Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - SUZANNE MORPHEW SHOCK AUTOPSY: SHOT WITH TRANQUILIZERS

Episode Date: April 30, 2024

Mother's Day 2020: Mallory and Macy Morphew are on their way home from a camping trip. They text their mother, wishing Suzanne Morphew a "Happy Mother's Day." When they don't get a reply, Mallory calls Morphew's neighbors, Martin and Jeanne Ritter, explaining she hasn't been able to reach her mother. Jeanne Ritter goes next door to look for Suzanne Morphew. Martin Ritter calls Barry Morphew to tell him they can't find Suzanne. Barry Morphew tells Ritter to call 911. After three long years, Morphew's remains are found in Saguache County, in September 2023. Suzanne Morphew's death has now been ruled a homicide by undetermined means. The toxicology report shows several drugs found in her system at the time of her death: Butorphanol, a synthetic opioid pain-killer, Azaperone, a sedative commonly used as a tranquilizer for pigs and elephants, and medetomidine, a sedative that can decrease an animal's heart rate, commonly used by veterinarians. Joining Nancy Grace Today: Tisha Leewaye - Friend of Suzanne Morphew   Sheryl McCollum  – Forensics Expert & Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Founder; Host of Podcast: “Zone 7;” X: @149Zone7  Chris McDonough – Director at the Cold Case Foundation, Former Homicide Detective; Host of YouTube channel: “The Interview Room” Joe Scott Morgan – Professor of Forensics: Jacksonville State University, Author, “Blood Beneath My Feet,” and Host: “Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan;” Twitter/X: @JoScottForensic Lauren Scharf- (CO) Journalist and Former Reporter/ X: @LaurenScharfTV See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Breaking news tonight, Colorado mom Suzanne Morphew goes missing on Mother's Day, seemingly torn off her mountain bike to vanish into thin air. But then her body found in a shallow grave miles away. In the last hours, Suzanne Morphew's autopsy released. Not only was Suzanne murdered, she was shot full of animal tranquilizers before her death. Just what does the deadly drug cocktail extracted from her bones reveal. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Oh, Suzanne, if anyone is out there that can hear this, that has you, please, we'll do whatever it takes to bring you back.

We love you. We miss you. Your girls need you. No questions asked. However much they want, I will do whatever it takes to get you back. Honey, I love you. I want you back so bad. Right. Okay. Whoever took her shot her full of animal tranquilizers before they killed her. I mean, powerful animal tranquilizers. We've got an all-star panel to make sense of what we know, but listen to this. Butorphanol, Zephyrone, Metatimidine. They first identified her through her dental records and the port she had on her body. She was in remission for cancer, then later DNA extracted

from her knee. I'm curious, was she wearing the clothes that the medical examiner got already in bags? Could we even tell? Were her bones so in a state of decomp and completely skeletonized that she was out of her clothes? What more are we learning from this deadly drug cocktail? And according to experts in the Colorado region, hunters do not hunt with animal tranquilizers, but guess who does use them? Barry Morphew. He says he uses animal tranquilizers to shoot deer to get their antlers off of them and that he may have been using them to shoot chipmunks. Wow. What a coinkydink. Because now his wife's body turns up, what's left of it, full of animal tranquilizers. But that's a whole nother can of worms. Don't worry. I'm going to open it in just a few moments. Joining me, high profile investigative journalist,

Lauren Scharf. And you can find her at Lauren Scharf TV. Lauren, thank you for being with us on the story from the very beginning. I want to talk about how her body was found and what the autopsy revealed that was just released in the last hours. Let's start with the autopsy. Yeah. So they were just skeletal bones. There was no actual tissue on the bones. It was scattered in Moffett, Colorado, which is a desert area in Sewatch County. And there was also a lot of clothing that was also found. A padded bra, a ripped dark blue gray hooded sweatshirt, a Nike tank top, a Yeti shorts, fabric fragments.

There was a balaclava, pink and light colored leather work gloves. So there were other items besides skeletal remains that were there. No shoes were found. Oh, no shoes. I'm glad you mentioned that. And I'm very intrigued by the balaclava that was found. One of the head face coverings that we often see like on TV, terrorists are always wearing them, where the only thing you see are their eyes. Everything else is covered and they typically come down over the neck and shoulders, a pale patterned balaclava, a pink and light color leather work glove, a light color partial padded bra, a ripped dark blue gray hooded sweatshirt labeled crested butte, a torn green Nike tank top, Yeti shorts, and a fabric fragment. What can we deduce? All of the clothing and fabric fragment weathered and covered in dirt. Very curious. Joining me, as I said, an all-star panel to make sense of what we are learning. You're seeing shots of Suzanne Morphew in life, and she seems very happy with her husband and two adult daughters. But all was not

as it seems. Trouble was brewing within the marriage. But before I get to that, I want to focus on these meds, these tranquilizers in her system. And joining me is a renowned death investigator, Joseph Scott Morgan, professor of forensics, Jacksonville State University, the author of Blood Beneath My Feet on Amazon and star of a new hit series, Body Bags with Joe Scott Morgan. Joe Scott, in a nutshell, because also joining me, Joe Scott, is a very dear friend of Suzanne Morphew's. You know, hold on. I see Cheryl McCollum has popped up, Joe Scott. Cheryl, in honor of Suzanne Morphew, I'm wearing my Justice for Suzanne t-shirt that you and I got when we were out investigating and beating the bushes and trying to find answers in Suzanne's murder. Are you at all surprised her body was shot full of animal trank?

Not at all. I think it was exactly what he said. He told people, I've got the dart gun, I've got chemicals that I've gotten rid of, I've got needles, I've got a cap that they found in the dryer. He basically said it. He also told everybody that he was running around the house hunting. That could be leakage. He has invoked this entire narrative and right down to her having clothing on, right? That is not bed clothes, by the way. And he said,

that's how we left her. It makes complete sense to me that this was going to be the result from her bone marrow. Okay. Cheryl McCollum and I tromped through, I can't even tell you about the terrain that we, I can't call it hiking because it was slow going looking and so many spots hoping for the discovery of her body. And the discovery was made many miles from home in a shallow grave. Joe Scott Morgan, back to you. Joe Scott, another thing in this autopsy report is, quote, one weathered bullet. See, I've got so many questions, Joe Scott. Was the bullet in the shallow grave? Was the bullet in the shallow grave? Were the bones in the shallow grave? Were they scattered? Were the clothes still on the bones? Six envelopes containing five fabric fragments. What's that? Okay, jump in.

We have to understand, if you look at the autopsy report, Nancy, this is something fascinating, is that this was not just a one-day event where they collected everything and put it in a single bag. These bags are actually annotated to demonstrate that two of them had been collected same day, labeled day one twice. And then you have day two and day three where they go out and they collect more remains. So that gives you the understanding that these remains are shallow and that they're probably scattered about. They even had some commingling apparently with animal skeletal remains out there as well, which is kind of a Herculean task on the part of the anthropologist to delineate between these two items.

So it can be very confusing out there. And then, and then to top it all off, you have this weathered projectile that's out there. I don't know, and this is gonna be fascinating to see as this plays out, because we don't have all of the reports. What does the ballistic examination say about that round? What kind of weapon platform is it associated with? Is it a.22 caliber or is it a 7.62? We have no idea. And also one more thing, Nancy, is that we don't have any indication that a shell

casing, the spent shell casing was recovered, and that could be a big clue. So yeah, lots of evidence recovered out there, not to mention the clothing. And there's still more analysis, I think, to be done at this point in time. A lot of analysis. And back to you, Cheryl McCollum, joining us, founder, director, Cold Case Research Institute. You can find her at coldcasecrimes.org, hit podcast Zone 7 and Forensics Expert. Cheryl, I've been poring over this autopsy report. They didn't give us much, but they gave me enough. Just hold on. Two and two still equals four, right?

Or is everything completely upside down? Because didn't Barry Morphew say he was using an animal shrink gun at the time of her death? Correct. Around the time she went missing? Correct. And Nancy, here's the thing. They're not giving us a lot. That's the right call.

They're not going to tell us the caliber. They're not going to tell us exactly the shape and condition of that projectile. There was also one found in the bedroom on her side of the bed on the floor. So do those two projectiles match? they're not going to disclose that yet they're playing it close to the vest which is what they should do so that when they go hey can everybody can we just agree right now to stop saying projectile okay okay if you're talking about a bullet say bullet you talking about a bullet, say bullet. You talking about a shell, say shell. If you're talking about a tranq, leftovers of a tranq, say it. Okay? Now, rephrase that in regular people talk.

Cheryl, this goes for you too, Joe Scott Morgan. Go ahead, Cheryl. So there's two bullets, one that was found with her at the disposal site and one found in the bedroom. We don't know if they match. And, again, they shouldn't tell us that yet. They've got people to interview. So when they go and they say,

"'Hey, we found a bullet,' is the person going to say, "'Was it a 22?' And again, go back to Barry's original statement when he got out of the truck, after he was told she was missing, and he gets home and they say, "'Hey, we found her bike down this ravine.'" First thing he says was, you think a mountain lion got her? He's the one

that keeps referring to large animals. He's the one that's using a tranquilizer for large animals. I mean, it's just an unbelievable story. You're absolutely right, Cheryl McCollum. Listen. Is it a crash? I mean, the bike looked, the way it was laying, it kind of looked like it, but there's not really that much damage to the bike. Lion? Yeah, it was just like a lion. Was that a lion? I didn't see anything.

I didn't see anything, and they're not letting us go over the side. They're bringing dogs in. Just right down. Did anybody look for foot tracks? I haven't seen anything really, but. Like people tracks? You're lying.

I didn't really know this, but I will lie about like an expert tracker or something, you know. A mountain lion. My rear end, a mountain lion. You know, I could watch that body cam video all day long. And then some Barry Morphew, Suzanne's husband jumps up and says, a mountain lion puts that out there. Now, just one quick review. Joe Scott Morgan, tell me again about the animal tranquilizer evidence found in Suzanne's home. What was found?

Of course, this may be after a cleanup. But again, Barry Morphew is not a suspect and he has not been named again for murder. Okay. Tell me, Joe Scott. Yeah. What we're thinking about here, Nancy, is this is a very lethal cocktail and that's the way I like to frame it. This BAM, I think it's referred to as this deer tranquilizer, essentially, that's being used. You've got three components here, Nancy, and you'd mention them off the top. And if you'll just permit me, I'll go through them very, very quickly. With the butorphanol, that's actually

an opiate-based drug. Okay. So you think about a synthetic heroin-like, morphine-like drug that kind of induces sleepiness. It also impedes your breathing. And then you go to the azepirone, which is interesting term here. It's a syrenic, which means like based in serenity. You think about people that take Valium or any other kind of benzo. It's going to calm you down. It's actually used with hogs, with pigs to slow them down if they're very, very aggressive. And then you come to the final one, which is this metamedian, which is actually a precursor to anesthesia. Now you say anybody that's ever been through surgery and you've had anesthesia, you know, that kind of milky warmness that comes over you when they give you that first drug, that first injection.

It kind of knocks your system down. That's what you're talking about. Any one of these drugs, Nancy, is lethal when you take it at a high dosage. You've got a combination of three here. And to me, this speaks volumes. And the fact that they extracted this from the head of her femur is damning, damning evidence, Nancy. Now, why do you say that? The fact that they had to extract it from the head of her femur.

By the way, guys, femur is a leg bone. Go ahead. Yeah. And literally where they took this from, Nancy, is quite fascinating. We don't hear about this a lot. But they, and all due respect here here but just let me they they removed the head of the femur which is where it attaches into the hip and that's one of the densest areas of bone in the body and it's actually got vascular in there

like blood vessels blood supply and they superheated it and extracted this this the substance from here and then they were able to break it down into its components. There's no soft tissue, Nancy. You don't have organs to look at. You certainly don't have blood at this point in time, and this is the only source that you can get. Inside the Morphew residence, investigators find empty darts, a needle used to inject tranquilizer chemicals into the darts, and a dart gun in Morphew's gun safe. Investigators also find a needle cap used to cover the injecting needle in the dryer at the Morphew's house, along with clothes and bed sheets from one of the couple's daughters. Morphew tells investigators

he uses tranquilizers to shoot deer to harvest their antlers. Investigators also find a.22 caliber round next to Suzanne Morphew's bed. Prosecutors theorize Barry Morphew killed Suzanne Morphew after he gets home around 2.45 on May the 9th. A former FBI agent who reviewed evidence in the murder case against Barry Morphew testified in court that Morphew appears to have been chasing his wife Suzanne Morphew around their Colorado home the day before Suzanne was reported missing, according to his cell phone data. Morphew claims he was chasing chipmunks. Empty darts, needles used to inject tranquilizer chemicals into darts, and a dart gun are found in the house and Morphew's safe. A cap to a dart is found in the dryer. After Suzanne vanishes, investigators take photos of injuries to Morphew's hand and scratches that look like they were made by fingernails on his left arm.

Joining me is a special guest, Tish Leeway, close friend of Suzanne Morphew's. Tish, thank you for being with us. Hi. Tish, got a question for you. When you heard the autopsy results, what went through your mind? Honestly, I was thinking that that's how it was going to come back anyway. From probably, I don't know, a couple months ago, right after they found her, I said, I have a feeling that the autopsy is gonna come back and she was tranquilized.

I have my own theories of how it went down, but it didn't surprise me, to be honest. The only thing that surprised me is that they found something after three years. Tish, got a question for you. Again, Barry Morphew was charged in Suzanne's murder. Those charges were dropped. He is at this moment no longer a suspect, no longer a person of interest. The state asked for the charges to be dropped when they were accused of not handing over exculpatory or evidence that would prove innocence

information to the defense. The state asked for the charges to be dropped, and that was done. They may be refiled as of right now, tonight. Barry Morphew is not named as a person of interest or suspect in Suzanne Morphew's murder. That said, Tish, you stated that you had your own theories. You are a very close friend, were a very close friend of Suzanne Morphew's. What's your theory of, as you say, how it went down? This is what I've always said. I think he arrived at 245. I think he was, she was in the backyard, may have saw her on the phone with Jeff Libler. And I think that's where he shot her with a tranquilizer gun. I think she got up. I think she ran.

I think that that's all that pinging was, you know, her running and him chasing her. I think she ran up to Mallory's room. And I think that's where he shot her again with the tranquilizer gun. And I think that's where the dart cap fell. And I think she was there for, you know, however long until he was to put her body where he put her. But I think that's why those sheets and the cap gun, I think it was just in a hurry, you know, trying to, and didn't notice the dart cap that they found in the dryer. I mean, why would they find Mallory's sheets in the dryer when she was in college. You know, that's a really good point, Tish Leeway, friend of Suzanne Morphew's, because I have certain sheets that I put on Lucy's bed because they match her bedspread that she picked out and certain pillowcases she likes. Same thing

with my son. His are blue. Same thing with my mom because her bed is a different size. So that's a really good point. Why would the adult daughter, Mallory's sheets, nobody else's. It's not like it was a cleaning day for Suzanne Morphew, why would her sheets alone be in the washer-dryer? I haven't heard a single soul bring that up. Yeah. Now, you know what else would be interesting to find out, Tish, is if Mallory's bed, say, was a double or a queen and Suzanne's bed was a king. Right. Hypothetically speaking, I'd be very curious to find that out. But you say it was they were Mallory sheets, right? I'm pretty sure that's what was said. But that's been my theory all along that he as soon as he got home, I think

she passed on Saturday. Yes. When you say that he came home, to whom are you referring? When Barry came home. Did you know that Suzanne Morphew, did you ever get information Suzanne Morphew had gone to a battered women's center for group therapy? I did get information after she had went missing from some people that were going to the same center. So another lady in the group told you she had been going? Yes. Okay. I know the lady.

I'm not going to reveal that here. That's a whole other can of worms. Okay. Let me understand something. To Chris McDonough joining me, who has been on the investigation along with Cheryl and myself. Chris, thank you for being with us. Chris is the director at the Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective, has investigated over 300 homicides, and the host on YouTube of The Interview Room, where I first met him. Chris, thank you for joining us again

with this very disturbing update on Suzanne Morphew's autopsy results. There's so much to glean from the three pages that we have obtained. And hey, one of those pages is just the listing of five different doctors. You don't normally see that, do you, Joe Scott? Five different medical professionals weigh in on this. Usually there's one name scribbled at the bottom. Man, they did it all. Hold on, four pages, four pages. And one is, I noted, five different experts weighing in. But they had to bring in a forensic dentist.

I don't know if that's one of these. They had to bring in a toxicologist because of all the drugs. And I believe I've mastered their names, uh, butorphanol, a zapparine and metatomidine, I think, but I'm just going to refer to it as the animal tranks. So Chris McDonough, could we just, and everybody on the panel, again, we're not having high tea at Windsor Castle with Charles and Camilla. So jump in for Pete's sake. We've got one hour to cover a major event in the law and in criminal justice and to getting justice for Suzanne. That's where this t-shirt says.

And for me, it ain't just a t-shirt. It's not just a slogan. I want it. I want it. Again, Barry Morphew is not a suspect. So Chris McDonough, add it up for me. Well, there's a couple of really interesting things going on here, Nancy. One is the perimortem trauma. There's no indication of that. What that means is there's no indication that the bones, when they're the softest, i.e. you're alive, that there's any trauma to the bones. So that's the first thing. And when the bullet is found, we have to ask ourselves, well, that means we may have to exclude some type of weapon, i.e. a sharp instrument and or even a gun. The second piece here is if this couldn't get any more sinister is we have to look at the fact that she has a medical port still on her body and found in that grave. So for me, as you know, from an investigative position, my first thought was, did he inject directly into that medical port? And what Doc Morgan was talking

about, that would give the type of density necessary to find it, you know, four years later in, you know, the bones themselves. I want to give you a little brief recap of what we've done since we received the call of Suzanne's disappearance on Sunday. Just we've in the area and in the general area we've run foot searches using air support, canine support, swift water support and we've also utilized countless hours of drone searches. We've used well over 200 personnel and over 2,000 man hours have gone into this search. But unfortunately, we haven't found Suzanne yet. And as I stated before, that is our top priority. You were hearing the Chaffee County Sheriff.

Cheryl McCollum, do you remember when we were out there last investigating and there was still snow on the ground and we stood there not too far from where Barry Murphy was then living and just looked around at that terrain covered in snow, covered in ice. And we thought, how in the H-E-double-L are we going to ever find Suzanne? Nancy, for everybody to understand, you take an airplane to Colorado, and then you take a smaller airplane, then you drive several hours. I mean, you're in the middle of the most gorgeous scenery, but you're in the middle of nowhere. And there was so much terrain. There's mountains and

creeks and just this, the snow banks. I know at one point, you know, several people were standing there and on the other side, you couldn't have seen them. I mean, the snow banks were that high. They were almost seven feet. And, you know, there was so much land wide open, not a building on it, not a house anywhere near that you could have in the cover of darkness or in broad daylight could have disposed of her body without being seen. You know what? Let me just stop you right there. How is everybody on this panel so calm? There are way too many coincidences for me. Okay. Number one, he happened. He, Barry Morphew, happens to conjure up an out of town. Let me see the guests, please.

An out of town trip the morning on Mother's Day that Suzanne Morphew goes missing, claiming he last saw her at early, early in the morning asleep in bed. OK, leaving on Mother's Day. His daughters are also gone, right? Thank you, Lauren Scharf. The one time the daughters are away camping. Nobody even knows she's missing until they try to call her on Mother's Day. So she's talking to her boyfriend on the phone. Oh,

which reminds me to Tish Leway. Did you, you're a stylist. Did you do the hair of Barry Morphew's girlfriend? No, but I did meet her in October of 2020 when she came in to start tanning in the salon that I had worked at. Her and actually Macy and Mallory, both, they all came in about a week within each other. It was, yeah, it was very bizarre. They were getting ready to go on that trip

in January to Mexico. Okay, whoa, wait, wait, wait. October 2020, and Suzanne had gone missing May 2020. Is that right? Is that what you said? She went missing May of 2020, but the girlfriend came into the tanning salon to start tanning in October of 2020, which was right about a week to two weeks after Mallory and Macy had started coming into tan again. And they were getting ready to go to Mexico for their annual trip that I guess they went to every year, is my understanding. Did the girlfriend go on the trip? I'm not sure. Um, it was a weird coincidence that she came in right after they started tanning. Um, I had never met her before. I'm concerned about another coincidence.

And that is in six months after Suzanne is still missing, body not found, he's already got a girlfriend. That's a yes, no. Did he already have a girlfriend to your knowledge within six months? She said that, so when I first met her, we had kind of heard this name that was out there. So when she came into the tanning salon, we know exactly who she was. The first couple of times she came in, she didn't really talk much about anything. Well, the let me just cut the chase for you. Was she wearing some of Suzanne's jewelry? Well, yeah, it was seen that it looked like her ring. Don't need to say anything else.

Yeah. OK, that said, as I was saying earlier, how is everybody on the panel so calm with all the coincidences? You have him coming home. She's on the phone with her boyfriend. She says to the boyfriend, oh, my stars, Barry's here. Again, my rare end leaving for a hastily throw together work trip out of town on Mother's Day. He calls back, but when he can't get her on the phone, when the daughters can't find her and has somebody else call 911, she's full of animal trank. And Oh yeah. Right before she went missing, I was shooting an animal trank gun darts and they were actually found in the home and there's a bullet by her bed. How did that get there? The Easter bunny just throws it by your bed. The woman's bones are scattered. She was murdered.

I mean, help me out, people. Am I the only one seeing all these coincidences? Who is that? Jump in for Pete's sake, Chris McDonough. Nancy, I mean, think about it, right? I mean, you're right on target here. I mean, what a coincidence that this guy used to own a deer farm and he used to harvest deer antlers by utilizing the same exact chemicals that are found inside of her body. And to what you said a moment ago, a month before, when he's asked by the FBI, hey, have

you ever used this stuff? He says, oh, yeah, all the time. I'm very proficient in it. To the point where he, you know, tells them even a little bit deeper of how he does it. And that's why it's really interesting. Does he hit her with a dart hypothetically that night, you know, the day she disappeared? And then now that he has that port from her cancer treatments on her body, does he utilize that as a mechanism to go even further with his plot if he's the guy? Right. And so I'm with you on this 100 percent. It is not lining up. I've got more. I've got more. And I welcome everybody on this panel. If you have a thought,

put it out there. Joe Scott Morgan is uncharacteristically quiet right now. But what about this? His cell phone, thank you, Jackie, his cell phone pings where her helmet is found far, far away. Oh, I guess the mountain lion threw it out there where he happened to be looking for what was he looking at? A deer that morning on his hastily thrown together out of town trip. His cell phone pings right there. And let me remind everybody, he's the one, Barry Morphew, who is not a suspect. He is the one at the very beginning. He is the one that says, Hey neighbor, can you go see if her mountain bikes there? Maybe she went for a ride. He might as well have said maybe a mountain lion dragged her off.

He's the one that introduces the whole mountain bike ride theory out there. That's where it came from. I mean, Cheryl McCollum, what do I have to do, hit you over the head? Nancy, I've got more for you. And this is the thing that has bugged me from day one. They released a video where he is walking law enforcement through the home. They say to him, hey, we need some clothing, maybe for tracking dogs or whatever. He opens the door and lets them in. This is the first time he is entering the home since she goes missing.

He ain't looking around for nothing. He's not calling her name. He doesn't say, hey, in case she got hurt on the bike, there was some horrible accident. Maybe she's upstairs. There's a drinking glass on the counter. He doesn't refer to it. He doesn't talk about it. He's not checking anything. Let me tell you something, Nancy Nancy if you were to be missing and I go to your house and I notice the guinea pigs have not had their cage cleaned something happened to you before 630 in the morning the next thing I'm gonna look for is fat boy has he been out is he in his crate still asleep something happened to you and even I can pinpoint, huh?

So this to me was critical if you watch him. Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Maybe she can get that up to the road and then take the cereal over or call the hardware and see what kind of bike she has. Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne?

Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne?

Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Suzanne? Maybe she can get that up to the road and then check the serial number or call the husband and see what kind of bike she has. Somebody check your life. Check your life. Can you try to call the husband and see what type of bike she has. Body cam footage of the deputies actually finding Suzanne Morphew's bike out in the wilderness some distance away. How far away was it, Joe Scott Morgan, that her helmet was found? And it is Barry Morphew, not a suspect, the husband that started

the whole line of investigation into the bike. How far away was her helmet found? Do you recall, Joe Scott? Yeah, we're looking at about a mile, essentially. So when you think about working, and I came at this, Nancy, initially as, yeah, it could be a bicyclist struck by a vehicle. I've worked a lot of those cases over my career. But if that's the case, how does the helmet wind up so far away from this bicycle? And also,

how's the helmet off of the body? These things are meant to protect the head and they're strapped onto the head. So there are big, big questions here. And one point further, I the way a cat attacks is they dig those teeth in and they rip and then they carry off. So you will have evidence of that. The fact that he says this from Jump Street has always been puzzling to me because this is atypical of what a mountain lion would do. Generally, you have to go under an outcropping or something. They always attack from the rear. And there's nothing like this. You're going to tell me that a mountain lion actually scurried up a bank and waited for a bicyclist to come by?

There was no sign of a struggle either or even a crash. I knew that initial reports that it seemed staged, at least what detectives said so like what you were saying there was no blood anywhere anything as far as broken limbs of trees and things like that that wasn't the case in this in this uh bike you know what's interesting about that location to cheryl mccollum you and i stood at the foot of that embankment and we were looking up just the way that picture is and try to imagine how her bike landed there. And we looked and looked and looked. No damage to the bike at all.

The cell phone data in this case will become very, very critical if the case ever goes to trial. Lauren Scharf joining us, former reporter and journalist at Lauren Scharf TV. Lauren, very quickly in a nutshell, the cell phone data is very disturbing. Explain. When he arrived at home, his cell phone pinged around the house pretty sporadically and pretty quickly. His attorneys claim that there's no way he could have gone through the walls like that. But there's also a like a garage

underway where people can walk underneath. What does it tell you, Joe Scott? You know, look, these things are not as exacting as the defense would like to present. And this idea, Lauren just mentioned with him walking through walls and this sort of thing, that's absolutely ludicrous. You've already got this thing narrowed down. You know he's moving through the house and he's doing it quickly. So if they want exactitude here, I don't know what to tell them because you're not going to get much tighter than it is right now. Tish Leeway, Suzanne Morphew's a friend. What do you make of the theory as shown by the cell phone data that she was being chased through the home with the tranq gun? I mean, that's just what I've always believed. When we went to court and saw that data, I always thought

that he came home and that's what she was doing. She was running from him to get away from him. Cheryl McCollum, jump in. The cell phone shows he's running zigzag all over the yard in the house. He claims he was hunting chipmunks. If anybody has ever seen a little chipmunk run, First of all, they're tiny. They dart and then they hide. They have escape routes all the time. He's also running. He must be a hell of a shot. No way that's possible. It's not even logical. Chris McDonough, what about it? Well, you know, it's interesting in the autopsy report, right, and I agree with what Doc and Cheryl and everybody have said here on this panel, that, you know, he's out, you know, allegedly hunting these chipmunks. But here's a problem that he has.

At the dump site where Suzanne is found, there are human and non-human bones. I've asked myself if he has this pre-incident behavior of staging, even as this is an example of that, what did he stage at the dump site and the burial site? And now we see these non-human bones that are mentioned in the autopsy report. And my initial thought process was, and I could be totally wrong here, but he here, but, you know, he's a hunter. And if you're going to bury a human being, and you know that animals are going to come to that grave site at some point, and I've had many sites like others, where they're going to dig up that body. Well, why not place a carcass over the top of that body? And now those animals have a food source.

And at some point, they're going to lose interest in that gravesite. And or if it was discovered by a human, they'll go, oh, well, that's just a carcass over there. That's not a problem. So I think that could be a very interesting piece of this puzzle as it unfolds. Lauren Scharf joining us, investigative journalist on the case. Isn't it true that Barry Morphew, not a suspect, claimed that he had out all of his animal trank paraphernalia and then threw it away right before Suzanne went missing? Yeah. In April of 2021, when he was asked by investigators about the tranquilizer chemicals, he said he typically keeps them on his workbench in the garage,

and that he might have thrown them away during his trip to Broomfield the same weekend that Suzanne disappeared. And going back to Chris McDonough's point about carcasses and things like that, I've heard from a lot of people in town in Moffett and Sewatch County that that area is a dumping ground for such animals like he was describing. I also find it very curious that a 33-year wildlife officer expert, Renzo Del Piccolo, who retired from Colorado Parks and Wildlife, insists that tranquilizers are not used to hunt animals. They're only used by wildlife officials. Hunting with tranquilizers is illegal. Let's stop and remember American hero Captain Benjamin Moulton, just 27, died in a helicopter crash with four other Marines, Feb 7, 2024. He obtained the Sharpshooter Award, the National Defense Service Medal. He graduated second in his class

from the Officer Candidate School in the Navy. He leaves behind dog Buck, sisters Faustine and Maxine, and loving parents Robin and Steve. American hero, Captain Benjamin Moulton. Thank you to our guests, but especially to you for being with us tonight. Nancy Grace signing off. See you tomorrow night, six and nine o'clock sharp Eastern. And until then, good night.