I imagine SM and the girls were in CO for the beginning of the school year. Perhaps they rented an Airbnb until they closed on the house?
Yep, that's one way to imagine it. Or, since the girls would have started senior and freshman year, respectively, perhaps they finished out the semester and then went to the new home for Christmas.
Given the expressions on their faces in Suzanne's photo, I'd say the girls look like it might be the latter.
<modsnip: sleuthing BM's social media is not allowed>
It's also interesting to think that BM must have had to have an income (Suzanne had been ill, no record of her being a full time or a substitute teacher in those years). So perhaps BM did go over to Salida early and join the volunteers, try to network, work up business.
If BM did in fact move the whole family to Salida in August, 2018, it would make only a small difference to my overall theory - but I do not think we have LE or MSM confirmation either way.
For those of us who were thinking BM had been allowed in the house before they taped it off-- isnt true.
"DailyMail.com can now reveal that Morphew, 52,
has not been allowed to enter the home he shared with Suzanne since he returned from his trip to Denver."
Cops search a property in Colorado for evidence of mom-of-two missing since Mother's Day | Daily Mail Online
Thank you so much for finding that and putting it together. I really think this is important. That also means that the property was in the hands of LE for longer than 3 days (the source of which I believe to be...BM).
So I'm going to assume that LE went into the house for a welfare check, to find Suzanne. They did not find Suzanne (nor her bike), but they had a chance to walk through the house on May 10. What did they find?
What was Barry's reaction to not being allowed into his own house? Surely he had lots of questions for LE, and they had questions for him.
So when sleuthers here say that LE had a very early clue/set of clues, I think they are right.