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

[FelicityLemon]

IMO there are various reasons friends or relatives of missing people do not speak out.
Perhaps the missing person had a limited circle of friends and family who are available to speak out?
Maybe LE told them not to speak to media and the family and friends do not want to do anything to mess up the investigation.
Many people simply do not like speaking in public for any reason and get extremely nervous if they have to.
In today's world many are afraid that whatever they say to the media will be picked apart by the throngs of internet commentators and they will be chastised, accused, ripped apart and basically victimized even more than they already are because someone close to them is missing.
Also, there are no handbooks or idiot's guide that tell people how to react when someone you love goes missing.
IMO it is extremely harsh to criticize how family members react in these situations.

A hundred thumbs up for this.

 

[happyday]

Are you perhaps thinking about a sealed search warrant? I don't understand a gag request for no case?..

Maybe just an informal “ask” by LE to keep quiet for the sake of the investigation.

 

[happyday]

Well I think people sort of misunderstand who is involved in that kind of thing.

Show me (not you, but anyone, really), five white, middle class women or children who it has been definitively established that a drug cartel or sex traffickers were responsible for disappearing in this nation.

I maintain that that’s not really a thing in this country with that demographic. It’s not an issue.

The reality of sex trafficking is adult prostitutes, drugs, homelessness, poverty, mental health disorders, child abuse and other intensive, family dysfunction, LGBTQ youth and predominately ethnic minorities.

Traffickers aren’t trolling for mountain biking soccer moms on Mother’s Day.

Drug cartel stuff that involves murder is usually people involved in the “business” in some manner, and very few come from the Morphew family demographic.

Revenge or power-assertion kidnappings involving innocent victims occur almost totally south of the border.

Statistically speaking, neither look like a reasonable possibility to me. It’s more likely someone she knows. A remote second place for me would be stranger abduction.

Very true. It helps to hear it b/c it’s easy to let the imagination get carried away when there’s nothing new to think about.

 

[Ontario Mom]

It's curious that none of the media have covered the searches BM and his team have carried out.

moo

Yes, it is curious, isn't it?

 

[10ofRods]

Yes, it is curious, isn't it?

Salida itself doesn't have a TV station nor, I believe, any typical newspapers. I think it has an online one.

Small towns all over have crimes and missing persons that get very little media coverage. WS itself is helping to keep this one in the public eye.

 

[MassGuy]

Salida itself doesn't have a TV station nor, I believe, any typical newspapers. I think it has an online one.

Small towns all over have crimes and missing persons that get very little media coverage. WS itself is helping to keep this one in the public eye.

Yeah. You also have a man who has absolutely no relationship with the media, who has refused requests to comment, and is clearly avoiding any interaction with them.

If he was doing a search, the media wouldn’t know about it, and probably wouldn’t be welcome if they did.

Not that I believe for a second that there truly is a genuine search effort on his part.

 

[10ofRods]

What baffles my mind is of all the missing persons to sleuth, why am I sleuthing this one? There are many unwanted and foster kids who come up missing and no one pays attention to them. In part it is a media thing and we are led by the nose, but we do have choice once we can see what is going on. I keep on telling myself, once they find her I am going to move on to a case no one pays attention to. But after looking at some other cases, (I am new to this despite it saying well known member, how do I change that?) I see that it can take not just years, but sometimes decades to solve a case ??? Wow! Think about that. How many murderers are just walking around, getting away with it?

Yeah, this case/SM has sooo many people looking for her and the answers. So many others just get put in a file. It is really sad sometimes how the world turns. The more money you have...

For sure, the many photos in the early days caught my attention. My own special crime interest is people who go missing in the wilderness (including people who didn't intend to, such as certain runaways). But I also got drawn in by a certain vibe in the case (all the risk factors that were lighting up as red lights in my mental control panel: recent and serious illness in the missing person, fairly recent move from longterm residence to the mountain West, apparent wealth and image consciousness, CoVid isolation and the uptick in domestic violence, it's in Colorado - where I have a lot of family and have spent a lot of time, possible no body case in CO).

For the other cases that no one pays attention to, it's hard to get much discussion going. If this drags on for a year (we're coming up on one year in Barbara Thomas's case - I still think of her daily and hope someone finds her bones), this place will get very quiet.

 

[FelicityLemon]

It's curious that none of the media have covered the searches BM and his team have carried out. moo

Maybe I'm not finding as much as may be out there, but to me, it doesn't seem as though media is camped out there and interviewing townspeople or doing research on their own. I know LE isn't isn't leaking, but in many cases, media people generate stories using their initiative with their own research and not by copy-pasting or quoting existing articles. We've often seen articles about a missing person's background, community involvement, career, friends' anecdotes, or even gossip being reported. but not in this case. It's hard for me to believe that if there was an affair with either spouse that a friend of a friend of an acquaintance who saw or heard something hasn't been reported. There's either nothing untoward in the marriage, or people who know or have even heard something have integrity and don't gossip. Maybe the journalists have integrity and aren't looking for salacious gossip - how refreshing!

I also haven't seen people coming to media with "information" or theories - those people who want to see themselves on tv or in print, either. Maybe if there have been those people, they've not been given the satisfaction. Again, how refreshing.

I often have to remind myself that just because we're focused on a particular case, the world has other missing people and victims that they focus on. What happens in my city will make a national blip on occasion, but for the most part remains local. That's natural. There are many, many missing human beings and victims.

I think we'd be hearing more about this if it was determined to be linked to other incidents. The public needs to know if there's a danger to others for example.

 

[CronesEye]

Well I think people sort of misunderstand who is involved in that kind of thing.

Show me (not you, but anyone, really), five white, middle class women or children who it has been definitively established that a drug cartel or sex traffickers were responsible for disappearing in this nation.

I maintain that that’s not really a thing in this country with that demographic. It’s not an issue.

The reality of sex trafficking is adult prostitutes, drugs, homelessness, poverty, mental health disorders, child abuse and other intensive, family dysfunction, LGBTQ youth and predominately ethnic minorities.

Traffickers aren’t trolling for mountain biking soccer moms on Mother’s Day.

Drug cartel stuff that involves murder is usually people involved in the “business” in some manner, and very few come from the Morphew family demographic.

Revenge or power-assertion kidnappings involving innocent victims occur almost totally south of the border.

Statistically speaking, neither look like a reasonable possibility to me. It’s more likely someone she knows. A remote second place for me would be stranger abduction.

Yes, someone she knows intimately or superficially with anger, abandonment, jealousy, derangement, money, etc. issues then stranger abduction.

The at risk categories you list for trafficking are spot on; however sometimes middle class white women and youth fall into some of those categories.How many families don't have some sort of family dysfunction? It's been a few years but I did go to human trafficking task force meetings and knew social workers in the field, what I recall are cases where a teenage girl in a wealthy family, rebels or isn't treated well and ends up at risk. Traffickers hang out at malls and they don't care what class one comes from they only care if they can pull you away. Sometimes this happens to wealthy white middle class teenagers who don't feel loved at home, are rebeling, etc. I remember reading about them, talking about them years ago. I shall find a story for you and post it. Poems and discussions are all I can recall at the present.

I've known too many wealthy construction people with crime and drug problems to rule such factors out. But statistically speaking is where the money usually is, so I will grant you that what I have presented is an outside chance but one none the less.

Here, Gitana1, I will confess my bias, I detest drugs, organized crime and what they do to a community, I can never exclude them as a factor, considering my locale.

Statistics are much more reliable than bias.

 

[Seratonin]

 

[CronesEye]

For sure, the many photos in the early days caught my attention. My own special crime interest is people who go missing in the wilderness (including people who didn't intend to, such as certain runaways). But I also got drawn in by a certain vibe in the case (all the risk factors that were lighting up as red lights in my mental control panel: recent and serious illness in the missing person, fairly recent move from longterm residence to the mountain West, apparent wealth and image consciousness, CoVid isolation and the uptick in domestic violence, it's in Colorado - where I have a lot of family and have spent a lot of time, possible no body case in CO).

For the other cases that no one pays attention to, it's hard to get much discussion going. If this drags on for a year (we're coming up on one year in Barbara Thomas's case - I still think of her daily and hope someone finds her bones), this place will get very quiet.

Yes, it IS the discussion as I am learning. I will move to other cases where no one is and how will I learn? Teach myself.

I no longer live in the wilderness but once loved to be out with grizzly bears, mountain lions and wolves, so its a thing for me. As is SAR and victim advocacy.

I think we also learn about the evolution of our culture through crime, so all the factors you mention, they do draw our attention and curiosity.

 

[TKG]

Traffickers aren’t trolling for mountain biking soccer moms on Mother’s Day.

Exactly! Process of elimination... That had me chuckling, but it’s true.

 

[CronesEye]

Well I think people sort of misunderstand who is involved in that kind of thing.

Show me (not you, but anyone, really), five white, middle class women or children who it has been definitively established that a drug cartel or sex traffickers were responsible for disappearing in this nation.

I maintain that that’s not really a thing in this country with that demographic. It’s not an issue.

The reality of sex trafficking is adult prostitutes, drugs, homelessness, poverty, mental health disorders, child abuse and other intensive, family dysfunction, LGBTQ youth and predominately ethnic minorities.

Traffickers aren’t trolling for mountain biking soccer moms on Mother’s Day.

Drug cartel stuff that involves murder is usually people involved in the “business” in some manner, and very few come from the Morphew family demographic.

Revenge or power-assertion kidnappings involving innocent victims occur almost totally south of the border.

Statistically speaking, neither look like a reasonable possibility to me. It’s more likely someone she knows. A remote second place for me would be stranger abduction.

I found some statistics for you. You are right statistically speaking Latino and Asians it seems are twice as likely to be trafficked as African American and Whites.
https://humantraffickinghotline.org...tional_Hotline_2018_Statistics_Fact_Sheet.pdf

This is one of the stories I remembered from back in the day:
Survivor of sex trafficking tells her story
How did a teenage girl below from a loving, middle-class family end up as a sex slave? | Daily Mail Online

It's bad where I live, no matter what you are.

Colorado's Map
https://humantraffickinghotline.org/sites/default/files/CO-2018-State-Report.pdf

 

[10ofRods]

Maybe I'm not finding as much as may be out there, but to me, it doesn't seem as though media is camped out there and interviewing townspeople or doing research on their own. I know LE isn't isn't leaking, but in many cases, media people generate stories using their initiative with their own research and not by copy-pasting or quoting existing articles. We've often seen articles about a missing person's background, community involvement, career, friends' anecdotes, or even gossip being reported. but not in this case. It's hard for me to believe that if there was an affair with either spouse that a friend of a friend of an acquaintance who saw or heard something hasn't been reported. There's either nothing untoward in the marriage, or people who know or have even heard something have integrity and don't gossip. Maybe the journalists have integrity and aren't looking for salacious gossip - how refreshing!

I also haven't seen people coming to media with "information" or theories - those people who want to see themselves on tv or in print, either. Maybe if there have been those people, they've not been given the satisfaction. Again, how refreshing.

I often have to remind myself that just because we're focused on a particular case, the world has other missing people and victims that they focus on. What happens in my city will make a national blip on occasion, but for the most part remains local. That's natural. There are many, many missing human beings and victims.

I think we'd be hearing more about this if it was determined to be linked to other incidents. The public needs to know if there's a danger to others for example.

I've never seen a media camp-out in a town as small as Salida. There have been two fairly publicized murders in the last 10 years in my town, but neither had a "media camp-out." This is before, of course, our local newspaper tanked. We now have only USA today and these little online papers that are really facebook pages.

It is very strange that no one in Salida has come forward to MSM to talk, but the only MSM covering it regularly seems to be CrimeOnline (and it's not really the same kind as MSM as, say, CBS or NBC affiliates).

The woman who covered the Barbara Thomas case made exactly 1 trip to Arizona to interview the husband and 0 trips, AFAIK to the search site. Then, one of those night time media magazines had a guy stand outside in SoCal, then cut to the other reporter's footage (some of it was new). He never set foot in the Mojave.

Barbara's case made it to the national level of news due to her bikini and the photos, IMO. There are two people missing from quite close to where she went missing and I'm guessing none of you have heard about it. There was a woman missing from about 30 miles where Barbara went missing at around the same time - no national news, hardly any coverage at all. Most of you probably didn't follow the missing Santa Barbara nurse (hardly any publicity) but she's been found after a bit more than a week of being missing.

 

[10ofRods]

I found some statistics for you. You are right statistically speaking Latino and Asians it seems are twice as likely to be trafficked as African American and Whites.
https://humantraffickinghotline.org...tional_Hotline_2018_Statistics_Fact_Sheet.pdf

This is one of the stories I remembered from back in the day:
Survivor of sex trafficking tells her story
How did a teenage girl below from a loving, middle-class family end up as a sex slave? | Daily Mail Online

It's bad where I live, no matter what you are.

I got up the courage to read that last link. Horrifying.

However, it's unlikely Suzanne could have been involved in anything like that, and not have it show up in her phone records. And fortunately, that poor girl was not murdered. As often happens, though, the situation arose out of a personal relationship gone awry.

So...we await more investigation.

 

[MassGuy]

Well I think people sort of misunderstand who is involved in that kind of thing.

Show me (not you, but anyone, really), five white, middle class women or children who it has been definitively established that a drug cartel or sex traffickers were responsible for disappearing in this nation.

I maintain that that’s not really a thing in this country with that demographic. It’s not an issue.

The reality of sex trafficking is adult prostitutes, drugs, homelessness, poverty, mental health disorders, child abuse and other intensive, family dysfunction, LGBTQ youth and predominately ethnic minorities.

Traffickers aren’t trolling for mountain biking soccer moms on Mother’s Day.

Drug cartel stuff that involves murder is usually people involved in the “business” in some manner, and very few come from the Morphew family demographic.

Revenge or power-assertion kidnappings involving innocent victims occur almost totally south of the border.

Statistically speaking, neither look like a reasonable possibility to me. It’s more likely someone she knows. A remote second place for me would be stranger abduction.

Yes. Sex trafficking tends to be a long, drawn out grooming process. It’s insidious, and doesn’t involve women being snatched off the street and forced into white vans.

Kidnapping a woman for that purpose just doesn’t happen with any regularity, as it’s far easier to find a high risk victim who isn’t going to become the subject of a national search.

That doesn’t stop these insane rumors from being circulated online, of men kidnapping women from bars, or grabbing kids in Ikea stores.

People seem to think that “Taken,” is how this stuff works. With all respect to Liam Neeson, that’s fiction.

 

[BeckyF]

BM’s nephew set up the donation site and then the FB page (the nephew who urged the public to ask LE about the condition of the bike). I haven’t been on the donation site but supposedly the beneficiary has changed a few times. Maybe someone can elaborate. The FB page seems to have been abandoned after just 3 days, and the nephew has gone radio silent.

I posted earlier about the silence because it really bothers me. It’s hard to understand how not one person in her world will stand up and make some noise about her being missing. I would be doing the same as you—non-stop.

This makes me think of the case of Roxanne Paltauf who has been missing since 2006. Her Mom is still keeping her case in the media and updates her FB page regularly. Dedication!

 

[Dave F.]

I don't think it is fair to say BLM is avoiding the media. The mainstream reporter who has been doing the best job of covering this case is 204 miles away in Colorado Springs (Lauren Scharf). That's 204 miles away from the area that it's been suggested BLM should be searching every waking minute of every day. I haven't seen a single news report from a correspondent that is actually standing anywhere near BLM's house since the house search, when he briefly showed up in some long distance news cam shots, and it appeared that he was asked to leave. As a matter of fact I believe it was reported that he did leave, right after he tied his shoe.
He doesn't seem like a Twitter, Instagram, Facebook kind of communicator to me. My impression is that he's more of an old school, "in your face" kind. I could be wrong about that.
Since I'm on that subject, I could be wrong about a whole lot of things in this case. I think that any one of us should be able to say that. There's just a lot of misinformation out there, and not much plain old garden variety information in the mix. I don't see that it's his job to keep the public informed.
IMO

 

[MassGuy]

I don't think it is fair to say BLM is avoiding the media. The mainstream reporter who has been doing the best job of covering this case is 204 miles away in Colorado Springs (Lauren Scharf). That's 204 miles away from the area that it's been suggested BLM should be searching every waking minute of every day. I haven't seen a single news report from a correspondent that is actually standing anywhere near BLM's house since the house search, when he briefly showed up in some long distance news cam shots, and it appeared that he was asked to leave. As a matter of fact I believe it was reported that he did leave, right after he tied his shoe.
He doesn't seem like a Twitter, Instagram, Facebook kind of communicator to me. My impression is that he's more of an old school, "in your face" kind. I could be wrong about that.
Since I'm on that subject, I could be wrong about a whole lot of things in this case. I think that any one of us should be able to say that. There's just a lot of misinformation out there, and not much plain old garden variety information in the mix. I don't see that it's his job to keep the public informed.
IMO

He has not made an on camera statement, not once. He hasn’t given an interview, or made any public effort to get the word out.

I have no doubt the media has tried to get him to talk, and for whatever reason, he has decided against it.

If he said he was going to do an interview, a dozen reporters would be there. Clearly, he wants nothing to do with them.

So yes, I believe he is avoiding them.

 

[Lori Cooper]

What baffles my mind is all of the people who are willing to donate money to people who have million dollar homes and other obvious signs of wealth.

If you have money burning a hole in your pocket, why not donate the money to the needy and those who are truly in dire straits?

You have three healthy adults in the family who can work and earn their own monies. I could be wrong; however, I don't see them paying anyone to look for SM. So, no money is being spent for SM.

Sometimes people just need a way to feel like they are helping. IMO I would guess that a good percentage of the donations are from people in Indiana, that knew them.