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DENVER (CN) — For the second time in five years, 58-year-old Barry Morphew has been charged with the murder of his wife, Suzanne, who disappeared on Mother’s Day in 2020 from their home in Maysville, Colorado.
A search party in 2020 found Suzanne’s bike and helmet in separate locations more than a mile up the road. At the time, Morphew told investigators he had been in Broomfield, 200 miles away, on a pre-planned business trip.
Investigators confirmed Morphew spent several hours in Broomfield that day, but found he also drove around “discarding unknown items in separate trash cans,” according to the indictment.
Although Morphew told police he considered his marriage “the best,” others reported Suzanne had been unhappy and “discussed plans to divorce” him, according to the indictment. Police learned Suzanne had been having an affair with an ex-boyfriend who lived out of state, with whom she spoke to on LinkedIn and WhatsApp.
In his 2024 civil complaint however, Morphew said he only learned of the affair after his wife’s death from police who asked about it.
In the indictment, prosecutors point to unusual gaps in the couple’s activity on social media, cell phones and their truck’s infotainment system during the hours when they believed Suzanne went missing.
Investigators recovered Suzanne’s body in a shallow grave an hour south of her house in September 2023, three years after her death. From a lack of insect and animal activity around the body, investigators concluded the remains had been moved there at some point.
Through toxicology analysis, the El Paso County coroner’s office found evidence of butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine, or BAM, a chemical mixture used to sedate animals like deer. Because the mixture had been metabolized, the coroner concluded Morphew died after being sedated and listed her manner of death as “homicide by unspecific means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine intoxication.”
In the indictment, prosecutors dramatically claimed “prescription records show that when Suzanne Morphew disappeared, only one private citizen living in that entire area of the state had access to BAM: Barry Morphew.”
The discovery of the body in Saguache County also resulted in the case transferring from the jurisdiction of Colorado’s 11th Judicial District to the 12th Judicial District.
“Federal, state and local law enforcement have never stopped working toward justice for Suzanne,” said 12th Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly in a statement. “The 12th Judicial District Attorney’s Office stands in solidarity with Suzanne’s family and the citizens of Chaffee and Saguache Counties in pursuing the grand jury’s indictment.”
Prosecutors in the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s Office initially charged Morphew with murdering his wife in May 2021, presenting a tranquilizer theory similar to that currently being advanced in the 12th Judicial District. But shortly before Morphew was scheduled to go to trial, prosecutors dismissed the case in April 2022.
On May 2, 2023, Morphew sued Chaffee County, along with its sheriff’s department, the 11th Judicial District Attorney’s office and more than a dozen individuals who investigated the case and contributed to a faulty arrest affidavit. Morphew asked the court to award $15 million in damages and order law enforcement to release his property — including family photos and expensive hunting scopes.
In the civil suit, Morphew claimed he disclosed his use of hunting tranquilizers to law enforcement along with the fact that his only means of issuing the BAM, a tranquilizer gun, had long been inoperable and was stored in a gun safe.
Morphew is appealing a federal judge’s dismissal of his civil suit last fall.
“Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence. Barry maintains his innocence,” said David Beller, an attorney with Recht Kornfeld. “The case has not changed and the outcome will not either."
The criminal proceeding will be overseen by 12th Judicial District Chief Judge Amanda Hopkins.
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