Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #8

[abstr]

From Alan Gionet/ Reporter at CBS Denver:

Alan Gionet

bbm


Huh?

I don't think he means funny as in "haha" but as in if you remember some odd little thing you noticed.

 

[Madeleine74]

If the house has been released, then that should mean the copy of the search warrant with the seized items has been filed with the court, and it might be available as a public record. Some sealed warrants are only sealed while the search is happening.

That's true but I highly doubt this warrant will be unsealed anytime in the near future. This is an active investigation, with no resolution, and protecting the integrity of the case is the north star, along with trying to solve the case.

 

[Satchie]

I don’t understand that. Why would $210,000 be so much better than $200,000? Safe return. If she’s returned safe, the person returning her will not get any money and they will go to prison. The police were digging through concrete... the reward should say “For Suzanne’s exact location” if she’s alive and being held, great if they release her. But if she’s not alive you still want her remains.

For a close friend, it could have been a heart-felt gesture, but they aren't wealthy enough to offer more...perhaps hoping to inspire others.

This must be a deeply, heart-rendering emotional time for SM's family, long-term friends, former colleagues, and not just for SM's welfare but of course, for her immediate family, who are in agony wondering what happened. Not everyone is cold, clinical and suspicious, they just want her back and life to return to what it was before.

With regard to 'going to church', possibly her old church in Indiana was holding online services? That might explain why a rumour about what happened came from that source.

 

[Madeleine74]

Announcing an increased reward amount allows one to "get the word out again" and it's updated info, so more publicity and eyeballs on the case.

Keeping a case in the news is one important strategy. It can lead to an increase in tips even though an extra $10K isn't really going to "safely return" SM.

 

[Hatfield]

Completely agree.

MOO but a 5% increase in the reward money isn't going to solicit a new tip.

What COULD bring in new info is removing the stipulation for SM being returned unharmed. If someone other than the perp knows even a little bit of what happened and they think they can get some of the money by sharing that info even if she's deceased there is a chance there. MOO

Good point.

Or like we sometimes commonly see with rewards being offered for a "Tip that leads to a successful prosecution of the person or persons responsible for SM's disappearance".

I have thought about this before how I would want a reward worded if a loved one came up missing and I would probably write it up in a way that says "information that directly leads to locating SM safely or her remains if she is deceased". I would want the person found no matter what and I would not really want the reward tied to a prosecution because that may limit me even finding them at all even if a prosecution is successful.

Its a tough thing to think about. But I would never have just the one part that this one has because that limits finding the person if they are already deceased.

This case continues to sadden me because so many things point to a bad outcome.

 

[Dave F.]

If the house has been released, then that should mean the copy of the search warrant with the seized items has been filed with the court, and it might be available as a public record. Some sealed warrants are only sealed while the search is happening.

I think it is routine for the judge signing a search warrant in a kidnapping or murder case in Colorado to approve sealing of the warrants while the investigation is active. Search warrants that have been sealed are not released by the trial judge until after the perpetrator and accomplices / abettors have been charged and initial discovery has been delivered by the prosecution to the defense. Often, that action is initiated by news entities. I am not a lawyer. This is what I see from a distance, so to speak. I advise to check the linked website from time to time (once someone has been charged) and click on "Cases of Interest". This is where you will see documents of that nature, when they are released. If you lose the link, just enter "Chaffee County Courts" in any of the search engines (Google, Bing, etc.) IMO, IANAL
Colorado Judicial Branch - Chaffee County - Homepage

 

[Ontario Mom]

How did the person who found the bike know immediately it was hers. None of her family members were around to identify it that Sunday evening.
Was she the only one in the household to own a bike?

I would assume either one of the girls or BM told them the make/model/color, etc.

If she had a hot pink cheap Schwinn (don't come for me, all you cyclists, lol) with a gold sparkly seat, and... a bike like that was found, well, there ya go.

jmo

 

[Steelslady]

Funny, but normally I would think that is a sweet endearment that he may have said to her in their relationship over the years. It still could be just that, you know? Doesn't anyone else have a spouse that sang or said something to you that was lyrical or poetic, or have any of you do this to your own spouse, lover, etc? Heck, I've sang songs to my friends in a fun and joking manner using popular songs from past and present. I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I don't find anything odd about his opening.

I find in the video he seems regretful and there is a bit of pain with that regret. I do feel he had some part of her going missing- to what extent remains to be seen. Whether he harmed her himself or had someone else do it for him or with him, time will tell.

There's also something else that stood out to me, in my own interpretation of the part where he says he would pay any amount for her safe return:

not guilty- he'd give up everything he owns and has to have her back and hopes she comes home alive

guilty- I would give everything I have to take back what I did.

We shall see which way he means this.

One last thing- remember how angry we were at Frazee never doing any interviews at all, no statement, no concern? We all knew in our hearts, he didn't care about her, many of us felt his hatred towards her in his own actions after she went missing.

Say what any of us want, but he did do a 26 second clip. He at least did that much. What it means, remains to be seen.

 

[pocketaccent]

I think the staging was done to fake a kidnapping, and the animal attack narrative was thrown out there to take advantage of speculation that an animal of some sort was responsible.

Like “oh yeah [animal attack], that sounds good.”

If the staging was done to fake a kidnapping, then the 'stager' is the perpetrator, needless to say. In the case of a kidnapping scenario, a bike is involved.

So whoever first uttered the idea that SM went for a bike ride on Mothers Day is the one that harmed SM. Because that person staged the scene. IMO

 

[CronesEye]

Re: "Oh, Suzanne....." at the beginning of the video.

La la la la: "Oh, Susanna, oh don't you cry for me....." IME People reach for clichés when they're trying to be vague or not get pinned down.

And we might be watching a person who is generally "out of touch with their feelings". Then you get clichés instead of real.

Both of these possibilities might be true. Either of them might be innocent; both could be "reveals" (or not) about a person's intentions.

" Studies have shown that in some cases echolalia is used as a coping mechanism allowing an autistic person to contribute to a conversation when unable to produce spontaneous speech."

Echolalia - Wikipedia

Struggling to be spontaneous? Within a momentary short due to stress?

 

[otto]

It is exactly the same principle as you not being to diagnose a cardiac condition in your father without the requisite expertise. The same goes for psychiatry.

<respectfully snipped>

Regarding this comment, are you saying that a cardiologist would be unable to diagnose heart problems without the requisite training, knowledge and experience? Similarly, a psychiatrist would be unable diagnose without requisite training, knowledge and experience?

 

[10ofRods]

Myth Busted: Looking Left or Right Doesn’t Indicate If You’re Lying | Science | Smithsonian Magazine
Scientific Content Analysis (SCAN) Cannot Distinguish Between Truthful and Fabricated Accounts of a Negative Event

A lot of statement analysis is pseudoscience.

Forensic linguistics can be problematic too, but not because it's pseudoscience.

There are linguists who have done way better at predicting who is lying that the statement analysis people. But it's complex. There are cultural norms. What works in one culture may not work in another - in fact, smiling itself is often a sign of deception, but that works differently in different cultures.

In the US, our cultures are not only regional but also age-graded. No study has ever shown that lying can be judged by gaze direction (that I know of, and I try to keep up). Cultures can even be familial.

In my own work (as a jury consultant and as a researcher into criminal behavior), I've found that it's crucial to know about the culture of the speaker, as well as who they are speaking to. Really good liars use a variety of approaches to sell their lies. What matters in a courtroom, though, is whether jurors will buy the story. Jurors have individual hunches or views, but often, jurors will suppress their own view if some other jurors insist that the person is truthful (or lying). Trial lawyers usually know this very well.

Statement analysis as practiced by well known youtubers is not without value. These analyses may relate more to how people within the shared culture perceive the speakers (and therefore to courtroom credibility - or what LE thinks is credible) than to what's really going on the speakers' minds.

If there were any way of reliably telling what people are thinking while they're speaking, that would earn the researcher the equivalent of a Nobel prize in linguistic anthropology.

In studies of liars who admit their lies (something I'm very interested in), it turns out that for each liar, there are often specific tells. Speech analysis can definitely pick up on some of those, and therefore, it's a way of generating hypotheses - which have to then be tested against reality.

For example, "white lies" told by otherwise honest people can be easy to detect - or very hard to detect. Teachers get good at white lies, because otherwise we'd have to say more of what we're thinking. However, veteran white liars use the same types of white lies over and over, and are quite conscious that's what they're doing.

Some other liars, OTOH, seem to be unaware that they are lying, at least at the time they're doing it (I think overall intelligence plays a role here). I've watched a person "lie" on a lie detector test, in which they claimed they were a cowboy and had experience breaking horses. This person had never ridden a horse or been a cowboy, but did possess a cowboy hat, a lasso, and a "cowboy ID card" (!). He was developmentally delayed and at age 35, had the social intelligence of a 9-10 year old and an IQ about 10 points below average. AFAIK, he still believes he's a cowboy. He had ridden a mechanical bull. Everyone who knew him politely went along with his stories, so he had no one to correct his view of reality.

IOW, lying is complex and quite ordinary behavior. At my age, I've learned all kinds of ways not to have to tell "white lies," and instead, try to find ways of honestly speaking the truth to students without using judgmental language. But it's not always easy. Sometimes, silence is golden.

 

[CronesEye]

I couldn't look, either. Too squeamish.

I really respect some of these LE for what they have to go through. I know some of them have a hard time letting go of things. While on the job they do have to compartmentalize however that doesn't say it doesn't affect them. They have recently recognized LE also needs PTSD recognition, allowance and treatment. I am very glad for this.

 

[Seattle1]

I'm still wondering if all this reward money is held in escrow in a bank? just waiting to be delivered when she is returned to the family? If not, hmmmmm. doesn't seem fair to be able to do this IMO.

Since there's so little history of rewards paid out, I doubt this comes up often! Nonetheless, I doubt escrow required or account enforceable.

It's not gone unnoticed that LE won't touch the reward subject -- for good reason.

BM's reward is just a pledge and not a consummated contract.

BM's promise to reward/pay is conditional on the "safe return" of SM.

I'm not seeing any fine print on those reward posters. What's BM's definition of "safe return?"

If SM returns like Sherri Papini-- branded with her hair chopped off, does that qualify as completely unharmed? Missing a limb? Traumatized?

I don't believe any reward will ever be paid and we'll never know BM's definition.

Definition of safe return noun

: the act of taking someone or something back to the proper place completely unharmed —+ of
//The mother demanded a safe return of her child.

MOO

 

[Steelslady]

I really respect some of these LE for what they have to go through. I know some of them have a hard time letting go of things. While on the job they do have to compartmentalize however that doesn't say it doesn't affect them. They have recently recognized LE also needs PTSD recognition, allowance and treatment. I am very glad for this.

I have no idea how they do it. Some of these cases are just brutal and sick. That isn't something a normal person can become desensitized to.

 

[Madeleine74]

I would assume either one of the girls or BM told them the make/model/color, etc.

If she had a hot pink cheap Schwinn (don't come for me, all you cyclists, lol) with a gold sparkly seat, and... a bike like that was found, well, there ya go.

Make it a 1970 purple Schwinn girls Stingray, with a flower motif banana seat, some purple and white streamers, a basket in front, and yep, now we're talkin.'

 

[Quiet Time]

Quote from CronesEye's post:
“He’s been in charge of what happens for a long time,” they said.

In defence of BM and this sentence...i would imagine that BM has been in charge of a lot of things for a while. Reason being is that SM has bn ill twice now with cancer, so BM has probably had to make most of the decisions, taken care of their household chores and duties, and whatever goes on in their world.

He also gives me the vibe of being kind of a 'macho' man... all jmo

 

[Dave F.]

But if someone delivers her it’s not like they are really going to hand it over and say thanks go on your merry way. The person would be arrested right? Or if she just showed up on the front step are they going to wire it to some random account? The whole reward is weird. I guess if an innocent person found her then they could get the reward but it’s like BM is offering it to her abductors.

In my opinion, he IS offering to pay ransom to her abductors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with doing that. LE generally does not seem to encourage family to offer ransom, but they do encourage family to offer rewards. IMO

 

[Quiet Time]

That is just too strange. As if upping the ante by 10,000 will make a difference?

Well, let's just look at it like someone trying to help an old friend, being in his corner....jmo

 

[Rosiebones]

I would assume either one of the girls or BM told them the make/model/color, etc.

If she had a hot pink cheap Schwinn (don't come for me, all you cyclists, lol) with a gold sparkly seat, and... a bike like that was found, well, there ya go.

jmo

I thought about that, but the girls had not been living at home for a time. And, in my opinion unless they were avid bikers themselves, there is no way they could tell the make or model, the color maybe. I see my husband's bike everyday and I could in no way give any information other than color and I would not be sure of that, yet it was definitely identified as hers. What about it, made it HERS so quickly upon being found. MOO MOO MOO