Editor’s be aware: On June 20, 2025, the husband of Colorado mother Suzanne Morphew was arrested for first-degree homicide in her loss of life greater than 5 years in the past. That is the second time Barry Morphew has confronted homicide costs in connection together with her murder after the preliminary costs had been dismissed.
The loss of life of the 49-year-old Colorado mom who went lacking was formally declared a murder, based on an post-mortem report launched on April 29, 2024. This revelation comes two years after prosecutors dropped homicide costs in opposition to her husband simply as he was about to face trial.
Suzanne Morphew’s stays had been discovered throughout a search on Sept. 22, 2023, and positively recognized by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation on Sept. 27, 2023. Morphew was final seen on Mom’s Day, Might 10, 2020.
[This story previously aired on April 30, 2022. It was updated on July 1, 2023.]
This previous week, a prosecutor engaged on the case of Suzanne Morphew, a lacking mom of two, stated in open courtroom that investigators suspect they know the situation of her physique. “She is in a very difficult spot,” stated Deputy District Lawyer Mark Hurlbert. “We actually have more than just a feeling … and the sheriff’s office is continuing to look for Mrs. Morphew’s body.”
It was a serious replace within the Morphew case which started on Mom’s Day 2020, when she disappeared from her Colorado house. Hurlbert stated there was no timetable for bringing a homicide case to trial. “That could be a long time. It could be quick, it could be long. It depends on a lot of our investigation,” he stated.
When Suzanne first went lacking, investigators compiled and adopted a number of weird clues—a chipmunk alibi, a tranquilizer gun, and a spy pen—however lacked direct proof.
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
Investigators seen Barry’s cellphone seemed to be pinging throughout his home on Mom’s Day weekend 2020, which he maintains was as a result of he was chasing and taking pictures at chipmunks. Investigators additionally discovered a plastic cap for a syringe that they consider was used to load a tranquilizer dart within the couple’s dryer. Barry, investigators say, informed them he didn’t know the way the cap acquired there, however admitted he was an skilled tranquilizer dart gun shooter. The cap, nonetheless, didn’t include any of Barry’s DNA.
Investigators additionally discovered a spy pen proper out of a James Bond film that was capable of seize and document conversations. The pen captured a number of intimate conversations between Suzanne and a secret lover. Investigators additionally uncovered DNA on the glovebox of Suzanne’s Vary Rover, which traced again to an unknown male linked to 3 sexual assaults.
MISSING ON MOTHER’S DAY
Dan Ridenour [riding in car with Peter Van Sant]: What occurred on this highway is an actual thriller. Nobody is aware of. The place is Suzanne?
Within the days, weeks and months after Suzanne Morphew was reported lacking on Mom’s Day 2020, her path went chilly, however the mom of two’s disappearance had change into the most important story in Colorado.
ANDREW MOORMAN [talking to searchers, CBS Denver news report]: We’re gonna fan out and had been gonna work that space very fastidiously, OK?
4 months in, Suzanne’s brother, Andrew Moorman, organized a citizen’s search. He stated he felt he needed to do one thing — something.
ANDREW MOORMAN [to CBS Denver]: I hope to seek out her alive and in some unspecified time in the future, it’s a must to notice when someone’s been lacking after so lengthy, that the probabilities of that diminish dramatically.
The thought that Suzanne might have been kidnapped hit the peaceable, picturesque city of Salida exhausting.
Dan Ridenour: I got here house day by day and my spouse requested me, “had they found her yet?”
Dan Ridenour has coated the story for his native morning present.
Dan Ridenour: Barry and Suzanne Morphew weren’t recognized effectively in Salida, Colorado …They’d solely been right here for a few years.
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
Earlier than shifting to Colorado in 2018, Barry and Suzanne grew up within the small city of Alexandria, Indiana, the place they met in highschool. Suzanne competed for homecoming queen. Barry was a star baseball participant who was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. Harm ended Barry’s desires of a serious league profession. They each attended Purdue College and married in 1994. He began a landscaping enterprise. Suzanne taught center faculty earlier than turning into a full-time mom.
Dan Ridenour: They’d a few daughters … one in school … They usually had a daughter in highschool …
Macy, 16 years previous when her mother disappeared, lived at house. Her sister Mallory attended school and the Morphews informed some associates they moved to a house simply exterior of Salida to be nearer to their older daughter. However there have been additionally rumblings in regards to the state of the Morphew’s marriage.
Dan Ridenour: Perhaps a brand new place, a brand new — house, new surroundings round them … would strengthen their household and subsequently strengthen their marriage.
However the transfer didn’t seem to enhance the connection. It was a tricky time, says her sister Melinda Moorman.
Melinda Moorman: My sister had despatched me a textual content message … It was very prolonged. It was very highly effective. It was very revealing.
In a Zoom interview, Melinda stated she obtained Suzanne’s textual content two days earlier than she disappeared, and it was boiling over with anger towards Barry.
The textual content learn partially: “He’s also been abusive emotionally and physically… I feel more angry now. Anger at what I’ve allowed.”
Melinda Moorman: Barry was very dominant within the relationship, and my sister was a really passive, light soul … he had … an excellent tendency to overpower, intimidate individuals to get what he needed.
Peter Van Sant: And what kinda boss was he?
Cody Cox: You recognize, he was actual quiet … stern … He knew what he was doin’, ’trigger that’s what he did in Indiana.
Cody Cox was a part of Barry’s landscaping crew for almost two years when Barry first arrived in Colorado.
Cody Cox: I talked fairly extremely about Barry ’trigger I used to be with him on a regular basis. And he’s like, an inspiration to me virtually … he was an actual cool man.
Cody stated he usually heard Barry speaking to Suzanne as they drove in Barry’s truck.
Cody Cox: : … they appeared to speak fairly effectively. Like I stated, I might hear virtually each cellphone name he had.
And he says he met Suzanne a handful of instances; she even made cookies for his spouse and youngsters.
Cody Cox: She was a sweetheart. She was an actual type woman … She’s virtually like an angel, like somethin’ you’d see off a Hallmark film, … actual good, virtually too excellent.
Cody Cox: So, after I heard in regards to the information, I didn’t consider it … I heard it truly on the radio. And I used to be like, “Did they just say Suzanne?” And I used to be like, “Oh my gosh. Who’d even wanna hurt her?”
The primary day authorities looked for Suzanne, they discovered her mountain bike near the Morphew house.
Peter Van Sant [at ravine]: The place was the mountain bike discovered?
Dan Ridenour [pointing]: It was discovered proper over this little cliff proper right here resting on these boulders.
Chaffee County District Courtroom
Dan Ridenour: She was new at mountain biking. So, an accident is actually believable. I might solely ask, “Where’s Suzanne?”
Peter Van Sant: She would have been injured, yeah?
Dan Ridenour: She would have been injured.
Peter Van Sant: Was there clothes discovered down right here?
Dan Ridenour: No.
Peter Van Sant: Was her helmet discovered down right here?
Dan Ridenour: No.
Investigators consider the scene was staged and, days later, they found Suzanne’s helmet roughly a mile away off Freeway 50.
Dan Ridenour [riding in car]: The helmet was discovered on the south aspect of the highway.
Peter Van Sant: So, this aspect of the highway?
Dan Ridenour: Which might be to our left.
Peter Van Sant: So, is the thought someone threw it out of a window, maybe?
Dan Ridenour: That’s the pondering, sure …
It appeared as if Suzanne might have been kidnapped, and that’s when Barry made a videotaped public plea on social media. In these early days, Barry had a principle about what occurred to Suzanne that he shared with Tyson Draper who has his personal YouTube channel.
BARRY MORPHEW: The place are you from?
TYSON DRAPER: I’m from Arizona.
BARRY MORPHEW: OK.
BARRY MORPHEW: Let me inform you what occurred.
TYSON DRAPER: OK.
They occurred to fulfill on the web site the place Suzanne’s mountain bike was discovered and Tyson secretly videotaped Barry:
BARRY MORPHEW [to Draper]: The primary evening there was a mountain lion that officers seen that walked by the automotive. So, we thought that possibly she acquired attacked by a lion.
A mountain lion killed her?
Dan Ridenour: If that occurred, there would have been indicators of that … There would’ve been blood, there would’ve been a battle … So, that was a really short-lived hypothesis.
Authorities started to doubt that Suzanne even took a motorbike trip, particularly after her sun shades and hydration backpack had been present in her automotive. Investigators additionally discovered her driver’s license and bank cards in her Vary Rover. However her cellphone was lacking.
Peter Van Sant: Did Barry Morphew cooperate with investigators in the course of the course of this?
Ashley Franco: He had been interviewed by investigators via the course of it and he talked to investigators virtually each time.
Ashley Franco, who reported on the case for the CBS affiliate in Colorado Springs, KKTV, has learn the police paperwork and he or she says Barry has repeatedly informed the identical story. He got here house round 3 p.m. on Might 9, 2020 and had a pleasing night with Suzanne. The following morning, Mom’s Day, Barry says he drove to a job some 3 hours away.
Ashley Franco: He says the final time he sees his spouse is when she’s sleeping of their mattress.
As investigators started making an attempt to confirm Barry’s alibi, they had been pulled in a brand new course. Suzanne’s spy pen had surfaced with that intimate dialog. Now they wanted to determine the identification of “Jeff,” Suzanne’s lover.
Ashley Franco: Might this man have had one thing to do with Suzanne’s disappearance?
SUZANNE’S SECRET LOVER IDENTIFIED
It was simply days after Suzanne Morphew went lacking when investigators make that intriguing discovery.
Aya Gruber: They uncover a spy pen.
Peter Van Sant: A spy pen?
Peter Van Sant: A spy pen.
Aya Gruber is a legislation professor and a former protection legal professional. She has intently studied all the general public investigative information within the Morphew case; she is aware of it was not simple for investigators to seek out Suzanne’s secret lover: a person named “Jeff.”
Aya Gruber: She hid that affair so effectively that it took … brokers six months to seek out the person she was having an affair with.
“Jeff” turned out to be Jeff Libler and he had a spouse and 6 kids in Michigan the place he lived. He and Suzanne had a one-time fling after highschool. Many years handed till Suzanne reached out to Jeff, out of the blue, in 2018.
Ashley Franco: When Suzanne and Barry moved to Colorado, Suzanne messaged him on Fb.
Peter Van Sant: And what did she message him?
Ashley Franco: “Howdy Stranger.” … And from that second that they had talked virtually each single day nonstop.
Within the months after Suzanne went lacking, Jeff stored quiet. He solely started cooperating after he was positioned by investigators, who discovered Jeff had taken steps to cover the almost two-year affair.
Aya Gruber: What he did was delete all his social media accounts that he had used to speak with Suzanne. … He’s acquired quite a bit to lose if revelations of this affair come out.
Jeff informed brokers he solely took these steps as a result of he didn’t wish to tarnish Suzanne’s reminiscence and nervous he would possibly lose his household and job. He was additionally nervous brokers thought-about him a suspect.
Aya Gruber: … he asks the brokers, “Am I a target?”
Though he didn’t come ahead on his personal, Jeff did help brokers after they discovered him. He agreed to offer entry to his DNA, cellphone information and his passwords for these deleted accounts. By wanting via the couple’s iCloud accounts and cellphone information, brokers had been capable of piece collectively their relationship, together with the instances they met in individual.
Ashley Franco: Investigators additionally discovered that Suzanne, on a number of situations, had gone on trip to fulfill up with Jeff in many alternative states, starting from Louisiana to Florida.
Investigators additionally found they’d despatched intimate images to one another, talked of turning into husband and spouse, and even talked about leaving the US.
Ashley Franco: Jeff and Suzanne had talked about shifting away … shifting to Ecuador at one level …
Peter Van Sant: In the event you had been an investigator as a substitute of a legislation professor, what would you wanna find out about this Jeff Libler?
Aya Gruber: Every part. I’d wanna know every part about what he was doing, what he was pondering. … Right here is someone who arguably had the final communication … with Suzanne earlier than she went lacking.
The love affair between Suzanne and Jeff turned a key a part of the investigation as brokers tried to determine what occurred to her on that Saturday, Might 9, the day earlier than Mom’s Day.
Information present that Suzanne and Jeff messaged one another 59 instances that day, rather more than standard, authorities say.
Chaffee County District Courtroom
At one level, Suzanne sends Jeff a selfie. Investigators dub it her final “proof of life” photograph. Barry was not house, because the lovers’ texts warmth up:
At 2:05 p.m., Suzanne writes: “I’m just in love with you. Whatcha up to?”
Jeff’s response at 2:06 p.m. was: “Want to strip down and get naked? LOL??”
She responds by saying she’ll “load up” her WhatsApp account after which at 2:11 p.m., Suzanne writes, “Okay I’m on WA”.
Then, at 2:26 p.m., Suzanne will get a textual content from Barry that he’s heading house. “Done headed back.”
Nobody is aware of if Suzanne noticed that textual content or was preoccupied with Jeff, however she doesn’t reply.
Barry follows up, showing to marvel the place Suzanne is. “Did you leave?”
There was nonetheless no response from Suzanne and investigators speculate the subsequent few moments are when Barry returned house. They discover that Barry’s cellphone seems to be pinging throughout the surface of his home. Was he chasing Suzanne earlier than a closing and deadly confrontation?
Investigators requested Barry to elucidate that uncommon cellphone exercise.
Aya Gruber: And he says, “Well, lemme think about that. I was probably walking around my house shooting chipmunks.”
You heard proper — it was maybe the world’s first chipmunk alibi. Barry says the chipmunks had been a continuing nuisance at his home and he’d been operating round taking pictures them that day.
Aya Gruber: After which that confession to taking pictures chipmunks turns into a serious piece of incriminating proof in opposition to him.
There was no proof of any chipmunk shootings round Barry’s home. A part of his drawback, Aya says, is that Barry granted between 30 and 40 interviews — all and not using a lawyer — to everybody from a county detective to members of the FBI.
Peter Van Sant: Would you have got allowed him to do all these interviews?
Aya Gruber: No. Completely not.
In the meantime, Jeff Libler was cleared. He informed brokers he was in Michigan that weekend and his alibi checked out. When investigators inform Barry of the affair, he denies understanding something about it.
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
But when Barry knew nothing about Suzanne’s affair, what motive would he need to kill her? One clue could also be a deleted textual content that investigators discovered on Barry’s cellphone despatched by Suzanne simply days earlier than: “I’m done. I could care less what you’re up to and have been for years. We just need to figure this out civilly.”
Dan Ridenour: So, the one factor that is sensible is that Barry Morphew misplaced it when Suzanne lastly stated, “I’m leaving you.”
Barry knew that his daughters could be away on their tenting journey that Saturday afternoon and authorities say he took benefit of that chance to kill Suzanne and clear up the crime scene.
Peter Van Sant: From 2:47 p.m. till 10:17 p.m., just below 8 hours, Barry’s cellphone goes into airplane mode. What do authorities consider occurred throughout that point?
Ashley Franco: Authorities say that they consider, when his cellphone went into airplane mode, that he was disposing of doable proof.
Unable to trace Barry’s cellphone, investigators tapped into a comparatively new investigative method — digital automobile forensics — to drag a stream of information out of Barry’s Ford truck. And Barry’s truck informed a distinct story than what he was telling investigators.
Ashley Franco: They had been utilizing Barry’s personal automotive in opposition to him.
IF A TRUCK COULD TALK — IN THIS CASE, IT DID
Ben LeMere is an professional within the new area of car forensics.
Peter Van Sant: Give me a way of how your know-how, out of your firm, helps clear up prison instances.
Ben LeMere: So, a lotta instances it’s used to … find our bodies.
LeMere is the CEO of the Berla Company.
Ben LeMere: It helps … get individuals convicted. It’s helped get individuals not convicted.
Investigators from Scotland Yard to the FBI have discovered easy methods to use Berla’s software program to faucet into the handfuls of computer systems in a automotive.
Peter Van Sant: It’s correct sufficient for use as proof in courtroom instances, right?
Ben LeMere: Sure, sir.
Instances just like the disappearance of Suzanne Morphew. Investigators created a Berla report, which means they tapped into the info in Barry’s Ford truck to trace its actions after his cellphone went into airplane mode.
Aya Gruber: … a few the items of proof that I feel are very dangerous to his case — come from the info within the automotive …
Ashley Franco: The prosecution’s case is that Barry snapped at one level the day earlier than Mom’s Day.
Chaffee County District Courtroom
Authorities consider Barry killed Suzanne that afternoon. He informed brokers he went to mattress round 8 p.m. that evening, however the information pulled from the truck reveals that the truck was put in reverse and moved some 96 ft nearer to his home round 9:30 p.m.
Ashley Franco: Investigators assume that’s when he might have loaded Suzanne’s physique.
Initially, Barry informed police that he set his alarm for 4:30 a.m. on Mom’s Day and left the home by 5 a.m. to drive to a job web site in Broomfield, a city close to Denver, 150 miles from Salida. However the truck’s computer systems present that somebody was opening and shutting the truck’s doorways round 3:30 a.m.
Investigators consider Barry started driving towards Broomfield a lot sooner than he claimed, however there’s a 4-hour window—roughly 4 a.m. to eight a.m.—when no exercise was recorded by the automobile’s computer systems.
Aya Gruber: … there are occasions within the automotive — that aren’t recorded. So, they will’t give kind of a full chronological image.
And if Barry hid Suzanne’s physique throughout that 4-hour window, the truck’s information doesn’t present solutions.
Peter Van Sant: Why is information lacking typically?
Ben Lemere: Nicely, it will get overwritten. You recognize, it’s a pc … Log information, they solely final so lengthy.
However Barry helped fill in among the lacking information. He informed brokers he took a left upon leaving his house as a substitute of a proper as a result of, though it was darkish, he remembered seeing some elk.
Ashley Franco: He noticed a herd of elk, and he’s a hunter. So, he was , and he needed to get an up-close look.
That admission was vital to brokers as a result of it put him in an space the place a key piece of proof had been recovered.
Ashley Franco: Investigators discovered Suzanne’s bike helmet up that highway. So, they consider, at that time when he turned left as a substitute of turning proper, that he might have been ditching her bike helmet.
At 8:10 a.m. on Mom’s Day morning, the truck’s computer systems once more start recording information. And by then, Barry’s cellphone had additionally come again to life. Brokers are capable of monitor Barry’s cell and truck actions and may see that he first pulled over at a Broomfield bus cease the place he discarded one thing in a rubbish can.
Ashley Franco: After which he strikes on to a resort trash can, a McDonald’s trash can … a dumpster … in a Males’s Wearhouse parking zone, after which again to the resort, and dumps stuff in a dumpster there. Investigators consider that in these “trash runs,” he was disposing of proof elsewhere inside the Denver space.
Chaffee County District Courtroom
In a surveillance shot of Barry on a type of trash runs, investigators couldn’t see what he was throwing away. It could have appeared incriminating, however Barry claims it was simply one other day on the workplace. He informed brokers he was merely being low-cost, not prison.
Peter Van Sant: And his declare, effectively, I simply all the time have a lotta junk in — within the automobile. I don’t wish to pay to have it — disposed at a landfill, I — that is simply what I do.
Ashley Franco: However it’s suspicious that you’d go to 5 totally different trash areas to get rid of a number of issues. Why not simply do it at one?
After testing the work web site, Barry headed again to his room on the Vacation Inn, and investigators say he stayed there from 12:42 p.m. to six:03 p.m. By then, he’d already spoken to older daughter Mallory who informed him she couldn’t get in contact together with her mom.
That’s when the Morphew neighbors had been contacted and will discover no signal of Suzanne.
Dan Ridenour: Barry requested them at the moment if the bike was there, to go test on her … her bicycle isn’t right here.
Barry asks his neighbor to name 911.
Dan Ridenour: And that’s when the decision to 911 … was positioned, that Suzanne is lacking.
Ashley Franco: Barry doesn’t head house instantly, and he’s dropping some instruments off for his coworkers.
Instruments together with a shovel. With Suzanne now formally reported lacking, Barry tells his staff there’s a household emergency and arranges resort rooms with a type of staff taking on Barry’s room.
Ashley Franco: When the worker was interviewed, he informed investigators that … the room that Barry checked out of, it had a robust odor of chlorine or bleach.
Peter Van Sant: Which suggests what?
Ashley Franco: That he might be cleansing up against the law scene.
Simply after 6 p.m., Barry begins driving again to Salida. On the way in which, Barry speaks to sheriff deputies who advise him they’ve discovered Suzanne’s bike and he arrives at that ravine at round 8:40 p.m.
Ashley Franco: And investigators say that when he arrived there, he was fairly emotional for a couple of minutes.
By Sunday evening, Suzanne’s daughters had been again house however Suzanne is nowhere to be discovered. Barry provided a $100,000 reward for data that was later doubled to $200,000.
Chaffee County District Courtroom
Investigators later found many texts from Suzanne to a detailed pal that apparently revealed her tormented emotions about Barry:
“He won’t speak of divorce …”
“I feel no peace when he’s here …”
“I wouldn’t feel safe alone with him …”
Barry turned the prime suspect and investigators assume they know the way he killed Suzanne.
DID BARRY TARGET SUZANNE?
Whereas investigators searched the Morphew house and the household’s vehicles and vehicles, Barry continued to speak, seemingly to anybody with a badge. Weeks and months glided by and Barry remained on the middle of the investigation.
Aya Gruber: … police are completely right as a statistical matter to have a look at intimate companions … once they suspect {that a} girl would possibly’ve been harmed or murdered.
Peter Van Sant: It’s one thing like eight out of 10 instances, when a partner dies the opposite one’s concerned.
Aya Gruber: Completely.
Typically the smallest merchandise will flip an investigation, and, on this case, brokers seized on a transparent plastic cap {that a} forensics crew had discovered within the household’s dryer. Prosecutors consider the cap was from a syringe used to fill a tranquilizer dart.
Chaffee County District Courtroom
Peter Van Sant: How do prosecutors interpret that?
Aya Gruber: The prosecution’s principle is that in some unspecified time in the future, when Barry got here house on the ninth and snapped, and determined to homicide Suzanne, he used a tranquilizer dart that you’d use on animals …
There was no working tranquilizer rifle discovered within the Morphew’s house. However Barry informed investigators he was an skilled tranquilizer dart gun shooter. He knew easy methods to load darts with paralyzing chemical substances, having used them to illegally sedate deer and take away their antlers to promote.
Chaffee County District Courtroom
We requested Dan Ridenour to learn a few of what Barry informed investigators.
Dan Ridenour [reading]: Barry stated, “The first thing I thought of when I came here and saw deer in my yard with big horns, I’m like, ‘I’m getting them horns.’”
Dan Ridenour [reading]: “And I’ll tell you exactly what I did … I shoot ’em. They go to sleep, I cut their horns off … It’s totally illegal … But you’re gonna find tranq darts around my property because I’ve done that.”
Specialists say it will possibly take between 4 and 20 minutes for an animal the scale of a deer to drop after being shot with a tranquilizer dart. Brokers theorized that Barry’s cellphone had pinged from varied areas round the home—not as a result of he was taking pictures chipmunks, however as a result of he was chasing Suzanne after he shot her.
Ashley Franco: Investigators discover a doorframe inside the Morphew house that has been damaged. They usually say that there might have been a chase after which a battle.
Andrew Katers, the proprietor and CEO of Animal Care and Tools Companies, confirmed us a tranquilizer rifle he’d sometimes use on animals.
Peter Van Sant: And what are you holding?
Andrew Katers: What I’m holding is a TeleDart mannequin 706 rifle … they use this quite a bit in parks all through the nation.
Peter Van Sant: And this doesn’t hearth bullets or shot?
Andrew Katers: It solely fires darts. … It’s inconceivable to — get it to do the rest.
Peter Van Sant: Might you now exhibit for me?
Andrew Katers: Positive. [fires rifle]
Peter Van Sant: So, if Suzanne had been struck by one in every of these darts … would she have time to run round, attempt to escape?
Andrew Katers: She might. However I don’t assume she would get very far.
Peter Van Sant: For a human being, it might be deadly.
Andrew Katers: For certain.
Bolstering the idea that Barry and Suzanne had a confrontation the day she disappeared had been obvious scratches seen on Barry’s left arm. Brokers took the circumstantial proof they gathered — Barry’s apparently suspicious habits, his contradictory statements, the puzzling information from his truck, Suzanne’s disturbing texts and people 5 trash runs — and introduced all of it to the district legal professional.
On almost the anniversary of Suzanne’s disappearance, Barry is arrested in Might 2021.
NEWS REPORT: Tonight, the husband of Suzanne Morphew is behind bars accused of killing her. … The Chaffee County Sheriff’s Workplace says that Barry Morphew was arrested this morning.
Suzanne’s physique has by no means been discovered and the prosecutors assume she’s lifeless. Regardless of the shortage of a physique, Barry was charged with first-degree homicide, tampering with bodily proof, and a wide range of different allegations. He was held with out bail and ultimately pleaded not responsible.
Of their arrest affidavit, prosecutors spelled out what they consider occurred to Suzanne:
“It had become clear that Barry could not control Suzanne’s insistence on leaving him and he resorted to something he has done his entire life — hunt and control Suzanne like he had hunted and controlled animals.”
Suzanne’s sister Melinda reacted to the information of Barry’s arrest.
Melinda Moorman: There aren’t any winners on this story. There are two households who’re struggling deeply.
Barry in the end employed high-profile legal professionals from Denver, and, in the summertime of 2021, Choose Patrick Murphy heard the prosecution’s proof in open courtroom.
Ashley Franco: He determined to carry a preliminary listening to to see if this case had sufficient proof to go to trial.
The protection tried mightily to blunt the state’s case, countering that the clear, plastic cap discovered within the dryer means nothing as a result of nobody might say how lengthy it had been there. Moreover, Suzanne’s DNA was discovered on the cap, not Barry’s. And as for that chlorine odor in Barry’s resort room …
Aya Gruber: One of many managers from the Vacation Inn had truly communicated to brokers that this odor of chlorine existed earlier than Barry Morphew was there … as a result of that room’s straight above an indoor pool.
And there was yet another essential subject the prosecution needed to take care of — one which its personal forensic crew uncovered. DNA proof made public for the primary time now threatened to destroy the case in opposition to Barry.
Aya Gruber: This DNA discovery is so vital. The brokers swab the within of Suzanne Morphew’s automotive they usually discovered male DNA on the glove field, and it wasn’t Barry Morphew’s DNA. He was eradicated.
The DNA additionally didn’t match Suzanne’s lover Jeff Libler. However it did partially match the DNA of an unknown male who had attacked different ladies and it raised a disturbing query: had Suzanne fallen into the arms of a sexual predator?
DA: AUTHORITIES ARE “CLOSE” TO FINDING SUZANNE’S BODY
In September 2021 on the Chaffee County Courthouse in Salida, Choose Patrick Murphy heard arguments about whether or not there was sufficient proof to attempt Barry Morphew for homicide.
Ashley Franco: The decide named off three totally different eventualities, saying, “Suzanne Morphew left willingly, Barry Morphew could have killed his wife, or someone else abducted Suzanne and killed her.”
He stated it was “unlikely” Suzanne had run off on her personal, though she and lover Jeff Libler had mentioned shifting to Ecuador.
Ashley Franco: The decide says that due to the proof that’s … been offered about how loving Suzanne was towards her daughters and towards her household … that she might by no means do this.”
Chaffee County District Courtroom
However the abduction principle couldn’t be so simply dismissed — particularly after that mysterious DNA was present in Suzanne’s Vary Rover. Investigators discovered that DNA no less than partially matched the profile of an unnamed man linked to 3 unsolved sexual assault instances in Tempe, Phoenix and Chicago.
Peter Van Sant: So how can that DNA find yourself in her automotive?
Aya Gruber: Nicely, that DNA can find yourself in her automotive if she was the sufferer, for instance, of a serial killer … or if the individual was employed or opportunistic … There is also doubtlessly an harmless clarification that in some unspecified time in the future, , the individual got here in touch with the automotive randomly as a mechanic … however it is rather, very curious.
Peter Van Sant: Barry Morphew can arise and say, “I’m not your killer. The man whose DNA is in my wife’s car, tied to past sexual assaults, that’s your killer.”
Ashley Franco: Barry Morphew completely might say that. And that’s what his protection is banking on on this case.
In frank language, Choose Murphy gave his opinion of the state’s proof: “I find that the proof is not evident nor is the presumption great that Mr. Morphew committed first-degree murder.”
Regardless of that, the decide dominated there was possible trigger to go to trial.
Aya Gruber: However this decide was very cautious to say, “Look, I’m finding probable cause here, but it’s only because I am looking at all the evidence in the light most favorable to the prosecution.”
Murphy stated he was “obligated” to set bond for Barry.
Ashley Franco: The decide units $500,000 cash-only bond.
Peter Van Sant: And are they monitoring him in some style?
Ashley Franco: Barry Morphew is carrying an ankle monitor for them to trace him, to guarantee that he’s staying in Chaffee County.
KKTV
A number of days afterward September 20, 2021, Barry Morphew and daughters Mallory and Macy are all smiles as they go away the jail. They stand firmly behind their dad. Barry declined “48 Hours”‘ request for an interview.
Barry Morphew’s murder trial was to start on April 28, 2022, however within the months main as much as that date Choose Murphy recused himself and and was changed by Choose Ramsey Lama.. And Barry’s protection crew, led by legal professional Iris Eytan, filed motions asking that prosecutors be sanctioned for “failing to produce discovery in a timely manner” together with some doubtlessly exculpatory proof — just like the male DNA present in Suzanne’s Vary Rover.
Iris Eytan: There’s DNA that’s positioned on all of the crucial objects of proof on this case — on the bike, on the bike helmet, in the home, within the automotive — that’s linked to unknown males.
In April 2022, Choose Lama dominated that prosecutors repeatedly had missed deadlines and had failed to show over essential data within the discovery part. The decide wrote that whereas he didn’t discover these actions “willful … the court does find this pattern to be negligent, bordering on, reckless.” The decide’s penalty was to knock out 14 prosecution witnesses — together with specialists in DNA and cellphone and automobile information restoration. They might not, he stated, be allowed to testify.
Legislation professor Aya Gruber stated the case was going to be an uphill battle for prosecutors even earlier than she heard about the newest sanctions.
Aya Gruber: This case is extremely distinctive. There usually are not many … homicide instances — the place the defendant has been charged with first-degree homicide, the place there isn’t a physique, no blood proof of any foul play, no eyewitnesses.
On April 19, 2022, as a pre-trial listening to was about to start, District Lawyer Linda Stanley filed a movement to dismiss the homicide costs in opposition to Barry Morphew with out prejudice, which means the case might be refiled at a later date. In her movement, the DA pointed to the courtroom’s resolution to bar “several key witnesses … without this crucial evidence and without the victim’s body, the People cannot move forward at this time in good faith.”
Neither Barry, his daughters nor his lawyer had any advance warning.
Iris Eytan: I didn’t know a dismissal was coming at this time, though the writing was on the wall …
In her movement for dismissal, Stanley informed the decide that officers consider they’re near discovering the situation of Suzanne Morphew’s physique. Courtroom papers particularly talked about “a remote and mountainous region nearby the Morphew residence” that can be excavated after 5 ft of snow melts.
Dan Ridenour: The place is Suzanne Morphew’s physique? That’s the million-dollar query.
Bear in mind, there was an approximate four-hour hole not recorded by the computer systems in Barry’s truck on Mom’s Day morning 2020. Whether or not investigators in the end had been capable of get better a few of that lacking information or obtained a tip in regards to the location of Suzanne’s stays isn’t recognized.
Dan Ridenour: The San Isabel Nationwide Forest, once more, is 1.1 million acres. There’s loads of locations to get rid of — of a physique.
Protection legal professional Eytan denies Barry has any involvement in his spouse’s disappearance.
Iris Eytan: Barry Morphew loves Suzanne Morphew. He loves her and he misses her, and he desires to know the place Suzanne Morphew is.
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After the decide granted the movement to dismiss murder costs in opposition to Barry, he walked out of courtroom a free man, flanked as standard by his loyal daughters.
Suzanne’s sister Melinda says she agrees with the request to dismiss costs in opposition to Barry at this level. She stated she hoped that, with extra time, searchers will discover Suzanne’s physique and win “a solid conviction in her murder. This would dispel all rumors of her whereabouts.”
And no matter else occurs with the case, Melinda says she hopes her nieces preserve one factor in thoughts.
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
Melinda Moorman: “Mallory, Macy … Your mom would have laid down her life for you women … She would by no means go away you. She would by no means forsake you. She beloved you together with her complete being.
In Might 2023, Barry Morphew filed a $15 million federal civil rights lawsuit in opposition to prosecutors and legislation enforcement officers stating he was wrongfully arrested, jailed and prosecuted.
Produced by Paul La Rosa. Elena DiFiore is the sphere producer. Stephen A. McCain is the event producer. Atticus Brady, Michael Baluzy and George Baluzy are the editors. Peter Schweitzer is the senior producer. Nancy Kramer is the manager story editor. Judy Tygard is the manager producer.
