Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #2

[10ofRods]

He could say --for starters--- when the last time was that he or the daughters spoke to them !
Do they have security cameras at the house ?
What did he see on the footage ?
Did she leave on sun. in her biking clothes and helmet ?
So many questions.

My .02 atm is that no one took her.

No, he shouldn't say any of that. If she was abducted, don't give the abductor any facts to use to construct any sort of alibi. Don't tell them anything you know about the crime. Period.

Never announce publicly anything at all about your security system. Neighbors might behave differently, but if the Morphew's have been targeted in any way, they surely need to keep their cards close to their vests.

Plenty of time later to ask witnesses about the minor details that are not known to the family - the family knows when she left, more or less, they know when they last talked to her, and LE must surely know and may have by now confirmed some of those facts independently.

I'm leaning abduction, actually. But when we get answers to your questions, Liet, I may have to jump the fence again.

 

[Ontario Mom]

Yes. Which is why I mentioned in another comment that I found the setting interesting. Not from in front of his home or inside but out in the beautiful woods were it’s peaceful. Just seems weird to me. MOO

Sounds like he's very nearby the river. You can hear the swift moving water.
Could be it's his and SM's favorite spot to sit out back by the river? Or her favorite spot?
Just a guess, but I suspect he chose that spot for a specific reason, and it doesn't seem weird to me at all.

jmo

 

[10ofRods]

bbm
This fills me with unease.

If 200,000 isn't enough, how much more is he prepared to fork out ?
Why is this about money ?
Or isn't it ?
Or is this whole vanishing case from the start --- about money ?
Seems like an unnecessary focus on $$$.
IMO and MOO.

It would be the only thing most people could offer in a situation like this. My DH would want to say "Give my wife back or I'll XYZ you!" but he would cooperate with LE and say something much more sensible.

The idea that this could be kind of a for ransom situation is the only hopeful situation, if she was indeed abducted. All other abduction scenarios are horrifying.

 

[carbuff]

Weird how we see things. I just watched it again and he shook his head no for about 95% of it. Only a couple times when he emphasized a word did his head go down but only a couple times. Otherwise it was side to side. MOO

It looks more like the kind of head shaking a person does when trying to deny the truth of what they're saying, in the sense of trying to deny the facts, not lying. I remember when I was trying to tell Mr. Carbuff about the phone call that told me my father had died, I was shaking my head back and forth so hard that he had to put his hands on my cheek to stop me before I could even get words out.

 

[katydid23]

Actually Salida has more health services than you’d expect, both Heart of the Rockies and Rocky Mountain Cancer Center are located in town

Oh, thank you. Then maybe the Cancer Center was actually a draw and made her feel more comfortable moving out there.

 

[PeakInvestigations]

Any body language experts here? Would be curious to hear what they have to say about the side to side "no" head shaking.

 

[RickshawFan]

About your questions : What is also odd is no plea from the daughters .
Why ?
I'm assuming they are missing her terribly.
Are they afraid of someone ?

The thing is.... this assumption may not be true, and I see a lot of posters hanging on to it. Daughters don't always miss their mothers. You may know a woman like that?

Sometimes "home" is a very difficult place, and families are complicated. Sometimes you don't know who the "bad" guys are and who's an "angel". It's often not immediately obvious. You don't know where loyalties lie; you don't know who might lie to protect another; you don't know what dark feelings might have been festering forever and suddenly broke loose.

IMO we can't make any assumptions about feelings of one member of a family or other. We just don't know. And if we could make a reasonable guess, there is a very large chance we could be way off.

 

[zencompass]

For some clarification:
Professional dogs are trained to conduct very specific search types. In the Berreth case, we witnessed Colorado LE employ several different cadaver dogs but never a "live search" animal. In the trial, we found out why a living search was never considered. In this case, LE called out the corrections system search dogs, which are obviously highly trained to detect living persons, moving or stationary. They have little or no experience searching for remains. The sheriff described a grid search, within 2.5 miles of the intersection of County Road 225 and Highway 50. A five mile circle (2.5 mile radius) close grid is standard procedure for searching wooded terrain for a lost, injured or abducted person. Highway 50 is the paved road over Monarch Pass, which is the obvious reason for closing it while the grid was covered. There is a graded gravel area on the south side of Highway 50, which is the only automobile turnout in that stretch of road. The first gravel road taking off of County Road 225 to the left is Puma Path. The distance from the house on Puma Path to the intersection is .78 miles by road / driveway, but the "line-of-sight" distance is exactly 2000 feet, giving a strong clue to where objects belonging to SM were discovered. Source: Google Earth

https://www.websleuths.com/forums/attachments/suzanne-search-area-jpg.247034/


For some clarification:
Professional dogs are trained to conduct very specific search types. In the Berreth case, we witnessed Colorado LE employ several different cadaver dogs but never a "live search" animal. In the trial, we found out why a living search was never considered. In this case, LE called out the corrections system search dogs, which are obviously highly trained to detect living persons, moving or stationary. They have little or no experience searching for remains. The sheriff described a grid search, within 2.5 miles of the intersection of County Road 225 and Highway 50. A five mile circle (2.5 mile radius) close grid is standard procedure for searching wooded terrain for a lost, injured or abducted person. Highway 50 is the paved road over Monarch Pass, which is the obvious reason for closing it while the grid was covered. There is a graded gravel area on the south side of Highway 50, which is the only automobile turnout in that stretch of road. The first gravel road taking off of County Road 225 to the left is Puma Path. The distance from the house on Puma Path to the intersection is .78 miles by road / driveway, but the "line-of-sight" distance is exactly 2000 feet, giving a strong clue to where objects belonging to SM were discovered. Source: Google Earth

Thank you for this map!! This shows the area so well!!

 

[Yemelyan]

I didn't know I was playing, but I'll go ahead and answer! I read all the comments and understand the reasoning. Can't say I disagree. My wondering was solely based on usually seeing the whole family and LE together speaking or standing in solidarity, not to be "paraded" in any way. I am used to seeing this and it seems off to me. Nothing more, nothing less. Sorry I don't have the answer you were hoping to get.

Maybe it's just the typical cases I follow, but I can't remember any time I've seen a whole family that included children do this. I can only think of one time recently that a minor child was shown with pleading parents (that was the Gannon Stauch case). And I thought that was inadvisable too. Luckily she was so young maybe she didn't know what was happening.

PS - we are all playing here. We are here because we feel bad for a lady that disappeared and we hope she is found. Not because we are doing any meaningful work to help the investigation. I doubt LE needs the public's help for this one.

 

[10ofRods]

The route 225 turnoff goes to the well-know Foose's Creek Trail ( aka Colorado Trail) and Foose's Lake and Dam so there are lots of people who might be out using the main road #225 to go there on a lovely spring Mother's Day. The Morphew house is about 2000 feet from Foose's Lake. This might ring a bell.

One can also travel along Puma Path Road or a trail of it from the Monarch Spur RV Campground region. There is clearly a path that would be passable by foot, on bike, ATV and possibly by car. On the google map, you can see two tracks so it looks like it is accessible by vehicles with 4 wheels. I can't tell if there is a gate anywhere along it, but I doubt it. There are land parcels along that track, backing up to the South Arkansas River, that sold in 2019 so the path / road would have enough clearance to allow people to drive into the area to view the lots. The 8 acre lot east to their house sold last June for nearly $300K, so the dirt part of Pumas Path Road to the east would be the address for any new home there.

The parking area for access to Foose's Creek and Lake is not clear to me from google, and I can't do street view on route 225. There is parking along side Highway 50. It also looks like there is parking along the street closer to Highway 5o, and perhaps at a part of the trailhead that crosses a meadown north of the larger house just below the dam.

Knowing how popular that area is, it is very clear that people use Monarch Spur RV and campground to stay in that area to recreate along the route 225 and Colorado Trail. It would be very easy for someone to stay there appearing as a mountain biker or hiker and walk or bike past the Morphew house to surveille it frequently and no one would think anything was awry.

So, IMHO, there is another access to their home on Pumas Pass Road and it is big enough to access by vehicle, as well as ATV, bike, or on foot. Theoretically, one could view the Morphew home,, walk up to it, or could remove items or a person from it, exit east through Monarch Spur to Highway 50 and no one would see them.

I enjoy your posts so much. Thank you for taking the time. And I like your train of thought - this kind of scenario has lurked in my mind from the beginning.

 

[ab01]

If there was any evidence that this might be a stranger abduction then waiting 7 days to make a public plea was a huge mistake IMO

The first 72hrs in a missing persons case is absolutely critical in trying to locate the person as quickly as possible to have a positive outcome.

Unfortunately I think it's a moot point bc I don't believe she was abducted

 

[happyday]

I don't think it would be any help to the investigation. People have already criticized Suzanne's daughters, they certainly don't need anymore stress than what they are going through now. They are not obligated to make any kind of public statement at all. I wouldn't want my daughter in front of a camera in this kind of situation.

All teenagers are different, and if they want to make a statement I think that's fine, too.

Imo

Yes all teenagers are different and I personally don’t think we can read anything into them not being in the media. It’s more that no one at all had been out there for Suzanne. Except the nephew, of course. I could be wrong but I don’t see the girls being criticized—more like wondering if they’re being silenced.

 

[MsBetsy]

Because it's very much controlled and almost studied.

He's not going to stand in front of the home. He's wearing a nice neutral shirt, not something weird. This could be an advertisement for his business.

Control, control, control

He is not including LE in this video. He needs to be the one in focus.

I noticed he did not thank LE or encourage them to continue in their hard work in the investigation or their search efforts.

 

[HopeForTheBest]

It’s so strange to me that none of Suzanne’s relatives are saying anything AT ALL. Nobody. Makes me think it’s either not safe for them to do so or everyone sees where this is going and knows speaking out won’t help. Either way I feel sooooooo terribly sad for her girls because I would imagine they would want to do anything to help their mom. They obviously aren’t able to. There’s no way she’s just missing POOF! and nobody knows anything or we’d be inundated with things to be looking for. We’d hear pleading and reasoning for her come home or for people to look for her. What she might be wearing (I know we had the helmet on the poster.) This is just different.

This isn’t strange to me if they know things we don’t about how life was in that house and if they fear not only the loss of SM but also the horror of perhaps another family person being involved. There is little they might want to say at that point if they believe they already know who if not what. It’s all MOO but I’ve known some family situations where such situations have occurred and no one could say much publicly because what if the person were wrong and later had to deal with that fallout in the family, because it’s a horror they may have feared but still hoped never would occur, and it would be hard to clamor for people to find an unknown abductor when you feel sure there is no unknown entity. I feel for them all. MOO.

 

[Lambseatoats]

I get a bad feeling about the reward offering. $200,000 for Suzanne's return, no questions asked. Usually rewards are offered for information that leads to finding the missing person, or the perp, etc. I get the sense that the amount of the reward is offered as a kind of proof by the husband that he is not involved. However, I think the actual wording of the reward may prove that he knows she won't be found, because he knows what happened. He could offer as much as he wants, because he knows she won't be coming back and he won't be paying out that reward to anyone. Of course I could be wrong; maybe he is one of those high-roller types that throws cash down to solve any problem, but his video seemed weird in that he is so set on her being abducted. Unless LE has told him something to make him believe that, I am surprised that he is so sure and therefore, I doubt his sincerity. moo

Additionally, I know we don't have many details, but I was thinking that if I called the neighbor of a family member to ask them to check on said family member - when the neighbor got back to me with news that my family member is not home, I would be the one to call 911. I would not ask the neighbor to do so. I think someone pointed out that perhaps the neighbor found the bike and called, but the whole thing is convoluted and backwards to me. The neighbor won't be able to answer many of the LE questions regarding the last time anyone saw Suzanne. I hope I am wrong, but there are many strange aspects to this event. JMO

 

[Fascinated1]

Not sure what to think on this one. But if you go with the kidnap scenario, maybe there was a ransom note already (early FBI involvement). Maybe it was 200k and now they want more? Maybe that’s why they just found the personal item? Maybe they said they would release her in a week (today) and since they have not, he’s asking them to let her go? He did NOT say “we are coming for you”. He just said whatever amount it takes we will get (not in those words). I’m wondering the the daughters were threatened as well so maybe they are out of site in protective custody?

my guess is that she talked to one of her daughters for moms day and said she was going biking. They could not reach her later and got a hold of the neighbor and asked them to call. The only thing weird about that is that they actually know the neighbors if they just moved in earlier this year and with the houses so far apart. Maybe no-I’m in a more urban area-and I don’t have all of my neighbors phone numbers (and my kids don’t at all). Could be a disgruntled employee of the landscape company if business slowed because of COVID. The whole thing is strange.

 

[LietKynes]

Okay, I think I'm finally caught up.

A couple of thoughts:

The lack of information about what she was wearing, when she was seen, and all those other questions that have been pointed out implies to me that they don't have to ask because they know that. They don't have to trace her movement or find witnesses because they know what happened.

Last fall there was a bicycle accident on a rural road not far from here (I'm in central MA) where the victim was thrown over 1ooo feet by a speeding vehicle. Given the nature of the roads she might have been on, if she had been hit in a similar accident, she could have been thrown into the woods or down a steep embankment where it's very difficult to find her.

The FBI's early involvement startled me.

There seems to be an awful lot of money involved. Lots of money tends to make people not think straight.

bbm

I have no argument with your comment.
(a fancier way of saying "I agree" )
Esp. the bolded.
Either that, or the threat of losing money !

 

[Herat]

I enjoy your posts so much. Thank you for taking the time. And I like your train of thought - this kind of scenario has lurked in my mind from the beginning.

Thanks @10ofRods

I have to redeem myself on this thread because I was stupidly identifying the wrong house and kept correcting those who had the correct house to being with !! *embarassed*

PS- I follow your stuff on COVID-19 !

 

[TexLil]

I'm confused on any civilian stating publicly that any amount of money will be provided (to a perpetrator) and no questions will be asked. That's not something anyone can promise. IF a crime has been committed, and a perpetrator is identified thru evidence, then that person will be brought up on charges. There isn't an option in our justice system to simply commit crimes and receive payment to return individuals without penalty. In other words saying "no questions asked" is meaningless in my mind. MOO

 

[kay74]

I'm sticking to a stranger abduction. I do not think it would be right for the daughters to come out and plead either. Why put them through that.