Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #25

[10ofRods]

IMO BM made an oopsie and randomly settled on the bike ride thing on the spur of the moment because the neighbor couldn't make sense of the two cars. He could just as easily picked something else, e.g. a hike, but he had to come up with something on the fly. The staging could have been after he spoke to the neighbor.
SM's car should not have been in the driveway unless she was in the house, except, except, except, "ummm, ummm, oh oh ummmm [pause] ummmm, oh, she must be on a bike ride." Then scurry off to stage.
I suppose we can't fix a time when the bike was staged? It could have been right when it was found.... Or even BM "found it"?
Maybe BM was even in town (i.e. not in Denver) when he made the call to the neighbor? That would be such an obvious red flag that LE could have picked up right away from the GPS.

In that case, BM was no where near Denver during those phone calls. Which is entirely possible.

I don't know that it could have been "right away" from the GPS on his truck (they'd need to get a search warrant) but he might have given them his phone. Even a brief look at a phone might have tripped him up, if he doesn't know much about phones. If he was signed into his google account, for example, and let police look at his phone, they would have known that on the evening of May 10.

I bet he had Google maps on his phone and he might not have known what the Cloud will show in terms of his movements.

 

[TxGidget]

IMO The narrative of the bike ride serves as proof that Suzanne was alive when BM left the home for Denver so he couldn’t have done anything to her. Therefor he must be innocent, you see. This is worth of sneaking out with the bike in the dark (maybe even through the woods if that’s possible) to stage it, if that’s what happened. Or to just stop there near with the truck for a minute in the early hours or late at night when there barely are any souls around. And if you have a body on your hands which you have to make disappear then just throwing a bike from somewhere could look like a minimum risk affair...

I’m not saying this is what happened, but at the moment I can’t discount this as a possibility. For all I know BM could be innocent, but right now this is not looking good for him.

All good points

 

[Murphy1950]

He writes a short description on this note of the bike and helmet, but nothing about her hair color, hair length, eye color, height, build, where ...

There is obvious confusion both here and on SMedia as to what Barry's was saying. He wrote 3 lines
Line 1) Baby Blue Bike
Line 2) helmet
Line 3 ) Biking clothing

Some are taking his note as 3 items....I am reading it as "baby blue bike helmet," biking clothes.... only 2 items, because what would be the point in adding "Bike? " At that point he had already known that the bike had been found according to what he told TD and it was either in police custody or his...I believe it is being held by police as evidence myself.

I think we are talking 2 items...the baby blue speaks to the helmet and I'm thinking either the helmet or an article of bikers clothing was indeed found later in the week, as staged IMO. I realize the helmet is teal...lots of people would just say blue, my fellow did .

ETA: Barry wasn't looking for Suzanne or the bike...just the additional planted evidence to be located and he wanted all the help he could get from the public on board.

 

[Teche]

JMO
I personally love revolvers because I feel they are a little safer in some ways. I like a double-action revolver (not a single-action revolver) which allows me to either back the hammer and take careful aim before firing OR if I want to quickly fire away at like a murderer attacking me, then I can keep squeezing the trigger over and over again until all shells fired. I love revolvers and my favorite is my .357 S+W for home protection and Taurus makes a smaller .380 revolver that would do well for conceal-carry.

I will say though, when lots of practice with Semi-autos, they become nice as well and lots (if not most) people prefer a Semi-Auto for protection. To me, I just dont practice enough regularly to feel as comfortable as I do with my revolver .357 S+W.

Taurus .380 ACP UL Revolver Review

I love my .357 S&W. I took a ladies handgun class and pulled out this gun. Mind you I had never shot anything before. I blew the target away.

 

[Poedelini]

There is obvious confusion both here and on SMedia what Barry's was saying. He wrote 3 lines
Line 1) Baby Blue Bike
Line 2) helmet
Line 3 ) Biking clothes

Some are taking his note as 3 items....I am reading it as "baby blue bike helmet," biking clothes.... only 2 items, because what would be the point in adding "Bike? " At that point he had already known that the bike had been found according to what he told TD and it was either in police custody or his...I believe it is being held by police as evidence myself.

I think we are talking 2 items...the baby blue speaks to the helmet and I'm thinking either the helmet or an article of bikers clothing was indeed found later in the week, as staged IMO. I realize the helmet is teal...lots of people would just say blue, my fellow did .

That sounds solid because the helmet actually looks baby blue to me. Jmo

 

[OldCop]

I don't believe so because the date he was seen wet and shirtless was about the first of June. That's too long to be holding on to any weapon when he's subject to another search warrant at any time. By the time BM was seen wet and wild, I think his friends had gone home, and BM was growing weary of going through the motions of "searching" for SM. He couldn't stay home because his momma and children expected him to be out shaking the bushes and the trees. I think it's possible he tried to cross the creek which was running high and fast and he fell in. Happens all the time. BM was also too close to home to be disposing of a weapon-- given all the open spaces in Colorado.

Good points, @Seattle1. OR how about moving something to a place that has already been searched?

 

[TxGidget]

ITA, no way you can get your gloves over that monster rock comfortably. I never wear mine while exercising period.

I do think the personal item found by LE was clothing or Ipods, If it were the helmet, I think the bike ride narrative would still be going strong.

Moo

I, too, think it was something small like AirPods. Or distinctive jewelry. They didn’t discover the item/article for 4 days, so I believe that a big blue helmet would have been noticed much earlier.

 

[Blue Amethyst]

There is obvious confusion both here and on SMedia as to what Barry's was saying. He wrote 3 lines
Line 1) Baby Blue Bike
Line 2) helmet
Line 3 ) Biking clothes

Some are taking his note as 3 items....I am reading it as "baby blue bike helmet," biking clothes.... only 2 items, because what would be the point in adding "Bike? " At that point he had already known that the bike had been found according to what he told TD and it was either in police custody or his...I believe it is being held by police as evidence myself.

I think we are talking 2 items...the baby blue speaks to the helmet and I'm thinking either the helmet or an article of bikers clothing was indeed found later in the week, as staged IMO. I realize the helmet is teal...lots of people would just say blue, my fellow did .

ETA: Barry wasn't looking for Suzanne or the bike...just the additional planted evidence to be located and he wanted all the help he could get from the public on board.

IIRC the note was a small squarish one like a sticky pad paper. I too think he meant the helmet but it would not fit on the same line as "baby blue bike".

That is what I remember.

 

[K9Enzo]

Maybe LE wants to see if anyone reports a certain female walking around with any of this jewelry.

haha IMO - side chicks don't even want to wear another woman's jewelry.

 

[TxGidget]

My post made me want to go back to an older DailyMail article because I thought I remembered a picture of a car in the M’s driveway with a bike rack on it.

article: Police search and carry out evidence bags from the $1.5M home of missing Colorado mom | Daily Mail Online

Pic attached to post.

My thoughts don’t prove anything but I thought they were interesting.

-it appears that there is a suburb outback with a trailer hitch bike rack
-There are two bikes on it. (One has red grips, the other is a baby blue mountain bike)
-Suburu outbacks do have gps tracking
-It’s rumored that SM’s bike is baby blue
-Its very hard to see but there might be damage to the front tire/fork/hub/brake. What leads me to believe that there might be damage is that the brake rotor does not look centered to where it should be on the wheel.
-Oddly enough, it looks like there is a Dasani or some type of packaged water bottle in the holder. This would not be common for a mountain biker, they’d use one of those bike water bottles that holds tightly into the bottle holder
-I wish there was a better pic angle so we could see that suburu’s license plate and a better shot of the bikes.
-I’m also curious about a second bike being on that rack.
-Would any aspect of that Suburu being in the driveway tie to PE’s assertion of two cars being a red flag?

You are impressively observant, EggSalad. Which made me wonder about enhancing photos. Sometimes I apply various filters using different creative photo apps to improve photos, but does anyone have a recommendation for a good app for enhancing photo resolution or detail?

 

[Fireflize]

There is obvious confusion both here and on SMedia as to what Barry's was saying. He wrote 3 lines
Line 1) Baby Blue Bike
Line 2) helmet
Line 3 ) Biking clothes

Some are taking his note as 3 items....I am reading it as "baby blue bike helmet," biking clothes.... only 2 items, because what would be the point in adding "Bike? " At that point he had already known that the bike had been found according to what he told TD and it was either in police custody or his...I believe it is being held by police as evidence myself.

I think we are talking 2 items...the baby blue speaks to the helmet and I'm thinking either the helmet or an article of bikers clothing was indeed found later in the week, as staged IMO. I realize the helmet is teal...lots of people would just say blue, my fellow did .

ETA: Barry wasn't looking for Suzanne or the bike...just the additional planted evidence to be located and he wanted all the help he could get from the public on board.

I agree with this. I think it was driving him crazy not knowing what LE had found. He was counting on her helmet and an article of her clothing to be found. In his mind, he thinks that this will somehow prove his abduction narrative. So if he doesn't know if LE found them, he hopes someone else will. Yeah, he's not wanting anyone looking for Suzanne, just planted "clues." Imo.

 

[OldCop]

IIRC the note was a small squarish one like a sticky pad paper. I too think he meant the helmet but it would not fit on the same line as "baby blue bike".

That is what I remember.

I have a copy of the note. Since we can discuss it, can I post a copy of it, @sillybilly?

 

[Fireflize]

Good points, @Seattle1. OR how about moving something to a place that has already been searched?

Ha. He better be careful. LE has been known to search the same place twice! Moo

 

[MrsWatson]

No, but I could see 2 other possible scenarios.
1) BM gives the jewelry to a third party and asks them to sell it for him. He could use the excuse that he wanted to put it towards the reward, but it would look bad if he was the one to sell it. BM knows how valuable that ring was and I can’t believe he would let it be buried in an unknown grave somewhere.
2) There is a mistress who, like Amber Frey in the Scot Peterson case, had no idea that BM was married. He gifted her the jewelry.

For #1, how about he wanted the stone(s) removed to sell? Less distinctive than the whole ring, plus, if there was engraving in the band, that wouldn't be an issue.

#2 seriously gives me the willies and I am a big fan of sparkly stuff, but nothankyouverymuch.

 

[Seattle1]

There is obvious confusion both here and on SMedia as to what Barry's was saying. He wrote 3 lines
Line 1) Baby Blue Bike
Line 2) helmet
Line 3 ) Biking clothes

Some are taking his note as 3 items....I am reading it as "baby blue bike helmet," biking clothes.... only 2 items, because what would be the point in adding "Bike? " At that point he had already known that the bike had been found according to what he told TD and it was either in police custody or his...I believe it is being held by police as evidence myself.

I think we are talking 2 items...the baby blue speaks to the helmet and I'm thinking either the helmet or an article of bikers clothing was indeed found later in the week, as staged IMO. I realize the helmet is teal...lots of people would just say blue, my fellow did .

ETA: Barry wasn't looking for Suzanne or the bike...just the additional planted evidence to be located and he wanted all the help he could get from the public on board.

My post made me want to go back to an older DailyMail article because I thought I remembered a picture of a car in the M’s driveway with a bike rack on it.

article: Police search and carry out evidence bags from the $1.5M home of missing Colorado mom | Daily Mail Online

Pic attached to post.

My thoughts don’t prove anything but I thought they were interesting.

-it appears that there is a suburb outback with a trailer hitch bike rack
-There are two bikes on it. (One has red grips, the other is a baby blue mountain bike)
-Suburu outbacks do have gps tracking
-It’s rumored that SM’s bike is baby blue
-Its very hard to see but there might be damage to the front tire/fork/hub/brake. What leads me to believe that there might be damage is that the brake rotor does not look centered to where it should be on the wheel.
-Oddly enough, it looks like there is a Dasani or some type of packaged water bottle in the holder. This would not be common for a mountain biker, they’d use one of those bike water bottles that holds tightly into the bottle holder
-I wish there was a better pic angle so we could see that suburu’s license plate and a better shot of the bikes.
-I’m also curious about a second bike being on that rack.
-Would any aspect of that Suburu being in the driveway tie to PE’s assertion of two cars being a red flag?

Thanks to @EggSalad, I'm seeing the "baby blue bike" for the very first time in the DM photo in the quoted post above. I don't know that this is actually SM's bike but the distinct "baby blue" color leads me to believe the note is in-fact depicting 3 items and not just two.

If I remember correctly, BM was telling the store clerk his daughter was making posters for his missing wife that disappeared on a bike ride and I think his 1,2,3 was BM's quick description of SM (i.e., on a bike, wearing a helmet and biking clothes).

MOO

 

[Fireflize]

Unless, of course, there's good evidence that Suzanne was dead before May 10. I'm beginning to think that one search (where they closed the whole highway) turned up grim evidence that is crucial to the case, but that we don't know.

If someone was trying to stage the crime as if it were an abduction, then I suppose it could have been her phone.

Is it unusual to close down a road for a search? Tia

 

[GordianKnot]

I have made it clear what side of the fence I'm on but this is just next level! I do see BM losing his temper without a doubt. I just can't imagine anyone would be so depraved as to then remover her jewelry and sell it to a pawn shop?

BBM:

Returning to my familiar refrain for this case:
"For the love of money is the root of all evil."
That ring looks to have cost a pretty penny.

I don't think there's any way this perp left that ring on her finger.
I don't think it was pawned, either.
There's no way the perp would gift it to someone else.
Because, M$ney.

I see a couple of possibilities:

1) The ring was left behind at the house somewhere SM might plausibly have removed it herself, e.g., on her bedside nightstand, next to the kitchen sink, etc.
2) The perp squirreled it away somewhere for safekeeping.

JMO.

 

[Synergizer Bunny]

No, but I could see 2 other possible scenarios.
1) BM gives the jewelry to a third party and asks them to sell it for him. He could use the excuse that he wanted to put it towards the reward, but it would look bad if he was the one to sell it. BM knows how valuable that ring was and I can’t believe he would let it be buried in an unknown grave somewhere.
2) There is a mistress who, like Amber Frey in the Scot Peterson case, had no idea that BM was married. He gifted her the jewelry.

I have seen cases where the husband "hides" the jewelry and then makes a claim to the insurance company.

Perhaps, BM has made a claim for jewelry seen in the photos. It is possible that someone might find the so-called "missing/stolen" jewelry.

If nothing else, those photos could have been chosen to send a signal to BM that they know about the claim, and they don't believe the jewelry was stolen.

eta: I never wear any jewelry (much less good jewelry) while I exercise.

 

[Blue Amethyst]

When TD told people that BM was shirtless and all wet that one day, do you think BM was checking to make sure the hidden weapon was still where BM left it in the river?
(Moving water tends to relocate things.)

Do you think BM had just then finished hiding a weapon in the water, previous to TD witnessing a wet, shirtless BM?

Do you think LE have used underwater metal detectors where wet, shirtless BM was seen by TD?

I am thankful for LE and all of their efforts to bring home justice for Suzanne.
IMHO

I think BM could very well have been checking the river for something he hid under the rocks at the time of SM's disappearance, especially if there were large rocks in the water. I am sure he didn’t expect to see TD walking right by there.

 

[Ontario Mom]

I'm trying to stay caught up but I confess, I'm confused at all the jewelry discussion.
Is this all speculation or is there a legit reason to believe her jewelry was pawned/sold/whatever?