Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #35

[MoeInVA]

So my kiddo came home from school yesterday and said the school bathroom stunk like a swimming pool! (The school does NOT have a pool).

Naturally, I thought of BM’s hotel room and you all. Now it is much easier to understand how a school bathroom could smell like that than a Holiday Inn Express hotel room with its carpeting, wall paper, and soft surfaces. But given that at least one of you had people climbing into a cooler for the cause I figured I’d at least share this anecdote FWIW.

 

[Tate123]

(hey @MassGuy, couldn't wait to see ya again to say, in a quiet whisper, "who dat." )

I almost got 100% on a NY Times Quiz of recognizable faces. @MassGuy messed me up.

 

[Hatfield]

Ive been going back through some of the PE videos with AM about this case and I stumbled into one video part about the extra personal item that was found by LE near the highway I believe it was. This could tie in to how some of us felt the extra personal item may have been planted or it may have been a coincidence. JMO of course.

The rest is all JMO because it gets a little confusing. The link is at bottom for this.

I think the interesting part is where AM talks about his initial searching with a small group of men around the Colorado Trail which I think is the area near where the personal item was eventually found. It sounded like to me that these other men included BM and some of BM's friends and a nice neighbor that was helping them by letting them use his Airbnb as a staging area. The Airbnb is very close to BM's home.

This part in the video begins around
13:20 up to the end of that part which ends around 17:10. So 13:20-17:10.

The interesting part is that one of the guys that was with AM in their initial searching "got away from us" and they went all the way back to look for him and could not find him and by the time they got back to the home area, the guy was back at the house area. Where they had been searching was in the general area where the extra item from Suzanne was found after this point by LE from what I gathered.

And the interesting thing is both LE and AM's small search crew initially did not see anything, one guy then disappears from AM's crew and shows back up, and then at some point later, LE announces they find an extra item near where they had been searching.
Lets just say....Hmmmmmm

One other interesting part to me is the part that begins around 21:00.

LE (CBI) told AM in Indiana that BM has NOT been cooperating with them and he refused both a lie detector test and voice analysis test early on. So this may explain how LE at the very beginning made a strange comment about hoping he would continue to cooperate or something along those lines. At least according to CBI and AM, that level of cooperation had not gone well from the very beginning.

Lets just say....Hmmmmmm again.

 

[Knox]

"I'm afraid of what is out there"

Curious statement to make isn't it. Hopefully the PE guys touch on what BM has said in their episode Thursday.

 

[oviedo]

Ive been going back through some of the PE videos with AM about this case and I stumbled into one video part about the extra personal item that was found by LE near the highway I believe it was. This could tie in to how some of us felt the extra personal item may have been planted or it may have been a coincidence. JMO of course.

The rest is all JMO because it gets a little confusing. The link is at bottom for this.

I think the interesting part is where AM talks about his initial searching with a small group of men around the Colorado Trail which I think is the area near where the personal item was eventually found. It sounded like to me that these other men included BM and some of BM's friends and a nice neighbor that was helping them by letting them use his Airbnb as a staging area. The Airbnb is very close to BM's home.

This part in the video begins around
13:20 up to the end of that part which ends around 17:10. So 13:20-17:10.

The interesting part is that one of the guys that was with AM in their initial searching "got away from us" and they went all the way back to look for him and could not find him and by the time they got back to the home area, the guy was back at the house area. Where they had been searching was in the general area where the extra item from Suzanne was found after this point by LE from what I gathered.

And the interesting thing is both LE and AM's small search crew initially did not see anything, one guy then disappears from AM's crew and shows back up, and then at some point later, LE announces they find an extra item near where they had been searching.
Lets just say....Hmmmmmm

One other interesting part to me is the part that begins around 21:00.

LE (CBI) told AM in Indiana that BM has NOT been cooperating with them and he refused both a lie detector test and voice analysis test early on. So this may explain how LE at the very beginning made a strange comment about hoping he would continue to cooperate or something along those lines. At least according to CBI and AM, that level of cooperation had not gone well from the very beginning.

Lets just say....Hmmmmmm again.

hmmm is right - wonder if they were wearing gloves (the searchers?) otherwise, perhaps there might be a print or two or something on the "personal item"
well done!
JMO

 

[ivegotthemic]

Curious statement to make isn't it. Hopefully the PE guys touch on what BM has said in their episode Thursday.

thank you for sharing, this looks GOOD. PE produces quality content and I am here for it.

LE, prison, lawsuits....

... man-eating cougars, self-building walls, employees cooperating with LE, your brother in law who will stop at nothing to get his sister back, lady justice ready and willing the weigh the scales of justice against BM's bad behavior...its a rough world out there

 

[MassGuy]

Just thinking about Suzanne’s phone, which I believe has not been found, and will not be found. Barry has to have painted himself into a corner.

In order for Barry to ensure the phone was never found, he had to turn that phone off before disposing of it.

Let’s assume he did leave the house at 5 in the morning, as he has claimed. This is the latest he could have begun the process of getting rid of Suzanne’s phone.

So he is going to have to explain why Suzanne’s phone was shut down, why it was never turned back on, why Suzanne wouldn’t check her phone on Mother’s Day, and why she would go on a bike ride with a phone that hadn’t been powered on in hours.

Whatever he says is going to be lame as hell.

 

[ivegotthemic]

Just thinking about Suzanne’s phone, which I believe has not been found, and will not be found. Barry has to have painted himself into a corner.

In order for Barry to ensure the phone was never found, he had to turn that phone off before disposing of it.

Let’s assume he did leave the house at 5 in the morning, as he has claimed. This is the latest he could have begun the process of getting rid of Suzanne’s phone.

So he is going to have to explain why Suzanne’s phone was shut down, why it was never turned back on, why Suzanne wouldn’t check her phone on Mother’s Day, and why she would go on a bike ride with a phone that hadn’t been powered on in hours.

Whatever he says is going to be lame as hell.

What? Are you saying the cougar, who attacked SM and was stealthy enough to make her disappear with a trace, wouldn't have just eaten her phone too? mountain lions are known for eating electronics after all. BMs story clearly holds up here lol

 

[TKG]

well, i surely hope there are eyes on him on his hunting sprees.

i gotta say, if i thought my wife had even possibly been kidnapped and/or murdered, and was nowhere to be found, the last thing on my mind, and especially in my heart, would be killing animals for fun. i would think that killing literally anything for sport would just remind me of what could have happened to my wife, and, if i were an innocent person, that would be absolutely devastating. i would not want ANY kind of death around me if i was mourning. but hey. that's just me.

ITA!!!

 

[JosieMae]

Regardless of the outcome, the search will bring press and more interest in Suzanne’s case. With that comes more scrutiny and talk about Barry. I’m sure he isn’t looking forward to that.

Right. He can no longer control the narrative. Which will infuriate him.

 

[TKG]

I doubt he knew about any of her favorite places. I just can’t see him knowing. MOO

I was just going to write the same post! He's too self absorbed to know her favorite places!

 

[oviedo]

Just thinking about Suzanne’s phone, which I believe has not been found, and will not be found. Barry has to have painted himself into a corner.

In order for Barry to ensure the phone was never found, he had to turn that phone off before disposing of it.

Let’s assume he did leave the house at 5 in the morning, as he has claimed. This is the latest he could have begun the process of getting rid of Suzanne’s phone.

So he is going to have to explain why Suzanne’s phone was shut down, why it was never turned back on, why Suzanne wouldn’t check her phone on Mother’s Day, and why she would go on a bike ride with a phone that hadn’t been powered on in hours.

Whatever he says is going to be lame as hell.

I'm wondering if he now realizes that disposal of the phone doesn't mean a whole lot - they probably have everything from it now just like they did with Kelsey's phone...up until KK burned it up in ID - IIRC

JMO

 

[StarEyes]

It was South West of Mayesville, near Firecamp. You can search twitter under #suzannemorphew to find the exact video.


I hope the searches are being told to examine boulders for:

1. Any scratch marks that could be made by the boulder being picked up and moved by machinery
2. Space between the boulder and ground level indicating the boulder was recently placed there and there hasn’t been time for dirt to accumulate under it.

I’ve favored a theory that he maybe told her he was working on their landscaping, moved a boulder, dug (maybe really deeply) under it, put her there, replaced soil/rocks, moved the boulder back in place and made sure there wasn’t any indications that it had even been moved. Obviously, I don’t know that, and it’s PURELY JMOO.

 

[windrower]

I believe everything was handled by Sunday 5 am - I think there is some meaning to this time - if she is intact my guess is a 5 mile radius - with the house the center
JMO

I agree. Some of my reasons are noted below.

That's the thing, right? If he was on an ATV or quad that couldn't be tracked, went out into any of that difficult terrain and left his phone behind, I think finding her will be sheer chance. Or a confession.

I think even for people with little technical knowledge ,it is commonly known that phones whether off or on can trace your location,so I think he left his at home when he went to hide Suzanne.
It would also back up an alibi of being in his house at a certain time that weekend.

ATVs are really loud. Doesn't seem like the vehicle of choice for taking off into the night to hide a body? But I suppose if the location were remote enough, it could be a possibility.

ATVs can be loud, but some are less so, and depends on how hard they are being driven, too. But in that area of Colorado, I’ll bet they are a pretty common noise to hear, even at night. I don’t think the location needs to be all that remote.

Good point. And if he didn’t have his phone, and he wasn’t using a car GPS, it makes sense that he would travel to a place and use roads that he knows.

Now that still leaves a ton of land but maybe narrows down the possibility some.

Agreed. This ties into your post quoted below about the hunting areas where BM has been.

It was South West of Mayesville, near Firecamp. You can search twitter under #suzannemorphew to find the exact video.


I hope the searches are being told to examine boulders for:

1. Any scratch marks that could be made by the boulder being picked up and moved by machinery
2. Space between the boulder and ground level indicating the boulder was recently placed there and there hasn’t been time for dirt to accumulate under it.

The fire camp we’ve talked about previously is *north* of Maysville. Are you talking about a different fire camp?

Just watched the latest AM interview on PE - just have to say the depth of AMs emotion when he speaks about SM is such a stark contrast to the lack of emotion in BMs voice (assuming we don't count anger, which is the only emotion we've seen from him). Anyone would be lucky to have a big brother like AM, IMO.

I've been thinking about BM leaving at 5 am on Sunday and how strange that has always seemed to leave at that time. If we assume BM is telling the truth about when he left the house (LE certainly could verify per gps/phone records) - I don't think he left at that time to dispose of the body.

Per google, sunrise on Mother's Day in Denver was 5:50 am. I can't imagine a scenario that something happens to SM on Saturday afternoon and BM waits until after sunrise the next day to hide the body. So that doesn't really give him much time to go very far and accomplish anything in the dark. Also, wouldn't GPS data lead LE directly to any location that BM spent considerable time on his trip to Denver? JMO, but I think he dealt with SMs body on Saturday evening.

He certainly didn't leave that early to actually set up the job, if we believe MG's account. As I've been thinking about it, the reason that makes the most sense to me is the simple answer that he absolutely HAD to be on video (remember, he mentioned how the hotel has cameras 'all over') at the time that SM would normally be on her "bike ride". We don't know for certain what SMs routine was, but she was a regular biker and my guess is she had a somewhat consistent routine on when she would ride (I'd guess sometime between 8 and 9 am). I wonder if the mail left in the room is actually irrelevant to motive, but was just to establish BM was there and couldn't have been in Salida (you know, just in case the cameras weren't working).

Pure speculation of course, but that puts me squarely in the camp of thinking that SM is close to home. I hope the search efforts are successful in finding her. JMO, MOO.

I agree with the reasoning. I think she is relatively close to home, too, because, when else can his phone be left at home with no activity, except when he can claim he was sleeping that Saturday night. (Same reasoning with SUZANNE’s phone, too.)

Light from an almost-full moon, several hours when no cell phone activity is expected, and a highly motivated, very determined, adrenaline-fueled person trying to obliterate evidence of wrong-doing.

I can definitely imagine a muscular guy in that state being able to dig a grave by hand. Especially if he absolutely needed to do so.

I went back looking for the news story where Barry said it's "too soon".

Found this news story updated on May 15th, five days after Suzanne went missing -https://www.fox21news.com/news/local/family-offers-200k-reward-for-missing-womans-safe-return-no-questions-asked/

Snipped- JOHN SPEZEE, CHAFFEE COUNTY SHERIFF

The press release said investigators from the 11th Judicial District, Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the Salida Police Department, the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have joined the effort.

Someone brought this up the other day, but it just struck me again that investigator's from the DA's office have been on the case since the beginning. Is that normal five days after an adult woman goes missing?

Maybe not normal for a missing person case, but maybe normal for a homicide investigation?

I could be interesting to know where BM has hunted in the area since he’s lived in Mayesville and if he goes to those locations this season or not.

^^^ This is an avenue to delve into if SUZANNE is not found close to her home. But I think all of BM’s previous years’ hunting areas should be noted. As he was an out of state hunter for several years, Colorado Game and Fish may have, on record, the hunting areas he applied for. However, I don’t know how long or how much info they keep.

Also, the avid hunters in my family eventually have a favorite hunting area they like to return to. Where is BM’s?

 

[MsBetsy]

hmmm is right - wonder if they were wearing gloves (the searchers?) otherwise, perhaps there might be a print or two or something on the "personal item"
well done!
JMO

I wonder if that was the reason LE decided not to include volunteers in the search from that point on. They may have been suspicious about the found item being overlooked before.

 

[Error505]

Just watched the latest AM interview on PE - just have to say the depth of AMs emotion when he speaks about SM is such a stark contrast to the lack of emotion in BMs voice (assuming we don't count anger, which is the only emotion we've seen from him). Anyone would be lucky to have a big brother like AM, IMO.

I've been thinking about BM leaving at 5 am on Sunday and how strange that has always seemed to leave at that time. If we assume BM is telling the truth about when he left the house (LE certainly could verify per gps/phone records) - I don't think he left at that time to dispose of the body.

Per google, sunrise on Mother's Day in Denver was 5:50 am. I can't imagine a scenario that something happens to SM on Saturday afternoon and BM waits until after sunrise the next day to hide the body. So that doesn't really give him much time to go very far and accomplish anything in the dark. Also, wouldn't GPS data lead LE directly to any location that BM spent considerable time on his trip to Denver? JMO, but I think he dealt with SMs body on Saturday evening.

He certainly didn't leave that early to actually set up the job, if we believe MG's account. As I've been thinking about it, the reason that makes the most sense to me is the simple answer that he absolutely HAD to be on video (remember, he mentioned how the hotel has cameras 'all over') at the time that SM would normally be on her "bike ride". We don't know for certain what SMs routine was, but she was a regular biker and my guess is she had a somewhat consistent routine on when she would ride (I'd guess sometime between 8 and 9 am). I wonder if the mail left in the room is actually irrelevant to motive, but was just to establish BM was there and couldn't have been in Salida (you know, just in case the cameras weren't working).

Pure speculation of course, but that puts me squarely in the camp of thinking that SM is close to home. I hope the search efforts are successful in finding her. JMO, MOO.

Great Post @Hoosierfan72 I’m in agreement with you regarding BM hiding SM on MD, not enough darkness time wise to get the deed done if he left at 5 am. If he borrowed someone’s vehicle instead of driving his ow, it would be done Saturday night imho.

If LE has Hwy cctv of which vehicles were captured on video, they should be able to figure out hat he might have been driving. If it takes 45 minutes to drive from point A to point B (CCTV captured) and it took BM 2 hours to drive that distance, my guess is he could have disposed of SM somewhere in between Point A and B.
I hope I’m explaining that right.

As far as AM’s demeanor, I think he’s overwhelmed time-wise with coordinating the upcoming search. I’m sure there’s the grief factor as well. He genuinely loved his little sister. BM 26 second video his face was all contorted into what he pictured he should look like as a grief stricken husband while not being sincere about the reward. And AM you can SEE the grief on his face and hear it in his voice.I get leaky-eyes thinking about his emotions he’s going through right now.
BBM for emphasis.

Best thoughts to all those participating in the search. God’s speed and prayers you all stay safe.

 

[Deleted member 102539]

BM bought a plot of land for building a new home for his mother. Afaik, the plot is near his own property. What, if he buried SM there? He would be able to controll everything and do the landscaping by himself, so noone would find remains suddenly one day.

 

[PaulaDC]

So my kiddo came home from school yesterday and said the school bathroom stunk like a swimming pool! (The school does NOT have a pool).

Naturally, I thought of BM’s hotel room and you all. Now it is much easier to understand how a school bathroom could smell like that than a Holiday Inn Express hotel room with its carpeting, wall paper, and soft surfaces. But given that at least one of you had people climbing into a cooler for the cause I figured I’d at least share this anecdote FWIW.

I just cleaned someone's shower and left bleach in there for half an hour. I rinsed it. It's been about an hour. Smell is gone. I wonder if that odor was a reaction to whatever it was used on. I know plastic shower curtains have an awfully smelly reaction to bleach that is much stronger than on hard surfaces like tile. moo

 

[Dave F.]

I like the ATV idea but it seems like that would require him to manually dig a grave. I think it would have to be at least 6' deep to avoid detection by animals. That was one of Chase Merritt's mistakes in the McStay case, he didn't dig a deep enough grave even though it was off road in the desert and that led to the discovery of the family by a dirt biker because animals had ravaged the grave. While I don't doubt that BM had the strength and adrenalin to hand dig a grave, did he take the time to do so or did he use his bobcat?

Maybe @Dave F. could speak to the soil conditions in the area and the difficulty or not of digging by hand, as IIRC he is familiar with the area.

MOO

I actually buried a large dog in the mountain canyon five miles south of Deckers, Colorado (72 miles northeast of Monarch Pass, off the route to Denver). The dog was beloved by everyone, so we did it at night, after the young guests of the summer camp had gone to sleep. It took three of us almost six hours to get a thirty inch deep hole large enough to respectfully lay the deceased. The "soil" of The Colorado Rockies is primarily heavy gravel mixed with small boulders, overlaid with about four to eight inches of humus from decomposed leaves, twigs, pine needles or what-have-you. Shovels and picks bounce off. We finally were able to make some progress with a World War II surplus Army "mattock" tool that someone dug out of their automobile trunk. I was the strongest and had the most stamina, so I did most of the actual digging and the others would relieve me while I drank some water and walked off the muscle fatigue cramps. It was one of the most physically challenging events of my lifetime. I remember actually praying that I would finish by daylight. IMO

 

[Hatfield]

BM bought a plot of land for building a new home for his mother. Afaik, the plot is near his own property. What, if he buried SM there? He would be able to controll everything and do the landscaping by himself, so noone would find remains suddenly one day.

Good theory.

Shades of Patrick Frazee again with him trying to destroy evidence at his Mom's place where PF also lived at the time.