Sorry - this is long - but wanted to capture most of the hearing. I'll try not to be that long for today -hopefully!
Tuesday, August 10th:
*Preliminary Hearing (
Murder) (
Day 2 of 4) & Status Conference Hearing (Voter fraud) (
Day 2 of 4) (@ 9:30am MT) - CO –
Suzanne Renee Moorman Morphew (49) (missing May 10, 2020, did not return from bike ride (supposedly), Maysville, Chaffee County, not found) - *Barry Lee Morphew (53) arrested &
charged (5/5/21) with 1st degree murder after deliberation, tampering with physical evidence & attempting to influence a public servant. And additional
charges (5/18/21) with tampering with a deceased human body & possession of a dangerous weapon (short rifle) &
amended (5/18/21) to add domestic violence as sentencing enhancement. No bond.
Missing info, Barry’s PP loan & court info from 5/10/20 thru 8/6/21 reference post #279 here:
CO - CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #66 *ARREST*
*Charged (5/13/21) with felony forgery of public records & misdemeanor elections-mail ballot offense. $1K Bond.
For info on his voter fraud from 5/13/21 to 5/27/21 reference post #279 here:
CO - CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #66 *ARREST*
5/27/21 Update: Status conference hearings on 8/9, 8/10, 8/23 & 8/24/21. 7/22/21 Update: See above under murder re hearing.
8/9/21 Update: Day 1 of 4: Prosecution has 8 witnesses for first 2 days & 450 exhibits alone. Defense attorney Dru Nielsen asked for a one-minute opening statement as the hearing gets underway. Judge says he does not need that & will not permit that.
State witnesses: Commander Alex Walker, works for the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office. Walker was at the scene when deputies found the bike. Body-cam video from Dep. Brown of area where Suzanne Morphew's bike was found shown. Walker said deputies asked dispatch to ping her phone. Last activity on Suzanne's phone was 4:23am 5/10/20. Connected to the Poncha Springs tower. The boyfriend (MH) told deputies that Suzanne typically brings her car with her when she goes mountain biking, doesn't leave it home. Also mentioned: They've had some problems in the past. They have talked about separating. I've known this through Macy." Barry arrived at 8:46pm. Deputies ask two people to stop touching the bike in the body worn camera. Commander Walker testifies one of the people touching the bike was Barry Morphew. A picture of Suzanne wearing a light blue helmet & matching jacket with a camelback & sunglasses on is shown. She is on Methodist Mountain. The bike helmet was found .84 miles from the bike on May 14. The helmet was not damaged. It was found south on Highway 50 (10 meters from the road). Inside the helmet was a piece of paper with her name, number & family contact information. Walker says he spoke with Barry the following day (May 11) at 1:06pm (for 30 minutes). Barry said the last time he saw Suzanne was May 10 at 5am. Morphew also told Walker that the RV Park near the house was a suspicious location to be checked. He also mentioned a mountain lion. Says Barry texted Suzanne around 7:30am-8am wishing her a happy mother's day with no response. Commander says 10+ agencies helped in searches for Suzanne. He uncovers that searches are still underway. Suzanne's camelback was found in Suzanne's car. Sunglasses were found in Indiana inside the range rover. DA now asking Commander if anyone found any "drag" marks on the path where the bike was found & on the RV park trail. He says no.
Attorney Dru Nielsen on cross-examination. Investigators say Morphew told them he & Suzanne fought sometimes because he worked too much & he was upset about some medication Suzanne was on. He wanted her to get off the medication. Defense team asks if investigators have found any of Suzanne's blood in the house or anywhere in the course of this investigation, he says no. Commander Walker wrote 129 page affidavit which has been sealed from the public. Law enforcement agencies spent "thousands upon thousands of hours" searching for Suzanne. Grid searches, aircraft, scuba divers, swift water, K9 units, mines searched, drones, water pipes searched, ground penetrating radar search. In all of this, no human remains have been found. The day after helmet was found they searched this area. 134 search warrants have been signed in this case by judge. Nielsen says on July 8th investigators texted Morphew offering to bring him food & have a chat with him. She says on July 9th & 10th investigators were at the Morphew home. Barry was with LE to point out Suzanne's clothing — only there for a minute or two. Body camera footage shows he did what they asked. He wasn't allowed back in until authorities finished searching the home. Spy pen: Belonged to Suzanne. SO & her talked about getting her this spy pen. Morphew did not know about the spy pen. It is voice activated. Suzanne had suspected Barry was having an affair. Suzanne put "spy pen" in Barry's truck. Walker: "Barry wasn't found having an affair, Suzanne was having an affair for two years with a man named Jeff." Authorities didn't learn about this affair until November, 2020 — 6 months after Suzanne went missing. His name is Jeff Lidler, Nielsen said. There were hundreds of hours of phone calls, WhatsApp & other communication. They met up at least 6 times in different locations across the county & she didn't tell anybody about him. Nielsen says Jeff never came forward to law enforcement until they reached out to him 6 months after Suzanne went missing. She says Jeff asked FBI if he was a target of the investigation, they allegedly told him "no" & that they would "protect him". Jeff is a high school friend of Suzanne's.
The argument about time for questioning continues. The judge says if defense needs to call Commander Walker back at the end to tie up loose ends then they can, but they are going over their time limits. Nielsen argues he is the lead investigator & a critical witness. Prosecution says burden of proof is on them & they would like the defense to wrap up so they can get to their case. Judge tells defense he's confused why they're not understanding what he is asking of them.
On May 10, from 2:47pm (5/9) -5:30am (5/10) Morphew took steps in disposing of evidence according to activity on cell phones & truck. Neilsen is referring to Page 2 of the arrest affidavit re Telematix of truck.
Nielsen says DNA shows that there was a strong probability Suzanne's DNA was found on the cables that were unplugged from the system used to support the security cameras. They are talking about a blue cable to see if Suzanne's DNA was on that cable. DNA mixture of two. Likely Suzanne & an unknown male individual. Nielsen: DNA on the glove box of Suzanne's Range Rover came back with partial profile which matched 3 male profiles in CODIS (prison database) who were involved with sexual assault. Morphew's DNA excluded.
Nielsen concludes questioning & says she will save the rest of her questions for when they call the commander back.
Final point from DA Linda Stanley - Activity from Morphew's truck door shows it opened at around 3:26am on 5/10 & opened again at 8:10am. He told investigators he left the house that morning around 5am. Walker steps down.
FBI agent Ken Harris out of Denver office. He has been trained in the Behavioral Analysis Unit which led him to being involved in this case. He was looking into Suzanne's behaviors to help put pieces together. Testified about the spy pen. Agent Harris listened to the recordings from the spy pen that was apparently placed in Morphew's truck. He says the recording plays several podcasts from Forensic Files episodes that they believe Barry was listening to during drives. He says one of the Forensic File episodes was about someone going missing on a bike ride. And several more recordings about some of the conversations Barry & Suzanne had. One recording that starts in the truck: Suzanne was arguing with Barry about money. In particular, inheritance Suzanne had received that was used to buy the house & that Barry invested in business. Suzanne was also angry about what she can & cannot wear. Another recording, 5 hours long of Suzanne speaking with Jeff Lidler. Trip to Michigan on a business trip. This was important because FBI needed to find out who this Jeff guy was. He lives in Michigan. They secretly met up 6 times in New Orleans, Michigan, Texas, Indiana (2x) & Florida.
Harris testifies Barry said he & Suzanne had a “perfect night” day before he left for Broomfield & she disappeared. Suzanne's best friend from Indiana told the FBI the couple hadn’t had a "perfect night" in a year & a half. Said she spoke with Suzanne all the time. Exhibit 3 through 17: Screen shots of texts between Suzanne & Sheila, Suzanne’s best friend. Iris Eaton: objects. The screen shots don’t indicate the time stamps so we can’t tell the order.
Another text: Suzanne "He's (Barry) unstable". Another text implies that Barry would turn their daughters against her. It's revealed through these texts with her best friend that Suzanne's cancer had come back in 2018. She was concerned that stress from fighting with Barry was causing her health to deteriorate. Agent Harris mentioned that Sheila told him in 2018, Barry allegedly pushed Suzanne into a closet & put a gun to his head & asked her if this is what she wanted. Text messages reveal that Suzanne wanted to wait until Macy was on her own, out of the house to separate. Texts show Suzanne told Sheila, Barry wanted her to be the bad guy & he wanted to look good.
Prosecution is going through pages of text screenshots from Shelia talking to Suzanne. They talk about divorce, Macy & how Suzanne is afraid to be alone with Barry. Jeff Lindsey is still presenting text message screen shots & FBI agent Kenneth Harris is answering questions (exhibit 18-26) re texts from Jeff. The last communication from Suzanne was at 14:11 (2:11pm) on May 9 between her & Jeff Libler on Linked In. SA Harris says Jeff learned of Suzanne going missing & he did not want news of the affair to get out because he wanted to protect Suzanne's daughters.
Defense is up to questions SA Harris. Iris Eytan is starting off asking the agent about the texts between Suzanne & her friend Sheila.Eytan is asking if Harris is doing interpretations of the text messages. He said Sheila was providing her interpretations. The phone records were collected too as well as multiple interviews. Sheila & Holly, friends of Suzanne had recorded secret interviews with Morphew for the FBI at one point. An interview with Jeff Libler on Dec. 18, 2020 & three pages of conversations from the Linked In account. Talking again about the Spy Pen. Sheila got a spy pen — looks like an everyday black pen — and gave it to Suzanne when they were both in Florida. There were multiple audio files on the pen. It activates when it hears a voice, Eytan said. Eleven files were deleted (2 were recovered) & 11 were saved. The spy pen was found in Suzanne's closet. Harris said Lidler's phone was pinging off Michigan towers on May 10. Investigators found some journals but not all journals, according to Harris. Suzanne didn't write about the affair in any journal. Investigators never found Suzanne's phone or the charger she leaves plugged in next her bed. So investigators had what was backed up on the iCloud as well as phone records from the phone company. Eytan asked, if Suzanne had a simcard. Harris said no. SA Harris is discussing phone records & calls between Suzanne & Jeff Liebler. Defense says Libler planned to come see Suzanne in CO in March, but COVID hit. By April 2020 defense says the two were talking about love & calling each other their soulmates. They were sending nude photographs to each other & saying they should get married.
Judge has released SA Harris from the stand for the day. He'll be back tomorrow morning. Asks both attorneys to work to come to an agreement about SA Harris report on several things. Preliminary hearing starts at 9am (court site says 9:30am) on 8/10/21.
