Suzanne Morphew Presumed Dead — Husband Will Stand Trial for Her Murder

Earlier this year, I wrote a story about Colorado mother Suzanne Morphew who went missing while out for a bike ride on Mother’s Day 2020. Since then, it has become all but certain that she was never out for a bike ride and instead, was killed in her own home. Her husband, 53-year-old Barry Morphew, has been charged with murder, tampering with a human body, possession of a dangerous weapon, and attempting to influence a public servant.

Morphew was arrested in May of 2021 and released the following September on $500,000 cash bail. Conditions of his bail include surrendering all firearms, wearing an ankle monitor, continuing to live in Chaffee County, and staying mostly within county borders. He must also attend every hearing about his case in person.

The judge denied a request from the defense that Morphew be allowed to live in Gunnison, located about 95 miles outside Chaffee County, while awaiting trial and banned contact with any of the witnesses in the case.

The prosecution had asked the court to set a $10 million cash bond, arguing that the sale of Morphew’s home and business had given him available assets in excess of $3 million which would allow him to easily flee if he chose to do so, but the judge deemed the smaller bail with monitoring and stipulations more fitting.

Morphew has pleaded not guilty on all charges. His trial is expected to begin in May 2022, two years after his wife disappeared.

Police believe that Morphew “hunted” his wife down and staged a crime scene after she told him about her plans. The arrest affidavit for her husband reveals that Suzanne’s mountain bike and helmet were found during the search for her, but there was no damage to either and no signs of blood in the area surrounding them. No signs of a struggle were present at all.

The chief investigator with Colorado’s 11th Judicial District released a 129-page charging document that details the evidence gathered in the case. It includes statements from a relative, a friend, and Suzanne Morphew herself that paint a dark picture of her marriage. She had recorded private notes to chronicle her husband’s abuse and controlling behavior. It is unknown whether she created the notes out of fear something would happen to her or simply was noting specific events in preparation for a divorce. The shorthanded notes include the following entries:

• “Stalking Sheila and me in house without telling”
• “Chased me around resort and threatened”
• “Not safe alone with you. Can’t be trusted”
• “Oppressive”
• “Slam on breaks when angry”
• "Threaten to jump out of car”
• “Gun”

According to detectives on the case, Suzanne believed her husband was having an affair and that it was far from the first. Morphew has denied that he has ever had an affair and that he has ever been abusive in any way toward his wife. However, the investigation revealed that he had accessed a porn site called Celebrity Jihad and extramarital dating site Ashley Madison.

Morphew wasn’t the only one being unfaithful. According to investigators in the case, Suzanne had been having an affair with a married man named Jeff Libler for at least two years at the time she went missing. Libler is the father of six children and lives in Indiana. He and Suzanne had gone to school together. She was making plans to leave her husband when she disappeared without a trace.

Despite Morphew’s claims that he knew nothing about his wife’s affair and that their marriage was solid, the evidence paints a different picture. Four days before she vanished, Suzanne had texted Morphew to let him know their marriage was over and to express her desire that they end things in a civil manner. It seems that Morphew had no intention of doing so.

The arrest affidavit asserts that Morphew then developed a plan to “control her, incapacitate her, stage a crime scene and create an alibi for her disappearance.”

Investigators claim that by the day she was reported missing, “it had become clear that Barry could not control Suzanne’s insistence on leaving him, and he resorted to something he has done his entire life — hunt and control Suzanne like he had hunted and controlled animals.”

Barry Morphew has denied that any of this is true. He has insisted that they had a perfect marriage, a claim refuted by one of his own daughters. Though it is unknown which one of the Morphew daughters made the statement, one of them told police that her parents weren’t doing well and argued a lot. She said she thought it would be better if they separated due to them both being in an emotionally “unsafe place.”

Morphew has tried to shift the blame for Suzanne’s disappearance to her own relatives or even a drug dealer, suggesting various possibilities that don’t pan out. He has repeatedly pointed out that there is no proof that his wife is even deceased, but investigators maintain that they are certain of it. Among proof collected by investigators and the FBI, there is a lot of circumstantial evidence that has led them to this conclusion.

Investigators learned from Melinda Baumunk, Suzanne’s sister, that Suzanne had texted her a few days before she vanished about the situation with her husband. The text read:

“It’s hard dealing with the harsh abrasiveness and having to show respect. He’s been so abusive, emotionally, and physically. There’s so much… I went thru a period of acceptance, and I feel more angry now. Anger at what I’ve allowed.”

Baumunk told officers that she had not known Barry was physically abusive prior to receiving the text. When she found out her sister was missing three days later, she cursed aloud because she was certain Morphew had killed Suzanne.

In text messages sent to a friend between 2019 and 2020, Suzanne shared that her husband picked fights in front of their daughters and put them in the middle.

According to police, the couple had been at odds for years. Morphew insists any arguments they may have had were due to his wife being a heavy drinker and her continued drug use. He claims she regularly bought drugs from street dealers. Still, he insists he was desperately trying to save his marriage.

During his preliminary hearing, Morphew was expressionless throughout the proceedings. He showed little emotion when Judge Patrick Murphy ruled that there was probable cause for him to stand trial on the charge of first-degree murder.

The Judge did, however, note that probable cause is a very low standard of proof and that, while it could result in a conviction, that was ultimately something a jury would decide, and they could go either way when trying to reach a verdict without a body and more direct evidence of the crime.

Judge Murphy was specific that it was the texts from Suzanne saying she felt “unsafe” with her husband and his discovery of her affair that convinced him that Morphew might have had a credible motive for murder.

He added that the court was able to confirm that Morphew had attempted to dispose of Suzanne’s bike helmet and questioned why he would drive 150 miles so early on a Sunday morning for a job that wasn’t set to begin until the next day.

While much of the evidence is circumstantial without Suzanne’s body, it is still damning. The search for her body may not have yet been successful, but plenty of other evidence was uncovered during the extensive investigation involving dozens of searches and interviews with over four hundred people.

On May 9, Suzanne and her husband had talked about going for a hike, but she declined. Instead, she spent the morning texting photos to Libler while he was at work. Her final message to Libler was at 2:30 pm. Afterward, she made a call, and the phone was not used again.

Morphew went out alone. He returned to the house at about 2:40 that afternoon. At 2:47, his phone was switched to airplane mode and remained that way until 10:17 that night.

Prosecutors believe that Suzanne was killed that afternoon. They believe that the weapon used was a dart gun that witnesses have confirmed was owned by Morphew.

Agent Johnny Grusing with the CBI testified that the darts used contained enough animal tranquilizer to knock Suzanne out within ten minutes and lead to labored breathing and hypoxia. Grusing says this would sound like snoring, which matches claims from Morphew that the last sound he heard from his wife was “light snoring.”

Data from Morphew’s truck shows that on the following morning, May 10, the door on his truck was opened seven times between 3:25 am and 3:49 am.

Suzanne Morphew’s phone was last active at 4:23 a.m. but it has not been recovered for further examination. Investigators say Morphew claims Suzanne was still sleeping when he left for work.

At 5 am, the truck left the home shared by the couple and drove very near the Garfield Mine. It was next spotted on camera in Poncha Springs at 5:14 am.

Barry admitted in an interview that he first made a detour that took him close to the remote Garfield Mine after allegedly seeing a herd of elk. Morphew claimed he wanted to follow the deer to see where they stopped so he could collect fallen horns. However, police say that deer don’t shed horns in May and that it would have been completely dark at that time of the morning.

Afterward, Morphew drove toward his hotel room in Broomfield. His truck data and cameras operating in the areas where he stopped show that he stopped to throw away trash five separate times at the following locations:

• Beside a bus stop
• Near his hotel
• At a McDonald’s
• Near a Men’s Warehouse location
• At his hotel, in the trash bin — he discarded a full trash bag, a large planter, and a camouflage jacket

Morphew claimed he had just been tidying up his truck, but police say that when he arrived back home, the truck was still heavily littered with bits of trash.

Co-workers Morgan Gentile and Jeff Puckett said that when they entered his hotel room later that day, there were wet towels all over the floor and it stunk of bleach. Puckett also said he found ripped-up insurance documents in the trash can.

Gentile said that Morphew was supposed to pick her up at 5:30 pm on May 10. Instead, he called her at 11 am that day and told her she’d need to drive herself up, and asked her to bring an extra helper. Puckett agreed to go with her, but when they arrived, Morphew had already left for what he said was a “family emergency.”

The following morning at 7:30 am, Morphew called to tell Gentile that Suzanne was missing. He suggested that perhaps a mountain lion was to blame.

Later, in a public plea for help in finding his wife, Morphew appeared to cry, but there were no actual tears.

Then, there is the physical evidence found while searching the Morphew family home. Officers recovered the following:

• A live .22 caliber bullet lying beside Suzanne’s side of the bed. Morphew owns a .22 caliber pistol he claims he uses to shoot squirrels.
• Charred remains of books, ring binders, and a lacquered piece of wood in the fireplace. A journal that Suzanne kept by her bed was missing and possibly destroyed.
• An empty tranquilizer casing in the dryer with a pair of Morphew’s khaki shorts that appear to be the same ones he was wearing in footage captured by security cameras on May 9.
• Tranquilizer darts which Morphew claimed he uses to sedate deer so he can cut off their horns. No such horns were found in the home.
• The door of the master bedroom appeared to have been forced open. The prior owner said there was no damage to the door when he sold the house to the Morphews.
• Additionally, Morphew himself had scratches on both hands and his upper arm.

Morphew also admitted that he deleted some texts between him and Suzanne on May 21. He claimed that he had done so to protect his daughters from being hurt by them if they came out. One of the texts from Suzanne that was deleted and later recovered read, “I’m done.”

When confronted with the text, Morphew told police that Suzanne would have never gone through with it because she loved her family far too much.

There is no doubt that even more evidence will come out in the months leading up to Morphew’s trial. There is a chance that the body of Suzanne might even be found during that time. Whether Morphew killed his wife will become a question a jury must answer, but it certainly seems like all the evidence points toward a guilty verdict.

Perhaps the saddest part of all, beyond Suzanne’s absence, are the two daughters who will have to wrestle with their thoughts and feelings over this for years to come. They have already lost a mother and now they face losing a father, who may very well be the one who took her from them. There can never truly be justice until a killer is brought to justice and their mother’s remains are recovered for a proper burial.

In a separate matter, Morphew also faces one count of voter fraud for casting his wife’s mail-in ballot for Donald Trump while she was missing and presumed dead.