That is a lot of ifs. And yes, it would be a shame if some evidence was destroyed early on. However, we should also look at it another way. LE arrives on a scene with a blank slate when they are called. At the beginning, they take what they are being told at face value. When LE arrived at the Morphew home, they were told that SM had not returned from a bike ride. They had no reason, at this time not to believe it. What if it was your child, wife, husband, parent, who had gone missing while on a bike ride? Would you not want LE out scouring the area? Protection of life is always the first priority.
Continuing on with the narrative, as the search spread out along the road/trails where SM usually rode, someone spotted the bike down that steep incline. I’m quite sure that LE did scramble down there. I’m sure that when she wasn’t found right near the bike, they spread out in a radius around the bike to make sure she wasn’t laying in the area injured, incapacitated , or dead. Would you have not wanted LE to do the same for your family member? Do you know that the bike was not fingerprinted and photographed before it was brought back up to the road?
I’m sure it probably did take several officers to get the bike up to the road. It may have then been examined then to determine if there was a mechanical issue with the bike.
Perhaps that is when some doubts began to form as to what really happened to SM.
In the meantime, CCSO within hours brought in both the North and South Chaffee County SAR teams and canine search dogs from the local DOC facility.
LE’s first priority in those early hours was to find SM. Shame on them if it wasn’t.