Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #56 *ARREST*

[Goldenseal]

If investigators indeed found blood evidence in the home, why would it have taken a year to arrest him with a charge of 1st degree murder? Wouldn’t that be the most damning piece of evidence against him?

IMO, only if there was enough blood found in the house to allow the conclusion that the loss of that blood was incompatible with life. Thus, I wonder if LE found brain tissue during a later search.

 

[SouthAussie]

The thing, in this case, as I recall, was the way they said it. It wasn't "hold your footage, we will get to you." It was more like "we don't need it, but hold it." There was a very peculiar lack of urgency to it, that I remember posting about, at the time. I believe my camera overwrites relatively quickly, and requires taking it down and putting the storage card in a computer in order to archive. I remember one of the Morphew neighbors was a senior citizens and thinking "if they don't go and get that footage, right now, it will be gone."

Yes, not disagreeing with you. Just that the police can ony be in so many places at once, so they do their best.

 

[Whiteorchids]

Very interesting article from DM

Husband of missing Colorado mom spent the night before her disappearance at cheap Denver hotel | Daily Mail Online

Jeff Puckett, 49, of Salida, Colorado, said he was ordered to Denver by Barry that morning but didn’t see him because he had already left ‘due to a family emergency’.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Puckett told DailyMail.com: ‘I got there Sunday night and the room smelled like chlorine real bad.

‘It was his room and he’d taken a shower – his towels were all over the floor.’

A manager at the $92-a-night property confirmed to DailyMail.com that they do not use chlorine to clean guest rooms and have handed security footage from the weekend of May 9 Jeff Puckett, 49, of Salida, Colorado, said he was ordered to Denver by Barry that morning but didn’t see him because he had already left ‘due to a family emergency’.

Speaking in an exclusive interview, Puckett told DailyMail.com: ‘I got there Sunday night and the room smelled like chlorine real bad.

‘It was his room and he’d taken a shower – his towels were all over the floor.’

A manager at the $92-a-night property confirmed to DailyMail.com that they do not use chlorine to clean guest rooms and have handed security footage from the weekend of May 9 to police.

Puckett also said he discovered a pile of mail in the room – including a letter about property insurance – and later turned it over to the FBI.

He said: ‘I found some mail in the hotel room. His mail was in there and I gave it to the FBI. I thought it was kind of odd to have it there.

‘Some of it was from an insurance company, like insuring your property, that kind of thing.’

DailyMail.com can also reveal Barry was granted guardianship of Suzanne in order to sell a property in their native Indiana on Tuesday after a 30-minute Zoom hearing.

 

[TKG]

I never doubted his guilt and hope that he will be held accountable. It is interesting that both financial issues and a possible red haired girlfriend may have been factors. My huge concern is that he is charged with first degree murder. First degree even with a body is a huge burden to prove, never mind without. I hope he is found guilty but I would feel a lot better if it was a second degree charge, or if LE have the indisputable smoking gun that they are keeping under wraps. Congrats to the new DA, Lauren Shafer and the Sheriff office on his arrest,

Interesting to me that no body murder case result in convictions more than those with. 86% conviction rate for no body cases versus 70% with. I wouldn't want those odds in his seat....



No Corpse? No Problem. Notable Murder Convictions Without a Body

 

[DizzyB]

The thing, in this case, as I recall, was the way they said it. It wasn't "hold your footage, we will get to you." It was more like "we don't need it, but hold it." There was a very peculiar lack of urgency to it, that I remember posting about, at the time. I believe my camera overwrites relatively quickly, and requires taking it down and putting the storage card in a computer in order to archive. I remember one of the Morphew neighbors was a senior citizens and thinking "if they don't go and get that footage, right now, it will be gone."

Yup, we had discussed systems overwriting the CCTV when LE first made the request in this case. If I remember correctly, they also indicated that they would prefer individuals not contact LE with their footage. That’s a lot for the average person to be trusted with. I get that techies know how to save the files, but most people would probably figure that somebody would be knocking on their door if it was really needed. Baby blue bike helmet Barry at the Poncha Market was written over and lost forever. Hopefully none of this stuff was necessary for the case.

 

[Cindizzi]

The most interesting thing about LE asking residents ( on May 17 by sending out a reverse 911 call ) to preserve camera footage was the dates they wanted. May 8 through May 12.

May 17 Search Press Release - Chaffee County Sheriff


As the investigation into the Suzanne Morphew’s missing person case moves forward, Chaffee County residents are being asked to preserve any and all video footage from devices such as Ring doorbells, security cameras, game cameras, etc., from May 8th thru May 12th.

Citizens are only being asked to preserve the video at this time. Please do not send these videos to the sheriff’s office or call the sheriff’s office. As search areas are identified, investigators will contact residents in those locations to collect any camera footage within that May 8-12 window.

 

[Whiteorchids]

Here’s the timeline of Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance:

SUZANNE MORHPEW: Timeline: What we know about the disappearance of Suzanne Morphew | FOX31 Denver

• May 10, 2020: Suzanne Morphew disappeared
  • At 5:46 p.m. on Mother’s Day, the Chaffee County Communications Center received a report of a missing woman in the area on County Road 225 and West Highway 50.
• May 11, 2020: Search efforts continue with drones and scent-tracking dogs
• May 14, 2020: Family of Suzanne Morphew offers $200,000 reward
  • Barry Morphew put out a reward of $100,000 and a family friend matched the amount, totaling $200k for her safe return.
• May 15, 2020: Personal items of Suzanne Morphew’s were found
• May 17, 2020: Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office Dive Rescue Team searched water sites
• May 17, 2020: Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office asks residents to preserve video footage from May 8 – May 12
• May 17, 2020: Barry Morphew asks for safe return of Suzanne Morphewin video
• May 19, 2020: Suzanne Morphew’s home is cordoned off as authorities search area around house
• May 22, 2020: Residential property on the east side of Salida is searched
• July 24, 2020: Neighbors want answers from police on search efforts for Suzanne Morphew
• August 11, 2020: Barry Morphew speaks for the first time in 3 monthsregarding Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance
• August 30, 2020: Brother of Suzanne Morphew asks for volunteers to help search for Suzanne
• September 2, 2020: Co-workers of Barry Morphew claimed he spent the night before Suzanne Morphew vanished at a budget hotel in Denver and left the room reeking of chlorine
• September 3, 2020: “Profiling Evil” team enlists volunteers in search for Suzanne Morphew
• September 3, 2020: Barry Morphew responds to co-workers’ claims about his connection to his wife’s disappearance
• September 10, 2020: Search continues for Suzanne Morphew despite silence from Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office
• September 24, 2020: Hundreds join Suzanne Morphew’s brother in search for Suzanne
• September 28, 2020: Evidence is found near Suzanne Morphew’s homerelated to her disappearance
• October 6, 2020: Suzanne Morphew’s home is put up for sale
• October 15, 2020: Dr. Oz speaks to Nancy Grace about disappearance of Suzanne Morphew
• October 29, 2020: Private dive team arrives in Colorado to search for Suzanne Morphew
• November 10, 2020: Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office writes note of thanks to the community and says, “To preserve the integrity of this investigation, we cannot reveal all we have learned nor all that we are doing,” as it relates to the investigation into the disappearance of Suzanne Morphew
• March 4, 2021: Home of Suzanne Morphew is sold
• May 5, 2021: Barry Morphew is arrested

 

[MrX]

Yes, not disagreeing with you. Just that the police can ony be in so many places at once, so they do their best.

I know - it just rang a bell, from the beginning. There was something else, with cameras - I think it was that most of the Colorado highway cameras either don't, or didn't store data. It would be nice if it was like British crime shows where they seem to have endless amounts of CCTV footage!

 

[MsBetsy]

Chris just mentioned it and said no more. So, I guess that time will tell if that money was well spent.

JMO.

Well, CC is the only employee who was part of the wall job who refused to be interviewed so that could have something to do with it.

 

[Truecolors]

I cannot figure out the evidence they would have. Their house was searched two times awhile back, no arrest, vehicles checked out, no arrest, his alibi for MD checked out, no arrest. By now phones have long been checked out, no arrest. I don't know about Suzanne's phone (not found??) What would they have? Lots of hearsay and gossip but that is not proof.

There were something like 135 search warrants issued. They’ve certainly been tight lipped about what they found, but it seems likely that the evidence they found in early warrants supported the issuance of later warrants.

 

[waldojabba]

It occurred to me that if they found even a small amount of brain tissue (perhaps on the 2nd warrant, in a place they had overlooked the first time), they would have a much better case. Some blood may not mean that a person can be presumed dead, but some brain tissue? Yeah, probably dead.

Def not a pleasant thought but I am 100% with you on this - great point !I

 

[Tiff23fr]

Mod Question:
Can someone post a link and apx time stamp for the argument being referred to?

 

[Whiteorchids]

Did the Morphew family have any pets? If I had that property I would want a couple of dogs.

 

[nyvictoria]

We had a case here in Australia - Novy Chardon has never been found. But her husband John was convicted of murder. He had rented a carpet cleaning machine the day after Novy went missing. And the house smelled of bleach. No blood evidence.

They searched and searched for Novy ... everywhere. Even dug up a car that had been buried by a (shady) person the husband knew. Still nothing.

But they got the husband for murder regardless, primarily due to his house cleaning actions and the fact that Novy had given him a notice of divorce on the night she went missing.

I’m hopeful this one will be convicted, as well.

 

[Murphy1950]

Agree! How would Chris know what BM said in a police interview?

Well for one thing, information was clearly and carefully shared with the family, as Andy verifies here. I can see them sharing that there was an argument with Andy and the family, especially considering Melinda’s last contact with Suzanne, which we know she shared with the investigators. I think it’s key here that they asked Andy, why do you believe Barry??? Andy had his personal doubts about some things, but had taken Barry at his word, only to learn he was lying.

No doubt Andy shared with P/E everything he knew…Andy sought them out.

The time I first saw this I had no idea as to the personalities of Chris and Mike. Listen to how carefully Chris crafts his questions so as not to compromise anything Andy has shared with them that they shouldn’t share with the public at the time of the interview. My guess is with the arrest, they can now all relax. Maybe why we haven’t heard from Andy, he’s keeping himself in check. He doesn’t want to give anything away that could compromise the case.

Scroll to the 21 minute mark

 

[Goldenseal]

I'm not Barry; however, with interest rates so low, I would have gotten a mortgage and invested most of that money. I would not have tied up all my money into real estate. Plus, the interest could be used as a tax deduction.

JMO.

That puzzled me, too. Why tie up all your money in mortgage(s) at all? Financially savvy people almost never do that. We could argue that neither person was financially savvy (SM should have taken her half million inheritance, stuck it in a savings account with only her name on it, and changed her will to leave it to the girls), but when you consider BM's early adulthood where it looks like he hoodwinked an elderly man out of his house, you can imagine that BM wanted all SM's money stashed in something so he could access the cash whenever he wanted. And look at that -- it's exactly what he did. I'm sure this made more than a few cops pretty disgusted with his scheming ways. MOO.

 

[Janeumayer]

Yes, I did catch that and am surprised it isn’t being talked about because it is new information not disclosed before. CM said it was part of the statement BM gave to LE. He said it was a big argument they got into Friday night.

MOO - I wonder if it wasn’t after that argument that Suzannne sent her sister the lengthy text wanting to talk with her about things and mentioning she was scared.

It also gives insight into Barry’s actions on Saturday based on MG’s observations.

Maybe that’s the “incident”.

 

[DizzyB]

Did the Morphew family have any pets? If I had that property I would want a couple of dogs.

I had seen some mention of a cat but nothing about a dog.

 

[TKG]

As i'm looking for the comment made by PE, I came across this gem. BTW, I can't engage CC on their videos and I cannot get transcripts. It makes this challenging.. I'm still looking!
BIBM:
‘That has nothing to do with Suzanne missing’; Barry Morphew responds to explosive claims regarding disappearance of wife | FOX31 Denver
"The hotel isn’t the only location where the presence of a strong smell has been mentioned.

Suzanne’s older brother, Andrew Moorman, brought up something he’d heard, following a search of the Morphew family home.

“From what I understood secondhand, they said there was an overwhelming smell of bleach in the home,” he said.

That information had apparently been relayed to him by initial investigators.

“I’ve heard the FBI lie and I know that they can legally do that in their investigations,” Barry said. “But it just pains me to know that they are doing this to me and my family.”

Moorman said CBI agents brought up other concerns as well.

“They did ask us, ‘why can’t we find any coolers at the house?’ And I said, ‘well I have no idea. I don’t know how many they had to begin with,” he said. “But I assume, as a hunter and a guy that maybe camps, he would have a few, and they couldn’t find a single one.”

 

[Truecolors]

With his arrest, my mind goes right back to the day Suzanne was discovered missing. The daughter called the neighbor, and the neighbor called the police. He left town, knowing his daughters would be traveling home to discover her missing. For this reason alone, IMO, he’ll never confess. MOO