Found Deceased CO - Suzanne Morphew, 49, did not return from bike ride, Chaffee County, 10 May 2020 #7

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<modsnip: quoted post was removed> My posts are all there to see and they have mostly been about her being abducted, which I believe is what happened. Until I find out otherwise I stick by that and that is why I was pushing this. I do not want her to be stuck somewhere with someone and LE looking the other way ( think Jayme Closs) just focusing on BM. Look at post #366.

All MOO <modsnip: removed reference to removed post>
 
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That is crazy! And I also understand that those who commit crimes are just that- crazy! No I don’t think that LE is investigating someone’s concrete pad and searching just to make it appear a certain way. I absolutely believe that LE has significant evidence and reason to search that area. I also think that it is certainly pointing in BMs direction as someone who was in fact working on that site. The only thing that I am speculating is that the FBI task forces that are involved are involved for a reason. I am by no means someone who follows cases and this is the first case I’ve ever followed like this or posted on.
Like I’ve said before, wishful thinking is that BM is not involved in SMs disappearance, for their daughters sake. That there could be some hope.

However the speculation that there is a bigger situation at hand and possibly more people involved due to business interactions would still make BM involved to a certain extent.

The whole case is certainly strange and so upsetting for the family involved.

It is also equally upsetting to hear about the number of women who disappear or are murdered especially by someone close to them.

I definitely hear what you are saying and I don’t necessarily believe the speculation that I’ve written about. It is more just a thought to keep an open mind to all of the possibilities

JMO

I brought one of your statements here:

"I am by no means someone who follows cases and this is the first case I’ve ever followed like this or posted on."

Welcome to Websleuths, Water. You picked a hard assignment for your first case :). I think your post is well thought out and reasoned... and compassionate towards the family members who are surely suffering right now. I hope you enjoy being here and will continue to contribute your ideas and theories!
 
The video made by BM is one in which I immediately noted 9 phases of some of the most serious red flags. This is a very high index. I'm not referring to common tells, known by a large percentage of populations with an interest in crime sleuthing. And when I refer to phases, this does not refer to one instance, but rather a particular set of behaviours, however many times they occur during the course of an interview.
The evidential material unwittingly provided by BM would give absolute justification for LE conducting immediate, extensive analyses on the home, very possibly for the purpose of reconstructing a crime scene. It doesn't render him guilty. It does, however, provide an abundance of clues.

Hi Dr.,

Your post was fascinating, particularly the above section I snipped and quoted.

Considering BM's entire video plea was around 27 seconds, that's a lot of phases/red flags noted in a compressed amount of time. Would LE be able to detect these phases or would that need to be done by someone with specialized training, like a psychologist or forensic psychiatrist?
 
To give it some perspective, these are the agencies involved thus far:

Chaffee County Search and Rescue

Chaffee County Department of Corrections

Chaffee County Combined Tac Team

Search and Rescue Dogs of Colorado

Department of Corrections (Dogs)

Colorado Parks and Wildlife

South Ark Swiftwater Rescue Teams

Reach Air Ambulance

Investigators from the 11th Judicial District

Colorado Bureau of Investigations

Salida Police Department

Fremont County Sheriff’s Office

Federal Bureau of Investigations

Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake, but reviewing the list of agencies involved in search efforts for SM, something jumped out at me.

The list is pretty exhaustive in terms of Sheriff Spezze utilizing nearly all the available resources at his disposal.

I say nearly all, because there is one notable exception:

It does not appear as if LE has at any point enlisted the help of the local Fire Department.

In both the Kelsey Berreth and Gannon Stauch cases, we saw local fire departments assisting LE in their investigative and/or search efforts.

Not so in this case.

I suspect this was not an oversight on the sheriff's part.

Sheriff Spezze, I tip my hat to you, Sir.

The fact that I'm not even wearing a hat, notwithstanding.

Smart, smart decision.

JMO.
 
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It is a rehearsed response and only he will know the reason for that at this stage. Pure speculation on my part and I'd have to go back to look at the timeline; it's not uncommon for individuals to speak out once they believe they are "safe". To give you an example, a case in which the person was tried and convicted for murder, he was reticent to say anything because he was "too distraught". I observed him during this time period and noted how he never produced any tears when he was so loudly weeping. There was no physiological reason for this on his part. He was fake crying, and we knowingly let him do an appeal, where he used the same fakery techniques. He realized halfway through his appeal and covered both eyes with a handkerchief.
He'd felt safe to do the appeal because he'd moved the child's body to a place where he thought it would never be found, and so felt more confident about not being caught.

Again, I am not accusing BM of committing a crime. It is a fact that some individuals will feel emboldened when they are on "safe" ground. Having concrete poured on a building site might be one such instance. LE is being circumspect with their findings; it seems - at least superficially - that nothing has emerged from that building site at this point in time.
Interesting, I think you may be talking about the killer of Tia Sharpe? Whose ears I believe also turned a nice shade of red!

Amateurs like me have picked up bits and pieces over the years (Huntley and Carr other prime examples obviously). But for myself, just the obvious I might spot - using past tense, agreed was the last person to see them etc and I think Huntley smirked.

Without compromising your non-accusatory approach, are you able to give some hypothetical examples of red flags?
 
We don't hear anything about anyone else being investigated, except BARRY, his house, his work.
I thought the search of the house could have indicated they were, for example, looking for signs of a home invasion/abduction, as well as any devices that may have contained evidence that SM had been communicating with person(s) unknown who may have caused her harm. I didn’t assume it was necessarily about BM. Same with the worksite; we don’t know that he was the only person with access to it.
 
I thought the search of the house could have indicated they were, for example, looking for signs of a home invasion/abduction, as well as any devices that may have contained evidence that SM had been communicating with person(s) unknown who may have caused her harm. I didn’t assume it was necessarily about BM. Same with the worksite; we don’t know that he was the only person with access to it.
That could be true.
 
Ok, cognisant of what moderators/admin have most recently about the importance of not posting comments that are directly accusatory of BM, I am writing the following with same in mind:

Video posted by BM, imploring whoever has Suzanne to let her go/that a substantial reward is available.
Re the video content - I am not prepared to discuss, in detail, the specifics I cite about the content. I don't want to dissect the various elements I refer to, for obvious professional reasons.
In the course of my clinical work, I have analyzed multiple appeals given by relatives/friends in the case of missing persons and suspected murder cases. Sometimes I've done this as a forensic psychiatrist. Earlier in my psychiatric medical career, I did so as a clinical psychologist. In situations where I have detained patients under mental health acts (for their own or others' protection), I have sometimes been privy to police interviews with those patients.

So, appeals made by individuals are commonly some of the richest sources of evidential material. They are always analyzed by experts, as part of LE inquiries. The interviewee/s are never told this, for obvious reasons.

The video made by BM is one in which I immediately noted 9 phases of some of the most serious red flags. This is a very high index. I'm not referring to common tells, known by a large percentage of populations with an interest in crime sleuthing. And when I refer to phases, this does not refer to one instance, but rather a particular set of behaviours, however many times they occur during the course of an interview.
The evidential material unwittingly provided by BM would give absolute justification for LE conducting immediate, extensive analyses on the home, very possibly for the purpose of reconstructing a crime scene. It doesn't render him guilty. It does, however, provide an abundance of clues.

The video content gave the police a valid reason to examine the home address. They would have been remiss had they not done so. For those of you saying it took the police over a week to go over the house, they would have needed justification for a search warrant. BM's video provided that in bucketfuls.

This case will probably turn out to be a murder. It is highly unlikely that Suzanne ran away. Look at the photos with her girls. They are close and love one another. She would not leave them without a word. The police will know when they were last in touch with her.

The police have BM's car and phone. They will already know when and where he travelled. They are asking for home camera etc footage from the 8th onwards because they desperately need physical evidence to show certain people on film who can be identified. This is most likely to corroborate existing evidence to make it more watertight.
Obviously this is my personal opinion but draws on my medical background also.
With regard to the LT team. It is my opinion that the level of expertise with which they are operating is exemplary. They are not at liberty to tell us the kinds of things some people are speculating about. They have closed down the sharing of information intentionally, and we should respect that, rather than criticise it.
It's possible that Suzanne's body will never be found. For those who have said they are clutching at straws by destroying someone's property, it was first reported by a CBS channel, I think, that the owner of the property got in touch with LE (the owner was interviewed by the channel), after hearing the news about Suzanne being missing. He wanted the police to know that BM had worked on his property, laying subsoil, the weekend she was reported missing.
LE responded with lightning speed.

Look at the facts. LE brought in CSI and FBI straight away. They assigned over 90 officers to the case. That points to a leader who is keen to marshall all the expertise he can, as quickly as possible. The police personnel, in my opinion, are behaving both expertly and robustly, which I find impressive.
If I can find the interview link between news channel and owner of the house, I'll do so before tomorrow morning (on call presently)

Can you say more about what category of utterance the 9 phrases fall into? What role do you think fatigue and mental confusion play in that video? CSI, CBI and FBI would be involved in a case of a suspected kidnapping, right?

I'll tell you what I notice (almost 40 years of applied anthropology research, much of it in psychiatric settings).

He's very well coiffed and poised. By that I mean that he's chosen his camera angle and distance carefully and excludes viewers from seeing his hands or posture. He appears to be sitting down and I think it may be edited (there may be something right before "Oh Suzanne"). I say that because he looks very much "warmed up" to the awful task at hand. His facial expression is already fixed and in "full swing," as it were. There are very few sentence fragments, no stammering, Upset people often repeat fragments (heck, most normal speech does) and in envision one's wife in the hands of an evil kidnapper would cause the vast majority of people to be upset.

If we could see his hands, we might think differently. He might look more upset. People often bring their hands to their faces when grieving or upset. Did BLM unwittingly choose a camera distance that makes him look way more poised and much less grief-stricken?

He's confused about who is audience is. To me, it seems that his audience is Youtube, not any actual kidnapper and not Suzanne. Perhaps he wants very much to speak once again with Suzanne, but his mind immediately takes him to address "someone that has her." If he had stayed on the "speaking to Suzanne" part and really imagined himself speaking to her, I think he would have said different things - in fact, most of the utterance is to that "someone."

So, when I get to that step in looking at just his body language, framed by the fact that in his mind he's speaking to a criminal kidnapper...that's where I get a red flag. I know people have said "hinky meter" and others have said "totally sincere." I do think he's being "sincere," I think he truly is very very upset, hasn't been sleeping well, hasn't been crying much or at all, is way way more terrified than he is angry at the kidnapper.

He also mentions police. Maybe not the best way to negotiate with a kidnapper? Anyway, it seemed to me that the main point of the video was not to reassure Suzanne that she was loved and needed, but to address a kidnapper and threaten the kidnapper with the police (and by extension - a reward to that someone who knows who the kidnapper is).

Dr. St C - do you think that BLM's eyes look as if he had been crying in the past few hours? I think he looks like he's lost sleep (bags under eyes).

//I just saw that you answered my question - thank you!
 
Ok, cognisant of what moderators/admin have most recently about the importance of not posting comments that are directly accusatory of BM, I am writing the following with same in mind:

Video posted by BM, imploring whoever has Suzanne to let her go/that a substantial reward is available.
Re the video content - I am not prepared to discuss, in detail, the specifics I cite about the content. I don't want to dissect the various elements I refer to, for obvious professional reasons.
In the course of my clinical work, I have analyzed multiple appeals given by relatives/friends in the case of missing persons and suspected murder cases. Sometimes I've done this as a forensic psychiatrist. Earlier in my psychiatric medical career, I did so as a clinical psychologist. In situations where I have detained patients under mental health acts (for their own or others' protection), I have sometimes been privy to police interviews with those patients.

So, appeals made by individuals are commonly some of the richest sources of evidential material. They are always analyzed by experts, as part of LE inquiries. The interviewee/s are never told this, for obvious reasons.

The video made by BM is one in which I immediately noted 9 phases of some of the most serious red flags. This is a very high index. I'm not referring to common tells, known by a large percentage of populations with an interest in crime sleuthing. And when I refer to phases, this does not refer to one instance, but rather a particular set of behaviours, however many times they occur during the course of an interview.
The evidential material unwittingly provided by BM would give absolute justification for LE conducting immediate, extensive analyses on the home, very possibly for the purpose of reconstructing a crime scene. It doesn't render him guilty. It does, however, provide an abundance of clues.

The video content gave the police a valid reason to examine the home address. They would have been remiss had they not done so. For those of you saying it took the police over a week to go over the house, they would have needed justification for a search warrant. BM's video provided that in bucketfuls.

This case will probably turn out to be a murder. It is highly unlikely that Suzanne ran away. Look at the photos with her girls. They are close and love one another. She would not leave them without a word. The police will know when they were last in touch with her.

The police have BM's car and phone. They will already know when and where he travelled. They are asking for home camera etc footage from the 8th onwards because they desperately need physical evidence to show certain people on film who can be identified. This is most likely to corroborate existing evidence to make it more watertight.
Obviously this is my personal opinion but draws on my medical background also.
With regard to the LT team. It is my opinion that the level of expertise with which they are operating is exemplary. They are not at liberty to tell us the kinds of things some people are speculating about. They have closed down the sharing of information intentionally, and we should respect that, rather than criticise it.
It's possible that Suzanne's body will never be found. For those who have said they are clutching at straws by destroying someone's property, it was first reported by a CBS channel, I think, that the owner of the property got in touch with LE (the owner was interviewed by the channel), after hearing the news about Suzanne being missing. He wanted the police to know that BM had worked on his property, laying subsoil, the weekend she was reported missing.
LE responded with lightning speed.

Look at the facts. LE brought in CSI and FBI straight away. They assigned over 90 officers to the case. That points to a leader who is keen to marshall all the expertise he can, as quickly as possible. The police personnel, in my opinion, are behaving both expertly and robustly, which I find impressive.
If I can find the interview link between news channel and owner of the house, I'll do so before tomorrow morning (on call presently)

I'll just sit here all evening and hit like, then unlike, then like, then... well, you get the idea :)

We'd be honored to have you consider becoming a verified professional here.

Your wealth of knowledge on these cases we follow is invaluable.

Here's the link: Verified Professional and Insider Members
 
It means nothing in my opinion when the prerequisite is “safe return.” How do you know the friend isn’t an accomplice? I know people who throw 100k away on a gambling table ... some people have that kind of money, and it’s not that big of a gamble when you’re ONLY asking for SAFE return. One scratch or broken nail on her could void that kind of contract. JMO.
The phrase that catches my eye is "no questions asked".
Realistically, that ship has sailed.
 
This doesn't make sense to me. Your phone wouldn't work for you if you swapped your SIM with someone else. You might as well just leave the whole phone with your swap-mate.

If two people have unlocked iPhones or Android phones they could swap SIM cards so if someone was trying to track their location it would appear as the location where the SIM card is. Of course, if someone tried to CALL you that would pose a problem. As a matter of fact, in the scenario I posited, the parents DID call their daughter and the friend answered saying she was in the shower so she couldn't come to the phone.
 
I don't know how or why. I'm presuming she was abducted. I hope LE is looking.
I agree also that she was taken away against her wishes. In believing this, I can put suicide, willful disappearance, murder by her husband aside. It leaves me to have hope that she has been taken and will return like JC. I choose hope until there is no hope.
 
I don't know how or why. I'm presuming she was abducted. I hope LE is looking.

I have full confidence in the many LE organizations involved in this investigation. We know they know sooo much more than we do. Just cell phone data alone would lead them in a much more focused direction. But they have a lot more than cell phone data by now I'm sure. And they are following the evidence 24 hours a day to recover SM and seek justice, if necessary, for any crimes that may have been committed. MOO
 
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