Husband of Suzanne Morphew indicted on murder charge 5 years after she vanished on Mother's Day

ALAMOSA, Colo. (KXRM/KXTU) — A Colorado district attorney's office said Friday that a grand jury returned an indictment charging Barry Morphew with first-degree murder in relation to the death of his wife, Suzanne Morphew.

According to the press release, Barry Morphew was taken into custody on Friday, June 20, in Arizona, and the 12th Judicial District Attorney’s Office is looking to extradite Morphew to the San Luis Valley.

Back in 2020, Suzanne Morphew went missing on Mother's Day, May 10. After years of searching, Suzanne Morphew's remains were found near the town of Moffat in Saguache County in September 2023. An autopsy revealed that Suzanne died by "undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication."

According to the grand jury indictment released by the DA's office, interviews with Barry Morphew after Suzanne was reported missing contained inconsistencies related to Barry's location and what he was doing on May 10, 2020. Prosecutors allege that cameras at a Broomfield hotel and nearby businesses showed Barry in the area on May 10 for about nine hours and 45 minutes, with less than 30 minutes spent at the job site Barry told investigators he was at.

The indictment further alleges that Barry spent time that day driving around to various locations and discarding unknown items in separate trash cans. Footage from the hotel showed Barry arriving back at around 12:30 p.m. and remaining there until just before 6 p.m., which is inconsistent with his statement to police that he was at the job site when he got a call about Suzanne’s disappearance at 5 p.m. that day.

Police also analyzed cellphone data, which showed Suzanne had not communicated electronically with anyone after 2:11 p.m. on May 9, and the last use of a password-protected account was at 3:08 p.m. Interviews with witnesses indicated they tried to communicate with Suzanne but got no response, which was out of the ordinary.

The indictment states that Barry’s cellphone data showed his phone was turned off during significant periods of time related to the case. Times mentioned were at 2:47 p.m. on May 9, minutes after he arrived home that day, and the phone was not turned on again until about 10:15 p.m. that night. The phone was turned off again at 4:32 a.m. on May 10 and turned on again at 5:37 a.m. 

According to the indictment, a tranquilizer rifle was found in a gun safe along with darts and capped hypodermic needles used to load the darts. A hypodermic needle cap was found in the dryer at the Morphew home after the dryer’s contents were removed.

In 2023, Suzanne’s body was found in what the prosecutors called a shallow clandestine grave in Saguache County near Highway 17, less than an hour south of the Morphew home. The DA’s office said law enforcement found a majority of Suzanne’s bones, and many were found “significantly bleached,” along with signs that this was not Suzanne’s original gravesite, where decomposition of the body occurred. An autopsy by the El Paso County Coroner’s Office found the presence of a combination of Butorphanol, Azaperone, and Medetomidine, also known as BAM. It was also found that Suzanne’s body had started to metabolize the drug, and her death was not immediate following BAM exposure.

The DA’s office said a pharmacologist and medical doctor testified that BAM is used to sedate animals for medical treatment or movement and that BAM must be administered into the blood through intravenous or intramuscular injection, as skin and the GI tract do not absorb the drug effectively.

According to the indictment, at the time of Suzanne’s disappearance, prescription records showed that only one private citizen in the entire state of Colorado had access to BAM, and that was Barry Morphew. Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Park Service were the only other entities that had received prescriptions of BAM in those counties from 2017 through 2020, and none of the BAM from those agencies was unaccounted for.

Barry Morphew was initially charged with first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and attempting to influence the public in May 2021. The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning they could be brought before a court again.

"Federal, State, and local law enforcement have never stopped working toward justice for Suzanne," said 12th Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly. "The Twelfth 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."

According to the Chaffee County Sheriff's Office, Barry Morphew is being held on a $3,000,000 bond. "We are proud of our staff and law enforcement partners for never giving up," wrote the sheriff's office.

Lawyers representing Barry Morphew released a statement related to his arrest.

Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence. Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed and the outcome will not either.

Statement from lawyers David Beller, Recht Kornfeld