Still Missing CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *arrest* #95

[genuineusa77]

So far, I don't think any of the digital data, including texts have been ruled inadmissible. The ruling y'all are thinking of says that SO may not make any statements about abuse Suzanne told (verbally) her about unless they have a timestamp. I'm simplifying but any text/message from Suzanne about the abuse is admissible. If it has a time and date stamp and it was sent from a device known to be in Suzanne's possession, then it's as good as testimony from Suzanne herself. Anything else is hearsay unless SO saw it with her own eyes. That means if they find one in the data, it won't fall under that ruling.

Suzanne's grievances list, MM2s text, and Suzanne's voice on the spy pen telling Barry off for his controlling behavior will do a pretty good job of letting the jury know just how trapped Suzanne was. She wanted to leave and Barry wasn't going to let that happen. She was even afraid, just not afraid enough.

Toss in this run of images at the end of that...
http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_24.png
http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_54.png

http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_76.png
http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_83.png

Some say these scratches on him are from Suzanne attacking him. Read the Affidavit.

 

[genuineusa77]

DBM

 

[Diddian]

Wasn't Suzanne only 2 years younger than him! That's not years younger. How do you know all this about him?

He was 3-1/2 years older than she was. His DOB is 10/17/1967 and hers is 4/30/1971.

BM was out of high school and recruited by Toronto Blue Jays farm team by the time SM entered her sophomore year of high school. Those are substantially different phases of life. He: launched. Her: three years from launch.

 

[rainbowshummingbird]

I so agree. I don't buy this "control" thing at all. In the Affidavit, it says Suzanne attacked him. I see zero evidence of him ever having an affair in their marriage. Nothing adds up to me.

Some men who have had affairs have killed their wives. Some men who have not had affairs have killed their wives. Affairs/control are not prerequisites for murder.

 

[Seattle1]

Has anyone seen or read of BM actually attending church in CO currently?
We hear he is religious, yet I have not read anywhere about where he attends or The Big "If" he still goes.
Edited to add - since he and defense are probably reading here - there will be a registered sighting soon.

SM disappeared when churches were not gathering and services conducted virtually but I think he likely attended Grace Church in Salida with SM and daughters prior to covid. I recall seeing the family members mentioned by name on the church media site when SM first missing. I think by the time in-person services resumed, BM's story was rightfully already deemed questionable so don't imagine he'd show his face. Given BM's personality, I think he probably mailed a check to keep up appearances. JMO.

ETA: I recall reporter LS visited the church and was quickly shown the door.

 

[sk716]

I had been indulging in some "if only"s - eg if only Barry had made just a slight effort to be a bit kinder, etc, etc, then maybe the marriage could have been improved and saved. But having finally realised just how unintelligent he is, in almost every way, and having read his cousin's article about Barry's "religion", I have changed my mind. It was a mismatch from the start. But no way should it have ended in murder.

Please do not mistake Barry for dumb.

I am very familiar with the kind of folks Barry's cousin tells us about. I spent 11 years in Hot Springs as an adult. The Morphews are from Kirby. The family I know personally out in Kirby are also cultish in their behaviors and treat their women as chattel. The cousin calls them Evangelicals, but out in Kirby they're Charismatics (Might be the source of the friction between the cousins dad and his brothers, he's too "liberal" for them.).

This isn't about intelligence or education it's about control. They have warped values and beliefs into a system of misogyny and abuse, it's willful.

Barry is a lot smarter than he acts. He wants people to assume he's stupid, it works in his favor.

Please understand that I am not calling all Charismatics a cult. Just these folks in a tiny little town in west Arkansas where I know another family behaves in the same manner described.

 

[Seattle1]

He was 3-1/2 years older than she was. His DOB is 10/17/1967 and hers is 4/30/1971.

BM was out of high school and recruited by Toronto Blue Jays farm team by the time SM entered her sophomore year of high school. Those are substantially different phases of life. He: launched. Her: three years from launch.

I didn't attend American high school but I understand an upper-classman athlete dating a sophomore--especially from the cheer squad would very much be the norm. Nonetheless, I believe family members put to rest via TIR/PE that unlike BM's version of their love story, the couple never dated while BM was in high school. Seems it wasn't until BM began working on the golf course where SM lived that they became a couple. I believe SM was a senior then. MOO

 

[sk716]

Has anyone seen or read of BM actually attending church in CO currently?
We hear he is religious, yet I have not read anywhere about where he attends or The Big "If" he still goes.
Edited to add - since he and defense are probably reading here - there will be a registered sighting soon.

If that dude from the Daily Mail didn't take a pic of it, it didn't happen.

 

[sk716]

Churches would be welcoming

Nah.

Churches are communities by default. Communities are judgy. First it's whispers, then the kids start pointing, then the gossips start barely covering up their stares. Before long a group of largish middle aged men are suggesting the pariah leave quietly.

 

[sk716]

Some say these scratches on him are from Suzanne attacking him. Read the Affidavit.

I'm going to need you to find and post that quote from the AA.

 

[Diddian]

I didn't attend American high school but I understand an upper-classman athlete dating a sophomore--especially from the cheer squad would very much be the norm. Nonetheless, I believe family members put to rest via TIR/PE that unlike BM's version of their love story, the couple never dated while BM was in high school. Seems it wasn't until BM began working on the golf course where SM lived that they became a couple. I believe SM was a senior then. MOO

IIRC, that's correct. BM graduated high school at the end of SM's freshman year in high school. That means he had already spent a year playing for and had been cut from the Toronto farm team by the time he dated SM. And he'd worked a couple years beyond that.

So, this guy who'd been out of high school for a few years, had already played and then lost his place on a farm team, and who was now a full time employee making a living targeted for his "affections" a girl who was still in high school, living with her mother who was recently divorced from her father, and who was suffering from cancer. This is NOT a high school romance of two equal in agency they exercise over their own lives.

BM knew where to look to find someone who might - at that phase and with those circumstances in her life - be inclined to be submissive, to mistake "possessiveness" for "protection," and to mistake "control" for "authority."

IMO, one might say that he looks in similar circumstances - weakened, and in need with few options available to them - for his "contractors" who he so readily pointed the finger at (CC) or dismissed as non-reliable witnesses (JP, MG) when LE appeared to pointing the finger at him.

 

[waldojabba]

Some say these scratches on him are from Suzanne attacking him. Read the Affidavit.

From the AA page 21 of 129 :
Agent Cahill observed scratches on Barry’s left upper arm. Barry stated, “Yeah, like , that from a tree…in, uh-wh-when we were hikin’ in the mountains”*
There is a footnote #30 at the bottom of the page referencing the scratches :
*These injuries appeared to be healing, several days old scratches

I have not read in the AA where Suzanne attacked him and at the same time made these scratches. Is there a page number in the AA you can reference? There is so much detail in the AA that it can get confusing and the pictures of the fingernail marks on Barry's arm are most likely referenced elsewhere as well

Many here have made the case in their opinion on these threads, that those marks on his arms are perhaps scratches/gouges from SM’s fingernails as she tried to fight him off as he killed her. Is that what you are referencing?

 

[Momofthreeboys]

IIRC, that's correct. BM graduated high school at the end of SM's freshman year in high school. That means he had already spent a year playing for and had been cut from the Toronto farm team by the time he dated SM. And he'd worked a couple years beyond that.

So, this guy who'd been out of high school for a few years, had already played and then lost his place on a farm team, and who was now a full time employee making a living targeted for his "affections" a girl who was still in high school, living with her mother who was recently divorced from her father, and who was suffering from cancer. This is NOT a high school romance of two equal in agency they exercise over their own lives.

BM knew where to look to find someone who might - at that phase and with those circumstances in her life - be inclined to be submissive, to mistake "possessiveness" for "protection," and to mistake "control" for "authority."

IMO, one might say that he looks in similar circumstances - weakened, and in need with few options available to them - for his "contractors" who he so readily pointed the finger at (CC) or dismissed as non-reliable witnesses (JP, MG) when LE appeared to pointing the finger at him.

Not sure where that info came from. I thought they got together when they were both at Perdue although from the same hometown.

 

[Momofthreeboys]

From the AA page 21 of 129 :
Agent Cahill observed scratches on Barry’s left upper arm. Barry stated, “Yeah, like , that from a tree…in, uh-wh-when we were hikin’ in the mountains”*
There is a footnote #30 at the bottom of the page referencing the scratches :
*These injuries appeared to be healing, several days old scratches

I have not read in the AA where Suzanne attacked him and at the same time made these scratches. Is there a page number in the AA you can reference? There is so much detail in the AA that it can get confusing and the pictures of the fingernail marks on Barry's arm are most likely referenced elsewhere as well

Many here have made the case in their opinion on these threads, that those marks on his arms are perhaps scratches/gouges from SM’s fingernails as she tried to fight him off as he killed her. Is that what you are referencing?

I think we don’t know the origin of the scratches or the scrapes on his hands.

 

[MrsWatson]

I so agree. I don't buy this "control" thing at all. In the Affidavit, it says Suzanne attacked him. I see zero evidence of him ever having an affair in their marriage. Nothing adds up to me.

Both Suzanne, in her own words, and her sister, in interviews, talked about BM's infidelity.

I don't find that confusing at all.

 

[sk716]

IIRC, that's correct. BM graduated high school at the end of SM's freshman year in high school. That means he had already spent a year playing for and had been cut from the Toronto farm team by the time he dated SM. And he'd worked a couple years beyond that.

So, this guy who'd been out of high school for a few years, had already played and then lost his place on a farm team, and who was now a full time employee making a living targeted for his "affections" a girl who was still in high school, living with her mother who was recently divorced from her father, and who was suffering from cancer. This is NOT a high school romance of two equal in agency they exercise over their own lives.

BM knew where to look to find someone who might - at that phase and with those circumstances in her life - be inclined to be submissive, to mistake "possessiveness" for "protection," and to mistake "control" for "authority."

IMO, one might say that he looks in similar circumstances - weakened, and in need with few options available to them - for his "contractors" who he so readily pointed the finger at (CC) or dismissed as non-reliable witnesses (JP, MG) when LE appeared to pointing the finger at him.

I don't think I've seen it said anywhere, but if Barry was good enough to get a farm team walk on, shouldn't he have been good enough to get a scholarship to play NCAA baseball? There are a number of good baseball programs a lot closer to home than Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. I'm not a baseball fan so I don't really keep up with the progression from high school to pro. Do you take a farm team slot because you didn't get a scholarship to play NCAA ball?

 

[Seattle1]

So far, I don't think any of the digital data, including texts have been ruled inadmissible. The ruling y'all are thinking of says that SO may not make any statements about abuse Suzanne told (verbally) her about unless they have a timestamp. I'm simplifying but any text/message from Suzanne about the abuse is admissible. If it has a time and date stamp and it was sent from a device known to be in Suzanne's possession, then it's as good as testimony from Suzanne herself. Anything else is hearsay unless SO saw it with her own eyes. That means if they find one in the data, it won't fall under that ruling.

Suzanne's grievances list, MM2s text, and Suzanne's voice on the spy pen telling Barry off for his controlling behavior will do a pretty good job of letting the jury know just how trapped Suzanne was. She wanted to leave and Barry wasn't going to let that happen. She was even afraid, just not afraid enough.

Toss in this run of images at the end of that...
http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_24.png
http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_54.png

http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_76.png
http://www.[link removed]/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/People-Exhibits-Prelim-Hearing_Page_83.png

I interpreted the Court's decision on excluding texts between SO/SM discussing domestic violence differently than OP. I believe the texts deemed inadmissible were discussing prior acts of domestic violence and what's missing here is there's no time to reference when these acts actually occurred -- definitely making them hearsay. For example, from the texts, we don't know if the time BM allegedly pinned SM on the bed happened a week ago or 5 years ago. The texts that are admissible paint SM's state of mind near the date she vanished and that she was fearful of BM and did not want to be alone with him. I believe the Court is saying the alleged domestic violence doesn't include sufficient detail to overcome the hearsay rule. I think if the text discussion included SM saying the event happened after dinner on her birthday (i.e., a week before SM disappeared) it would be different. MOO

 

[Momofthreeboys]

Both Suzanne, in her own words, and her sister, in interviews, talked about BM's infidelity.

I don't find that confusing at all.

It has nothing to do with whether Barry murdered Suzanne so probably won’t come into testimony even if they have first hand knowledge. LE stated at the time of the arrest they had not found evidence of an affair on Barry’s part which could have played into their motive theory at the time.

 

[sk716]

From the AA page 21 of 129 :
Agent Cahill observed scratches on Barry’s left upper arm. Barry stated, “Yeah, like , that from a tree…in, uh-wh-when we were hikin’ in the mountains”*
There is a footnote #30 at the bottom of the page referencing the scratches :
*These injuries appeared to be healing, several days old scratches

I have not read in the AA where Suzanne attacked him and at the same time made these scratches. Is there a page number in the AA you can reference? There is so much detail in the AA that it can get confusing and the pictures of the fingernail marks on Barry's arm are most likely referenced elsewhere as well

Many here have made the case in their opinion on these threads, that those marks on his arms are perhaps scratches/gouges from SM’s fingernails as she tried to fight him off as he killed her. Is that what you are referencing?

I think Team Barry is referencing this bit, but realized its where he admitted to hitting her.

Barry said, “Yeah- I remember that, but I wasn’t, I wasn’t, I didn’t mean it. I was just saying it to get to her, to try to get to her.” Barry talked about striking Suzanne once, when he clipped her nose, but that was the only time he was physically abusive.


SA Grusing said that in doing the victimology work on Suzanne, investigators know that was not the only time she came at Barry. And that when Suzanne got frustrated, she would physically come at Barry.


Barry said, “She physically come at me several times through my life and I took it. And I’m a man and I’m tough and I can take it. Gotta lie about the scratch marks (Reference the scratches on Barry’s left arm on May 13th in CCSO photos. Barry later to the FBI he did not recall how he got those, possibly from a tree.), in, in front of people when they ‘re on my face, but … that is the only time I ever touched her and I swear to God I would never lay a hand on my wife and that was just a crazy reflex.”
​

 

[Seattle1]

I don't think I've seen it said anywhere, but if Barry was good enough to get a farm team walk on, shouldn't he have been good enough to get a scholarship to play NCAA baseball? There are a number of good baseball programs a lot closer to home than Medicine Hat, Alberta, Canada. I'm not a baseball fan so I don't really keep up with the progression from high school to pro. Do you take a farm team slot because you didn't get a scholarship to play NCAA ball?

Isn't a "walk-on" position what happens when you don't get recruited?

My understanding is that BM passed on playing college sports because he sought an opportunity to go pro. I understood BM ended up on the 2nd team because he didn't make the A squad he was recruited for. He didn't perform at the expected level and was sent to the basement. Many players I've followed-- mostly pitchers get called up from the practice league to the pros. IMO, BM likely lost his spot or was soon to lose his spot on the roster.

Hey @MassGuy --need you to clarify.