Still Missing CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *arrest* #90

[Seattle1]

I think many people would be surprised at how many people vote on behalf of other people....totally thinking it is OK because said person is out of the country, in the hospital, in a nursing home, incapacitated in some way. I had this discussion with a group of friends when this came up and a couple of them had indeed voted for family members and had no idea they couldn't do so. I think this is why in most cases that actually make it to the court system the punishment is fairly innocuous. Many people even "smart people" do not understand the limitations unless they have been actively involved in some way as a volunteer or in a career with the voting process. I do not for a second think he "thought" people would think she was alive. He probably thought he could do it with his guardianship...and it's not related to the murder trial so will be dealt with legally at some point no doubt.

So when your friends illegally voted for family members, did they just forge the intended voter's signature on the ballot (and believe it's ok)?

I ask because I've twice had my ballot returned to me to authenticate my signature on the ballot (cure letter). They check these things!

ETA: And the signature on my ballot was NOT a forgery!

 

[FromGermany1]

Bold Swap By Me.

This is a stupid argument. The girls are afraid to drive the pass in winter. We were on COVID lockdown for months. There are still people who can't risk seeing immuno-compromised loved ones two years later and the girls can't wait until the plows run to see their poor daddy.

This is the first step to a longer plan.

MOO

I have only contempt for this triumvirate, sorry.

 

[justtrish]

@MassGuy TYVM

Yep, the bbm, that's right.
I checked Snapchat website's ToS just to be sure.

Dead people can't snapchat, but apparently they can vote in a presidential election!

 

[Momofthreeboys]

I also found Grusing's response to the immunity request to be telling: You won't be falsely convicted. bbm.

On surface it sure sounds like two guys that think they are smarter and snarkier than each other going toe to toe. Listening to the actual conversations might be interesting.

 

[Seattle1]

How did all of the stuff get into the passenger seat? Did police put it there or was Barry looking for something?

We know, from last weeks discussion of the timeline that on Friday Suzanne met Barry at Tailwinds, went to the store, then to Moonlight Pizza where she texted the girls a pic of Barry waiting. She dropped him back at Tailwinds and went home.

Suzanne doesn't leave the house again. Barry isn't going to set on all of that stuff. Not sure if he's a shove it in the floor type or patient while she moves it to the back seat. But either way, her Camelbak, snack, purse, and sunglasses are on the passenger seat in this pic. It's Peoples Exhibit 64, but is this the first photo or after CCSO started their search? Going to link to the big pic again: http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/morphew-19.jpg

^^bbm
I think the photos of the RR contents are really confusing. I can't locate where I read this but I want to say that SM kept her camelbak hung on the back of her car seat which makes more sense to me than piled in a heap with other stuff on the passenger seat.

 

[FromGermany1]

Thank for posting this refresher.

As alibis go, this has to sit among the worst. No wall, he tried to build an alibi. Sho 'nuff, crooked.

He and MG were going to do it together, leaving Salida at 5pm on 5/10.
The job couldn't be done on 5/10.
Two rooms. Two people.
Barry didn't add an alternate crew until 5/10. Hmmmm. How'd he know he wasn't going to be available?
So...
He decides to leave for Broomsfield just before 5 am, 2 hours after alotta activity and the left turn, turning his phone from airplane mode at a telling time and place (as if IMO his day and his trip started just then).
He had no brick ordered.
He brought none of the right equipment.
He left the needed Bobcat at home. (I wonder if that was a last minute decision because he either couldn't bear the thought of being separated from his beloved BC or if he thought it played better with the bike ride and all if he left his favorite digger at home or if he didn't want his trailer to slow up his dumpstering).
What we do have, if you eliminate the trash runs and the wet towels and the wardrobe changes, Barry doing eleven minutes of unnecessary work without permit on a Sunday... then he left. If that's all he needed to do, he could've gone home. Or he could've waited until 5pm to leave for Broomfield, as originally scheduled. Fatal error: IMO he constructed his crooked alibi around a 9 am bike ride. Not a 4 pm one. Not a 1 pm one.

He needed to be gone -- 3 hours away -- to fit the narrative he concocted! Utterly devoid of any predictable pattern of Suzanne's! Probably completely blanking on the virtual wedding!

Worst of all, for him and his defense, he has NO ALIBI for the first 12-18 hours after Suzanne's digital activity ceased.

Well, unless you count the running around and the loaded .22 and the chipmunks.

Worst. Alibi. Ever.

JMO

The wall couldn't have been mended, as far as we know, so what was BM' s penalty for breach of contract?

 

[justtrish]

You and I and most everyone here know that DNA is meaningless. I’m not so sure about a jury. Most jurors will likely be familiar with only the bare basics of DNA. When the defense starts throwing the word “match” around in every other question or statement, I’m not so sure that some won’t buy into what the defense is trying to sell. It only takes one stubborn juror to deadlock the jury.

I hope the State will be absolutely ready to defend their position with the DNA and all of the evidence. This is a sharp Defense team. The State really needs to anticipate the Defense tearing their evidence apart up, down and sideways. Their performance at this latest hearing has me a bit uneasy.

I think the key on this one is to get the best expert they can to testify about the DNA. Someone that knows it front back and sideways. Someone that isn't easily rattled, will not cave or get flustered at the defenses questions. Someone that can present it exactly for what it is as simply as possible so that anyone understands it.

 

[Momofthreeboys]

So when your friends illegally voted for family members, did they just forge the intended voter's signature on the ballot (and believe it's ok)?

I ask because I've twice had my ballot returned to me to authenticate my signature on the ballot (cure letter). They check these things!

ETA: And the signature on my ballot was NOT a forgery!

I am assuming so....but we never really talked about the details...just an interesting conversation about voting and incapacitated or unavailable family members. I have never been in a position where I ever thought about it. I know when my senior family members were at end of life they just didn't vote....I never thought about acting as a witness so this was also an eye opener for me that it was not an extremely rare occurrence. I've never had a ballet returned and didn't know they did such things as authenticate signatures but I have only voted by mail when I was out of the country and in 2019 with covid I did sign up for a paper ballot otherwise I am an in person voter.

 

[Skigh]

I think the key on this one is to get the best expert they can to testify about the DNA. Someone that knows it front back and sideways. Someone that isn't easily rattled, will not cave or get flustered at the defenses questions. Someone that can present it exactly for what it is as simply as possible so that anyone understands it.

MassGuy ?

 

[justtrish]

Speaking of Suzanne’s Range Rover, do we know what type of telematics are available? Are door events recorded? Did Suzanne’s vehicle move at all on Saturday? There has to be data that provide pieces to this puzzle. I’ll take anything that contradicts what Barry told LE.

I'm behind and this may have been answered already in the next few pages I haven't read yet, but at the time the AA was written, they were still waiting on the analysis of Suzanne's RR car data.

 

[Seattle1]

Thanks for the reminder of this reporter. I sent @stephaniebutzer (author of the AA summary) a message that we hope she covers the trial!

https://twitter.com/stephaniebutzer

Reporter Butzer replied -- the Denver Channel doesn't have the staff for the small stuff like the motions hearings in Salida but she'll be present for the trial!

 

[Kingsley]

On surface it sure sounds like two guys that think they are smarter and snarkier than each other going toe to toe. Listening to the actual conversations might be interesting.

Yes, hearing the convos could be interesting.
I do, however, find that I really dislike BM as a person, independent of the death of Suzanne. I find it hard just reading his direct quotes and still be able to maintain some objectivity as far as what is known and what I believe to be true. I think that hearing it would make that even worse.
You are very much the champion of sticking to the facts and have reminded us frequently of things on which the evidence is sketchy. While I might not always like it , I appreciate it.

 

[genuineusa77]

Let's review quick.

What was missing

Suzanne
Her bike
Her baby blue helmet
Biking clothes
Her phone
Her phone cord
Her journal
Her brown towel

You know what you take on a bike ride? A bike. A helmet. A phone. Bike clothes. Gloves. Sunglasses. Water. The vehicle to drive you to the trailhead.

You know what you don't take on a bike ride? A charging cord. A journal. No water. And a phone that's not on.

Looks like How Not To Stage a Bike Ride. Or Stage It Well anyway.

JMO

So that tells me she had Biking clothes on when she went missing!

 

[Momofthreeboys]

So that tells me she had Biking clothes on when she went missing!

No I think that was the description on the back of a receipt that Barry wrote and left at a local gas station/convenience store of "what" she would have been wearing had she been out on a bike ride.

 

[Boxer]

The wall couldn't have been mended, as far as we know, so what was BM' s penalty for breach of contract?

BM was a subcontractor, his incompetence on the wall was the contractor problem, the contractor was a friend of his from Purdue who gave him the job.

 

[Area52]

He left when he got the call that Suzanne is missing.

I would have worded it differently. Imo, he left when he got the call that the police knew Suzanne was missing. Barry already knew it! MOO

 

[nyvictoria]

Interesting. Pp 35-36 (37-38)

The mystery second device... Barry used it twice on MD. At 8:47am and 11:47am.

At 8:46am Barry entered the hotel.

He was in and out several times .... but

...he left his hotel room at 11:46am.

That can't be a coincidence.

(Also perhaps worth noting, he used that device on 5/5, presumably while Suzanne was driving MM2 to the campsite. Things that make you go hmmmmm.... because one day later, Suzanne says she is done and three days later she is dead. What happened on 5/5???????)

What was he doing with/on that device????

Monkey business? (Monkey app -- is on The List)

JMO

Colorado Judicial Branch - Chaffee - Cases of Interest - People of the State of Colorado v. Barry Lee Morphew

I think it was Suzanne’s Apple Watch.

 

[genuineusa77]

I would have worded it differently. Imo, he left when he got the call that the police knew Suzanne was missing. Barry already knew it! MOO

I don't know that as being true.

 

[genuineusa77]

No I think that was the description on the back of a receipt that Barry wrote and left at a local gas station/convenience store of "what" she would have been wearing had she been out on a bike ride.

That makes sense.

 

[Lyanna]

On surface it sure sounds like two guys that think they are smarter and snarkier than each other going toe to toe. Listening to the actual conversations might be interesting.

I didn't find either of them thinking they were smarter or snarkier than the other. Barry lied about a lot of things, and Grusing pointed that out. In some parts Barry came across as 'little boyish' jmo.

I do wonder whether Barry would have been different with female agents though, and wonder what information female agents could have gleaned from him.

Agree, actually hearing the interviews will be interesting, hard to gauge the intent/context/emotion in written word, but audio will reveal much more.