Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #6

[K9Enzo]

For search and rescue. If someone took her, they would not find her this way!

Local, State & Federal investigators is a pretty solid team on the case. IMO.

 

[RickshawFan]

Thank you. The reason I don’t think he has that evidence is that it took so long to get the search warrant for the house. She is a critical, endangered, missing person. If evidence so obviously pointed toward the husband, wouldn’t the sheriff want to get in that house ASAP? Don’t tell me he didn’t apply for a search warrant within the first week—any competent LE officer would have raced to the courthouse for it. But it took him until nine days in to get a judge to sign off. Maybe he shopped it to several different judges before one agreed there was probable cause. If there was really so much evidence that the husband is responsible, Barney Fife could have convinced a judge sooner.

You seem to be implying LE is incompetent, but we don't actually know anything about the investigation, when search warrants were obtained, what may have been searched. Nada. We're working from no deck; LE might be operating from a full deck and then some. We don't know.

 

[otto]

For search and rescue. If someone took her, they would not find her this way!

Have others wondered why it was reported that she disappeared during a bike ride even though no one saw her cycling that day?

Why would anyone assume that something happened during a bike ride rather than report to police that no one could reach her and would they please do a welfare check. Maybe she had an accident in the house, or in the yard. That was never put forward. Somehow, it was assumed, prior to locating her bicycle or even arriving at the house, that she vanished during a bike ride.

 

[CronesEye]

It's so hard to be impartial. I am relatively new at this and see I have assumptions and implicit bias based on past incidences. It really hinders investigation as I remember reading in Gavin De Becker's "Gift of Fear" I can't find the passage right now and shall read the book again as I think I learn something new each time I read it, but De Becker was the first author to teach me just how important it was to know your own thinking if you really wanted to find the truth.

Bias absolutely destroys investigation and investigators are taught to uproot and overcome their biases.

Difficult because the brain craves categorizing. It's easier.

 

[otto]

Well, there could be something we don’t know.....but if the sheriff just assumed it’s the spouse (because it usually is), and has no hard evidence, then ya, I agree.

It wasn't the Sheriff who assumed that, although no one could reach her on May 10 and no one saw her on a bicycle, she must have disappeared while cycling.

 

[Quiet Time]

Well that was depressing news I’m walking my dog and just checked in and saw the announcement that search has concluded without finding anything. How awful for her family to endure that. I feel so bad for them and I feel bad for the all those FBI agents that had to do all that work for three days - hopefully they get paid the big bucks?! Probably not. I haven’t seen any photos today but I don’t think they could’ve possibly dug up that entire amount of concrete. I guess they were focusing on specific areas after the x-ray or whatever they did. I guess it would be easier to dump ashes into the river right there than to bury it in dirt under concrete. I wonder what they were looking for it just seemed like they were so sure something was under there. It seems strange that MSM has not picked up on this case because to me it’s just as interesting and tragic as many other high profile cases that have been mentioned. Well I’m going to keep checking in and monitoring the case and reading your posts but I’m not going to post as much anymore because I just can’t seem to do it right and I’m getting posts deleted. It’s too hard to censor my thoughts and then when I do post it’s too long. I’m honestly not a big talker at all! Just writer ha ha. Even though the end of the search was a big letdown the only good thing is she has still not been found so I’m going to keep praying for a miracle that she is found alive!

Good post! You did good...

 

[vaporlass]

Good post! You did good...

@Lilypad13 .... don’t worry about posts being deleted, I have had several deleted today! I’ve been a member for years, I leave and come back all the time, but I can’t seem to remember what I can and cannot say when I get emotional and caught up in the case, which is why we have our beloved monitors. Lol.

 

[Knox]

Local, State & Federal investigators is a pretty solid team on the case. IMO.

I've seen posts indicating some folks may feel LE has tunnel vision. One of the reasons I disagree, is just what you post above. With all the various agencies involved, it would certainly make unwarranted focus on BM more difficult.

I'm confident they are doing a good job.

 

[Truecolors]

Have others wondered why it was reported that she disappeared during a bike ride even though no one saw her cycling that day?

Why would anyone assume that something happened during a bike ride rather than report to police that no one could reach her and would they please do a welfare check. Maybe she had an accident in the house, or in the yard. That was never put forward. Somehow, it was assumed, prior to locating her bicycle or even arriving at the house, that she vanished during a bike ride.

I’m very curious about this as well. It’s even the title of the thread, but now it is an unknown if she was ever on a bike ride (even though the bike was found). So where did the bike ride idea initially come from?

 

[otto]

I've seen posts indicating some folks may feel LE has tunnel vision. One of the reasons I disagree, is just what you post above. With all the various agencies involved, it would certainly make unwarranted focus on BM more difficult.

I'm confident they are doing a good job.

Perhaps that is better phrased as "investigators zeroing in on one suspect prior to reviewing evidence." Tunnel vision has perhaps lost meaning over time.

 

[vaporlass]

Re cougar attacks.

Very rare for them to attack an adult but it does happen: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...t-killed-biker-injured-another-was-emaciated/

Vancouver Island has the highest population of cougars in the world. Occasionally adults are attacked there. I can't find the story (it was some time ago) but a man, near Port Alberni iirc, was cycling and a cougar jumped on his back. He fought it off. What saved him was his backpack which protected his neck.

This 61 yr old man was also attacked but killed it with his pocket knife. Attacking cougar killed with pocket knife

This guy got lucky too: Deadly cougar attack on mountain bikers highlights importance of bear spray

They usually attack children, or pets. I don't think petite Mrs. Morphew would do well against one unless she was carrying a weapon. There would be clear signs that it had happened and the dogs would know (as long as it happened within the area searched). Also why would the bike be up against a tree, unless perhaps a passerby who didn't realize what had happened came along and propped it up later.

But wouldn’t it have left a bloody trail somewhere that they searched?

 

[skyedaze]

I wish we knew what tip led them there. At first I thought they had a solid lead and fully expected to find her there but now it seems as if they had a solid 'tip' and were hoping it would develop into something further. Imo

And the FBI was there...

 

[vaporlass]

I’d take my phone even without a signal because I could still listen to downloaded music on it.

LE has not released any information about her phone at all. But they’re the ones who *do* know whether or not her phone was found or if it wasn’t! And fortunately, there is a lot of info they can get from the cell phone carrier even without the phone itself.

Personally, I don’t take my phone when I go walking/running ... it’s too big and bulky ... I wear my watch which has internet and tracking capability.

 

[Ontario Mom]

It's so hard to be impartial. I am relatively new at this and see I have assumptions and implicit bias based on past incidences. It really hinders investigation as I remember reading in Gavin De Becker's "Gift of Fear" I can't find the passage right now and shall read the book again as I think I learn something new each time I read it, but De Becker was the first author to teach me just how important it was to know your own thinking if you really wanted to find the truth.

Bias absolutely destroys investigation and investigators are taught to uproot and overcome their biases.

Difficult because the brain craves categorizing. It's easier.

It's truly a fascinating subject.
The very best detectives just learn a new way of categorizing.
It's an amazing mental discipline to be a good investigator.
I certainly could never do what they do.
I'm sort of a "shoot first and don't bother with the questions because you know the answer will be a lie anyway" kind of person, lol.

jmo

 

[GoBuckeyes]

I haven't had an official Mother's Day celebration for over ten years. My daughter married a JW and that put the kibosh on those types of celebrations.

The reality is in the grand scheme of things, it's not really a big deal. And I know my daughter must have some residual guilt because usually a week after Mother's Day I get a beautiful bouquet of flowers and this year it was a Vera Bradley weekender bag.

Just a general observation and moo...Mother's Day seems to be a bigger deal when the kids are younger than 18.

 

[AuntKay]

Hi, it’s nice to join all of you here, thanks for an interesting discussion.

I was drawn to this case as I am an avid cyclist myself. In fact I have ridden 5 century rides raising funds for posters for missing children. So this case really speaks to me. I have often ridden alone early on Mother’s Day as a gift to myself.

I keep seeing people ask how they knew she was out on her bike. Well, no one knows.

Just from my experience as a female cyclist I, and many of the women I used to ride with, often had regular times we would bike in order to fit it into our busy schedules. So, for instance, mine was Sunday morning. Now I was a single mom, so my circumstances were different, so again, this is just me. I love morning rides, the air is fresh, there is almost no traffic on Sunday morning early and, very importantly, as a woman riding on my own, my whole family knew that Sunday was ride day. If no one heard back from me on Sunday late morning or early afternoon, they knew to check the house, look for my bike see if my car was gone and check my regular routes.

If I had been unavailable by 5 pm on a Sunday, and my bike was gone but my car was at home, my kids would have been very worried and I would have been considered possibly missing since about 7 am.

Just some food for thought, MOO.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Have others wondered why it was reported that she disappeared during a bike ride even though no one saw her cycling that day?

Why would anyone assume that something happened during a bike ride rather than report to police that no one could reach her and would they please do a welfare check. Maybe she had an accident in the house, or in the yard. That was never put forward. Somehow, it was assumed, prior to locating her bicycle or even arriving at the house, that she vanished during a bike ride.

I have a rather long winded explanation for this, but it's all speculative.

Short answer is, she's known to ride on Sunday.

Girls assumed it, perp used it, then girls told the neighbor that's where they thought she was.

Neighbor called 911 and repeated it.

Then it grew legs.

 

[Boxer]

I wish we knew what tip led them there. At first I thought they had a solid lead and fully expected to find her there but now it seems as if they had a solid 'tip' and were hoping it would develop into something further. Imo

MOO suspect the Ranger Station on Vandaveer has a camera and a strange car, or a known car showed up for at an unusual time visit to the property.

 

[otto]

I’m very curious about this as well. It’s even the title of the thread, but now it is an unknown if she was ever on a bike ride (even though the bike was found). So where did the bike ride idea initially come from?

It's a complete mystery how the "cycling" clue was discovered. No one saw her cycling. The information must have been provided by family at the time that her disappearance was reported.

Indeed her bike was not at home, but how would anyone know that since her husband and children were away that weekend.

All they knew was that they could not reach her on Mother's Day. No one had any reason to assume that something happened while she was cycling. She was a 49 year old cancer survivor, not a triathlete. A couple of hours mountain biking was probably enough for one day. That leaves 22 other hours that many things could have happened.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Hi, it’s nice to join all of you here, thanks for an interesting discussion.

I was drawn to this case as I am an avid cyclist myself. In fact I have ridden 5 century rides raising funds for posters for missing children. So this case really speaks to me. I have often ridden alone early on Mother’s Day as a gift to myself.

I keep seeing people ask how they knew she was out on her bike. Well, no one knows.

Just from my experience as a female cyclist I, and many of the women I used to ride with, often had regular times we would bike in order to fit it into our busy schedules. So, for instance, mine was Sunday morning. Now I was a single mom, so my circumstances were different, so again, this is just me. I love morning rides, the air is fresh, there is almost no traffic on Sunday morning early and, very importantly, as a woman riding on my own, my whole family knew that Sunday was ride day. If no one heard back from me on Sunday late morning or early afternoon, they knew to check the house, look for my bike see if my car was gone and check my regular routes.

If I had been unavailable by 5 pm on a Sunday, and my bike was gone but my car was at home, my kids would have been very worried and I would have been considered possibly missing since about 7 am.

Just some food for thought, MOO.

Great first post, and welcome to WS.