Law enforcement found a live .22-caliber round next to Suzanne Morphew’s bed and a needle cap used with a tranquilizer gun in the dryer of the home she shared with her husband in the days after she disappeared, investigators testified in a court hearing in her husband’s murder case.
Prosecutors during the Monday hearing also played body camera footage that showed Barry Morphew inside the family’s home on May 10, 2020 — the evening his wife was reported missing. Chaffee County sheriff’s deputies escorted Morphew inside so they could get an item of his wife’s clothing for tracking dogs. Undersheriff Andy Rohrich said Monday that Morphew acted oddly while they were in the house that evening. It was the first time Morphew had been inside the home since his wife’s reported disappearance and he did not try to look around.
“He’s not even trying to call her phone,” Rohrich said. “This is the last place, according to his testimony, that he’s seen his wife alive and he’s not asking any questions.”
Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office
Suzanne MorphewMorphew, 53, faces five felony charges in connection to the disappearance of his wife, including first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and attempting to influence public servant. The third day of Morphew’s four-day preliminary hearing began Monday in the Chaffee County courthouse. Morphew sat next to his defense attorneys dressed in a grey suit and cowboy boots.
Testimony in the preliminary hearing has offered the first glimpse at the evidence against Morphew because 11th Judicial District Chief Judge Patrick Murphy sealed Morphew’s arrest affidavit. Murphy said he will unseal the affidavit seven days after the preliminary hearing, which is scheduled to end Tuesday. At the end of the preliminary hearing, Murphy will decide whether there is enough evidence against Morphew for the case to proceed to trial.
Prosecutors charged Morphew with murder in May, a year after his 49-year-old wife’s 2020 disappearance. A neighbor reported Suzanne’s disappearance on May 10, 2020, which led to extensive searches of the Salida area. Her body has not been found.
Previous testimony in the hearing outlined a troubled marriage between the couple and that Suzanne had discussed divorce with friends and told them she didn’t feel safe with him. Suzanne also had an affair with a man in Michigan beginning in late 2018 that continued until the day she disappeared.
But her husband repeatedly told investigators he wasn’t aware of the affair until after Suzanne’s disappearance. Morphew said he would’ve gotten a divorce had she asked.
“He said he would’ve written a check and given her half and let her go her own way,” retired FBI agent Jonathan Grusing testified Monday.
Prosecutors’ theory, outlined through questioning of the lead investigators on the case, is that Morphew killed Suzanne sometime in the evening of May 9, 2020, before leaving for work in Broomfield early the following morning. They also believe that Morphew used a tranquilizer gun in the process.
Barry Morphew’s phone was placed on airplane mode several times on May 9 and May 10, Grusing testified.
Investigators recovered empty darts, a needle used to inject tranquilizer chemical into the darts, and a dart gun in the house and in Morphew’s gun safe, Grusing testified. Investigators found a cap used to cover the injecting needle in the dryer at the Morphew’s house along with clothes and bedsheets from one of the couple’s daughters.
During cross-examination by one of Morphew’s attorneys, Dru Nielsen, Grusing also said they found no tranquilizer chemical in the house and that there was no way to know how long the cap had been in the dryer.
Morphew told investigators that he used the tranquilizer to shoot deer so he could harvest their horns. He said he didn’t know how the cap got into the dryer, Grusing said.
Rohrich testified that investigators found the live .22-caliber round near Suzanne’s side of the bed. He did not elaborate further on how the investigators think the round factors into the alleged crime, though Barry Morphew owned a .22-caliber gun. When cross-examined by defense attorney, Iris Eytan, Rohrich said investigators also found live rounds in the garage and in a box in Barry Morphew’s truck.
Investigators searched for Suzanne’s journal — which a friend said she kept — but it was never found. Rohrich said investigators found what appeared to be the remnants of a book’s binding in the home’s fireplace, along with fragments of paper. Morphew said he and Suzanne had been cleaning out filing cabinets that week, investigators testified.
After Suzanne disappeared, investigators photographed injuries on Morphew’s hands and scratches on his left arm that appeared to be injuries from fingernails, Rohrich said.
Eytan pushed back on Rohrich’s description of Morphew’s behavior on May 10, 2020, as odd. She said Morphew had been directed to only lead them to his wife’s clothing, not start investigating.
“He followed the task as directed by law enforcement,” she said.
Authorities found Suzanne’s mountain bike at the bottom of a steep ditch off County Road 225 on the day she went missing. Her helmet was found less than a mile away a few days later. The helmet was found near where Morphew said he was driving early on the morning of May 10.
CBI Agent Derek Graham testified that the helmet had minor scratches, but no damage consistent with a major crash. Graham also said investigators found Suzanne’s wallet and the Camelbak backpack she often used while mountain biking in Suzanne’s car.
Grusing, the retired FBI agent, on April 22 confronted Morphew with a series of pieces of evidence that he thought didn’t make sense with Morphew’s description of events. While being asked about them, Morphew responded “I don’t recall” a total of 95 times, Grusing said.
Grusing testified that Suzanne used her phone frequently, especially to message her lover in Michigan, but did not send any messages after 2:13 p.m. May 9, about 30 minutes before her husband returned home that afternoon. Grusing said he mentioned to Barry Morphew the uncharacteristic lack of messaging from Suzanne’s phone after that time.
Morphew responded “yeah” and looked at his feet, Grusing said.
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