this hotel have the same?

If so, then the public pool/jacuzzi could not have been where the chlorine smell came from. JMO

 

[oviedo]

Why not try and imagine it? If there was blood or other body fluid/tissue on his person or clothes, he certainly would not want to wash it off back at home, for obvious reasons (I hope LE has gone to this hotel and at least tested the drain traps).

If the crime was relatively non-bloody, the perp might still worry about spittle or small amounts of exhaled blood (in, say, a strangulation or if death came post-beating).

Where should he clean up? I think a Holiday Inn Express is as good a place as any, especially if he had already changed clothes and was mostly worried about his hair and skin. I also think that if he had to replace certain tools back in his garage (or at a work site), and they had any sort of DNA evidence on them, he'd have cleaned them off in the hotel room as well.

In order to keep hotel staff from cleaning the room and discovering all this, he invites his unsuspecting "co-worker" to come to the room (thereby also introducing someone else's DNA into the picture - perhaps with the hope of trying to shift blame to that person).

In these days of CoVid, daily cleaning of hotel rooms is not a thing. Customers usually have to request a cleaning and most do not, for obvious reasons.



Wow. Yes - I think BM had to leave to go back home earlier than he thought. I think the girls may not have been expected for Mother's Day, but changed their plans. Perhaps they were already worried on Saturday afternoon and evening. I know my daughters would have been.

But your point about the Stunt Double - wow. JP has the same build and haircut, same coloring and head shape as BM. They look a lot alike. A hotel worker wouldn't even notice the difference. And that might have been in BM's mind (that when called to the stand, a hotel worker might not be able to remember who was who - and frankly, I bet that's the case).

However, if true that BM rented that room on Saturday and was there by late Saturday/early Sunday morning...that's a huge change in the timeline. Is that the sense you're getting?

I need to read the article again, but it's unclear to me when BM called JP, but it sure does sound like it was earlier on Sunday than, say, 6 pm.

which makes me wonder what was he doing all day Sunday...? did he expect JP to come over Sunday morning for his family emergency and be there in his place? but JP didn't get there until Sunday evening - inquiring minds want to know these details.
JMO

 

[Boxer]

Apparently DM thinks most of us stay at the Ritz or the Four Seasons.

Holiday Inn Express is often a newer property compared to some plain Holiday Inns, and they are known for their generous breakfasts. No room service, often no pool, but they all have good beds and are known for cleanliness. I'd say they are medium-priced.

Agree. This HI Express is a standard mid-range hotel.

 

[ivegotthemic]

As always I appreciate you posts. I have been thinking about this since our last exchange. On this point we will just have to disagree. In fact, I think I disagree completely, especially when I try to zoom out and think about a law that applies broadly to a whole population when not just focused on this one case.

You have several good questions. I'll do my best to be brief but this is a kind of complex area of law so you might need to strap yourself in. The court prioritizes who has the most claim to guardianship in indian its:
The following are entitled to consideration for appointment as a guardian in the order listed

i definetly dont want to butt in where im not needed. everything on this thread is happening so fast today i can barely keep up. Like several pages page i posted some of the statutes and tried to walk through why the court ruled the way they did IMO. Just trying to provided insight.