Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #48

Status
Not open for further replies.
I keep wondering...why did it take the daughters alerting BM that they could not reach their mom? Wouldn't BM have been trying to reach her, himself? I would think that a loving, caring husband would have tried to call his wife himself, and be alarmed that he was not able to get her. Perhaps I have missed that info, but from what I have read, the daughters are the ones who raised the alarm, by calling him to tell him they could not reach her.

Please enlighten me, if I have that information wrong. Have read that it was only after the daughters could not reach her, that BM asked the neighbor to check on her.
MOO
I believe it was on the PE Story Map that I had read that BM did text SM a MD message that morning. He then also called her phone that morning and claims it went straight to voicemail.
 
I keep wondering...why did it take the daughters alerting BM that they could not reach their mom? Wouldn't BM have been trying to reach her, himself? I would think that a loving, caring husband would have tried to call his wife himself, and be alarmed that he was not able to get her. Perhaps I have missed that info, but from what I have read, the daughters are the ones who raised the alarm, by calling him to tell him they could not reach her.

Please enlighten me, if I have that information wrong. Have read that it was only after the daughters could not reach her, that BM asked the neighbor to check on her.
RBBM
That’s it in a nutshell. I don’t think he was a loving, caring, husband. He says he left her sleeping. He says he texted her “Happy Mother’s Day”. He says he tried to text and call a few more times. But, you’re right. He did not call LE himself. He did not call his 400 tour buddy or another fireman to check on her even though they lived close by. He left it to his 70 year old neighbor to both check the house and call LE.
You see, there was a script that had to be followed. He could not be the one to discover her missing. He had to get the plan in in action. Let the girls call him and the neighbor. Plant the bike ride seed. Let the neighbor call LE. Only then could he sound the alarm to his ff buddies to go help look for her while he raced home mentally going over the story in his head. It was perfect, foolproof. Except it wasn’t.
MOO
 
Once again, thank you all for your replies. There are so many conflicting and confusing details in this case. I feel most for the daughters, no matter what happened to SM. It has to be awful for them, not knowing what happened to their mother!
 
Long time lurker, first time posting.

The cooler issue has been tied to the fact that he is a hunter, but I have always looked at it from the perspective that he is a landscaper/contractor who often does jobs out of town. When I worked construction, I had a large cooler that I kept in my truck, and a smaller cooler I brought daily for my own lunch, snacks and drinks. Keeping extra fruit or snacks for your crew, along with bottles of water and/or other drinks is probably pretty common practice for this type of work. Also, anybody on his crew could state that he often has coolers in his truck because they would have seen them.
 
Once again, thank you all for your replies. There are so many conflicting and confusing details in this case. I feel most for the daughters, no matter what happened to SM. It has to be awful for them, not knowing what happened to their mother!
I do think the believe their mother is deceased. How could they not? They can't reconcile how it happened tho. I wouldn't be able to either if I were in their shoes and at their ages.
jmo
 
It would be perfectly legal for them to sub work out to anyone.

I assumed it might be, but that non-compliant/delinquent status in CO did make me wonder.

What does raise an eyebrow though, was the fact that according to LS in her latest update (2:36), BM's name (or company name) doesn't appear on any public documents for this job. That seems a bit shady to me, but maybe it's not and I'm just missing something. It did seem interesting enough to LS as well, since she mentioned it.

 
Long time lurker, first time posting.

The cooler issue has been tied to the fact that he is a hunter, but I have always looked at it from the perspective that he is a landscaper/contractor who often does jobs out of town. When I worked construction, I had a large cooler that I kept in my truck, and a smaller cooler I brought daily for my own lunch, snacks and drinks. Keeping extra fruit or snacks for your crew, along with bottles of water and/or other drinks is probably pretty common practice for this type of work. Also, anybody on his crew could state that he often has coolers in his truck because they would have seen them.
Great first post. Valid point.
 
I assumed it might be, but that non-compliant/delinquent status in CO did make me wonder.

What does raise an eyebrow though, was the fact that according to LS in her latest update (2:36), BM's name (or company name) doesn't appear on any public documents for this job. That seems a bit shady to me, but maybe it's not and I'm just missing something. It did seem interesting enough to LS as well, since she mentioned it.


It would seem a little shady, legal concerns would be questioned if sub contractors were kept hidden. Liens and wages are the first thing to come to mind that would be a problem with having hidden subcontractors. Some public work would have a process to 'ok' a subcontractor. If a sub contractor was not 'Ok'd' then a General Contractor will profit from a change order to choose another subcontractor as the sub contractor chosen more than likely was low bid.

Was BM's company the original installer of the wall or were they hired to repair the wall?
 
It would seem a little shady, legal concerns would be questioned if sub contractors were kept hidden. Liens and wages are the first thing to come to mind that would be a problem with having hidden subcontractors. Some public work would have a process to 'ok' a subcontractor. If a sub contractor was not 'Ok'd' then a General Contractor will profit from a change order to choose another subcontractor as the sub contractor chosen more than likely was low bid.

Was BM's company the original installer of the wall or were they hired to repair the wall?

From all we've learned yes, BM was the original sub contractor hired to install the wall. This is how he did that according to what LS was able to uncover:

03:12
after digging through the public documents
i've learned that the wall work
was first worked on by barry's crew
in october of 2019 by cassidy cordova
and cody cox
the worker i spoke with mentioned
that barry didn't do work on this
original project he just delegated
the work
he also said after they completed
the job that the walls needed to be fixed
quote it was horrible they did a miserable job
like kids did it
 
Ok, so I was just reading your post and the question about the strange dirt popped into my brain. Could BM have needed that dirt to put SM into on the trailer? Hidden in the dirt. He then takes the trailer somewhere and ditches her body but now needs to dump the excess dirt somewhere, somewhere is at the wall. It's just rather strange that after calling up "a crew" of workers he is one step ahead of them and plays a magical disappearing act. ~HEY LOOK, THERE HE IS, HEY LOOK, THERE HE GOES~. moo

If it happened like that then cadaver dogs should be able to pick up scent in the dirt at the wall. I wonder if LE took a dog(s) there?
 
It would seem a little shady, legal concerns would be questioned if sub contractors were kept hidden. Liens and wages are the first thing to come to mind that would be a problem with having hidden subcontractors. Some public work would have a process to 'ok' a subcontractor. If a sub contractor was not 'Ok'd' then a General Contractor will profit from a change order to choose another subcontractor as the sub contractor chosen more than likely was low bid.

Was BM's company the original installer of the wall or were they hired to repair the wall?
We don’t know because BM’s company wasn’t mentioned on the official permits. According to PE’s tweet the other day, a masonry company out of AZ was hired to build the wall.
According to BM, the reason he was going to repair it was because his guys built it last fall and it was a shoddy job that needed to be fixed.
Who knows?
ETA Just read @Ontario Mom post above. Could the masonry company have hired BM’s guys because they were more local, (than AZ). Were they recommended by EA Outdoors?
LS said she saw public documents. Wish she would post them. The ones I found were on the Broomfield Citizen Access site and listed Garrett and EA Outdoors.
[URL]https://egov.broomfield.org/citizenaccess/ComdevViewAttachment?key=55958527[/URL]
 
Last edited:
No better way in the industry to make a name for yourself than to repair your bad wall job with a worse wall job and then wrap it up in a crime investigation.

If you don't mind that kind of a name.

JMO
 
For anyone in the know...

Is there any legitimate reason the publicly available docs would list Garrett Construction LLC as the original contractor for this retaining wall job, who sub-contracted to EA Outdoor Services, but then show zero documentation listing BM or his company for the actual hands on work?
 
I have this thought at times as well.

But, why wouldn't he just fess up at the time or at least try to get help? Was it his ego stopping him from making that call? Why?

MOO

I’ve thought about this a lot. He probably wishes he did now. Suzanne might have been very injured and bloody. He knew he would be arrested. He knew photos would be taken and that his daughters would see what he had done. His mother would be ashamed of him. Suzanne’s family would hate him. His friends and business associates would shun him. He would look like a monster and his life as he knew it would be over. I think he was thinking mostly about himself. He probably also rationalized covering it up because his daughters would lose both parents since he would go to jail for some time even if it was an “accident.” He panicked and came up with the bike ride and Broomfield job alibi and possibly even called a “ride or die” friend and begged for help?

I would love to know if he was hiding and not participating in press conferences, vigils and searches because he is ashamed and has a guilty conscious or is he just a cold heartless narcissist? Are his outbursts of blaming and anger self defense mechanisms? Could he be suffering and eaten up with guilt inside or is he just trying to get on with his life as it appears? The comment BM made about if one person could be saved from this really bothers me. I wonder if in his mind he really thought Suzanne would not want him to be punished? I hope one day we will find out some of these answers.
 
For anyone in the know...

Is there any legitimate reason the publicly available docs would list Garrett Construction LLC as the original contractor for this retaining wall job, who sub-contracted to EA Outdoor Services, but then show zero documentation listing BM or his company for the actual hands on work?

There is and there isn't. It would depend on the laws and IRS.

If a subcontractor is hired to do work and not given direction on how to do the work, they make the decisions, they could legally be deemed a subcontractor.

If a subcontractor is hired to do work but not given the opportunity to make autonomous decisions about how the work is to be performed, they could legally be deemed employees.

It could also be how EA chose to hire BM's company. As a Time and Material type of work it could be they were considered contracted labor.
 
It would seem a little shady, legal concerns would be questioned if sub contractors were kept hidden. Liens and wages are the first thing to come to mind that would be a problem with having hidden subcontractors. Some public work would have a process to 'ok' a subcontractor. If a sub contractor was not 'Ok'd' then a General Contractor will profit from a change order to choose another subcontractor as the sub contractor chosen more than likely was low bid.

Was BM's company the original installer of the wall or were they hired to repair the wall?
Regardless of who performed the work; is this job a Public Works Project? Is there a need for a certified payroll documenting workers were paid prevailing wage? If so, did E.A. Outdoor Services pay Barry's worker's directly? Workman's Comp, GL COI, in whose name? Sorry for harping on this, but I think there's an angle of deceit somewhere.
 
For anyone in the know...

Is there any legitimate reason the publicly available docs would list Garrett Construction LLC as the original contractor for this retaining wall job, who sub-contracted to EA Outdoor Services, but then show zero documentation listing BM or his company for the actual hands on work?
I’ve been reading official docs on the wall build. The original plans that were submitted were prepared by SK Wall Design of Englewood CO for a Sargon Construction out of Littleton CO. (Sargon was the name of the masonry company PE referenced as being from AZ). They were drawn up in 2018.
There was a revised wall plan approved on 4/7/2020. It was submitted by Rosch Engineering out of Denver. It appears to be focused on one section of the wall. I would suspect that this was the failing section that BM’s guys worked on in the Fall of 2019. There was a 24 page document on structural analysis of the wall also dated 4\7\20, most of which caused my eyes to glaze over. However, a couple of sections did mention “critical failure”. See:
https://egov.broomfield.org/citizenaccess/ComdevViewAttachment?key=56871672

There were further revised plans dated 7/9/20 also by Rosch.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
164
Guests online
1,275
Total visitors
1,439

Forum statistics

Threads
589,939
Messages
17,927,956
Members
228,008
Latest member
redeworker
Back
Top