Still Missing CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *arrest* #93

[Seattle1]

According to this, the pin and bolt are from the arm of the Bobcat.

Had SM not been murdered on Saturday afternoon, I initially believed that BM could have made another trip back to town to get a replacement pin/bolt for the bobcat arm and stopped at Salida Stove and Spa to pick up the spa chemicals late Saturday afternoon. I'm not sure when this actually came up in BM's forgotten "mechanical thingy" he did to the bobcat. Actually, I'm not certain that it wasn't the blade change that BM forgot in his Saturday timeline (raising the suspicion that bobcat had something to hide).

As for the bolts found inside the bucket, I've long believed those were the bolts sawed off when replacing the blade. According to the Skid Steer Forums, removing the bolts can be extremely time consuminmg in comparison to just cutting them off and replacing the old bolts. MOO

 

[Murphy1950]

Sorry, only plan available I can find on county site (tax base) I'll keep looking.

 

[Cindizzi]

Do we know if the pins and screws were on the trailer or bobcat itself because I can’t recall? Had either equipment been moved those pins and screws would have blown out and been lost. IMO

 

[sk716]

Is Andy's search info allowed to be discussed here? I am looking at reports from his search and came across the 3 locations search dogs hit during his search. Was curious if that has been discussed? One was close to their home and the other 2 seems to be further away.

I was also looking closer at the area around their home on Puma Path. Looking at the land and terrain trying to get a feel for it. I think in my mind I had the home situated a different way and still trying to piece it together with the pictures we've seen and then the maps. The back of the house was facing the river. I found a real estate description that said natural stone stairs down to the river. Looking at the overhead view it seems those stairs are closest to where Barry backed his truck up to the night of the 9th and also where the trailer and bobcat where parked.

Do we know where the hot tub was located? I've searched every online listing I can find (realtor.com, zillow, etc) and no photos of the hot tub, but it is mentioned in the listings.

Also, it would seem that Barry's "garage" was the third stall of the 3 car garage. I was trying to figure out if there was a separate place he had his safe and all this "junk", but I don't see anything. I see in the police body cam video that Suzanne's car is in the first stall (one to the left) and MM2's car is in the middle stall, so that leaves the far right stall for Barry to have his tools, the safe and the guns we see in the photo. Is this what everyone thinks?

Back patio by the BBQ.

 

[Seattle1]

I think when she had the reoccurrence of breast cancer and went through chemo----he thought she might not make it---and he readied himself to be a widower. He may have felt let down when it didn't happen that way.

SM overcame two bouts of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

She also said he used her history as a cancer survivor to intimidate her into staying with him. Suzanne Morphew overcame Hodgkin’s lymphoma multiple times.

Suzanne Morphew: Love affair, ‘trash runs’ revealed at hearing for husband of missing woman

 

[Seattle1]

I think the Bobcat was pretty much trailer-loaded and ready to go at all times (we all recall LS characterization of BM attached to the bobcat as if a purse). However, BM knew he wasn't hauling the trailer on Sunday to Broomfield and I think it was after unloading the bobcat at PP Saturday during daylight hours after the blade replacement, he became aware the pin/bolt missing.

For whatever reason, seems to me BM wanted to use this pin/bolt demonstration with Agent Grusing to excuse him of something perhaps related to the timeline on Saturday. Since both the AA and PH made it a point to exclude the bobcat from being connected to SM's disappearance, I don't think any party spent time further discussing the blade, bolts, pins, SIM card, etc. MOO

 

[mom2chloe]

^^bbm

I think BM had really turned up the heat love bombing SM since Wednesday's message, acting as if he was going along --all to try to win her back, and for the first time ever, he saw it wasn't working. This time was different -- SM was holding her ground -- even found a house and BM resorted to desperate means-- including sending the FB requests.

It may have been as simple as SM, distracted, sitting in her car talking to JL while she thought BM was in line waiting for their pizza and where BM stepped out of line and snuck up from behind, eavesdropping. Or maybe BM was also recording SM inside her own vehicle.

There was a mini spy camera box and user's manual found but no camera (BM told Agent Grusing he threw it out). Why couldn't BM have planted that camera in the closet if only for 24 hours -- that's all he needed to catch SM in the act.

I liked your idea IIRC that he dropped the wedding ring into the drawer but what if it was the camera. Sounds tiny enough to fit the scenario but if so where is the camera now and was it ever found? Anyone know?

 

[Seattle1]

All day today I've been pondering the Denver job and it's purpose. BM gets to the hotel super early in the morning when he was supposed to pick up MG that evening. Does some of his shady crap and then suddenly around 11 decides he needs more workers although he fully knows he doesn't have the equipment with him at the time for them to actually do anything. I'm trying to put myself in his shoes and think of why he decides to call MG and get her to recruit Jeff at that point. Cassidy is coming Monday, why was Jeff needed? In fact, having only MG there May 10th would have saved money on rooms since they would only need one instead of two.

Also, I have seen conflicting info about Jeff. Did BM specifically want Jeff or was that MG's call and BM merely specified bringing "someone else"? Did BM ask Jeff to call him directly or did Jeff decide to call Barry on his own?

^^bbm

Ideally, I think BM would have rather MG and CC travel together to Broomfield. IMO, BM basically had Jeff along for insurance. BM needed an alibi of a
"big transit job" requiring him to be there in advance to set up the job for his crew. CC was already away for the weekend and said he couldn't be there until Monday. BM really had no assurance that CC would arrive Monday morning. If MG is the only worker there on Monday morning for BM's big job-- the optics are terrible! It's essentially MG, standing alone, well, holding the cheese. Stinky cheese.

Jeff had never worked for BM until Broomfield -- he worked for DSI. Jeff says he saw BM at DSI on Saturday and BM didn't even talk to him so when he later got the call from MG about the job, he asked for BM's number. Jeff called BM personally to confirm that he wanted him in Broomfield. MOO

 

[TobyWong*]

We still haven't figured out what Barry was doing on Friday night, into the morning, recording abnormally high cellular activity.

Friday, pizza. Seen around town.
I feel like this is so plausible. I rarely jump in w a number of pages before me but this feels right. Or possible angle.

He would have had an actual alibi for Saturday. Is it possible that he was planning an ambush overnight, when Suzanne's phone would be naturally inactive, would stage the same bike ride, and be with MG all day on Saturday? Couldn't have been me, I was at work with an actual worker present.

Maybe that's why he was such a wreck on Saturday morning. His plan didn't work. Suzanne didn't drink the BAM or whatever his plan may have been.

Had it worked, he would've had only that small gap of cellular inactivity to contend with. Leave the house at 8, Suzanne's still "sleeping", consistent perhaps with her routine.

Barry could've planned to have MG come back to the house, to "discover" Suzanne missing together.

But he was thwarted, frazzled. Had to go hiking and biking with the wife, a pitiful attempt at we're a couple doing couple-y stuff. Maybe he planned to. Maybe he was going to attempt to recreate Friday's plan.... only something set him off. Trail cam footage or deer head footage would be my guess.

Could see her, could see she was talking to someone....

He goes home, takes down all his cameras, goes into town to get a new blade (because a shiny new blade can be decontaminated and still look like a shiny new blade. An old blade, bleached clean, would be a flashing billboard).

Returns home, desperate to get to her before she goes biking (her predictable afternoon ritual) -- growing angrier and angrier the closer he gets.

I may be way off but IMO his Friday night factors into this. I'm just not sure how.

JMO

 

[Seattle1]

I liked your idea IIRC that he dropped the wedding ring into the drawer but what if it was the camera. Sounds tiny enough to fit the scenario but if so where is the camera now and was it ever found? Anyone know?

Dropped the wedding ring in a drawer? That's a new one for me!

I can't think of one reason why BM would leave a mini-spy camera behind at PP and not dispose of it with SM and/or during his 5 trash stops in Broomfield. And zero reason he'd drop it in a drawer at home only to be collected during the first search warrant. That makes no sense to me.

ETA: BM said the camera was cheap, never got it to work and he threw it out.

 

[DellaC]

I think the AA described BM's iPhone as much older than SM's missing iPhone and it could have been that he thought he needed her USB-C/18W lightning cable to charge her phone versus his own charger.

My guess is a little less savvy than spyware. I think he was watching her via a hidden camera but I totally agree with you otherwise. He definitely overheard "Jeff" at some point Friday which led to the fb requests. Note that on page 87 of the AA, the investigators are questioning BM real hard about cameras. He even admits there that he sometimes uses his game cameras to see if anyone was coming up the drive and says that SM was sure he was spying on her inside the house as well (although he denies this). On pg. 95 they ask BM if Suzanne had talked to him about him "seeing her on her phone" Apparently the investigators were also suspicious that some of these had been thrown away because they question him about that pg. 117.

Pg. 96 is interesting from the camera angle as well- BM confirms that he can see the camera feed with his phone but only when he has wifi or cell service and he says the cell service is "spotty" at the house. I wish I could find a topo map of the area around the PP property, I'm wondering how he was able to do anything on his phone down by the river on Friday night since wifi surely couldn't reach that far and with spotty service and all.

You may already have found a topo map, but here's a link to one that allowed me to zoom in on the Morphew property. You can click to quickly change between topo, satellite and terrain. Free Chaffee County, Colorado Topo Maps & Elevations

 

[PaulaDC]

My guess is a little less savvy than spyware. I think he was watching her via a hidden camera but I totally agree with you otherwise. He definitely overheard "Jeff" at some point Friday which led to the fb requests. Note that on page 87 of the AA, the investigators are questioning BM real hard about cameras. He even admits there that he sometimes uses his game cameras to see if anyone was coming up the drive and says that SM was sure he was spying on her inside the house as well (although he denies this). On pg. 95 they ask BM if Suzanne had talked to him about him "seeing her on her phone" Apparently the investigators were also suspicious that some of these had been thrown away because they question him about that pg. 117.

Pg. 96 is interesting from the camera angle as well- BM confirms that he can see the camera feed with his phone but only when he has wifi or cell service and he says the cell service is "spotty" at the house. I wish I could find a topo map of the area around the PP property, I'm wondering how he was able to do anything on his phone down by the river on Friday night since wifi surely couldn't reach that far and with spotty service and all.

Years back part of our street had a blackout. I took my laptop and walked down the road until I was able to use someone else's that was open wifi. moo

 

[eyeseestars]

If he was initially trying to stage an actual bike ride gone wrong, he may have thought driving her car to where she would park would not be seen as suspicious or maybe that was part of the plan, but he changed his mind. Seems more suspicious now that her bike was found, but she didn't usually ride from the house, she drove to trails. I think her car data could definitely show the last time she drove and if the car moved after 2:47pm on the 9th, it likely wasn't her.

I recall somewhere he mentioned Suzanne asking him to take her bike out of the car. I'll look for that. That sounded to me like more staging on his part or covering up for why his prints would be on the bike.

Totally covering for his prints being on the bike. And also how he would know she was going riding- however, she definitely wouldn't have needed him to take out her helmet and weren't his prints there too? Honestly, in a relationship like theirs I wouldn't expect his DNA on her helmet at all.

 

[eyeseestars]

Saw something else in the AA today- investigators questioning BM about unplugging the router. If they don't get any cell service at the home and rely on wifi for all outside connections, I could see him unplugging the router prior to using the tranq gun to prevent her from calling for help. Also, if she was indeed sedated, the experts on the AA say the time period of sedation wildly varies, from something like 2-8 hours. If he's busy cleaning up evidence and packing up the truck, burning journals and such, he would need to be sure that SM has no way to call for help if she wakes while he isn't looking- I know he would have confiscated her phone but I bet they have a computer or two. Does anyone have any more info on the wireless being out during the relevant time period?

 

[MassGuy]

Ok, this is driving me crazy. I absolutely remember what @Seattle1 was talking about (one of the daughters calling or texting Suzanne from inside the house to tell her breakfast was ready).

Does anyone remember where this came from? Prelim maybe?

 

[TIGER0822]

I wonder if there is any good reason to think that BM may have had someone to help with the planning? Some of this seems a little too clever for just BM. IMO

I suspect some one may have unwittingly helped, who had no idea what she was getting into. Who got scared and left town.

 

[marylamby]

Barry knew he couldn't use his Bobcat on Sunday without drawing attention to unpermitted work....

Best I can understand it, his alibi is that he wanted to get up to Broomfield a good ten hours before his originally scheduled crew (MG) so he could...um...what? Show her where he put the wrong equipment?

Did he drive all that way just to shower?

What I really want to know is

Why did he leave the Bobcat in Maysville?

Can any of you make that make sense?

JMO

Because he never ordered the materials, didn't have a work order (for any day, as far as I know) and knew he'd be driving back sometime in late afternoon/evening on Sunday?

 

[justtrish]

Ok, this is driving me crazy. I absolutely remember what @Seattle1 was talking about (one of the daughters calling or texting Suzanne from inside the house to tell her breakfast was ready).

Does anyone remember where this came from? Prelim maybe?

Yep, I saw that! Let me look! I just read it in the last couple days actually!

 

[DizzyB]

Ok, this is driving me crazy. I absolutely remember what @Seattle1 was talking about (one of the daughters calling or texting Suzanne from inside the house to tell her breakfast was ready).

Does anyone remember where this came from? Prelim maybe?

PH I think, Dad made breakfast. We learned that Suzanne was actually talking/texting/whatever with JL at the time, and that’s why she did not respond. Did Suzanne say she was sleeping?

 

[Cindizzi]

Ok, this is driving me crazy. I absolutely remember what @Seattle1 was talking about (one of the daughters calling or texting Suzanne from inside the house to tell her breakfast was ready).

Does anyone remember where this came from? Prelim maybe?

Must have been the PH. I don’t remember any tweets so maybe it was on an LS YouTube recap?
What I remember is MM2 text to SM saying Dad made biscuits and then SM replied like an hour later saying Just Woke up. When in fact she had been texting with JL at the time.
Must have been Defense bringing this up. JMO