Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *Case dismissed w/o prejudice* #108

[Charlot123]

So that would mean that he knew how to disable that system on his truck and then reinstate it? To me, that would imply planning, prior research, not a crime of passion after a fight. Who disables tracking on their vehicles unless they’re doing something like this? How was that alone not enough to nail him while they had him in jail? Just wondering why the case was dismissed.

JMO - without a body, and with rather new (at that time) information about SM having a relationship, and her discussing with JL the possibility of moving elsewhere, and her planning to divorce BM - one or two jurors who would ask, wait a moment, maybe she did it? - would have been enough for BM to walk free. Add to it that BM has a very aggressive, strong lawyer. Add the fact how he looked in the eyes of acquaintances and neighbors. A good-looking, self-made, rich white man with a business, Christian, volunteering in the community, clean, no issues with substances, good provider, etc, etc. The case was obvious for us; it was a classic "the lady doth protest too much" situation, but for someone unaware of the details, BM could have looked credible.

And mainly, we have stories of psychogenic fugue, this one is better-known...

42 years after disappearance, N.Y. woman found alive in Massachusetts

Flora Stevens was using the last name Harris when detectives tracked her down this week at a residence near Boston

www.cbsnews.com

So I think, they dismissed it without prejudice specifically because for some people, BM looked too model a citizen to just convict for life. But, I sincerely hope, that the tides have changed.

Again, good luck to Colorado LE.

 

[al66pine]

On Hwy. 17, turn signs for Saguache County Landfill?
Edited to add relevant post by
________________
@jaeljoh :
" It appears she was "buried" pretty close to Saguache County Landfill signs. That seems well thought out. These signs (one on each side of hwy 17) are between mile marker 112 and 113. Sorry if this was already mentioned. MOO"
__________________

@jaeljoh Thx for your post.
Someone may give better description or directions than mine below.
Even on linked map w details, not easy to see the road names or numbers.

On Hwy. 17, where are turn signs for landfill?
For drivers going either north or south on Hwy 17 making a run to the landfill, a logical place to turn is west onto County Road AA.
Then if going to the landfill itself, must turn north onto County Road 55, then east into the landfill.

This map, at Sagauche County website, showing landfill location & town of Moffat may (may not?) be helpful.

Landfill - Google My Maps

Landfill

www.google.com

 

[oldlady4am]

Why can’t the unknown dna found in her car be the killer’s?

 

[Seattle1]

So, are we agreed it was mile marker 103 and not 113? Do we have a source? Is there a source for that secondary road being the one she was found next to (nothing changes in my previous post - at night, CO, on the flats, you can see headlights for miles).

KRDO is the source for the later MMP 103. (I recall the earlier post referencing markers 112 and 113 but OP provided no link).

Just south of Moffat, tattered crime scene tape was found road near mile marker 103 on Highway 17 - roughly 50 minutes south of her Salida home.

What we know about a rural Colorado crime scene near where Suzanne Morphew was found

13 Investigates has confirmed the location where state agents found the remains of missing Chaffee County woman Suzanne Morphew.

krdo.com

 

[10ofRods]

True, the tissue probably returned to nature, but isn't a port silicone?

If they have teeth, they likely also have tooth pulp, since that can last a long time.

He'd be a real dummy to leave the port, but you know what? He was likely confused and a bit out of his mind at that point in time.

Tooth pulp is great for IDing a body - not so great for finding compounds/toxins that might have been in the body at the time of death.

 

[10ofRods]

Why can’t the unknown dna found in her car be the killer’s?

Because it matched to incarcerated people who weren't in the region?

Because it was only a partial match and would implicate hundreds of people? It was run through CODIS - where it got two hits. If it was run through a big database, it would have had many more.

Perhaps mine. Perhaps yours.

Why WOULD DNA on the owners' manual be the killer's? How odd that a person who had touched the owner's manual and was otherwise a stranger would (without leaving any more DNA) come on Mother's Day and kill Suzanne Morphew? How would that technician even find her?

Unknown DNA that's a partial match potentially implicates hundreds or thousands of people. It was not an exact match to anyone in CODIS.

 

[10ofRods]

I’m going with Highway 17 just North of Moffat.
JMO

She was found south of Moffat, is my understanding. Someone please correct, because all day, I'm reading that she was found SOUTH of Moffat.

Is this wrong?

 

[Seattle1]

On Hwy. 17, turn signs for Saguache County Landfill?
Edited to add relevant post by
________________
@jaeljoh :
" It appears she was "buried" pretty close to Saguache County Landfill signs. That seems well thought out. These signs (one on each side of hwy 17) are between mile marker 112 and 113. Sorry if this was already mentioned. MOO"
__________________

@jaeljoh Thx for your post.
Someone may give better description or directions than mine below.
Even on linked map w details, not easy to see the road names or numbers.

On Hwy. 17, where are turn signs for landfill?
For drivers going either north or south on Hwy 17 making a run to the landfill, a logical place to turn is west onto County Road AA.
Then if going to the landfill itself, must turn north onto County Road 55, then east into the landfill.

This map, at Sagauche County website, showing landfill location & town of Moffat may (may not?) be helpful.

Landfill - Google My Maps

Landfill

www.google.com

Huh? Is this post for SM or for Edna's case? To my knowledge, the only party with connections to Center, Co and Crestone, CO is Edna so I'm not understanding OP's map referenced in the post.

 

[Cindizzi]

https://x.com/laurenscharftv/status/1707493567420092718?s=61&t=Vp-AZ81ShrhzLNqqCFHAgA

 

[Teche]

As I was reading I said, I bet this is costing Barry a pretty penny. And for that, I am not mad.

I hope she writes a statement daily until he is penniless.

 

[Charlot123]

Why can’t the unknown dna found in her car be the killer’s?

Because we have tons of random DNA in our houses and cars. It either has to be DNA from a very specific act, or this DNA in her car has to be everywhere else - on her bike, her helmet, in her house, touch DNA at least on her body. A good example: Sho-Sho probably has DNA in SM's house, she was cleaning there, right? - it doesn't make her the killer. And if we are suspecting that it is the killer, then there should be their phones traveling together, or something else.

Now, of course BM will be hinting at the dealers, only for a dealer it makes zero sense to kill a client. Especially a client with money from a good neighborhood. And BM thinks marijuana is a drug, but it is legal in Colorado. Not that it is not addictive, but so is coffee and nicotine, yet no one kills for them.

 

[skystarr]

Still thinking that he had help that night. He might of had time - but he was a mess. Whoever buried her did it in haste. Shallow grave. Not far off the main roads. Not far from Maysville. My gut has continually told me from Day 1 - that he had help that night !!!

 

[otto]

thank you Otto.
Odometer is about 12 kms or miles out, as in short so was trying to figure if there was a shorter route through the mountains that was suitable for a 4wheeler but not so much for a car...

I'm curious about that too, but I'm still reading the morphew document. I'm curious whether they owned an ATV and what he used for hunting off-road.

 

[10ofRods]

Understood about the absence of traffic but why take that risk? What if a local saw a car where one was never parked and pulled over to check it out? Many have said it’s difficult to dig there, too… it isn’t sand. Just seems to me like a wooded hilly area or an old mine would be a better bet but maybe he panicked and that’s the best he could do. It’ll be interesting to learn where exactly she was found for sure.

He took MANY risks. An extraordinary number. Like most criminally minded people, he knew that misleading LE was best (get out of your own jurisdiction, go in one direction, show up prominently in the opposite direction).

It's difficult to dig in many parts of CO. I would have thought he'd dump her in a ravine (but not near his house - because carrion birds).

He didn't care if he could dig very deeply, which is interesting to me. I think he probably planned some other place/method of body disposal, but he was running short of time and he had feelings. I do believe he had feelings. He had just killed his wife, mother of his children.

He may have thought he was going to deposit her in the land fill (really dumb idea) but had a moment of grief and desperation. Killers are not non-human. They are part of our species and Barry Morphew, to my knowledge, had never killed a human before - much less his wife. His cancer patient, beautiful wife.

It's difficult to dig in many parts of Colorado. Or California. That doesn't stop people from murdering and attempting to bury someone. What I find notable is that everyone who said he'd gone and used his Bobcat to dig a hole for her...were wrong. They were wrong.

Wooded hilly areas were too close to his home. And there are WAY more predators in that area (non-humans). Buzzards would have formed above her. Maybe initially Barry thought that would work, but when faced with the actual situation, he realized that remote, plain, near a road worked better for his purposes. And it did. He was right.

The last thing he needed was an actual mountain lion dragging her body into plain sight of LE. Because then, the forensics of her liver and bone marrow would have revealed much more, IMO.

 

[Kemug]

Still thinking that he had help that night. He might of had time - but he was a mess. Whoever buried her did it in haste. Shallow grave. Not far off the main roads. Not far from Maysville. My gut has continually told me from Day 1 - that he had help that night !!!

Surely even Barry isn't that stupid?

 

[acutename]

Wouldn't bank on it, she requested that Barry gave her a divorce and civility - didn't get either of those.

I do hope Suzanne's wishes in this matter are honoured however. She deserves to be laid to rest in the place of her choosing where her friends and siblings can visit. Somewhere beautiful and peaceful.


Moo

If he wants to be viewed as devoted, religious, etc, doesn't he have to provide a nice ceremony and burial?

 

[osu]

Here’s several 2023 Google Earth street and birds eye views of Colorado Highway 17 at mile marker 103.

*Mile post 103 on Highway 17 is located very near to the intersection of County Road R and Highway 17.

*Google Earth: “CO Highway 17, Mile Marker 103, County Road R, Moffat, Colorado.”

 

[bestill]

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Conversation​

https://twitter.com/LaurenScharfTV
@LaurenScharfTV
#BarryMorphew phone went into airplane mode from 2:47 p.m. until 10:17 p.m. on May 9. The phone appears to be at the Morphew home from 10:17 p.m. until 3:25 a.m. the next day.


2:35 PM · Aug 23, 2021

Who puts their phone into airplane mode unless they are flying. I bet BM never did this unless he was traveling by air.

 

[katydid23]

Those are really good questions. It looks to me like the telemetry on the 2006-7 Range Rovers can be disabled. One can simply remove the battery (not sure if it's so simple on Barry's big new truck). However, I find it hard to believe that Barry could learn how to do that without...google searches.

I wonder if he had a burner phone?

 

[otto]

Not yet up to speed with the discussion ... Barry explained his erratic phone movement in the house, near the time of last proof of life, as shooting squirrels inside his house. He claims it's a common past-time because they once got into his furnace and it was expensive.

Much later, he provided a .22 caliber altered rifle with a new scope to police. It's the gun he used in May to shoot squirrels. I hope enough of Suzanne's body can be found to determine cause of death. I'm wondering whether he shot her with a tranquilizer dart (found in the bedsheets), carried her to where she was found, shot her with a .22, went home, stripped his daughters bedding (where the tranquilizer dart may have originated), did laundry, did not have time to make the bed before police arrived.

page 75

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/21065906/morphew-redacted-affidavit-1.pdf