Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, Chaffee Co, 10 May 2020 *Case dismissed w/o Prejudice* #103

[FromGermany1]

It was unseasonably hot here in the UK too during April and May 2020.

So, are we looking for an area that he was able to get to in the dark ( Saturday late PM/early Sunday AM), or earlier Saturday? Or was it on his route to Denver?

Do you think BM is lazy (i.e. will take the easiest route to do something)?

Laziness makes us work more efficiently - and efficient is BM's working style, I believe. IMO

 

[Trebor5591]

The DA's MTD says the location they focused on before the winter of 2021-22 precluded further search is "in a remote and mountainous region nearby the Morphew residence." You don't have to go far to find such a place. Maysville is located in the Saguache Range, which includes eight of the twenty highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains, and the town is surrounded by several "13'ers" and their associated, interconnecting ridges.

Pahlone Peak (about 13,000 ft.) is directly behind the Puma Path property south of US 50, with Mt. Ouray (nearly 14,000 ft.) immediately SSE of Pahlone. Taylor Mountain and Mt. Aetna are just across the road to the north. Rugged and remote as it is, the area is accessible by roads and trails for outdoorsmen like BM, and MOO it would be familiar territory for all the hunters, hikers, and climbers who live in the region.

It makes sense to me that BM would use a place he knew pretty intimately to hide SM. As well it would be a place he could reach and return from, using the 2015 Range Rover, in the roughly four hours his devices were turned off. If BM knows such a place, his compadres also know it, and they know the places he has been with them. MOO, many former buddies fell out with BM after reading the affidavit and began to help LE. I think there's a good chance they will find SM's remains when the area is safe to search. JMO.

MOO, the cold and altitude will have preserved more than her bones, and forensic examination will complete the case against BM.

MOO. I hope you are right and they do find her. But I keep thinking--its mid-June now. When will the snow melt enough for them to find her? I mean, its going to be 100 degrees next week in Tennessee where I live.

One thing I don't understand--if SM disappeared on Mothers Day (early May), and the snow hasn't melted enough in mid June to search for and find SM, then how did BM (assuming he did murder her) bury her under the ground if the ground was covered by deep show in early May? It doesn't make sense. Unless I am not seeing something.

My opinion only.

 

[GOBliaison]

IMO Barry spent the afternoon/ evening hours of 5/9 disguising the crime scene. Phase I. Preparing Suzanne's body for transport (IMO a cooler with neutralizing agents), burning her distinctly bound journal, doing laundry (IMO he washed his shorts because -- and this is important if true -- he took them off before she was dead. He did not throw them away, he laundered them. Potentially damning implications IMO), repairing and staining the breached doorjamb, etc. After about 10:30 on 5/9, I think Barry did not re-enter PP (until escorted by officers on 5/10) and I believe it was 100% by design.

I think Barry waited until full dark for Phase II. (Could he binocular his way to the R neighbors' house? See when they reached Lights Out? They were his only neighbors for miles, I think, so he'd want to wait until they were down for the night.)

I think Barry may have borrowed a vehicle for use overnight. From his hospitable, out-of-state neighbors who'd never know or from the fire camp (IMO Barry could hike for MILES with a full-size elk, a well-sealed yeti or his lithe wife).

By 5 am, his work was done, short of the dumpster runs. And let's face it, his "alibi"? He went to Broomfield TO throw things away!!! That's it! Not to work. Not to eyeball it or set it up for his crew, nope, nothing. He went to Broomfield to shower, to throw stuff away and to wait....

I think Barry worked HARD between 11pm and 3:30 am. I just don't know what he was doing or what he had for equipment. Hiking, digging, backfilling, landscaping (using his skills to erase signs of disturbance -- as you'd see when an earthmover might dig a trench for access to a sewer line, only to fill it back in, finishing it off in such a way that no one would know work had been done).

IMO Suzanne could be in a mineshaft (very likely IMO she's there with the missing elk carcass or whatever he hunted during either his alleged bear hunt or turkey seach) or she's in an actual lion's den or near to it (with that same elk or deer as bait -- I think his insistence on the mountain lion may have held truth -- she would've been mauled by a lion -- because he/Barry dragged her up the mountain, set the table and invited a lion to clean up) or he used all of his skills to barry her in a couch pit, for instance raking back his own driveway and then finessing it to perfection over the top of her or he barried her in a pre-dug hole, planted a tree, arranged a couple of dumb rocks and felt he'd done a solid.

When he returned to PP at 3:30 am, IMO he was filthy, was running on adrenaline, stripped down, rinsed off (without ever going inside). Again with the shorts, IMO if he'd worn them overnight, they'd be in the throw away pile, not the laundry.

Naked and barefoot, I think he stepped onto the trailer, stepped into the bucket of the Bobcat and climbed into the seat to drive it off the trailer because it was his only way to remove the trailer from his truck.

(I wish/hope LE tested the loose dirt/gravel on the trailer. I think Barry may have stolen a load of soil/sand from the beach property for backfill.)

IMO he did SOMETHING between 4 and 4:30 following that left turn. Less than elk but more than helmet --

And headed out of town.

JMO

Greetings, Dear Megnut,
and To All Who Shall see These Presents -
It's incredibly splendid to be "back":
New operating system; new email; barely missed a beat since last October. Good grief, so thankful!




Now it remains my conviction wrt Suzanne's disposition that, (1) time being of the essence; (2) transport by conveyance/on foot to a pre-existing cache, (3) bearing burden(s), (4) under bright moonlight, (5) risking witness, (6) the likelihood of shedding clues/evidence in the process/on the way; and for many other, well-considered, precautionary concerns, undertaking a trek to disappear the corpus delecti and/or confuse the foreseeable numbers and range of eyes, ears and chatter shortly to descend onto his property, was not only impracticable but perilous. No.
IMO, little time was lost, fresh effort expended, or fresh thinking applied. Suzanne was not taken from the property, and lies likely not many yards from her former dwelling.

See. Barry already had "an very cunning plan", {hat- tip Black Adder}:
He merely needed that awful loss of bicycle control. Per Suzanne? SODDI? Lion? Immaterial.
And he's set that up unerringly - strike that - [un]cunningly, by himself by off-loading her bike from her car --- after Suzanne was lying incapacitated outside the house --- and placing it thereafter in his truck.
Why?
Particularly so that on the next day's late afternoon arranged callback from Mrs. R, he could (and did, IIRC) ask her:

• "Did you see her bike in the garage??
• "You didn't look?" Well, could you check that out please?
• I'm sorry for the lengthy trips, but it may not be wise to send out alarms until we see if Suzanne is just out for a ride, right?
• 'I'll hang right here at the worksite, and wait for your call, OK?"

[ Unasked, perhaps, , Mr./Mrs. R then could well have wondered:

• 'And usually how lengthy are her rides?
• 'And are we to wait/keep an eye out for her return?
• 'And shall we do so from our place, or your's, Barry?' ]

Oops.



The barr has nada idea(s) about any of this stuff!
... and just "guessing" for Mr./ Mrs. R's edification ??...
...nah.
'way too fraught with peril...
I'm ending this conversation.
{lordie. could this have been a bad idea from the start?
No way. I'm still way ahead of all these rubes...}
​

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Nota bene:
Absolutely my own opinions and hypotheses, in the appropriate context, throughout.

 

[Murphy1950]

Speaking of the bike, how can anyone consider gone girl and logically tie in where the bike fits in? Can’t be done which leaves Staging or abduction.

They found her bike in a place she never rides, does that support staging or abduction?
First time for everything, I guess she could have tried a new route and been abducted. Forgot to bring her camelbak, no big deal, but she remembered to bring her phone charger(?)but didn’t check her messages that morning, it’s almost as if she left in a hurry.

She went for her ride in the morning, although she was never known to ride in the morning, but a first time for everything as said earlier. It was a chilly morning 35 degrees. The wedding was at 6 pm, plenty of time for an afternoon ride. Gee, does make you wonder. The consensus by everyone was the bike was thrown down the hill, not an accident. An accident would have been evidenced by a broken plant trail leading to a crash, there was none. Tossing the bike took some strength, beyond Suzanne’s capabilities, besides why would she toss her own expensive bike? Lastly no scent of Suzanne found with the bike. There is absolutely nothing to tie Suzanne to that bike.

If she hadn’t gone for a morning ride there would have been no need whatsoever for panic. Why throw the helmet out? The bike wasn’t enough of a hint??

Sounds like it was orchestrated. At that, why do they not think she could have been with a friend at 6PM?

Just the bike alone raises question after question IMO...not even speaking to the affair or her earlier text about divorce that same week, or her text with her sister regarding abuse, or house hunting or checking on JL after 59 text the day before.

Abductors aren’t orchestrators, their job is to get in and out. Thank goodness Barry was there to raise an alarm (sarcasm font broke)

 

[CGray123]

MOO. I hope you are right and they do find her. But I keep thinking--its mid-June now. When will the snow melt enough for them to find her? I mean, its going to be 100 degrees next week in Tennessee where I live.

One thing I don't understand--if SM disappeared on Mothers Day (early May), and the snow hasn't melted enough in mid June to search for and find SM, then how did BM (assuming he did murder her) bury her under the ground if the ground was covered by deep show in early May? It doesn't make sense. Unless I am not seeing something.

My opinion only.

Weather and altitude seems to be the answer. The highest Mountains in the Smokies reach an elevation lower than Salida, which is near the Continental Divide surrounded by 13,000+ peaks. Everything to the west is uphill from Salida. Monarch, on US 50 just 6 miles up the road from the Morphews' PP home, is over 9,000 feet elevation. Winter arrives early and stays late at this elevation.

Here's the text of a previous post explaining how a warm dry April and May in 2020 could have cleared ground that is now under snow because the winter of 2021-2022 was more normal:

"I am beginning to look at differences in the weather for explanations as to why the area could have been accessible to BM in May 2020 but not to LE in April 2022.

In 2020, a pretty decent snow accumulation over the early winter was melted off rapidly by abnormally high temperatures, and unusually dry conditions in April and May, according to the University of Colorado's 2020 Western Water Assessment:

'The dramatic change in seasonal runoff forecasts from April to June 2020 was caused by extremely warm and dry conditions in April – June 2020. Snow typically continues to accumulate at the higher elevations in April and May, but in 2020, warm and dry conditions melted existing snowpack at a faster rate and little additional snow accumulated in the region after April 1st. Dry conditions continued through the remainder of the water year. Much of Utah and portions of western Colorado and central Wyoming saw the driest April – September period on record. April – September 2020 precipitation was in the bottom 10% of years for nearly all of Colorado and Utah and over half of Wyoming. Although temperatures averaged over the entire 2020 water year were generally near average, April – September 2020 temperatures were much above normal (hottest 10% of years since 1895) for most of Utah and the western two-thirds of Colorado.'

By contrast as of April 2022 Colorado snowpack and stream flow was near normal levels according to the WWA."

 

[Boxer]

MOO. I hope you are right and they do find her. But I keep thinking--its mid-June now. When will the snow melt enough for them to find her? I mean, its going to be 100 degrees next week in Tennessee where I live.

One thing I don't understand--if SM disappeared on Mothers Day (early May), and the snow hasn't melted enough in mid June to search for and find SM, then how did BM (assuming he did murder her) bury her under the ground if the ground was covered by deep show in early May? It doesn't make sense. Unless I am not seeing something.

My opinion only.

You are right. If he could access the ground or mine entrance then police should be able to also.

 

[Momofthreeboys]

Speaking of the bike, how can anyone consider gone girl and logically tie in where the bike fits in? Can’t be done which leaves Staging or abduction.

They found her bike in a place she never rides, does that support staging or abduction?
First time for everything, I guess she could have tried a new route and been abducted. Forgot to bring her camelbak, no big deal, but she remembered to bring her phone charger(?)but didn’t check her messages that morning, it’s almost as if she left in a hurry.

She went for her ride in the morning, although she was never known to ride in the morning, but a first time for everything as said earlier. It was a chilly morning 35 degrees. The wedding was at 6 pm, plenty of time for an afternoon ride. Gee, does make you wonder. The consensus by everyone was the bike was thrown down the hill, not an accident. An accident would have been evidenced by a broken plant trail leading to a crash, there was none. Tossing the bike took some strength, beyond Suzanne’s capabilities, besides why would she toss her own expensive bike? Lastly no scent of Suzanne found with the bike. There is absolutely nothing to tie Suzanne to that bike.

If she hadn’t gone for a morning ride there would have been no need whatsoever for panic. Why throw the helmet out? The bike wasn’t enough of a hint??

Sounds like it was orchestrated. At that, why do they not think she could have been with a friend at 6PM?

Just the bike alone raises question after question IMO...not even speaking to the affair or her earlier text about divorce that same week, or her text with her sister regarding abuse, or house hunting or checking on JL after 59 text the day before.

Abductors aren’t orchestrators, their job is to get in and out. Thank goodness Barry was there to raise an alarm (sarcasm font broke)

Again to play devil’s advocate perhaps anyone could have staged the bike. Suzanne could have staged the bike. Barry could have staged the bike, a “friend of either Morphew could have staged the bike. The prosecution’s theory was Barry tossed the bike and I assume by perhaps walking it there since the only truck movement was 95 ft or on his way out he stopped the truck and tossed and that Barry rolled down the window presumably and tossed the helmet although there appears to be a trail between the road the bike was on and the area the helmet was found. Correct me if I am wrong but I think the bike dna was accounted for but the helmet had unknown dna.

 

[MassGuy]

Again to play devil’s advocate perhaps anyone could have staged the bike. Suzanne could have staged the bike. Barry could have staged the bike, a “friend of either Morphew could have staged the bike. The prosecution’s theory was Barry tossed the bike and I assume by perhaps walking it there since the only truck movement was 95 ft or on his way out he stopped the truck and tossed and that Barry rolled down the window presumably and tossed the helmet although there appears to be a trail between the road the bike was on and the area the helmet was found. Correct me if I am wrong but I think the bike dna was accounted for but the helmet had unknown dna.

The only reason to stage a crime scene, is to direct attention away from where it would naturally go.

Here it would go to Barry.

No one else on earth had a reason to do that, except for the man with one of the most hilarious alibis of all time.

 

[tmar]

IMO Barry spent the afternoon/ evening hours of 5/9 disguising the crime scene. Phase I. Preparing Suzanne's body for transport (IMO a cooler with neutralizing agents), burning her distinctly bound journal, doing laundry (IMO he washed his shorts because -- and this is important if true -- he took them off before she was dead. He did not throw them away, he laundered them. Potentially damning implications IMO), repairing and staining the breached doorjamb, etc. After about 10:30 on 5/9, I think Barry did not re-enter PP (until escorted by officers on 5/10) and I believe it was 100% by design.

I think Barry waited until full dark for Phase II. (Could he binocular his way to the R neighbors' house? See when they reached Lights Out? They were his only neighbors for miles, I think, so he'd want to wait until they were down for the night.)

I think Barry may have borrowed a vehicle for use overnight. From his hospitable, out-of-state neighbors who'd never know or from the fire camp (IMO Barry could hike for MILES with a full-size elk, a well-sealed yeti or his lithe wife).

By 5 am, his work was done, short of the dumpster runs. And let's face it, his "alibi"? He went to Broomfield TO throw things away!!! That's it! Not to work. Not to eyeball it or set it up for his crew, nope, nothing. He went to Broomfield to shower, to throw stuff away and to wait....

I think Barry worked HARD between 11pm and 3:30 am. I just don't know what he was doing or what he had for equipment. Hiking, digging, backfilling, landscaping (using his skills to erase signs of disturbance -- as you'd see when an earthmover might dig a trench for access to a sewer line, only to fill it back in, finishing it off in such a way that no one would know work had been done).

IMO Suzanne could be in a mineshaft (very likely IMO she's there with the missing elk carcass or whatever he hunted during either his alleged bear hunt or turkey seach) or she's in an actual lion's den or near to it (with that same elk or deer as bait -- I think his insistence on the mountain lion may have held truth -- she would've been mauled by a lion -- because he/Barry dragged her up the mountain, set the table and invited a lion to clean up) or he used all of his skills to barry her in a couch pit, for instance raking back his own driveway and then finessing it to perfection over the top of her or he barried her in a pre-dug hole, planted a tree, arranged a couple of dumb rocks and felt he'd done a solid.

When he returned to PP at 3:30 am, IMO he was filthy, was running on adrenaline, stripped down, rinsed off (without ever going inside). Again with the shorts, IMO if he'd worn them overnight, they'd be in the throw away pile, not the laundry.

Naked and barefoot, I think he stepped onto the trailer, stepped into the bucket of the Bobcat and climbed into the seat to drive it off the trailer because it was his only way to remove the trailer from his truck.

(I wish/hope LE tested the loose dirt/gravel on the trailer. I think Barry may have stolen a load of soil/sand from the beach property for backfill.)

IMO he did SOMETHING between 4 and 4:30 following that left turn. Less than elk but more than helmet --

And headed out of town.

JMO

Thanks Megnut.
What a lot of reasonable points: easy to follow.
Hope LE are reading here, and adding to their thoughts.
Guilty+++.

 

[Murphy1950]

Again to play devil’s advocate perhaps anyone could have staged the bike. Suzanne could have staged the bike. Barry could have staged the bike, a “friend of either Morphew could have staged the bike.
Correct me if I am wrong but I think the bike dna was accounted for but the helmet had unknown dna.

RSBM
Thanks....
100% AGREE. Anybody could stage the bike. For what purpose, other than a alibi? The dna on the helmet doesn't concern me even if it was Barry's. Could have been dozens of people who tried it on, or worked in the store and handled the helmet, or packaged the sale. I've never seen anybody wipe out a helmet/hat they tried on.

 

[Kemug]

(I wish/hope LE tested the loose dirt/gravel on the trailer. I think Barry may have stolen a load of soil/sand from the beach property for backfill.

Yes, that was what he was doing at the beach site! Well done Megnut!

 

[Nikynoo]

Speaking of the bike, how can anyone consider gone girl and logically tie in where the bike fits in? Can’t be done which leaves Staging or abduction.

They found her bike in a place she never rides, does that support staging or abduction?
First time for everything, I guess she could have tried a new route and been abducted. Forgot to bring her camelbak, no big deal, but she remembered to bring her phone charger(?)but didn’t check her messages that morning, it’s almost as if she left in a hurry.

She went for her ride in the morning, although she was never known to ride in the morning, but a first time for everything as said earlier. It was a chilly morning 35 degrees. The wedding was at 6 pm, plenty of time for an afternoon ride. Gee, does make you wonder. The consensus by everyone was the bike was thrown down the hill, not an accident. An accident would have been evidenced by a broken plant trail leading to a crash, there was none. Tossing the bike took some strength, beyond Suzanne’s capabilities, besides why would she toss her own expensive bike? Lastly no scent of Suzanne found with the bike. There is absolutely nothing to tie Suzanne to that bike.

If she hadn’t gone for a morning ride there would have been no need whatsoever for panic. Why throw the helmet out? The bike wasn’t enough of a hint??

Sounds like it was orchestrated. At that, why do they not think she could have been with a friend at 6PM?

Just the bike alone raises question after question IMO...not even speaking to the affair or her earlier text about divorce that same week, or her text with her sister regarding abuse, or house hunting or checking on JL after 59 text the day before.

Abductors aren’t orchestrators, their job is to get in and out. Thank goodness Barry was there to raise an alarm (sarcasm font broke)

Remember the YT video of BM searching the area the bike was found? Do you think he was looking for something he left behind?

The phone charger being taken is something that keeps tugging at my brain - its important but I dont know why? Perhaps phone was being charged, a struggle over the phone took place and the phone and charger - but then if the phoen was an iphone, the lead is more likely to break than the charger itself being pulled from the socket - but then I am thinking of UK chargers which are three point and very secure when placed in the electrical outlet - perhaps in the US less so? So, is it possible that it a tussle took place over the phone, the phone and its charger would be together? Perhaps BM strangled her with the phone cord?

I still think Suzanne's phone is key to this investigation.

 

[Megnut]

Remember the YT video of BM searching the area the bike was found? Do you think he was looking for something he left behind?

The phone charger being taken is something that keeps tugging at my brain - its important but I dont know why? Perhaps phone was being charged, a struggle over the phone took place and the phone and charger - but then if the phoen was an iphone, the lead is more likely to break than the charger itself being pulled from the socket - but then I am thinking of UK chargers which are three point and very secure when placed in the electrical outlet - perhaps in the US less so? So, is it possible that it a tussle took place over the phone, the phone and its charger would be together? Perhaps BM strangled her with the phone cord?

I still think Suzanne's phone is key to this investigation.

Agreed. The missing phone and charging cord tell us a lot.

IMO the missing phone and charging cord and damaged doorframe tell us a lot.

IMO the missing phone and charging cord and damaged doorframe and Suzanne herself tell us a  story.

Her known habits -- routine bike rides. In the afternoon. Her charging cord, bedside. Significant phone use that morning.

And the gouges.

IMO after communicating with JL all day up to that point, Suzanne's battery had to be impacted. I can't imagine her going on a bike ride with anything less than a fully charged battery. She'd plug her phone in. Likely in the bedroom, per habit.

Between 2:44 and 2:47 on 5/9, Suzanne must have IMO barricaded herself in the bedroom. Which would've had two important things in it -- the phone and a weapon and IMO Barry knew it. He apparently didn't have time (and/or the self-control) to take the time to pick the lock; he shouldered through the door.

And then he engaged Suzanne. And she fought back. IMO those gouges are telltale digs, evidence of manual strangulation.

Barry himself associated those wounds with Suzanne. From hiking with her (of which there's no evidence that he hiked with her -- while she was alive) or from searching for her. He didn't say work. He didn't say gym. IMO when asked, his mind flashed back to the when, and he responded by blaming Suzanne. Because he did blame her. For injuring him. His ego. His arm. His control. His plan.

IMO he blamed her for making him do what he did.

Oh, Suzanne, if you just hadn't gone and gotten ballsy....

IMO he watched her light go out.

Monster.

JMO

 

[GOBliaison]

Oh.
Please do pardon my quoting from my #184, supra., but up there I had already gone on too long.


Now, could the following (excerpted) fact pattern* find a place in a prosecution's file tabbed:

"Circumstantial evidence of accused's premeditation"
?​

*( He merely needed that awful loss of bicycle control...
And he's set that up unerringly ... by himself by off-loading her bike from her car... and placing it thereafter in his truck) {for removal from the premises and his planned nighttime "staging" activities.} Ed.

And why?
Particularly so that, {more than 24 hours after Suzanne had gone "dark"}, on the next day's late afternoon {choreographed} callback from Mrs. R, he could (and did, IIRC) ask her:

• "Did you see her bike in the garage??
• "You didn't look?"
• Well, could you check that out please? I'm sorry for the lengthy trips, but it may not be wise to send out alarms until we see if Suzanne is just out for a ride, right?
• 'I'll hang right here at the worksite, and wait for your call, OK?"
• ...or words to the foregoing effect...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IMHO, this sequence, 24+ hours in advance of his next step(s), consititutes nothing less than virtual and particularly egregious malice aforethought.

 

[GOBliaison]

dbm, as it was a duplicate.
My bad
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[303gmf]

That, plus this was El Paso Texas and not Colorado.

El Paso County, Colorado
The larger city of Colorado Springs might be more familiar than Manitou Springs just up the road

 

[girlhasnoname]

Just waiting patiently for charges to be brought against BM again. It may take awhile, but it will happen IMO

 

[Momofthreeboys]

Laziness makes us work more efficiently - and efficient is BM's working style, I believe. IMO

I don’t recall anyone saying he was lazy. Hard to imagine someone amassing the money he did as being lazy and in previous decades he was juggling multiple businesses that generated quite a nice lifestyle with very nice homes and no need for Suzanne to work outside the home.

 

[Jayhawk]

I don’t recall anyone saying he was lazy. Hard to imagine someone amassing the money he did as being lazy and in previous decades he was juggling multiple businesses that generated quite a nice lifestyle with very nice homes and no need for Suzanne to work outside the home.

He is definitely not lazy, but in my opinion he is not smart enough to pull off the perfect murder. There must be someone in Suzanne's or his circle of friends that can shed more detail of those final days. It seems as though there are many facts we do not know.

 

[Brainchannels2]

Just waiting patiently for charges to be brought against BM again. It may take awhile, but it will happen IMO

He will likely leave the country and change his identity as a free man.