Court releases evidence in Morphew investigation from preliminary hearing
CHAFFEE COUNTY, Colo – For the first time since Barry Morphew’s arrest last year, the public can see color photographs of evidence from the investigation into the murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew.
The Chaffee County woman was reported missing on Mother’s Day 2020. Nearly a year later on May 5, 2021, Barry Morphew was arrested and charged with murder. He has maintained his chastity from the very beginning.
This week, Chaffee County Judge Ramsey Lama, who presided over the case, ordered the disclosure of several exhibits — including video, photos, data and audio — all of which were presented to the court during the hearing. preliminary ceiling.
Included in the released exhibits is a text message from Suzanne to a friend in which she confides in problems at home; images of Morphew’s various weapons; tranquilizer dart material found in the couple’s home; GPS data points from Morphew trucks and phones; photos of the inside of Morphews’ car; and screenshots from the Broomfield Hotel surveillance footage.
When Suzanne was initially reported missing, it was believed she rode her bicycle and never returned. Those details were given to his neighbors by Morphew, Martin and Gene Ritter, prompting them to notify authorities.
Suzanne’s bike was found the same day she was reported missing on Sunday, May 10, 2020. Her cycling helmet was found four days later, a few blocks from where her bike was found. she is less than 1.6 km, off highway 50.
Suzanne, who recently started mountain biking, often wears sunglasses, a bike helmet, and her Camelbak. Photos of the inside of her car show Suzanne, Camelbak’s sunglasses and a purse in the passenger seat of her Range Rover.
Texts sent from Suzanne’s phone to a friend paint a picture of a difficult family life. “Makes me wonder what I was thinking at a young age,” she wrote on April 2, 2020.
And those weren’t the only text messages investigators discovered. A message from May 6, 2020, on Morphew’s phone – which has since been deleted – reveals, what FBI Agent Johnny Grusing believes, is an important step, on Suzanne’s part, to leaving her husband.
“I’m done,” she wrote. “I may be less interested in what you’re doing and have been for years.”
Based on the hypothesis put forward by investigators in the arrest affidavit, prosecutors believe a tranquilizer dart may have been used to commit the alleged crime. Documents show tranquilizer dart material found in Morphew’s garage. The needle cover is located inside the dryer.
Investigators believe Morphew shot Suzanne with a tranquilizer dart, chased her around the house before he allegedly killed her, then hid her body. However, the tranquilizer gun that investigators found did not work. Morphew claims he uses darts and tranquilizer guns to calm the deer and remove their antlers.
Morphew’s cabinet phone and digital forensics Information from Morphew’s truck, both published in court documents, shows his whereabouts the week Suzanne went missing.
The photos below show the exact spots where his cell phone buzzed around the house on Saturday, May 9. When FBI agents asked Morphew why he was running around like that, he said he was shooting chipmunks.
The prosecution believes that Morphew has moved phone to airplane mode on the day Suzanne was murdered. Investigators believe she was killed on May 9, the day before she was reported missing.
On May 9, Morphew replaced one of the blades on his Bobcat Slide Loader. Click here to view remote information of that device.
Photographs of Morphew’s hands and arms were also released, which investigators believe was scratched by Suzanne while trying to defend herself. The scratches, instead, came from tree branches, says Morphew, and happened while he was out looking for his missing wife.
Photos taken inside the Maysville home by the Morphews show an unused seashell left beside their master’s bed, along with evidence of a cracked door frame in the same room. Additional photos show a bed, with the sheets removed, in one of the daughter’s bedrooms.
And, one of the more unusual pieces of evidence – a spy pen, recorded conversations featuring Suzanne with Jeff Libler – a married father of 6 with whom she had an affair. The pen was found in a cupboard in the master bedroom. Libler is Suzanne’s high school friend. The investigation into her disappearance discovered the two were romantically involved two years after she moved to Colorado from Indiana.
Detectives didn’t know who Libler was until more than six months after Suzanne disappeared.
On the day Suzanne was reported missing, Morphew checked into a Broomfield hotel, 150 kilometers from their home. He was there, he said, for a construction job on a nearby retaining wall. A snapshot of surveillance footage captures Morphew carrying loads of stuff into his hotel room – he was also wearing different shirts when he went in and out of the room that day.
Photographs from the investigation show that Morphew also carried out a number of dumps that day at multiple locations.
Morphew left work when he and the couple’s daughters were unable to come to Suzanne to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day. Morphew returned to their home to find, what became, a major search effort.
Morphew is currently facing first-degree murder charges, as well as:
He is now out of prison with a $500,000 fine. He must reside in Chaffee County, but he can visit his daughters for the day in Gunnison, and his attorneys in Denver.
The murder trial is scheduled for May 2020. Suzanne’s body has yet to be found.
https://kdvr.com/news/court-releases-evidence-in-morphew-investigation-from-preliminary-hearing/ Court releases evidence in Morphew investigation from preliminary hearing
