Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #42

[Puzzles8]

Regarding the scenario that a certain someone did it, are we assuming that someone had from Friday to Sunday or maybe earlier? Do we know the date of the last sighting of SM? I've not seen that info reported (as fact) IIRC.

No, and it would be very interesting to know this.

I mean a person other than BM or his squad.

 

[LietKynes]

The "innocent" man (using your identifier) has no obligation to prove himself to anyone, even to his children. We do not know how people might react in light of such a devastating event. Is it 'normal'? It might be for that individual because his personality or faith or whatever makes him present in a certain way. It's not likely, but still possible. Acting 'odd' or 'weird' (as reported to us second hand) is not proof of guilt.

The "innocent" man has searched. We know at least to some degree that he has because we've seen at least one video and some photos of his out-and-about. For some people, practicality rules their day: on person (plus a few friends) can cover only so much ground. And why would that "innocent" person want to involve themselves with people who he believes thinks he's guilty? Why risk potential physical confrontation with unknown strangers?

It's reasonably explainable.

bbm

About that ...
It's about as clear as mud. (This is intended for the person in the single video, and a few random photos, not to you. )

The video from TD and TD's photos were not evidence of BM "searching".
And yes I did place "searching" in quotation marks as neither I nor many others feel he was searching for Suzanne.
It is unknown to us, but maybe not to his mother -- who was with him at the time -- what he was doing by the river ?

Speculation : We don't know that BM thought the videographer (TD) thought he was guilty.
Somewhat important if a person set this up to control the narrative and what was said.

It appeared more like BM was controlling it and wanted to get his side out there , "Let me tell you what happened...the bike was found with the wheel facing ... a mountain lion will drag it's prey up hill..."
Yes I know, the "Let me tell you... was said by BM to LS, and not TD.
Just quoting Mr. Morphew for context and the lay of his thoughts.

And the video taker and BM are not unknown to each other.
My opinion only, based on being a nosy person.
Hope that helps somewhat.

Many of us are mystified by BM's actions.
Maybe 'mystified' isn't the correct word-- but it's more polite than the one I was thinking of using.
IMO.

 

[Hatfield]

What follows is MOO... and with quite a bit of Occam's Razor applied, so, here it is:

Why is the bike ride not considered a likely scenario? Which CCSO statements and/or known discovered evidence indicates the bike ride theory as bogus?

The bike recovered down a steep hill along SM's assumed-typical bike route is fully simpatico with a roadbed abduction.

SPECULATION:

SM was riding along the road, wearing typical biking clothing (including helmet) and a vehicle approached to her immediate position, from either behind her or toward her and... in an instant the vehicle stopped. One or more perps exited the vehicle, they grabbed SM off the bike and one perp placed and held SM inside the vehicle.

Of course SM was still wearing the helmet, it was strapped on. Even a struggle likely wouldn't have dislodged the helmet since they're designed to remain on a head during a crash.

The perps had no desire to take the bike (it wasn't their target) so the second perp performed a quick bike toss into the ravine: it was then out of immediate site. That perp returned to the vehicle and off they went. They've driven away from the scene.

SM did not cooperate nicely, perhaps. The helmet had become quite the nuisance in the struggle so perp #1 managed to remove the helmet and toss it from the vehicle.

Perp's intent: sexual assault. It may have been an unplanned crime of opportunity or maybe the perps knew SM bike ride schedule. Either is possible.

What some perceive or have described as 'odd' or 'weird' regarding BM's behavior... it's reasonably explainable in light of the fact that the "love of his life" has gone missing and he doesn't know what happened.


I haven't yet discounted this theory.

Anything is possible of course.

Some of the reasons why I have leaned away from that have mainly to do with actions he allegedly took even before her disappearance as well as lots of questionable post-disappearance non-actions and other questionable actions.

*-The first of which was the late Saturday night work which woke up the neighbor of the Salida property.

There was really no good reason that we know of why he or his crew would be out there late at night starting up equipment unless he needed them at another place. And we have learned the only place that should have been would be the Denver work location. But that cant be the reason because remember he didnt even bring that crew enough tools let alone heavy equipment that we know of.

So what was so darn urgent that a commotion had to be made late Saturday night.

*-Then we have the whole Denver fiasco which started even before it was known SM was missing. Instead of a carefully organized Denver job, it sounded more like a last minute chaotic pull together of a skeleton crew with no guidance from him at all. Nothing we have learned about it indicates why it was so important to pull together a crew on the fly on the weekend like he did. It did not make sense unless we are missing something.

And then of course we have all the odd coincidences which are never good to have odd coincidences that begin to add up to a lot of odd coincidences in a case.

*-The coincidence of him being "out of town" when it was discovered she was missing. When adding the fact it was a Sunday (usually not a working day for most) and Mothers Day which is usually a day most like to spend with the Mom of the family to make her day as special as it can be.

*-The coincidence it happened to be Mothers Day weekend where it would be known her daughters would probably call home to wish Mom a Happy Mothers Day and discover she is not answering. Pretty convenient if a perp needed to make sure it was discovered she was missing before that person got home.

*-Then all the changes in the Give-me-fund administration which happened in those early days. It seemed like a ploy to keep his name from being announced and being associated with the funds. Most other family members of a missing person that need a fund like that would have had no problem if their name was on the fund drive. Why is that different here in this case?

*-General silence and avoidance of the media since the very beginning. When news of reward was announced, that came from someone other than the husband and it was communicated to a news station from a 3rd party. Why? Just Why? What was so scary to him that he wanted to stay out of all media related to his own wifes disappearance?
Im sorry, but that is abnormal to me and raises two eye brows.

*-Then the short 20+ second video where 200K reward was mentioned again but we have a stipulation in the fine print that she must be found safe. What about a reward for either safe return or for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person who may be responsible? We have seen plenty of rewards for the latter and not so much for just the former stipulation only. It could be viewed as a guarantee that he would never have to pay said reward.

*-Then the whole non-action and overall silence after she went missing. Its hard enough to solve a case, but when you hide under a rock and clamp up, then you will not get very far to get help to find your wife.

*-Then we have the different land and property activity money transactions that happened really quick after she went missing. It seems those types of things would be of secondary importance to doing what should have been done. And that is spending every waking moment trying to help find out what happened to your wife.

I am sure there are plenty of other coincidences and things that have struck us as concerning and those are a few that bother me and make it hard for me to consider a random attacker. If there had not been all those odd things then I would be more open to consider other possibilities. But we need some basis to head in that direction. Where is the basis for it when we have all these other things that are right in front of us.

The things we have are mostly circumstantial things but when they start to add up like that, it seems an awful lot of coincidences and circumstances that make you really wonder.

LE will definitely need more than what we have so far, so lets hope they either have it already or will get what they need soon in order to solve this case.
All JMO of course

 

[citygirl]

Innocent or otherwise, <modsnip: Opinion stated as fact is not allowed>

I believe he should be absolutely eviscerated. At best he’s an absolutely horrible husband, and terrible person.

There is no excuse for not doing the one thing that a loved one can do, that really can make a difference.

Get the word out, and never stop.

He has definitely been a fool after the fact.
He hadn't thought that part through. Just assumed LE would accept his lame explanations.
IMO, he's been thinking about this for a while.
Had it down to how he would do it, how easily he could do it, and how and where he would dispose of her.
But, I'm sensing that this would be his last choice if she didn't conform to his wishes.
She has always conformed to his wishes, but the tenor was beginning to change.
And, he knew it.
That beautiful 5'4" , 110 lb woman took a stand.
Sadly, I think it was her last stand.
JMVHO.

 

[Janeumayer]

What kind of trees do they have locally? Are they wide enough to become hollow? After all the searching, I wonder if we are focusing on the ground too much because of what we were led to think about the bobcat? Could she be high above the ground instead? A tree? A chimney? Some other high structure?

 

[Orgona]

I’m wondering about the abducted from a bike ride scenario, but it still doesn’t make sense for me.

So if the abductors already had gloves on to abduct someone did they drove around on Mother’s Day when it’s possible there are more people together out and about in nature and just drove around and around until they met SM? Is not impossible of course.

Why if some people would decide to abduct someone would they put the victim in a place where someone still have to wrestle with that person if they were supposedly so prepared that they were already wearing gloves?

Wouldn’t one put that person in a place where there is a no or minimum risk somebody else would accidentally see them wrestling with the victim?

If one managed to unbuckle the strap wouldn’t one just try to knock out the victim in place of further handling the helmet? Not like an unconscious victim would try to put it back on. Also because all the windows would be closed to begin with because one wouldn’t want to have the screams of the victim to be heard?

If one is trying to be undetected would one throw something out the car to further signal the route taken by the car?

If one wasn’t prepared and wasn’t wearing gloves all the more reason to hold on to the helmet to doesn’t leave any further signs behind of the direction travelled and to don’t leave finger prints behind. Although in that case there already would be fingerprints on the bike if they threw it from the road.
It doesn’t even matter if more than one LEO touched the bike because their fingerprints could be eliminated from all the prints found on the frame.

 

[CuriousBystander]

What follows is MOO... and with quite a bit of Occam's Razor applied, so, here it is:

Why is the bike ride not considered a likely scenario? Which CCSO statements and/or known discovered evidence indicates the bike ride theory as bogus?

The bike recovered down a steep hill along SM's assumed-typical bike route is fully simpatico with a roadbed abduction.

SPECULATION:

SM was riding along the road, wearing typical biking clothing (including helmet) and a vehicle approached to her immediate position, from either behind her or toward her and... in an instant the vehicle stopped. One or more perps exited the vehicle, they grabbed SM off the bike and one perp placed and held SM inside the vehicle.

Of course SM was still wearing the helmet, it was strapped on. Even a struggle likely wouldn't have dislodged the helmet since they're designed to remain on a head during a crash.

The perps had no desire to take the bike (it wasn't their target) so the second perp performed a quick bike toss into the ravine: it was then out of immediate site. That perp returned to the vehicle and off they went. They've driven away from the scene.

SM did not cooperate nicely, perhaps. The helmet had become quite the nuisance in the struggle so perp #1 managed to remove the helmet and toss it from the vehicle.

Perp's intent: sexual assault. It may have been an unplanned crime of opportunity or maybe the perps knew SM bike ride schedule. Either is possible.

What some perceive or have described as 'odd' or 'weird' regarding BM's behavior... it's reasonably explainable in light of the fact that the "love of his life" has gone missing and he doesn't know what happened.


I haven't yet discounted this theory.

While I do think this is a very possible scenario, I am still deeply troubled about the information that initially came out regarding BM's alibi regarding volunteer firefighter training, the co-workers bleach smell and hotel scenario they described, the mannerisms and actions of BM since the disappearance, the fact that this all happens when no one is around on a Mother's Day, the attitude of the brother, etc etc. That for me, all in my opinion, is too much to just throw under the rug.

 

[Minordetails]

If we only know 1% of what LE knows, than we really know next to nothing about this case.

Is the 99% we don’t know about this investigation, in agreement with the 1% we do?

 

[Fireflize]

@OldCop Is the Author- I've added the phone information from AM.
Updated timeline for the days surrounding SM’s disappearance. We are limiting the dates to those put forth by LE when they requested that area residents save their video footage: May 8-12, 2020.

Friday 5/8/20

Evening, exact time unknown:
-BM works at “beach area” at Salida dig site (MG)

Saturday 5/9/20
Abrupt ending to text messages with SM and her friend - Brother of missing Indiana native Suzanne Morphew leading volunteer search expedition - WISH-TV | Indianapolis News | Indiana Weather | Indiana Traffic
A.M.:
-BM & MG at Salida dig site. MG states BM was acting unusual. MG is supposed to rake out beach area that BM had worked on the night before. (MG). BM picked up MG (unverified) to bring her there.

11:00 a.m.:
-BM tells MG to go home. He tells her he has to go home to make wife “happy” and take her hiking or biking. (Did BM drop off MG?)

12:30 p.m. : (conflicting information, time not verified, could be later in the day, or even earlier)
-SM is talking with BFF on a message app or FB when suddenly she stops replying.

Afternoon, exact time unknown:
-BM makes contact with JP and hires him for a Broomfield job on Sunday. According to JP, this was an in person meeting in Salida.
-MG states that BM was seen shopping around town. (Unverified)

Evening, exact time unknown:
-SM’s bff receives texts that seem “unusual” from SM
-Friends of BM receive FB friend requests from SM

11:30 p.m.:
-A neighbor of a home being built in Salida hears heavy machinery running for about a half hour. BM has been hired to do prep work for a foundation pour at this site. This is the same site where he is also prepping the “beach area”. This is the job site that was later searched by FBI teams.

Sunday 5/10/20

5:00 a.m.:
-BM allegedly leaves SM sleeping and heads to a job in Broomfield, CO approximately 3 hours from his home in Maysville. The job allegedly consists of a repair to a wall that BM had completed the previous September and that had structural problems.

A.M. Exact time unknown:
-BM checks into the HIE in Broomfield.
-According to MG, BM contacts her and asks her to get a crew together to head to Broomfield for the job. MG stated that BM sounded like he had the worst night of his life. ?

Approximately Noontime:
-BM calls JP to confirm Broomfield job.

5:46 p.m.:
-SM is reported missing by a neighbor. SM’s daughters allegedly contacted her and said they were worried because they hadn’t been able to reach their mother. Exact details are unclear, but neighbor checked the house and did not find SM but noted her car was there. According to BM in his TD interview, the neighbor then contacted him and he asked her to go back and check if her bike was there. The neighbor checked, returned home, and called BM on her landline and told him the bike was gone. BM asked her to call LE.

Approximately 6:00 p.m.:
-LE arrives at the Morphew home where they are met by the neighbor who reportedly told them that SM had not returned from a bike ride.
-LE begins a search. Dog teams from the prison and County SAR teams are called in. (CCSO)
-BM started home to Maysville. (TD)

After 6:00 exact time unknown:
-JP, MG, and a third worker arrived at the HIE in Broomfield. It is not clear if all 3 travelled together. JP and MG both report that there was an intense smell of chlorine in the room and several wet towels on the floor. JP stated that it looked like someone had laid down on the bed, on top of the bedspread. MG stated that the bed looked like it had been slept in and remade.
-BM let workers know that he had left for a family emergency and that they were on their own. Workers allegedly found some of BM’s tools in a “hotel cart”. MG stated they looked like a bunch of tools from the back of BM’s truck. Both JP and MG indicated they had neither the correct tools nor the materials to do the job.

Sometime before 9:00 p.m. :
-LE allegedly finds SM’s bike down a hill about a quarter of a mile from her home. (Never verified by LE). There is no sign of SM. The Morphew home is allegedly sealed off.
-Friend(s) of BM arrive at search area (unverified)

Approximately 9:00 p.m.:
-BM arrives home.
-Friend(s) tell BM that SM’s bike was found and that LE mishandled the scene/evidence. (BM to TD)

(At some point, either Sunday night or Monday, volunteer firefighters were told not to participate in the official searches. BM told TD in a later video that his friend tried to stop LE from mishandling the evidence, which may have been the reason that they were not allowed to participate further.)

Monday 5/11/20

Time unknown:
-Concrete foundation is poured at the Salida dig site.

A.M.:
-Search resumes after overnight break. Over 100 LE are eventually involved including LE on foot, drones, divers, aircraft, SAR, Swift Water Rescue units, and various canines.
-BM calls MG crying and tells her SM is missing and that either a mountain lion got her or she was abducted. He stated they were going up the mountain to search. He tells MG and JP to stay in Broomfield and wait for supplies to be delivered for the job.

PM.:
-AM arrives in town to help look for his sister, meets with BM and some friends, and they formulate a plan to search for SM the following day.

Tuesday 5/12/2020

A.M.:
-LE continue their search. No request for volunteers was made.
-BM, AM, and friends divide into teams to search. They were not allowed to search where LE was actively searching, but could cover area already searched. AM and BM we’re on separate teams. At one point, a member of AM’s team separated from the group. They backtracked to try to find him. He was later located back at the home where BM was staying. (On the following Thursday, 5/14/2020, a personal article belong to SM, was found about 20 yards from the trail where AM’s team was searching. Were they meant to find it? Was it placed there by the disappearing team member?)

Exact time unknown:
-MG, JP, and possibly one other person arrived back in Salida after no supplies were delivered to complete the job in Broomfield.
-MG was allegedly approached by two individuals connected to BM, (TN and GD), who told her she would not be paid for her time in Broomfield because it would look like hush, hush, money. MG also implied that she was asked not to cooperate with LE or turn over her phone.

8:00 p.m.:
-BM was observed by an employee of the Poncha Market digging in a trash can. (The market had closed at 7:00 p.m.) Upon being questioned, BM states he is looking for a bike helmet.

Shortly thereafter, BM taps on market window and when they let him in he stated that his wife was missing. When asked for a description he wrote a note on a crumbled receipt. The note said:

Baby Blue bike

helmet


Biking clothes

(No further description)


By Tuesday or Wednesday, CCSO has asked CBI and FBI for assistance.

Updated timeline was constructed based on LE info, MSM reports, and suggestions from fellow WS’ers. All additional comments/corrections are welcome. We may have additional information to plug in after the search this week.

Thank you, @oviedo, for reposting this excellent time line. Thank you again, @OldCop, for assembling this. I printed it out this time and will use it to replace my own messy, handy dandy timeline. Much appreciated!

 

[MassGuy]

If we only know 1% of what LE knows, than we really know next to nothing about this case.

Is the 99% we don’t know about this investigation, in agreement with the 1% we do?

I think so.

We don’t know why the sheriff was so quick to bring in CBI and FBI, or why they seemingly determined fairly quickly that this was not as it appeared to be.

We don’t know the justification of those two search warrants on the house, the warrant on the construction site, and what specifically was wrong with the narrative Barry provided law enforcement (truck data not aligning).

We don’t know what law enforcement learned from BM’s phone data, Suzanne’s phone data, any of their devices, email accounts, social media accounts, or any number of other things.

We don’t know what was found in the house (forensically), Barry’s hotel room, his vehicle, or his bobcat.

We also don’t know what Barry told law enforcement during those alleged 30 hours of interviews, or what any of the witnesses have relayed to LE.

We don’t know what cameras may have captured.

I could go on and on here, but I think everyone gets the point. We know very little, except for the fact that LE clearly has one man in the crosshairs.

Evidence would have gotten them there.

 

[windrower]

Confirming the location of BM laying on the ground is White Pine in Gunnison County. (This location was initially described by AM as Crested Butte).

Yes, and why were BM and others there? I understand he was, ostensibly, "searching" for SUZANNE, but why that particular location out of anywhere else in Colorado? (Perhaps using ostensibly and also quote marks around searching is redundant. But I don't mind today.)

I’m not buying DV, someone with SMs inner strength doesn’t stay in that marriage, nor would girls support abusive BM.

rsbm

Respectfully, I'm not sure you understand what DV does to its victims.

(I'm not debating whether or not SUZANNE was a victim of DV.)

 

[EggSalad]

I would love to know the confirmed location of where the helmet was found. I believe it was supposedly across Hwy 50 from puma path.

Given that it wad found in a different location than Puma Path is it possible:

-It was placed there after the bike was staged? Perhaps even after LE was called because the perp forgot about the bike helmet?

-Was a second person involved in the staging? Perhaps the person that staged the bike and the person that staged the helmet misunderstood the directions of where the other person placed their item.

It makes so little sense why they were staged in different locations. The only other thought is that the perp disposed of the bike, and forgot that the helmet was in their front seat and threw it out of their car when they realized they forgot to stage the helmet with the bike.

 

[citygirl]

I think so.

We don’t know why the sheriff was so quick to bring in CBI and FBI, or why they seemingly determined fairly quickly that this was not as it appeared to be.

We don’t know the justification of those two search warrants on the house, the warrant on the construction site, and what specifically was wrong with the narrative Barry provided law enforcement (truck data not aligning).

We don’t know what law enforcement learned from BM’s phone data, Suzanne’s phone data, any of their devices, email accounts, social media accounts, or any number of other things.

We don’t know what was found in the house (forensically), Barry’s hotel room, his vehicle, or his bobcat.

We also don’t know what Barry told law enforcement during those alleged 30 hours of interviews, or what any of the witnesses have relayed to LE.

We don’t know what cameras may have captured.

I could go on and on here, but I think everyone gets the point. We know very little, except for the fact that LE clearly has one man in the crosshairs.

Evidence would have gotten them there.

Nice recap.
We've heard that CCSO has limited funds.
CBI and FBI have been on board.
Thinking they have unlimited funding? Or separate funding?
MOO.

 

[rainbowshummingbird]

If we only know 1% of what LE knows, than we really know next to nothing about this case.

Is the 99% we don’t know about this investigation, in agreement with the 1% we do?

What if we only know .1% of what LE knows?

CCSO has released very little. Most of the information has come from: Andy, Lauren, Tyson and Barry himself.

 

[rainbowshummingbird]

If we only know 1% of what LE knows, than we really know next to nothing about this case.

Is the 99% we don’t know about this investigation, in agreement with the 1% we do?

Oopsies

 

[MassGuy]

Nice recap.
We've heard that CCSO has limited funds.
CBI and FBI have been on board.
Thinking they have unlimited funding? Or separate funding?
MOO.

CBI is funded by the state, while the FBI is funded by the federal government.

Their involvement has certainly helped tremendously here, not just resource wise but in regards to alleviating much of the cost.

 

[Orso49]

I am curious because I thought it was GD who posted the additional $100,000 and if he did he must have known that his money was safe as he was with BM.

 

[TruthIsStranger]

Imo, yes... oh yes...

conspiracy, didn’t need all 5 to be physically involved...

What's the basis for this? Seems like wild speculation. And what motive? What money? No ransom was requested.

 

[tmar]

What if we only know .1% of what LE knows?

CCSO has released very little. Most of the information has come from: Andy, Lauren, Tyson and Barry himself.

When further info is released, we will be so surprised, with what they have, as in so many previous cases followed here.
Just the wait, as before, is too long, for us impatient folk.

 

[MassGuy]

I am curious because I thought it was GD who posted the additional $100,000 and if he did he must have known that his money was safe as he was with BM.

No one actually handed over that money, as far as we know. That money couldn’t possibly be any safer anyways, as it was contingent upon Suzanne’s safe return.