Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #15

[PaulaDC]

BBM:

A Question:
Was this most change in the *** beneficiary made after MM gave her consent on the guardianship request?

If so, I find that vaguely disquieting.

The timing and sequencing of these events may be completely unrelated.
Then again, they may not.

I find it troubling.

JMO.

Isn't that money deposited regularly into a bank account so it can be immediately used by family? If so, that money is possibly long gone. moo

 

[PaulaDC]

The infamous double post was dbm.

 

[happyday]

I’m pretty sure this body was the one found with the gun case, which was only mentioned in the first article the other day.

eta. I meant to quote Lilypad13 & branmuffin. Forgot to put them in!

 

[Madeleine74]

The "give me money" type sites are often filled with stories worded in the best way possible so kind-hearted folks open their wallets and donate generously. It's rare that the donators spend time questioning if the campaign owner or target individual(s) to receive the money actually need that money or if they actually have substantial resources of their own.

In this case people are naturally drawn to a missing woman, which is an intriguing mystery, and the victim (SM) is also relatable -- the nice lady next door type. That plays well on the "give me money" sites, since people very much want to help.

Caveat Emptor is a good motto for a reason.

 

[OldCop]

I posted this yesterday but IMO it's worth a repost and your point is well taken - they had so much we did not know about fairly early on and CBI is involved here as well:
I thought I would do a search on tips for other CO cases - still looking btw - but ran across this article - and it really helps me to look at this investigation with "fresh eyes" - it's quite fascinating IMO how things were unfolding and being interpreted by LE in the early days of Kelseys case. very interesting and I think we can speculate what's being done for Suzanne at this point.
JMO
'We never wanted to let her down': Meet the investigators who helped solve Kelsey Berreth's murder

Great read @oviedo. The best thing that SM’s case has going for it is the sad fact that these CO investigators have so much experience in mysterious missing persons’ cases. Like every profession, training and experience make for a more skilled worker. Frazee , Watts, Stauch....... quite a bit of experience to fall back on.

 

[gitana1]

I don’t know if the following post will help my fellow Websleuths members with regards to how a major investigation is run . I have tentatively mentioned this in a previous post but I have had quite a few questions privately in response so I decided to tidy up and expand my previous post ...
Here goes ....

With any major enquiry wether that be a murder / Homicide or a missing person , a dedicated team of detectives is set up with a SIO ( senior investigative officer) as the lead .
Certainly in the UK, a policy book is commenced and everything that you know , everything that subsequently happens, every decision taken and every action followed up, is written into the policy book . Every decision made by the SIO and the justification behind such a decision, has to be written into the policy book .
I was responsible for leading a number of murder investigations and Missing persons investigations and I would lead teams of detectives and forensic experts etc
A twice daily briefing would be held where everyone has an input as to what has happened that day , any evidence found , any witnesses spoken to etc and a summary of the day’s investigation would be written up by the SIO.
Each investigation has a strategy and that strategy is followed from the Murder and Major Crime investigations Manual .
So at the start of the investigation, there will be various strategies drawn up to encompass all of the different strands of the Investigation.
They are :
1.Victim - what do we know ?
2. Suspect - Do we have any?
3. Circumstances of last seen
4. Intelligence - What do we know ? What can we find out?
5. Cell phone analysis
6. Forensics - what do we have ? How are they to be prioritised? Submissions to laboratory and cost?
DNA evidence
Fingerprints
7. Search parameters and recovery of evidence to include continuity of retrieval
8. CCtv - What’s available ? How do we prioritise it?
9. Cell Phones - Victims, Suspect’s, Family etc
10. Family History
11. Actions - those raised that need investigation and those that are considered but not deemed to take the investigation further ( but it still all needs recording )
12. Forensic mapping
13. Witnesses
14. Interviews - suspect/s?
15. Exhibits/Property Officer - to record everything brought into the enquiry and the continuity of that evidence
16. File of evidence - Who will create the file of evidence for submission to CPS/DA
17. Warrants - allocated officer to swear all warrants
18. Disclosure - Officer allocated to start a disclosure record ( court process )
19. Family liaison officer - Officer allocate to be the go between for the family and SIO
20. Media strategy - controlled release of information to press
I could go on but I think that you get the drift that any investigation of this type is massive and takes time and has to be that way to get it right so that by the time it gets to the Court process, there’s no room for doubt or for weaknesses in the investigation to allow the accused to get off on a technicality or procedural issue .
Then if there is a suspect you need to start thinking of who will do the suspect interview and the downstream monitoring and alibi checks .
And on top of all that, the biggest and most onerous task besides cell phone evidence retrieval, is CCTV ! And that is a biggie ... it takes Detectives hours upon hours to go through and watch CCTV to enable them to ascertain if there is anything of evidential value on each individual recording and that can be CCTV from the street , from a shop, car park, toll booth , buildings, churches , Public CCTV along a route and individual CCTV in peoples driveways or on their mobile phones etc
You start to get the idea of just how much work is involved in a major investigation and that’s before you go to a judge to swear out warrants and arrest the perpetrator. Once an arrest takes place, you then have interviews and downstream monitoring in real time of the interviews and then liaison with the CPS in UK and DA/attorney general I think maybe in the USA? And then putting the whole file of evidence together and ensuring full disclosure to the defence ... it’s massive workloads and it goes on and on ...
Cell phone data is also massive because of pings of location and subsequent searches and data dumps of all cell phones active within a specific MAST area and tracing who those numbers belong to and ascertain what they were doing in the area. And I can tell you that the evidence from one cell phone alone can run into thousands of pages for my detectives to read through and decipher what, If anything, is relevant to the case . So can you imagine when you have numerous people involved in an investigation, wether it to be rule them in or out or as an alibi or a victim, just how onerous this task is? And it is just one small part of the investigation.

Also the CCTV , people ask why now , 1 month later ? Well you don’t know what evidence that LE already have and if they had nothing else then the individual private residence CCTV would have been done immediately but it is a massive task and takes officers hours and hours to sit and watch every piece of CCTV that comes into the enquiry so it’s now easier to say , keep hold of your own individual residential CCTV and if you think that you have something of importance then let us know immediately otherwise we will get round to looking at it when we can because EVERYTHING has to be prioritised.

In the UK we have HOLMES ( home office Major enquires system ) and everything is entered into the system and looked at by three officers working with admin staff and any actions deemed necessary as a result of those 3 officers painstakingly going through every piece of information, item, cell phone number, cctv , search recovery evidence etc and allocating actions ( work ) to officers to compete before they are given another action . And some officers are individually given specific roles for example CCTV, Cell phones, Intelligence, Statement takers , Family liaison .

So this gives you an idea of just what is going on behind the scenes .
And the information released has to be protected and provenanced to ensure accuracy and the SIO doesn’t want information released unless absolutely necessary because the perpetrator may slip up and say something that hasn’t yet been released to the public and that then becomes dynamite to the investigation.
I hope this helps you all to understand the process , procedures and time for any major investigation to bear fruit .

Regarding technology- People do not realise just how much electronic tracking there is in our everyday lives and the footprint that we leave . Let’s take for example the obvious ones like public CCTV and residential / business CCTV and street CCTV , shop and bank and fuel CCTV, road surveillance CCTV to monitor traffic flow and speed camera CCTV etc The list is endless! Then there are tracking devices on the car if there is one , then there is the cell phone and text message/social media footprints alongside Pings
But - there are some footprints that we either don’t think about or are not aware of for example I own a luxury ( ish ) brand of car and I don’t have a key , I have a black plastic fob that I carry around which activates the car but without inserting it anywhere within my car console. Now when my car has a problem and I go to the dealership, this fob is inserted into their computer and it tell you every journey I have made and the status of the car throughout that journey, if the fuels low , if the seatbelt warning is activated, if any warning lights come on , if tyre pressure is low etc
I was gobsmacked just how much information that could be obtained and to be quite honest, I am a law abiding citizen but it scared even me , just how much we are being monitored. Then there is ANPR both mobile and static and lets not forget that it’s not only your cell phone that can be pinged and calls traced but LE can go to any mast and triangulate all mobile cell phones that ping off a particular mast at a given time and they can cross reference the data from this to any of the contacts in your phone and see if there are any patterns . So just from this you can start to see how many avenues are open for LE to look at. And then we have instagram and Facebook and WhatsApp and snapchat and Twitter and email and fit bits and apple watches and you start to get my drift .....
Edited to add: We have family Life 360 so that we can see where our children are and vice versa and my DH decided to turn his location permissions off
BUT although it does not now tell me his location in words, it does show him driving down the various roads and highways when he’s out and about. So another form of surveillance and if somebody was going to commit a heinous crime, they cannot possibly erase all their electronic footprints

Then we have Amazon Alexa and Smart devices ...
The list is endless!


◦

Wow!!

Thank you so much for this. Amazing.

 

[gitana1]

Good stuff!

It's too bad the belief LE is doing nothing or has nothing persists, when the reality is LE isn't disclosing investigation details or evidence they have found. The sentiment "if I don't see it, it must not exist" is a common logical fallacy.

It’s endlessly frustrating. The constant criticism and second guessing and ignorance as to what is involved. @Angleterre gave us a taste of what it entails.

 

[Itsapuzzle]

Random spontaneous ..... can they tell if a rifle has been recently used?

 

[debrat007]

Wow!!

Thank you so much for this. Amazing.

Thank you so much for the time, effort and thought that went into this.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Isn't that money deposited regularly into a bank account so it can be immediately used by family? If so, that money is possibly long gone. moo

I've started a few of these kinds of fund raisers over the years. Several years ago, and never since, for many reasons.

One was for a historically significant trip for high school kids, to a travel destination abroad.
As the funds came in, and as key elements of the trip had to be covered in advance, I used the funds that came into the fundraiser, as needed.
Every dime was documented and recorded, but the public had no idea where that money was really going.
Deposits on many things, chaperone fees, tour guide deposits, reservation fees on lodging, meal plans, etc.
The one thing I noticed on the public page, was that the public had literally no idea how much of that money I'd already withdrawn for the student fees for a wide variety of things.
Even though I wasn't doing anything illegal or morally objectionable, I did feel kind of creepy that the balances on the main page weren't showing that I'd already used the donations that came in. I remember feeling sort of sketchy upping the goal amount, because the initial amount had already been hit, and used - but there was nothing on the public page to show that or what it was used for. I just remember wish I could itemize each transaction so everyone could see where the money was really going, but that option was not available.

All that to say, no matter what the "goal amount" is, literally every dime of the FundMeCash could already have been withdrawn, and the public would never know.
So, even in the most legit of situations, the layout of the page, what the public can actually see, just makes it look stinky.
For that reason alone, I've never used them since.

jmo

 

[TKG]

Great read @oviedo. The best thing that SM’s case has going for it is the sad fact that these CO investigators have so much experience in mysterious missing persons’ cases. Like every profession, training and experience make for a more skilled worker. Frazee , Watts, Stauch....... quite a bit of experience to fall back on.

What a beautifully tragic article. Very elucidating to a process that is likely the template being used now. Compassionate, empathetic and highly skilled; I took a deep breath and hope there is some form of Krystal in this as well.

Thank you for sharing.

 

[Warwick7]

It's a small world.

Construction contracting is a smaller world. Follow the money

New construction season. Breaking ground. Time is money.

Construction delay. Contractor delay. Time is money.

Call a friend. Call a foe. Time is money.

Meet the boss. Get'er done. Time is money.

Bigger fish. Move along. Following money.

Wife is gone. Time is money.

Promise money. Ask for money. Follow the money.

Call in favors. Not my money. Any money.

Silence is golden. Follow the money.

Keep your word. Break your word. Follow the money.

Bam!!
Bam!!
Bam!!

 

[LietKynes]

I honestly wondered if BM’s promise to pay whatever to get her back wasn’t a promise to pay an accomplice or someone with knowledge to keep quiet. Shhh IMO

Very sad, but absolutely that is a possibility.

 

[BeckyF]

I've started a few of these kinds of fund raisers over the years. Several years ago, and never since, for many reasons.

One was for a historically significant trip for high school kids, to a travel destination abroad.
As the funds came in, and as key elements of the trip had to be covered in advance, I used the funds that came into the fundraiser, as needed.
Every dime was documented and recorded, but the public had no idea where that money was really going.
Deposits on many things, chaperone fees, tour guide deposits, reservation fees on lodging, meal plans, etc.
The one thing I noticed on the public page, was that the public had literally no idea how much of that money I'd already withdrawn for the student fees for a wide variety of things.
Even though I wasn't doing anything illegal or morally objectionable, I did feel kind of creepy that the balances on the main page weren't showing that I'd already used the donations that came in. I remember feeling sort of sketchy upping the goal amount, because the initial amount had already been hit, and used - but there was nothing on the public page to show that or what it was used for. I just remember wish I could itemize each transaction so everyone could see where the money was really going, but that option was not available.

All that to say, no matter what the "goal amount" is, literally every dime of the FundMeCash could already have been withdrawn, and the public would never know.
So, even in the most legit of situations, the layout of the page, what the public can actually see, just makes it look stinky.
For that reason alone, I've never used them since.

jmo

Wow! I've always been a little suspicious of them but now even more so. Thanks!

 

[BeckyF]

I honestly wondered if BM’s promise to pay whatever to get her back wasn’t a promise to pay an accomplice or someone with knowledge to keep quiet. Shhh IMO

Very well could be. I'm wondering if there are more parties involved here. JMO

 

[ogls]

LE also left the search area every night at 5-530ish. If LE was hot on a body trial they would be there all night. If they were looking for trace evidence I could see LE "clocking" out each day...but not if they were onto any evidence of a body...IMO

I'm sorry I can't believe that. I think different tests require different times/settings. You have a link?

 

[Boxer]

LE also left the search area every night at 5-530ish. If LE was hot on a body trial they would be there all night. If they were looking for trace evidence I could see LE "clocking" out each day...but not if they were onto any evidence of a body...IMO

I agree. It's really a mystery.

 

[crhedBngr]

Such an evil disrespectful thing to throw someone away like trash to rot in the water. I feel awful for all these people and their loved ones. At least their families will have closure and a proper funeral. To never know and always be wondering and looking would be even worse hell.

JMVHO . . .

I agree - SM - just like the woman in Kansas - has been thrown away like garbage. Little to no information to verify in NAMUS, we don't know if she even took a bike ride - poof, and she's gone. Seemingly wiped off the face of the Earth.

And, this is not because of anything LE is or isn't doing (thanks, @Angleterre , for your perspective).

I really hope someone can be charged, but I worry that SM's case will go the same way Abby and Libby's case has gone.

For those who aren't familiar with Abby and Libby's case, please see my signature for the link.

 

[BeckyF]

It’s endlessly frustrating. The constant criticism and second guessing and ignorance as to what is involved. @Angleterre gave us a taste of what it entails.

I agree and the criticism of LE posted on the threads in this case is sad and disheartening. JMO.

 

[MassGuy]

Random spontaneous ..... can they tell if a rifle has been recently used?

You can tell if a gun has been fired since it was last cleaned, but you couldn’t pick one up and determine when it was last fired.