Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #47

[10ofRods]

1st post! Hope I do this right.
My father was a life member at the Fire Dept/Rescue Squad down the road from our house. It was right on the line between 2 counties so they ran calls in both counties. 1 county supplied the personnel (insurance purposes) & equipment and the other county supplied the land & the building. When he joined, both counties did a background check, fingerprinting, and issued him county IDs even though he was only a volunteer. I'm not sure what they did with his fingerprints but they were done at the Sheriff's office & are on record in his personnel file with both counties.

Welcome to Websleuths!
​

Glad to have you here and helping to keep Suzanne's case public and for your thoughtful comment.

 

[Fireflize]

1st post! Hope I do this right.
My father was a life member at the Fire Dept/Rescue Squad down the road from our house. It was right on the line between 2 counties so they ran calls in both counties. 1 county supplied the personnel (insurance purposes) & equipment and the other county supplied the land & the building. When he joined, both counties did a background check, fingerprinting, and issued him county IDs even though he was only a volunteer. I'm not sure what they did with his fingerprints but they were done at the Sheriff's office & are on record in his personnel file with both counties.

Welcome to Websleuths. Great post. Thx for the information.

 

[DizzyB]

RSBM

I don't know about volunteers, but I strongly suspect the paid crew at the Chaffee County Fire District have to get fingerprinted upon being hired by the County.

At least, County employees in my California county must do so. (source: I am an employee of my county).

(It is also possible that contractors who contract with the county or state have a similar requirement although this is just a guess, I have no personal knowledge of this.)

MOO

I have been fingerprinted for work, and as a prerequisite of volunteering in my local school district. I could not find fingerprinting listed in the Chaffee County volunteer firefighter info, but I did see that volunteers must pass a background check of some sort.

 

[hpruitt]

Thank You Everybody! I have been lurking for years.

I have a question though. If the house on PP is being sold because the girls are scared to be there since it's possible SM was taken from there, is that BM's indirect way of saying that the bike ride was staged? He's changed his mind so many times, it's hard to keep track of his theories. I can understand their feelings about the house but still, why sell the house so quick? If BM thinks that she is still alive, what happens if she "escapes" and the 1st thing she does is run home (Surely she would call the police 1st?) to find her family doesn't live there anymore? Or a new family lives there now? So, she's been through this totally traumatizing experience and she now has to track down her family? Not that I think that will ever happen but I'm not sure how I would feel about being abducted and escaping only to find that my family (mainly DH) had already moved on 6 months +/- after I disappeared.

Also, would it be possible to tell the difference between a broken neck caused by someone coming up behind you and snapping it and a broken neck caused by a tumble off of a cliff?

MOO...Like a PP mentioned above, I think that if the kitchen (floor) was disassembled by the police during a search then they found DNA but it was urine, not blood. The bowels/bladder emptying after death can catch someone not experienced with death by surprise and it happens quick. (I had my dog put down a few years ago and even working in the medical field, I was caught off gaurd when her bladder let go almost immediately after she passed. It was traumatizing even though I was at peace with my decision to let her go.) I think BM came up behind SM, maybe with the pretense of showing her some affection or possibly by surprise, and snapped her neck. Then, I think he loaded her up and she is somewhere between home and Denver. Or she is at the bottom of a cliff somewhere but not because she took a tumble.

Of course, all this is just my thoughts. I sincerely hope Suzanne's family is granted closure sooner rather than later.

 

[mainemom376]

Crickets...

 

[Saved69]

Having been away for a few days, I was disappointed to return and find there's still been no arrest.

What did this guy do with her?? Hmmm. So incredibly sad.

 

[OldCop]

1. When scent trail confusion prevails, the handler will usually take the scent dog outside of the LKP area and then begin to slowly circle the area in an attempt to detect a scent trail leading away from the LKP. If the individual walked or was not encapsulated to prevent skin cells from dropping to the ground, there would be an exit trail. If there is no exit scent trail, the individual is still in the LKP, or was encapsulated in some manner (car, plastic bag, cooler, etc) and removed from the area.

2. That would depend on the severity of the head injury. Closed head trauma can vary. Probably between 100 yards to about five miles, considering an adult in good shape and having water can travel upwards of 30 miles in the right conditions. If there had been significant bleeding, there would have been a blood trail. Either way there would have been shoe prints, scuffs, disturbed vegetation, stone rolls, etc. Really obvious shoe prints if they had been clip-on pedal shoes.

This leads me down another rabbit hole. If SM had been wearing clip-on biking shoes, the prints would have been so obvious that anything LE did, short of complete site obliteration" would have left very distinctive prints. Do we have any confirmation of the particular footwear SM was wearing (never ask what shoes the subject was wearing as you automatically enter into the witnesses mind that they were wearing shoes, when in fact they could have been wearing any manner of footwear or even been barefoot)?

It is not uncommon to arrive at a LKP and find a complete mess created by unknowing but well meaning first responders. Trackers call this the "area of total destruction" and both Trackers and Dog Handlers start working around the fringes of this area to find the exit track/scent trail.

Actor comments that "LE messed up the evidence" (or words to that effect) only makes sense if the actor knows where the evidence was in the first place.

Awesome, @Trackergd . Very informative. Thank you.
I think there very well could have been an “area of total destruction” here. Without meaning to destroy evidence, first responders may initially have converged upon the scene of the bike thinking they had an injured person nearby. It would not immediately occur to them that it was a crime scene as opposed to an accident because they were out looking for a missing person who was allegedly riding her bike in a low crime area. They found her bike at the bottom of a hill and I’m pretty sure they believed it was an accident of some sort. Your first duty is always preservation of life.
First responders in LE are generally the “patrol” segment of a department. They will have been trained to deliver emergency first aid and how to secure a crime scene until investigators arrive. However, in a case like this where there was no obvious crime scene such as a body, blood, etc, they would have likely continued their search for SM. Once they realized there was no injured SM nearby, it must have raised suspicions and made them realize that something more nefarious was going on.
We have been told that both SAR and search canines were brought in that first night. They likely did exactly what you said; started working outwards from the area around the bike. IMO they found nothing indicating that SM was ever at that scene.
As far as clothing, we have only the in depth description (insert sarcasm here), that her husband provided; a baby blue bike helmet and “biking clothes”.

 

[Megnut]

As I see it, the actor knows there was evidence there, that got obliterated,

OR

there was an absence of evidence that the actor explains away (that LE trampled it into oblivion)

And all moot because it would appear LE had reason to distrust the bike from Day 1.

....it would appear that the only person continuing to peddle the bike story is the actor.... and if there was no biking, what evidence does he think got trampled?

That's a lot of look over here, not over there.

Nearly 6 months out, I wonder what his current story is? Still a bike ride? Just a different day? And he misremembered because he wasn't right in his mind? Suzanne would want him to sell the house because....?

Whatever happened to Suzanne, she's missing.

I just don't know anyone who can't recall the last conversation they had with someone who is gone.....

That's pretty damning IMO.

JMO

 

[Trackergd]

OK folks...follow along. Is it probable that the reason the actor got so vocal about LE destroying the evidence, was because it was staged? He needed LE to find it to make his lie into a truth? Again, how would the actor know if evidence had been destroyed, unless he knew where it was? I'm at 98% that deceptive evidence was staged in the opposite direction from the "event" to entice LE and potentially SAR to look somewhere else while he was keeping an eye on the real area of concern. If someone else told him that LE had destroyed evidence, I would want to know how that person knew where the evidence was. My BS and Red Flag meters are pegged. Tracker, what is opposite of the potentially fabricated LKP you ask? Why the countryside back behind the Puma Path property! I am thinking the other sites were potentially smaller bits of evidence that were evaluated by LE because of cell phone hits that placed the actor in those areas for a period of time on or around the time of the "event". Now the actor would want to keep an eye on his little plot of horror to ensure no one had found it, and what better way than a trail cam? So after SAR (who were looking for a body laying on the ground) and LE (who were looking for a body or a suspicious dirt pile) and tramped through the area, there must have been a warm and fuzzy feeling and a green light to move forward with the planned agenda. So what is interesting about the LKP you may ask? It's a quick, short drive from the house to go stage and right back to the house again. No need to cross the highway with potentially more witnesses driving past. What's so interesting about the acres behind the house? My, my, my....about the best place in the world to dispose of remains without them floating down river, popping up in a lake, being discovered in a drum located in a storage locker or any number of other scenarios that could come back and bite him years later. Deep enough to keep the wildlife from digging up, wrapped up well enough to keep any decomp gasses from escaping and remote enough that even on the off chance someone was hiking the area, it would not be discovered. Just MOO

 

[Auntie Cipation]

@Trackergd , your comment reminded me of something I'd been meaning to mention. I don't think I've seen anyone else comment on this although I might have missed it.

It appears (source: Zillow) that the parcel directly south of where the bike was found, is for sale. Zillow says it's been listed for 55 days.

This parcel is west and slightly north of the PP home. It is along the road that is the enter-exit route for the neighborhood.

I just wonder if this has any connection to the case...

MOO

 

[Megnut]

OK folks...follow along. Is it probable that the reason the actor got so vocal about LE destroying the evidence, was because it was staged? He needed LE to find it to make his lie into a truth? Again, how would the actor know if evidence had been destroyed, unless he knew where it was? I'm at 98% that deceptive evidence was staged in the opposite direction from the "event" to entice LE and potentially SAR to look somewhere else while he was keeping an eye on the real area of concern. If someone else told him that LE had destroyed evidence, I would want to know how that person knew where the evidence was. My BS and Red Flag meters are pegged. Tracker, what is opposite of the potentially fabricated LKP you ask? Why the countryside back behind the Puma Path property! I am thinking the other sites were potentially smaller bits of evidence that were evaluated by LE because of cell phone hits that placed the actor in those areas for a period of time on or around the time of the "event". Now the actor would want to keep an eye on his little plot of horror to ensure no one had found it, and what better way than a trail cam? So after SAR (who were looking for a body laying on the ground) and LE (who were looking for a body or a suspicious dirt pile) and tramped through the area, there must have been a warm and fuzzy feeling and a green light to move forward with the planned agenda. So what is interesting about the LKP you may ask? It's a quick, short drive from the house to go stage and right back to the house again. No need to cross the highway with potentially more witnesses driving past. What's so interesting about the acres behind the house? My, my, my....about the best place in the world to dispose of remains without them floating down river, popping up in a lake, being discovered in a drum located in a storage locker or any number of other scenarios that could come back and bite him years later. Deep enough to keep the wildlife from digging up, wrapped up well enough to keep any decomp gasses from escaping and remote enough that even on the off chance someone was hiking the area, it would not be discovered. Just MOO

I dare say you nailed it!

Add one skulled elk buried atop.

No one'll touch that.

JMO

 

[crhedBngr]

@Trackergd , your comment reminded me of something I'd been meaning to mention. I don't think I've seen anyone else comment on this although I might have missed it.

It appears (source: Zillow) that the parcel directly south of where the bike was found, is for sale. Zillow says it's been listed for 55 days.

This parcel is west and slightly north of the PP home. It is along the road that is the enter-exit route for the neighborhood.

I just wonder if this has any connection to the case...

MOO

Good find!

Piques my curiosity.

JMVHO.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Good find!

Piques my curiosity.

JMVHO.

Hmm, just dug a little, owner isn't local and name doesn't ring any bells. Still I wish there was a recent aerial photo to check for disturbed areas... Seems unrelated though.

 

[LietKynes]

Awesome, @Trackergd . Very informative. Thank you.
I think there very well could have been an “area of total destruction” here. Without meaning to destroy evidence, first responders may initially have converged upon the scene of the bike thinking they had an injured person nearby. It would not immediately occur to them that it was a crime scene as opposed to an accident because they were out looking for a missing person who was allegedly riding her bike in a low crime area. They found her bike at the bottom of a hill and I’m pretty sure they believed it was an accident of some sort. Your first duty is always preservation of life.
First responders in LE are generally the “patrol” segment of a department. They will have been trained to deliver emergency first aid and how to secure a crime scene until investigators arrive. However, in a case like this where there was no obvious crime scene such as a body, blood, etc, they would have likely continued their search for SM. Once they realized there was no injured SM nearby, it must have raised suspicions and made them realize that something more nefarious was going on.
We have been told that both SAR and search canines were brought in that first night. They likely did exactly what you said; started working outwards from the area around the bike. IMO they found nothing indicating that SM was ever at that scene.
As far as clothing, we have only the in depth description (insert sarcasm here), that her husband provided; a baby blue bike helmet and “biking clothes”.

bbm
Agreed.

Re. the bolded :
A similar 'vanishing' that took place in the Mojave desert had the not-distraught husband showing a photo of her in a black bikini.
He claimed she had hiking boots on and a cap.
No description of the beer container or the boots.
So that even if someone found those items, they'd more than likely not know if it belonged to the lady or not.
So vague.
Just like BM's "note".
Imo.

 

[Trackergd]

Hmm, just dug a little, owner isn't local and name doesn't ring any bells. Still I wish there was a recent aerial photo to check for disturbed areas... Seems unrelated though.

Is the owner still at the property or is it vacant awaiting sale? I bet the actor knows. Now about that aerial photo, remember that little blurb I put waaaay back about LiDAR? If that entire area was scanned by air by LiDAR and the vegetation removed from the scan, disturbances in the soil would be visible, say a filled in hole where the dirt had settled a tad? Hmmmm...

 

[al66pine]

Mailing Address for PP Tax Bills?

Thanks @al66pine - was hoping this might reveal a "bill to" address - guess not.

^@oviedo Thanks for your post prompting me to look again for something I'd seen before.
See below w bbm & gbm & ubm*, from County Assessor, displaying 'Mailing Address' as PP Street address.
See also below from website of Chaffee County Treasurer which issues/mails tax bills.**

BM may use/may have previously used a P.O. box, of which SM was not aware, but still appears imo per this info, the most recent tax annual bill was sent to PP street address. Jm2cts; others may interp differently.
ETA: BM may use local-ish PO box only for problematic mail, such as delinquent accounts, if he has some past due accts or certain mail w 'special friends.'
_____________________________________________________
* From qPublic.net - Chaffee County, CO - Report: R368531400097
County Assessor info, at tab marked "REPORT"
"Parcel Number 368531400097
Account Number R368531400097
Property Address 19057 PUMA PATH
UNINCORPORATED CHAFFEE COUNTY, CO"

"Owner Name & Mailing Address
Disclaimer: Mailing address is used for Chaffee County ad-valorem taxation purposes." {<--here, meaning annual prop tax}
"Morphew Barry L
Morphew Suzanne R
19057 Puma Path
Salida, CO 812019249."

** County Treasurer's website, searching w Parcel Number 368531400097 :
TAX INFORMATION MODULE

 

[10ofRods]

Thank You Everybody! I have been lurking for years.

I have a question though. If the house on PP is being sold because the girls are scared to be there since it's possible SM was taken from there, is that BM's indirect way of saying that the bike ride was staged? He's changed his mind so many times, it's hard to keep track of his theories. I can understand their feelings about the house but still, why sell the house so quick? If BM thinks that she is still alive, what happens if she "escapes" and the 1st thing she does is run home (Surely she would call the police 1st?) to find her family doesn't live there anymore? Or a new family lives there now? So, she's been through this totally traumatizing experience and she now has to track down her family? Not that I think that will ever happen but I'm not sure how I would feel about being abducted and escaping only to find that my family (mainly DH) had already moved on 6 months +/- after I disappeared.

Also, would it be possible to tell the difference between a broken neck caused by someone coming up behind you and snapping it and a broken neck caused by a tumble off of a cliff?

MOO...Like a PP mentioned above, I think that if the kitchen (floor) was disassembled by the police during a search then they found DNA but it was urine, not blood. The bowels/bladder emptying after death can catch someone not experienced with death by surprise and it happens quick. (I had my dog put down a few years ago and even working in the medical field, I was caught off gaurd when her bladder let go almost immediately after she passed. It was traumatizing even though I was at peace with my decision to let her go.) I think BM came up behind SM, maybe with the pretense of showing her some affection or possibly by surprise, and snapped her neck. Then, I think he loaded her up and she is somewhere between home and Denver. Or she is at the bottom of a cliff somewhere but not because she took a tumble.

Of course, all this is just my thoughts. I sincerely hope Suzanne's family is granted closure sooner rather than later.

IMO, yes, it would be quite obvious if someone had their neck manually broken as opposed to falling (where there would be fractures - including micro-fractures - consistent with the height of the fall and the injuries would not be confined to the head and the neck.

Breaking someone's neck manually would not be easy - strangulation would be easier (and usually results in the breakage of the hyoid bone, but can do more damage to the neck if the assailant is strong enough).

 

[10ofRods]

Respectfully, do we have any indication that SM was thought not to survive her second bout of cancer? IMO

I think we have the opposite information. That she had recently found out she was cancer free, and that she was going on maintenance doses of chemotherapy starting May 11 - for an undisclosed period of time.

So she survived Hodgkin's two times.

I believe this is in early MSM.

 

[Auntie Cipation]

Is the owner still at the property or is it vacant awaiting sale? I bet the actor knows. Now about that aerial photo, remember that little blurb I put waaaay back about LiDAR? If that entire area was scanned by air by LiDAR and the vegetation removed from the scan, disturbances in the soil would be visible, say a filled in hole where the dirt had settled a tad? Hmmmm...

It's vacant land, no house. The owner listed on the county assessor site has an address in Wisconsin and the name didn't ring any bells with me.

There is something odd about the property -- some kind of boggy area? Roundish area with no trees, what looks like a few rills of erosion through it, but doesn't look manmade.

I took a screenshot off Google Maps but it's too big to post. If you go to where the bike was found and look a few hundred feet to the south along the east side of that road and you can't miss it.

 

[Momofthreeboys]

I doubt her family would allow BM to be anywhere near trust fund assets. If SM was unable to perform duties as trustee, I’d bet her brother would be successor trustee.

Why are you thinking in this direction? There is nothing published or known that says the Moorman family has any issues with Suzanne’s husband leading up to Suzanne going missing. The norm would be spouse then kids.