Editor’s word: On June 20, 2025, the husband of Colorado mother Suzanne Morphew was arrested for first-degree homicide in her dying 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 dying of the 49-year-old Colorado mom who went lacking was formally declared a murder, in line with an post-mortem report launched on April 29, 2024. This revelation comes two years after prosecutors dropped homicide costs towards 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, mentioned in open courtroom that investigators suspect they know the placement of her physique. “She is in a very difficult spot,” mentioned Deputy District Legal professional 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 mentioned 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 mentioned.
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
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
Investigators seen Barry’s cellphone gave the impression to be pinging throughout his home on Mom’s Day weekend 2020, which he maintains was as a result of he was chasing and capturing at chipmunks. Investigators additionally discovered a plastic cap for a syringe that they imagine was used to load a tranquilizer dart within the couple’s dryer. Barry, investigators say, advised 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 in a position to 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 a few sexual assaults.
MISSING ON MOTHER’S DAY
Dan Ridenour [riding in car with Peter Van Sant]: What occurred on this street 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 turn out to be the largest story in Colorado.
4 months in, Suzanne’s brother, Andrew Moorman, organized a citizen’s search. He mentioned he felt he needed to do one thing — something.
ANDREW MOORMAN [to CBS Denver]: I hope to seek out her alive and sooner or later, it’s important to understand when anyone’s been lacking after so lengthy, that the possibilities 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 every single 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 identified properly in Salida, Colorado …That they had solely been right here for a few years.
Suzanne and Barry Morphew with their daughters Macy, left, and Mallory, proper.
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
Earlier than transferring 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 goals of a serious league profession. They each attended Purdue College and married in 1994. He began a landscaping enterprise. Suzanne taught center college earlier than turning into a full-time mom.
Dan Ridenour: That they had a few daughters … one in faculty … And so they had a daughter in highschool …
Macy, 16 years outdated when her mother disappeared, lived at house. Her sister Mallory attended faculty and the Morphews advised some pals they moved to a house simply outdoors 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: Possibly a brand new place, a brand new — house, new surroundings round them … would strengthen their household and due to this fact strengthen their marriage.
However the transfer didn’t seem to enhance the connection. It was a troublesome 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 mentioned she acquired 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 ideal tendency to overpower, intimidate individuals to get what he wished.
Peter Van Sant: And what kinda boss was he?
Cody Cox: You realize, 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 nearly … he was an actual cool man.
Cody mentioned he recurrently heard Barry speaking to Suzanne as they drove in Barry’s truck.
Cody Cox: : … they appeared to speak fairly properly. Like I mentioned, I may hear nearly each telephone name he had.
And he says he met Suzanne a handful of occasions; she even made cookies for his spouse and children.
Cody Cox: She was a sweetheart. She was an actual variety girl … She’s nearly like an angel, like somethin’ you’d see off a Hallmark film, you realize … actual good, nearly too good.
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.
This photograph taken from police physique cam footage reveals Suzanne Morphew’s mountain bike after being found by sheriff’s deputies on the facet of a cliff off a street close to the household house.
Chaffee County District Court docket
Dan Ridenour: She was new at mountain biking. So, an accident is definitely believable. I’d 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 imagine 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 facet of the street.
Peter Van Sant: So, this facet of the street?
Dan Ridenour: Which might be to our left.
Peter Van Sant: So, is the thought anyone threw it out of a window, maybe?
Dan Ridenour: That’s the considering, sure …
It appeared as if Suzanne may have been kidnapped, and that’s when Barry made a videotaped public plea on social media. In these early days, Barry had a concept 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 let you know what occurred.
TYSON DRAPER: OK.
They occurred to fulfill on the website 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 throughout the course of this?
Ashley Franco: He had been interviewed by investigators by means of the course of it and he talked to investigators nearly 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 advised 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.
Proof within the Suzanne Morphew case
22 photographs
As investigators started attempting to confirm Barry’s alibi, they had been pulled in a brand new route. 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 regulation professor and a former protection lawyer. She has intently studied all the general public investigative information within the Morphew case; she is aware of it was not straightforward for investigators to seek out Suzanne’s secret lover: a person named “Jeff.”
Aya Gruber: She hid that affair so properly that it took … brokers six months to seek out the person she was having an affair with.
It took FBI brokers six months earlier than they uncovered the identification of Suzanne’s secret lover: Jeff Libler, a person Suzanne and Barry knew from their Alexandria, Indiana, highschool.
“Jeff” turned out to be Jeff Libler and he had a spouse and 6 youngsters in Michigan the place he lived. He and Suzanne had a one-time fling after highschool. A long time 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 they’d talked nearly 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 realized 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 so much to lose if revelations of this affair come out.
Jeff advised brokers he solely took these steps as a result of he didn’t need to tarnish Suzanne’s reminiscence and fearful he may lose his household and job. He was additionally fearful 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 supply entry to his DNA, telephone data and his passwords for these deleted accounts. By trying by means of the couple’s iCloud accounts and telephone data, brokers had been in a position to piece collectively their relationship, together with the occasions they met in particular person.
Ashley Franco: Investigators additionally discovered that Suzanne, on a number of cases, had gone on trip to fulfill up with Jeff in many various states, starting from Louisiana to Florida.
Investigators additionally found they’d despatched intimate photographs to one another, talked of turning into husband and spouse, and even talked about leaving america.
Ashley Franco: Jeff and Suzanne had talked about transferring away … transferring to Ecuador at one level …
Peter Van Sant: Should you had been an investigator as an alternative of a regulation professor, what would you wanna learn about this Jeff Libler?
Aya Gruber: The whole lot. I’d wanna know every little thing about what he was doing, what he was considering. … Right here is anyone 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.
Data present that Suzanne and Jeff messaged one another 59 occasions that day, rather more than standard, authorities say.
On Might 9, 2020, the day earlier than Mom’s Day, data present Suzanne Morphew and Jeff Libler messaged one another 59 occasions main up-to-the-minute investigators imagine Barry Morphew murdered his spouse. At one level, Suzanne messaged her lover this selfie, which investigators dubbed her final “proof of life” photograph.
Chaffee County District Court docket
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 following 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 last and deadly confrontation?
Investigators requested Barry to elucidate that uncommon telephone 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 relentless nuisance at his home and he’d been operating round capturing them that day.
Aya Gruber: After which that confession to capturing chipmunks turns into a serious piece of incriminating proof towards 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’ve allowed him to do all these interviews?
Aya Gruber: No. Completely not.
In the meantime, Jeff Libler was cleared. He advised brokers he was in Michigan that weekend and his alibi checked out. When investigators inform Barry of the affair, he denies realizing something about it.
Suzanne and Barry Morphew
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
But when Barry knew nothing about Suzanne’s affair, what motive would he must kill her? One clue could also be a deleted textual content that investigators discovered on Barry’s telephone 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 smart is that Barry Morphew misplaced it when Suzanne lastly mentioned, “I’m leaving you.”
Barry knew that his daughters can 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., slightly below 8 hours, Barry’s telephone goes into airplane mode. What do authorities imagine occurred throughout that point?
Ashley Franco: Authorities say that they imagine, when his telephone went into airplane mode, that he was disposing of potential proof.
Unable to trace Barry’s cellphone, investigators tapped into a comparatively new investigative approach — digital car forensics — to tug a stream of information out of Barry’s Ford truck. And Barry’s truck advised a unique story than what he was telling investigators.
Ashley Franco: They had been utilizing Barry’s personal automotive towards him.
IF A TRUCK COULD TALK — IN THIS CASE, IT DID
Ben LeMere is an professional within the new subject of auto forensics.
Peter Van Sant: Give me a way of how your know-how, out of your firm, helps resolve legal instances.
Ben LeMere: So, a lotta occasions 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 realized 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.
Circumstances just like the disappearance of Suzanne Morphew. Investigators created a Berla report, that 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 believe 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.
Authorities say Barry Morphew advised them he went to mattress round 8 p.m. on Might 9, however his truck’s laptop reveals the truck, seen on this proof photograph, was put in reverse and backed up in the direction of the home round 9:30 p.m.
Chaffee County District Court docket
Authorities imagine Barry killed Suzanne that afternoon. He advised brokers he went to mattress round 8 p.m. that evening, however the knowledge 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 may have loaded Suzanne’s physique.
Initially, Barry advised 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 website 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 imagine 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 car’s computer systems.
Aya Gruber: … there are occasions within the automotive — that aren’t recorded. So, they’ll’t give type of a full chronological image.
And if Barry hid Suzanne’s physique throughout that 4-hour window, the truck’s knowledge doesn’t present solutions.
Peter Van Sant: Why is knowledge lacking generally?
Ben Lemere: Nicely, it will get overwritten. You realize, it’s a pc … Log information, they solely final so lengthy.
However Barry helped fill in among the lacking knowledge. He advised brokers he took a left upon leaving his house as an alternative of a proper as a result of, although 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 wished 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 street. So, they imagine, at that time when he turned left as an alternative of turning proper, that he may 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 knowledge. And by then, Barry’s cellphone had additionally come again to life. Brokers are in a position to monitor Barry’s cell and truck actions and might 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 car parking zone, after which again to the resort, and dumps stuff in a dumpster there. Investigators imagine that in these “trash runs,” he was disposing of proof elsewhere inside the Denver space.
On Might 10, 2020, the day Suzanne Morphew is reported lacking, investigators found Barry Morphew threw out trash at a number of places round Broomfield, Colorado, whereas on the town for work. This photograph, taken from resort surveillance footage, reveals Barry throwing out trash in a dumpster. He advised investigators he usually dropped trash in accessible bins to keep away from paying to have it disposed of at a landfill. Investigators, nonetheless, imagine Barry was disposing of proof.
Chaffee County District Court docket
In a surveillance shot of Barry on a type of trash runs, investigators couldn’t see what he was throwing away. It could have seemed incriminating, however Barry claims it was simply one other day on the workplace. He advised brokers he was merely being low cost, not legal.
Peter Van Sant: And his declare, properly, I simply all the time have a lotta junk in — within the car. I don’t prefer to pay to have it — disposed at a landfill, I — that is simply what I do.
Ashley Franco: But it surely’s suspicious that you’d go to 5 completely different trash areas to get rid of a number of issues. Why not simply do it at one?
After testing the work website, 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 advised 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 employees there’s a household emergency and arranges resort rooms with a type of employees taking up Barry’s room.
Ashley Franco: When the worker was interviewed, he advised investigators that … the room that Barry checked out of, it had a powerful scent of chlorine or bleach.
Peter Van Sant: Which suggests what?
Ashley Franco: That he may very well 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 supplied a $100,000 reward for info that was later doubled to $200,000.
A slew of textual content messages between Suzanne Morphew and an in depth good friend within the months and days main as much as her disappearance reveal the Morphews’ marriage remained rocky.
Chaffee County District Court docket
Investigators later found many texts from Suzanne to an in depth good friend 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 automobiles and vehicles, Barry continued to speak, seemingly to anybody with a badge. Weeks and months glided by and Barry remained on the heart of the investigation.
Aya Gruber: … police are completely right as a statistical matter to take a look at intimate companions … after they suspect {that a} lady may’ve been harmed or murdered.
Peter Van Sant: It’s one thing like eight out of 10 occasions, when a partner dies the opposite one’s concerned.
Aya Gruber: Completely.
Generally the smallest merchandise will flip an investigation, and, on this case, brokers seized on a transparent plastic cap {that a} forensics staff had discovered within the household’s dryer. Prosecutors imagine the cap was from a syringe used to fill a tranquilizer dart.
Investigators discovered this clear plastic needle cap within the Morphew household’s dryer.
Chaffee County District Court docket
Peter Van Sant: How do prosecutors interpret that?
Aya Gruber: The prosecution’s concept is that sooner or later, 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 advised investigators he was an skilled tranquilizer dart gun shooter. He knew easy methods to load darts with paralyzing chemical compounds, having used them to illegally sedate deer and take away their antlers to promote.
The within of the Morphew household’s storage with Barry’s assortment of deer heads and a pile of antlers.
Chaffee County District Court docket
We requested Dan Ridenour to learn a few of what Barry advised investigators.
Dan Ridenour [reading]: Barry mentioned, “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.”
Consultants 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 telephone had pinged from varied places round the home—not as a result of he was capturing 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. And so they say that there may have been a chase after which a battle.
Andrew Katers, the proprietor and CEO of Animal Care and Gear Providers, 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 so much in parks all through the nation.
Peter Van Sant: And this doesn’t fireplace bullets or shot?
Andrew Katers: It solely fires darts. … It’s unattainable to — get it to do the rest.
Peter Van Sant: Might you now reveal for me?
Andrew Katers: Positive. [fires rifle]
Peter Van Sant: So, if Suzanne had been struck by one in all these darts … would she have time to run round, attempt to escape?
Andrew Katers: She may. However I don’t assume she would get very far.
Peter Van Sant: For a human being, it may very well be deadly.
Andrew Katers: For certain.
Bolstering the speculation 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 knowledge from his truck, Suzanne’s disturbing texts and people 5 trash runs — and introduced all of it to the district lawyer.
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 useless. Regardless of the shortage of a physique, Barry was charged with first-degree homicide, tampering with bodily proof, and quite a lot of different allegations. He was held with out bail and finally pleaded not responsible.
Of their arrest affidavit, prosecutors spelled out what they imagine 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.”
Melinda Moorman: There are not any winners on this story. There are two households who’re struggling deeply.
Barry finally employed high-profile attorneys 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 may say how lengthy it had been there. Moreover, Suzanne’s DNA was discovered on the cap, not Barry’s. And as for that chlorine scent in Barry’s resort room …
Aya Gruber: One of many managers from the Vacation Inn had really communicated to brokers that this scent of chlorine existed earlier than Barry Morphew was there … as a result of that room’s immediately above an indoor pool.
And there was yet another essential problem the prosecution needed to take care of — one which its personal forensic staff uncovered. DNA proof made public for the primary time now threatened to destroy the case towards Barry.
Aya Gruber: This DNA discovery is so vital. The brokers swab the within of Suzanne Morphew’s automotive and so they 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. But it surely did partially match the DNA of an unknown male who had attacked different girls and it raised a disturbing query: had Suzanne fallen into the fingers 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 completely different eventualities, saying, “Suzanne Morphew left willingly, Barry Morphew could have killed his wife, or someone else abducted Suzanne and killed her.”
He mentioned it was “unlikely” Suzanne had run off on her personal, although she and lover Jeff Libler had mentioned transferring to Ecuador.
Ashley Franco: The decide says that due to the proof that’s … been introduced about how loving Suzanne was towards her daughters and towards her household … that she may by no means try this.”
Investigators found mysterious male DNA on this Vary Rover belonging to Suzanne Morphew. In October 2020, DNA testing revealed not less than a partial match to an unnamed man linked to a few unsolved sexual assault instances in Tempe, Phoenix and Chicago. Had Suzanne fallen into the fingers of a sexual predator?
Chaffee County District Court docket
However the abduction concept couldn’t be so simply dismissed — particularly after that mysterious DNA was present in Suzanne’s Vary Rover. Investigators realized that DNA not less than partially matched the profile of an unnamed man linked to a few 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 particular person was employed or opportunistic … There is also doubtlessly an harmless clarification that sooner or later, you realize, the particular person got here involved with the automotive randomly as a mechanic … however it is rather, very curious.
Peter Van Sant: Barry Morphew can get up 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 may 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 mentioned 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 vogue?
Ashley Franco: Barry Morphew is carrying an ankle monitor for them to trace him, to make it possible for he’s staying in Chaffee County.
Barry Morphew pleaded not responsible to all costs and on September 20, 2021, he was launched from jail on bond together with his daughters by his facet. They steadfastly assist their father, attending most of his courtroom hearings like this one in December 2021.
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A number of days in a while September 20, 2021, Barry Morphew and daughters Mallory and Macy are all smiles as they depart 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 staff, led by lawyer 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 vital 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 info within the discovery section. 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 consultants in DNA and cellphone and car knowledge restoration. They’d not, he mentioned, be allowed to testify.
Legislation professor Aya Gruber mentioned 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 Legal professional Linda Stanley filed a movement to dismiss the homicide costs towards Barry Morphew with out prejudice, that means the case may very well 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 right this moment, though the writing was on the wall …
In her movement for dismissal, Stanley advised the decide that officers imagine they’re near discovering the placement of Suzanne Morphew’s physique. Court docket papers particularly talked about “a remote and mountainous region nearby the Morphew residence” that might be excavated after 5 ft of snow melts.
Dan Ridenour: The place is Suzanne Morphew’s physique? That’s the million-dollar query.
Keep 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 finally had been in a position to get better a few of that lacking knowledge or acquired a tip in regards to the location of Suzanne’s stays isn’t identified.
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 lawyer 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 needs to know the place Suzanne Morphew is.
Barry Morphew, alongside his daughters, walks out of the Fremont County Courthouse in Colorado a free man in spite of everything costs towards him are dismissed on April 19, 2022
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After the decide granted the movement to dismiss murder costs towards 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 towards Barry at this level. She mentioned 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 maintain one factor in thoughts.
Susanne Morphew, heart, with daughters Macy, left, and Mallory.
Suzanne Morphew/Fb
Melinda Moorman: “Mallory, Macy … Your mom would have laid down her life for you ladies … She would by no means depart you. She would by no means forsake you. She liked you together with her complete being.
In Might 2023, Barry Morphew filed a $15 million federal civil rights lawsuit towards prosecutors and regulation 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 chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.
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