Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #59 *ARREST*

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  • #761
RSBM
You’re correct. The trash hunt was on Tuesday and the personal item, widely suspected to be the bike helmet, was found on Thursday off Hwy 50, just west of 225.

Is it possible that BM had originally dumped her helmet in the trash and then retrieved it to plant it where it was later found?
 
  • #762
RSBM
You’re correct. The trash hunt was on Tuesday and the personal item, widely suspected to be the bike helmet, was found on Thursday off Hwy 50, just west of 225.
Thanks, @OldCop. I also think it's very likely that the helmet was discovered -- hence BM's cryptic note limited to describing SM's bike helmet.
 
  • #763
I think he may have been doing something as simple as looking for store receipts from a certain time period where he needed an alibi.

While we all know something about the weekend timeline, there's also Monday and Barry's actions that day - he may still have been disposing of evidence and looking for red herrings.

That's just a wild guess - I think someone else here came up with the idea months back, and it stuck in my head. Maybe even wanted to stick a receipt in Suzanne's car (the search around the property had just begun) or near her car, to imply that she had driven it on Sunday.

The only reason Barry would be looking in a dumpster is that he planted something ther. It may well be that he planted something...then, because his timelines were out of sorts .....he reconsidered...and decided that whatever he put there would have been incriminating instead of supporting his story. I think in haste...he put something in there and later decided...that wouldn't fly...and wanted to retrieve it.
 
  • #764
By overspending and getting into debt, he was using her inheritance in advance.
My theory and all MOO is: she liked living at Puna Path and her life in Salida.
He was and had always been a thief, he was in charge of of everything including spending and he spent all their money.
He was not making enough to cover lifestyle, and then that left only the equity in the house.
When she resisted the indignity of using her parents gift left to her and then to her girls, in order to cover lifestyle expenses, he did what thwarted thieves do, step up to robbery and murder.

I'm not sure that BM was always a thief. He had a hometown Hero reputation. Being a thief would ruin his family's good name within the community to which his father would likely disown him.

It seems BM developed a good work ethic as a youngster by earning his own spending money by chopping wood and selling skins, as much as many of us detest the very thought of laying a filet knife to a small animal. Daniel Boone did it. And, in my family, we use a filet knife after we go floundering, by example. Hard to beat the flavor from dining on fresh flounder, jmho. The difference may be found in that Barry didn't eat the meat from raccoons.

Something changed in Barry, although I'm not sure when exactly. Was it after leaving O Canada or during college years at Purdue or when his father passed away and was no longer able to keep BM toeing the line? After all of years of killing animals, his heart grew cold as ice. BM grew weary of conforming to standards as an adult. Not sure what it was, maybe a combination of things, but something along the way made him into a psychopath. JMHOO
.
 
  • #765
Is it possible that BM had originally dumped her helmet in the trash and then retrieved it to plant it where it was later found?


I'm thinking he went there to take something from the trash rather than leave it. Wasn't Saturday the day he had to leave work early to "make the wife happy"? And wasn't there an unsubstantiated rumor that he and Suzanne went for a sandwich on Saturday? Maybe he was trying to find a receipt with a timestamp from sometime that afternoon that would show a sandwich or two on the receipt so he could "prove" that indeed he did go home and they went on a bike ride and got a sandwich?
 
  • #766
Here’s my thoughts on the trash dive at the Poncha Market.

-BM assumed the market was closed and that no one would observe him going through the trash.

-AM and some of BM’s IN friends were in town by Tuesday night. Why did BM sneak off by himself? I have heard of no other business or trash can that BM visited on Tuesday night.

-I don’t think he was stashing something that he wanted found as a red herring like the bike or the helmet because why would you assume someone would dig through a trash can and find it?

-I don’t think he was trying to hide something like a receipt because it would take 2 minutes to burn it or tear it into a million little pieces.

-I think he was looking for a receipt he accidentally discarded there. MG said he was shopping alone in Salida on Saturday afternoon. The Salida Stove and Spa sells pool chemicals like chlorine and maybe bleach. What if he bought a large quantity and then stopped at the Poncha Market for gas or a sandwich and accidentally tossed the receipt for the chlorine or bleach? The Poncha Market is 2 minutes from Salida Stove and Spa. BM knows by Tuesday that LE is not buying his story. I think he is going over all his steps from the time he killed SM. He may even have overheard LE talking about searching dumpsters nearby.

-Did BM go back even later that evening to search that trash can? Did he find what he was looking for?

-As an aside, BM must also pass by the Poncha Market going to and from the Salida dig site.

MOO
Totally agree!
 
  • #767
I'm thinking he went there to take something from the trash rather than leave it. Wasn't Saturday the day he had to leave work early to "make the wife happy"? And wasn't there an unsubstantiated rumor that he and Suzanne went for a sandwich on Saturday? Maybe he was trying to find a receipt with a timestamp from sometime that afternoon that would show a sandwich or two on the receipt so he could "prove" that indeed he did go home and they went on a bike ride and got a sandwich?

Wow, never thought of that!! Good speculation.
 
  • #768
The simplest explanation (to me) is that BM was staging a public 'search' by looking through the trash.

Because what does a person who abducts another person do? They sometimes throw things in a dumpster.

The police had already 'ruined' the integrity of the 'abduction' scene. So it was important that BM check things like the trash, because the police wouldn't do that.

If this is discussed in court, I feel that his attorneys will present a similar explanation to this, for that incident. Anything BM did was part of him looking for his wife, or clues about what happened to her.
 
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  • #769
I’ve always believed BM looking in the trash (reportedly) was busy work. If he was innocent- it was mindless & desperate searching. If he was guilty- he was looking busy. I don’t think he was planting or recovering evidence in that moment. IMO
 
  • #770
I'm not sure that BM was always a thief. He had a hometown Hero reputation. Being a thief would ruin his family's good name within the community to which his father would likely disown him.

It seems BM developed a good work ethic as a youngster by earning his own spending money by chopping wood and selling skins, as much as many of us detest the very thought of laying a filet knife to a small animal. Daniel Boone did it. And, in my family, we use a filet knife after we go floundering, by example. Hard to beat the flavor from dining on fresh flounder, jmho. The difference may be found in that Barry didn't eat the meat from raccoons.

Something changed in Barry, although I'm not sure when exactly. Was it after leaving O Canada or during college years at Purdue or when his father passed away and was no longer able to keep BM toeing the line? After all of years of killing animals, his heart grew cold as ice. BM grew weary of conforming to standards as an adult. Not sure what it was, maybe a combination of things, but something along the way made him into a psychopath. JMHOO
.
I agree with what you have said. I also think the seeds of self serving thievery of things that do not belong to him was there all along though.
Its not because he was a hunter or because he can dress game, it's more about why with all the hunting he did as a teen, he skinned his pet racoon when it died.
Though super practical I guess, still MOO most would leave a pets skin on it and bury it with a few well wishes.
 
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  • #771
<RSBM>
Something changed in Barry, although I'm not sure when exactly. Was it after leaving O Canada or during college years at Purdue or when his father passed away and was no longer able to keep BM toeing the line? After all of years of killing animals, his heart grew cold as ice. BM grew weary of conforming to standards as an adult. Not sure what it was, maybe a combination of things, but something along the way made him into a psychopath. JMHOO
.

I think it is possible that BM's father recognised that BM had some disturbing traits, right from when he was a young child. Hence he was really tough on BM. Then when his father died there was no-one to keep BM from his damaging, narcissistic behaviour.

I agree with others that skinning your pet is a very weird thing to do. That is a lot of weirdness for a youngster. And requires a fair degree of detachment from any feelings that most have for their pet. imo
 
  • #772
I think it is possible that BM's father recognised that BM had some disturbing traits, right from when he was a young child. Hence he was really tough on BM. Then when his father died there was no-one to keep BM from his damaging, narcissistic behaviour.

I agree with others that skinning your pet is a very weird thing to do. That is a lot of weirdness for a youngster. And requires a fair degree of detachment from any feelings that most have for their pet. imo
Hmmm. Yes, seeing an athletically gifted boy with a bent for some mean stuff, I could see a Dad being super hard on the boy trying to keep him busy, achieving and engaged till he grew out of it.
 
  • #773
Do we know what year BM's father died?
 
  • #774
  • #775
RSBM
You’re correct. The trash hunt was on Tuesday and the personal item, widely suspected to be the bike helmet, was found on Thursday off Hwy 50, just west of 225.
Pretty big error to miss a turquoise bike helmet.
MOO possibly found right across from and up the hill 50ft from the entrance to 225.
 
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  • #776
I believe you're referring to this interview with the Poncha Market manager Tiffany, and CM. At 1:09:35 CM asks TB "does he come into the store anytime between the first time you saw him and the last one?" She responds and says "not that I've ever seen".

The question is weird (he also calls her Tina at the end of the interview), but the implication is the day BM left the stupid trash can receipt note, was the first time she ever saw him, and that she's never seen him since. Earlier in the interview she did say he ID'd himself to the kid that let him him, so, that sort of explains that.


I don’t think Poncha Market manager was being honest with CM. He’s an “outsider”. MOO and my feeling she wasn’t being truthful about not knowing BM. My 2cents
 
  • #777
  • #778
I don’t think Poncha Market manager was being honest with CM. He’s an “outsider”. MOO and my feeling she wasn’t being truthful about not knowing BM. My 2cents
Why?
If BM got coffee at Loaf n' jug or Starbucks he might rarely go to Poncha Market.
 
  • #779
I think he may have been doing something as simple as looking for store receipts from a certain time period where he needed an alibi.

While we all know something about the weekend timeline, there's also Monday and Barry's actions that day - he may still have been disposing of evidence and looking for red herrings.

That's just a wild guess - I think someone else here came up with the idea months back, and it stuck in my head. Maybe even wanted to stick a receipt in Suzanne's car (the search around the property had just begun) or near her car, to imply that she had driven it on Sunday.

At any rate, it was bizarre.
That makes total sense. He needed one to shore up a specific timeframe for an alibi maybe? Moo
 
  • #780
I will agree the motivation was financial, but I think it had been brewing for some time and had reached critical mass. I feel the impending sale of the IN property was going to reveal a major financial shortfall, perhaps a large Line of Credit (maxed out) secured against the property that needed to be satisfied upon sale that Suzanne was unaware of. Add to that, Barry’s willingness to defraud the government by applying for a loan he was not entitled to, likely gave Suzanne concern if she found out or perhaps she would also be implicated in the fraud as an “officer” of the business LLC. MM made a remark about “living within one’s means.” Perhaps Suzanne had come to terms with the fact that BM had been putting on a show and had them living BEYOND what they could truly afford all the while working day and night, or so he said. We also have no idea what kind of insurance coverage they had for her cancer treatments. Add to that a daughter in college, living away from home, a business that may not have taken off in CO, fancy house, fancy cars, fancy clothes, fancy vacations. Fancy that! Just a whole lot of money being spent with only one income. According to MM, the relationship had been in decline for a few years. Financial stress will do that especially if one partner is unwilling to face up to the impending disaster.

Those “happy” pics all over social media that made their way into MSM were a few years old. That alone speaks volumes. The AA will too. I suspect SM was done with the marriage and so was BM only he wasn’t willing to give up what he could still take from Suzanne, her money, and to do that he decided he needed to take her life. Sick. The love of money, is the root of all evil. Barry loves money, and was willing to murder to get it.

All MOO.
Good post, and it gave me a new thought/possibility/motive to act when he did. Maybe the pending sale/transaction of their Indiana home, which was quickly approaching meant that Suzanne then would have funds from the sale that she may have been anticipating/waiting on so that she could then make a life of her own, and if this was the case, I feel it's highly likely BM knew this by either him and Suzanne discussing it and/or something like this was mentioned/referenced in Suzanne's text to her sister Friday, which all of this just now gave me another thought - possibly BM had purposely been delaying the finality of that actual transaction as he knew and/or suspected Suzanne was relying on that money so she could move on without him. It is JMO, but BM is more likely than not a very controlling person, whether it be good times or bad times as that's his nature, so Suzanne may have had little or no access to any funds, if there were even any funds available. Also, this is JMO and I may very well be wrong about this, but as many of us have said, the motive will prove to be money and he (BM) knew he was running out of time to carry out his plans of him removing Suzanne from the picture. And as an added note, I am 110% positive that prior to Suzanne's demise, he saw/read/knew what the text message(s) between Suzanne and her sister on Friday said. JMO
 
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