Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #37

[BeckyF]

My main concern with this search is that we're
4 months out from the body being hidden.
How many rain storms have flattened tire tracks and freshly dug dirt?
Grass and weeds may be growing already on the site.
Unless they have a bunch of trained search dogs, I can't imagine how the searchers can
spot a dig site.

I have the same concerns. I applaud their efforts and hope the search brings all closer to a resolution.

 

[Error505]

Good morning All, just wanted to give a quick update on my plans regarding the search for Suzanne.

I will not be able to leave until Friday morning as I couldn’t find coverage at work for tomorrow, Thursday. COVID has really increased our workload in the mental health setting. I booked a room for 2 nights (Friday night and Saturday night). I plan on attending the vigil on Friday night and then the search on Saturday and Sunday. I am a bit concerned that I will miss Thursday’s search assignments and then not be assigned to a group. I tried emailing, but understandably, have not heard back. Hopefully it will all work out.

I will drive Highway 285 and then take some pics of the area, just FYI. If you guys would like me to visit any particular places and take pics, please let me know. I can definitely do that.

Also, if all of you that plan to attend the search let me know who you are, I will create a private conversation so we can maybe exchange contact information, if everybody is comfortable with that.

I will definitely take pics and post on a daily basis. It may be in evening, thou, when I am back at the hotel.

Anyway, let me know if there is anything in particular that I can do and check out while I am in Salida.

Thank you and our other WS’ers who are participating in the search. All my prayers for your safety and for very needed results go with you. We look forward to getting firsthand updates from all of you heroes! You restore my faith in humanity!

 

[EggSalad]

Four places of interest.

-Fire camp area?
-National Forest that backs up to Morphew residence?
-maybe this elk hunting area north of Maysville: HuntScore: Elk Hunting in Colorado's GMU 56 - Chaffee County
-??

 

[BeckyF]

DBM duplicate

 

[NuttMegg]

Where ever Suzanne is located- the usual suspect has been there before. That said how far back does the phone tracking gps data go and couldn't his 2 years in colorado be searched to find the 7 remote "hunting" wilderness pings on da phone? This would save having to ask the kids where they went or the hunting buddies etc. The guy can be "tracked" as long as there was a signal and even if no signal up to the point signal lost. Do have computers that can speed a search like this up ? I'd go as far to say he could have been there lately to scope this site out . Motown

A couple of weeks back someone mentioned the # of the wildlife management area of the local elk/deer hunting club, whatever the correct terms are in Colorado. Wouldn't that be a finite area, with mines annotated, access roads, etc? I wonder if any of the local hunters are getting sweaty palms from memory flashes....where she could be. Earlier I mentioned my thoughts that the "road kill" probably didn't come from an actual "road" "kill", and probably was taken closer to or within the hunting area. Just a guess. No one smacks a mature bull elk with antlers on a winding gravel road hard enough to kill the animal but not completely wreck the auto. And then grabs the rack and runs. Without the whole valley/town learning about it. Besides, as we all discussed before, why would there be a fresh set of bloody antlers in May. This whole situation might be solved by 10 local hunters mutually examining their encounters/trail travels with what's his name.

ETA now I see EggSalad posted the area, or one of the areas a few minutes ago.

 

[Error505]

rsbm

oviedo, I looked in the media thread, but could not quickly find the information about where BM laid down on the ground.

Iirc, he and some searchers were up by Crested Butte when this happened—did we ever find out why they were up there? And it was fairly soon after SUZANNE’s disappearance.

Google says Crested Butte is one hour fifty minutes from Salida, so it’s a bit outside the three and a half hour round trip window Andy mentioned.

Crested Butte and the the lying down incident remains a question for me.

Andy discussed BM lying down on the ground around Crested Butte, that’s the first and only time I heard about that. I’ll try to find the video and time stamp it. One of the disadvantages of info being only on a video is trying to refer back to that info.

EBM

 

[oviedo]

True, but I get the feeling he just means get her out of whatever dump site he put her in, and 'home' to be cared for by her family, even if it is her daughter's that choose her final resting place.

sometimes i am just too literal - in any case, I'm so impressed that her brother is leading the charge to "bring her home" - I sincerely hope they find her and I am completely wrong about what was done to her.
JMO

 

[Murphy1950]

'I'm going to get results': Brother of missing mother Suzanne Morphew arrives in Colorado ahead of volunteer search

"My sister was murdered," Moorman said. And that's what I know happened."

IMO - It seems a line in the sand has been drawn, as it were. Confirms what many have properly assumed, though LE has not officially announced:
Suzanne is dead and it was due to murder.

RSBM

It would seem to me that to use the word murdered L/E has more than just electronic evidence, missing phones etc. I have thought up until now there obviously wasn't enough evidence to try the case without a body. We have said Barry would be the only one who could possibly benefit from staging a bike....perhaps they now have a very strong motive to go along with enough evidence to proceed.

 

[Ontario Mom]

The latest 3rd hand info from LE via AM is that they don’t believe SM’s body was ‘well hidden’.

Your point still stands but as opposed to a dig site, I think it’s more likely a searcher would find partial remains/bones that hopefully can be identified.

I must have missed this. Can you link back to the source for this please?

 

[PaulaDC]

We all can assume where BM's phone was turned off but I'm hoping he felt safe enough to turn it back on in another location on his way back......

 

[EggSalad]

A couple of weeks back someone mentioned the # of the wildlife management area of the local elk/deer hunting club, whatever the correct terms are in Colorado. Wouldn't that be a finite area, with mines annotated, access roads, etc? I wonder if any of the local hunters are getting sweaty palms from memory flashes....where she could be. Earlier I mentioned my thoughts that the "road kill" probably didn't come from an actual "road" "kill", and probably was taken closer to or within the hunting area. Just a guess. No one smacks a mature bull elk with antlers on a winding gravel road hard enough to kill the animal but not completely wreck the auto. And then grabs the rack and runs. Without the whole valley/town learning about it. Besides, as we all discussed before, why would there be a fresh set of bloody antlers in May. This whole situation might be solved by 10 local hunters mutually examining their encounters/trail travels with what's his name.

ETA now I see EggSalad posted the area, or one of the areas a few minutes ago.

Regarding the elk hunting area, I wonder if BM would think:

1. It’s too risky to dispose of her there because a lot of hunters traverse that property

OR

2. If I dispose of her in May, hunting season won’t start until Sept and that leaves 4-5 months for the body to decompose and possibly taken away by animals before people are regularly back on the land.

 

[lamlawindy]

• Bye kitty cat theory, even with 9 lives you were not long for this world.

I'm skeptical that a mountain lion actually took Suzanne because such attacks are very rare. That being said, @TxGidget posted that -- during a video interview -- AM said "that one thing he knows 'for a fact' was that LE saw a large male mountain lion at the Morphew home." From a legal perspective, it doesn't matter if a mountain lion actually harmed Suzanne or not. If an officer actually testifies for the defense as to seeing a mountain lion at the Morphew home, then it provides a great basis for arguing reasonable doubt.

Of course, the defense will have to identify this officer & subpoena him/her for trial. There's also the possibility that AM misunderstood the remark about the mountain lion, though his statement appears to be fairly emphatic.

 

[Topppps]

For those of you able to attend the search and need some ideas to possible consider checking out, I have a few ideas.
If you look at the overall map of Maysville there's not a lot of good locations to hide Suzanne's body. Personally I think he went east with her towards Denver since Monarch has a motel close to the highway that likely has cameras and that would alert LE that he went west, or the smartest move is probably heading north.

38°32'36.9"N 106°10'32.7"W
East bound-Looks interesting this road. Nothing out there.

38°29'53.6"N 106°04'41.6"W
East-Looks like some kind of abandoned mining area.

39°01'57.0"N 105°59'14.0"W
If he hid her body on the way to Denver I think this would be an interesting spot. Nothing over there. If he brought the Bobcat perfect spot to bring the trailer. I think it was closed at the time.

38°33'46.6"N 106°11'59.9"W

This whole area here going north from Maysville looks interesting. Miles and miles of spots to hide Suzanne. Honestly feel like this would be the smartest move, not a lot of possible cameras that way. This road 240 will take a lot of work to look at it all.


38°33'21.0"N 106°11'21.7"W

Another north bound spot, this dirt road here opens up a lot of possibilities as there is nothing up there. Probably smart to get off road 240 since there could be people headed to North Fork Reservoir.

 

[EggSalad]

I must have missed this. Can you link back to the source for this please?

yes, I’ll find that.

It might have been from PE’s Monday choir practice.

 

[Error505]

I’m no psychologist but perhaps the rumors LS has heard about BM and drug use are true? He’s very erratic, agitated, paranoid and seems to be operating in an alternate reality.


I’m actually really curious what BM is going to be doing today. No doubt LE is watching him closely today. Will BM panic and make a rash move knowing that in 24 hours the search is on?

MOO - BM is scared like a cornered animal, despite his brashness and crass remarks. He’s an irrational person, and I feel the closer SM is to being located the more dangerous BM becomes, like a cornered animal. I’m concerned for his daughters, especially the one still living with him. I’m concerned for anyone in BM’s physical presence. Walls are caving in on BM, making BM more dangerous, either to himself or those around him.

AM seems to have received at least “some“ pretty specific information in the last 4 weeks or so. I don’t think it’s all coming from LE, but connections AM has made in preparing for this search.

God Speed to all the Searchers!

 

[enelram]

-Fire camp area?
-National Forest that backs up to Morphew residence?
-maybe this elk hunting area north of Maysville: HuntScore: Elk Hunting in Colorado's GMU 56 - Chaffee County
-??

wow, thanks for that map of Chaffee Co. Elk hunting area.
Just that one site is huge- 216 sq. miles and at high elevation.
that's a site appx. 10 milesX 21 miles - a vast
area to search and at high elevation making it much tougher.
Would love to be a fly on the wall listening to
the organizers explain the logistics of this search. And hearing how to search and what to look for.
This is a HUGE undertaking. Kudos to AM and all the volunteers.

 

[Fireflize]

BM really, really thought that the bike abduction would be bought and even if she was found, her murder would be attributed to a burly stranger.
He doesn't expect to be challenged. His arrogance is sinking his ship.

So maybe he wasn't too concerned about hiding her carefully. Every thing else he did was sloppy, so maybe he just dumped her.
Moo

 

[NuttMegg]

Regarding the elk hunting area, I wonder if BM would think:

1. It’s too risky to dispose of her there because a lot of hunters traverse that property

OR

2. If I dispose of her in May, hunting season won’t start until Sept and that leaves 4-5 months for the body to decompose and possibly taken away by animals before people are regularly back on the land.

Well you've got a point or 2, but there may be access roads leading to the area that aren't even hunted. Where ppl hardly step on land as they head towards the legally open areas. I just have this hunch that there are some people, maybe hunters, in Salida who might be seeing some light bulbs go off, re remote areas. I always thought that Watts chose the oil tanks possibly because of offhand, innocent but macabre conversations with the guys....hey you'd never find a body in one of those!! (IMO)

 

[Error505]

Confusion of whether BM arrived home @ 6:00 PM or 9:00 PM... there's three hours.

The 'disappearing a body' window doesn't necessarily have to coincide to the time frame when a person became a body... each event could occur at different times, different days.

I don’t think BM would have left SM’s body anywhere she could easily be discovered and then disposed of her after his return to Salida from Broomfield. MOO

I’m much more curious about his timeframe all day Saturday & Saturday night. Jmo.

 

[enelram]

Regarding the elk hunting area, I wonder if BM would think:

1. It’s too risky to dispose of her there because a lot of hunters traverse that property

OR

2. If I dispose of her in May, hunting season won’t start until Sept and that leaves 4-5 months for the body to decompose and possibly taken away by animals before people are regularly back on the land.

I'll take #2 for a million, Alex.

Just heard on one of my many real crime TV shows that the average body out in the elements loses 5 pounds of mass each day from decomposition and insects.

Also read that a mountain lion will not eat spoiled meat that's more than a day or two old.
Would BM know that?