Going West: True Crime - Suzanne Morphew // 323

Episode Date: July 18, 2023

In May of 2020, a Colorado woman went missing after she allegedly left her home alone for a Sunday bike ride. That same day, police discovered her bike abandoned in a local ravine, but suspicions led police to believe that the scene may have been staged. But with text, surveillance, and phone ping evidence, police were led to believe that someone in her life was behind what happened to her. This is the story of Suzanne Morphew. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody. Big thank you to Abby, Haleyaley and Miriam for recommending this case. Or at least those are the ones who recommended it over email. Thank you to anybody else who did it elsewhere. But we really only check our email for recommendation. So if you have a case,

head on over to your email. I always say that head on over. And just shoot as an email. an email. To go west podcast at gmail.com, we have a massive list, but we do try to get to as many of them as we can with our two episodes a week. It's easier and easier. Yeah, and I'm sure that many more of you guys probably did recommend this case, so thank you again. But yeah, this is one of those cases that's really just frustrating. There's so many crazy details, so I literally cannot wait to hear your guys' thoughts on this

case. And we'll direct you where to do that at the end of the show, but for now, let's dive into this one. Alright guys, this is episode 323 of Going West, so let's get into it. Thank you. In May of 2020, a Colorado woman went missing after she allegedly left her home alone for a Sunday bike ride. That same day, police discovered her bike abandoned in a local ravine, but suspicions led police to believe that the scene may have been staged. With text, surveillance, and phone-ping evidence, police felt that someone in her life was behind

what happened to her. This is the story of Suzanne Morphew was born on April 30, 1971 in Alexandria, Indiana to parent Jean Mormon and Adrian Owen, and she also had three siblings, her older sister Melinda and two older brothers Andrew and David. And funny enough Melinda and Suzanne shared the same birthday, but they were 15 years apart. So while Suzanne was growing up, her dad owned and operated a drive-in restaurant called Jeanne's Root Beer and that was in Anderson, Indiana. And while he was running that business, Suzanne's mother was a homemaker and she watched

after the kids and raised them. The family was also a part of the Methodist Church, so faith was very important to Suzanne. When Suzanne was 9 years old, her parents did divorce and at that point her mom took a job as an optometrist, so in this job she fit glasses for patients and she apparently absolutely loved this job. Being that Suzanne was the youngest and her siblings were much older and out of the house already like I kind of touched on before, so in some ways it kind of felt like she wasn't only child. She attended Alexandria Monroe High School in the town of Alexandria, which hosts only about

5,000 people and it's located about 48 miles northeast of Indianapolis. And this is where she would meet her future husband, Barry Morpheu. And he also shared a strong religious background like Suzanne did. In school, Suzanne was known to be very popular and was described as kind and vibrant. While Barry, who was a few grades ahead of her, was a star, athlete, and baseball. And he actually would later be drafted in the 42nd round by the Toronto Blue Jays, but his MLB career was very short lived due to an injury that he sustained. But even though they went to the same school,

they didn't start dating until after Barry graduated. A little more on Susanne, though, one childhood friend of hers said of her quote, "'Suzanne has always been a wonderful person. Growing up, she truly was kind to everyone. She would always be there to lend an ear if you needed it. Quiet, beautiful, always carried herself well.

She reminds me a lot of her mother, and the word I always use to describe Adrienne is classy. Remember Adrienne is Suzanne's mom. But continuing this quote, Suzanne had a beautiful singing voice in a high school. She was in the choir as well as show choir. Those were fun times. When Suzanne graduated high school in 1989, she went on to attend Purdue University where she obtained a degree in elementary education and she graduated in 1994. It also appears that Barry also attended Purdue and obtained a degree in horticulture. Suzanne and Barry had been dating for a few years

by this point, and that same year, they decided to tie the knot on August 5th 1994 when Suzanne was just 23 years old. Just after the couple married, Suzanne was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, but she was able to beat her bout with cancer, which would be the first of a few battles that she would struggle with in her life. According to her sister Melinda, Suzanne, quote, taught for a short period of time, did a little subbing but never made a career out of it. Now, five years later, the couple welcomed their first child into the world, a daughter named Mallory who was born on the 4th of July in 1999. Then a few years later, the couple had their second child, again another daughter named

Macy who was born on August 28, 2003. Everything in the couple's marriage appeared to be normal. Barry launched his own landscaping business in 2004 called BLM Landscaping, while Suzanne stayed at home to raise her two daughters. And basically, you know, everybody thought that this was the picture perfect family. Which just really seems to be a weird trend in stories like this. It usually is, yeah, everything looks really good on the outside, but sometimes there's stuff going on on the inside. Now, according to Melinda, Barry was a caring father and husband, but she also knew that his

traditional values meant that he needed to kind of be like the head of the household. She said, quote, As Suzanne grew in grace, she became less rigid, but still had a strong feeling that a man should be the head of the home. Women like myself and Suzanne mistake control for love. It felt safe to us after having had no one at the helm growing up. We think a man in charge is security and end up with dominant controlling guys. We give up our own identity and trust and do it their way. But despite Barry's appearance as the patriarch of the family, Melinda also said, quote, �Barry was a hunter, a workaholic, and a great provider.

Suzanne and Barry were living in Arcadia, Indiana in 2018, which is about 30 minutes southwest of Alexandria where they grew up. Suzanne was known as a very loving wife and mother and one co-worker of Barry's leader described her as angelic. At this time, it appeared that the couple's marriage had gotten a bit stale and they were kind of looking for a way to like shake things up and keep things together. Their oldest daughter Mallory had recently moved out to Colorado to attend college, so with things seemingly not going as well as they wanted, Barry, Susanna and their youngest daughter, Macy, picked up, left Indiana and moved to

the small town of Selita, Colorado to be closer to Mallory and to use this move as kind of a means to a fresh start. Now, Selita is located 2.5 hours south of, and it's about two hours south west of Colorado Springs. The town hosts a population of around 6,000 people, and it's surrounded by beautiful mountains on every side, with about as much outdoor activity as a person could want or need. Yeah, and I mean, they're coming from a town of about 5,000 people to a town of about 6,000 people, so... Same, same. ...relatively the same, so it was comfortable for them.

Exactly, but with a way different landscape. And it was here that the Morpheus settled into a 1.5 million dollar home on seven acres of land. They settled into the tight-knit community of Salida and Chaffee County and began to solidify themselves in this new community and the local church as well, where Suzanne would often volunteer. Meanwhile, Barry was keeping very busy with his landscaping business as well as becoming a volunteer firefighter, but just before making the move from Indiana to Colorado, Suzanne had found out that her cancer had returned, so this made the move very difficult,

but she just tried to remain as positive as she could, and once again, she beat her second battle, with her last round of treatment taking place on October 1st of 2019. So after that, Susanne honestly just felt like nothing could stop her from living her life to the fullest. On the morning of Sunday, May 10th, 2020, which happened to be Mother's Day of that year, Barry Moore, few claimed that he woke up and he left his house around 5 a.m. for a landscaping job that was located 150 miles north of Salaita in Brunefield, Colorado, which is near Denver. And actually, I lived right there next to Brunefield.

Oh did you? So I know that area pretty well, yeah. Very nice. So he said that he kissed his wife goodbye and he hit the road, also explaining that the night before, on the 9th of May, he and Suzanne had a romantic night and they even made love. Now it was pretty common knowledge that on Sundays, 49-year-old Suzanne would usually take a morning bike ride before she and her family attended church. But on this particular weekend, Mallory and Macy had decided to go on a camping trip in Idaho, but they did plan to be back at some point on Sunday so that they could spend the rest

of the day with Suzanne for Mother's Day. So on Sunday, while on their way back home from their trip, the girls texted their mother saying, quote, Happy Mother's Day, but unfortunately, they did not receive a response from Suzanne. Now, they found this very odd and very unlike their mother. So they tried to get in contact with their father, but he was also not answering his phone. By this time, after numerous attempts to get a hold of Suzanne, the daughters finally contacted a neighbor of theirs named Jean Ritter to see if maybe she could stop by the house and check up on their mom. So when Jean arrived to the property, she noticed that Suzanne's car was in the driveway,

but nobody was answering the door. So Jean, Mallory, and Macy just assumed that Suzanne was probably on a bike ride, but when hours passed and still no one had heard from Suzanne, she was finally reported missing at 5.46 pm by her neighbor. So that just goes to show you the same day. They don't know where she is and they're already like something is so wrong that we're going to report her missing. Exactly.

And because this was a relatively small community, Chafee County search and rescue, as well as the police department, really jumped on the report very quickly. Which is amazing because she was 49 years old, so they really could have come up with any reason in the book as to why they were going to push off searching for her, but they didn't. And over 100 law enforcement personnel joined the search efforts, which even included a group of tracking dogs and drones.

Meanwhile, Barry heard the news that his wife was missing, so he made his way back home from the Denver area, arriving back in Salida at 9 p.m. that Sunday evening. So you know, about three hours after she was reported missing, and obviously he had a bit of a drive ahead of him, so the timing makes sense. But when investigators were able to catch up with Barry, he originally explained that he had been in Denver for a volunteer firefighter training session. But when the fire chief was asked about this training session, he told investigators that there wasn't one scheduled for that day. And in fact, there wasn't going to be one scheduled any time in the near future because this was during the height of COVID.

So obviously, this made police suspicious from the get go. And with that, Barry changed his story, saying that he was actually in Denver to set up for an upcoming landscaping job, claiming that this job would be taking place on the Monday after Suzanne went missing, aka the day after. So, but it's like to say, oh yeah, I was, you know, at a firefighter training session and then, oh, sorry, actually, I was in Denver because I was doing something for landscaping. Like, those are completely different things. Yeah, and obviously police are going to be like, okay, so which one is true, like? And he didn't even change his story until after they had checked with the fire chief

and then came to Barion, we're like, the fire chief said this and then Barion's like, oh yeah, my bad, this is what I was actually doing. Like, dude, it's today, you don't know what you did today. Yeah, literally. You're lying to us. Yeah. So days were passing with no sign of Suzanne.

And please were urging the public to come forward with any information that they had. Even setting up a tip line, which in the early days of the investigation, saw more than 600 tips flood in. On Monday, May 11, 2020, so the day after Suzanne goes missing, Chafee County Police held a press conference

in which they asked for information, but of course with no description of what she was wearing the day after Suzanne goes missing. Chafee County police held a press conference in which they asked for information, but of course with no description of what she was wearing the day that she disappeared because they didn't know. So this made it really difficult for the investigation. And on top of this, no one had actually seen Suzanne riding her bike the day that she disappeared,

but the assumption was there because her bike was in fact missing from the house. Although police never gave a description of the bike that she was allegedly riding in this press conference. But here's the thing, so police had already found Suzanne's dark blue Santa Cruz mountain bike, with blue petals the day before on Sunday when she actually did go missing and they found this bike around 7.30 p.m. Falling over down a steep ravine off of Chaffee County Road 225 from highway 50. So they already knew that

That there was something had happened. Well, yeah, and this is only an hour after she was reported missing So they they jumped on this that quickly and found her bike that quickly. And I think at this point, what they were trying to do, or at least what I believe they were trying to do, is they were trying to keep all the information from the public because it was an investigation and they're trying to keep everything close.

But they already knew that they had found her bike, so they knew that something was wrong. Exactly. So obviously very alarmed by the discovery of Suzanne's bike, they continued to search the area extensively, fanning out in every direction. But with no sign of a struggle in the area, no presence of blood, and no other items of Suzanne's in the vicinity, investigators couldn't help but feel like something was a miss, and that possibly, possibly, the scene had been staged. Before that quick break, Heath was telling us that the police did in fact find Suzanne's bike, which again was a dark blue Santa Cruz mountain bike.

They found this only an hour after she was reported missing. And they were very confused about the scene and also the location of Suzanne's bike because they believe that the scene might have been staged because the way that her bike was just kind of leaning on the ground like that and there was no blood or any evidence around it. It was just kind of like her bike was just there like what could have possibly happened. It was like she was lifted off her bike and just vanished into thin air. Yeah and basically it's also kind of like the positioning of the bike. Like the way that the handlebars were facing, the way that the tires were facing. It just didn't look as if there had been like a bike crash or something. Exactly.

So when police initially questioned Barry at his home on Sunday night, the night she went missing, he told police that he believes Suzanne had possibly been attacked by a mountain lion because there was a lot of wildlife in the area. But police knew that this wasn't the case because, again, there was no blood at the scene of the bike and there was no sign of a struggle. But Barry continued to push this narrative, which obviously investigators found very odd, because Barry was an avid hunter, like I said, and he would know that an animal attack would surely provide some type of evidence.

That night, police had also spoken with one of the daughter's boyfriends. It was either Mallory or Macy Runaasher, who, as well as the boyfriends' father in the morph you driveway. And they explained that Suzanne couldn't have taken that trail that her bike was found on, because quote, gains are really hard. It's out of character for her to do that. It's a crazy climb. The boyfriend was then asked if he believed that the morph used got along with each other,

you know, Barry and Suzanne. And he replied quote, I think they've had some problems in the past. Normal husband and wife type deals. So now, the next step for investigators was to search the morphu home to just look for any evidence that might lead them in the right direction to finding Suzanne. And this is where things became even more strange. Inside Suzanne's car that was parked at her home. Police found Suzanne's sunglasses, her hydration pack, credit cards, and driver's license. And this was part of the reason police became suspicious because to them, Suzanne would have taken her hydration pack and her sunglasses on her bike ride.

Yeah, I mean it makes sense. This is kind of early May, but you know, from what I was reading the temperatures were in the mid 70s, so it was pretty hot, you know, and they just believed that she would have never left her hydration pack or her sunglasses in her car. So now the police felt that they were on to something. They sealed off the more few home, and they wouldn't allow Barry or his daughters in until they were finished with their investigation, which meant that Barry would need a place to stay, which he apparently did with a friend of his. Now police also seized Barry's truck as well as his cell phone at this time.

It was also noted that Suzanne's cell phone was missing, and the last time anyone had actually spoken to her was on Saturday, May 9th, so the day before she went missing. And on that day, she sent a few text messages to a friend about a wedding that had been delayed due to COVID. So had Suzanne actually gone on this bike ride at all? And is it possible that she had been missing since May 9th and not May 10th? It's so frustrating too because obviously,

you know, we know that Mallory is in college, but Macy normally would have been at the house that weekend, at least for part of the weekend, but she was on this trip to Idaho, which she's obviously more than allowed to do, but it just kind of seems like a convenient time for Suzanne to go missing, doesn't it? Like the one weekend that her daughter is out of town and that it's just her and her husband in the house?

Exactly. Nobody else was around. And you know, the only person who claimed to have seen Suzanne on the 10th was Barry. And his stories were not looking all that great to please. So they begin to investigate Barry's whereabouts on May 10th a little deeper, and found out from a coworker, a man named Jeff Puckett, that Berries had actually stayed at a holiday in in Brunefield on the night of May 9th, and he had actually been summoned to the Denver area by Berries to work on this job site. But when Jeff arrived that morning, he claimed that he never actually even met up with Barry, because Barry had told him that he needed to leave due to a, quote, family emergency. Right, so there's still a lot of confusion surrounding Barry's whereabouts on the day

that Suzanne went missing, because here's his coworker saying one thing, and then he told police two different things. So it's like, what did you do that day? Yeah, and it really is confusing because he said, you know, on May 9th, I had a wonderful night with my wife. But now this co-worker is saying, well, he actually stated a holiday in on May 9th. So, when did that happen? So what's the truth? When did that happen? Yeah, you're right, because he had said that they had a romantic evening. And when you said that they even made love, that was on May 9th. So yeah, but as we were so far away and you were, you know, 150 miles away at a holiday

end. Yeah, and the thing is, is that the more we get into these details, you're going to find out why this is complete bullshit because, well, I don't really want to spoil the situation right now, but we'll just carry on. So Jeff, again, the coworker, he then relayed to authorities that when he got to the holiday in on the night of May 10th, Barry's room smelled like chlorine real bad. He added, quote, his mail was in there and I gave it to the FBI. I thought it was kind of odd to have it there.

Some of it was from an insurance company like ensuring your property, that kind of thing. When police asked the hotel staff about the chlorine smell, they said that they do not use chlorine to clean the rooms. Barry later tried to explain this away by saying that, you know, it must have come from the pool downstairs, but that couldn't be true because the pool was closed due to COVID. When Jeff found out that Barry's wife had gone missing, he said about the hotel room,

quote, it's kind of weird. My first thought was that this must be like an alibi. That's what it felt like. And the more detectives dug, the weirder things got. Okay, so they were able to retrieve security camera footage from different businesses surrounding Brumfield, and the different footage showed Barry on the morning of May 10th, doing things like throwing away trash in dumpsters near a bus stop at his hotel, throwing things away at McDonald's, and then also throwing

away trash at a men's warehouse. So he's like dumping trash in dumpsters across the area. Exactly. Like, why would you need to throw away trash in that many places? Only if you're trying to get rid of evidence, right? But Barry maintained that he had nothing to do with his wife's disappearance and he even offered up a $100,000 reward for information, and his friend matched this making the total $200K.

He also made a public plea for Suzanne's safe return stating quote, 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'll do whatever it takes to get you back. Honey, I love you, I want you back so bad. This is a man who, days earlier, was extremely confident that his wife, sorry, had been taken by mountain lions. Yeah, and even went so far as to push that narrative forward, you know, saying

that she might have got dragged into a cougar dend and that she probably got torn apart by a mountain lion like, what? It's interesting to me because you would feel like if there was no evidence of that as the husband, you would want police to look into every avenue and not just feel confident about something that no evidence is pointing to being true. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It just seemed kind of like he was coming up with scenarios that might have happened to her, but really pushing this one. But then now he's like, whoever has taken you, I'll do anything. It's like, that is like that is a total 180. Well, let's talk a little bit more about what other evidence police found. So a few days after Suzanne vanished and her bike was found, investigators located her Aqua Blue colored helmet, a mile from where they found her bike on the side of Highway

50, as if someone had like tossed it out of the window of a moving car. On May 17th, dive teams scoured the local waterways, but were unable to find anything related to Suzanne's case. But back at the more few home, investigators found some alarming pieces of evidence that painted an entirely different story of what most believed was a picture perfect marriage. On May 20th, investigators found what they believed to be a spy pen in a walk-in closet of the Morpheus Master Bedroom. What is a spy pen? So I'm going to get into it.

It's kind of crazy. So basically, they found this pen that can record conversations and it's supposed to be like a secret recorder. Yes, it's crazy. That's crazy. So please get one of those from one of those magazines. Exactly. Yeah, it's like a bond type thing, like a James Bond type spy pen. So please then learned that Suzanne had purchased this pen, which secretly recorded conversations, hoping that she could possibly catch Barry and a hit in a fair. But when they checked the recordings,

they were shocked to find that the pen actually recorded conversations between Suzanne and a secret lover named Jeff. Different Jeff, not the coworker, just a totally different guy, two Jeffs. So even though Suzanne's cell phone was missing, police were able to obtain the records that showed evidence of a failing marriage and a secret love affair.

On May 9th, which again is the day before she disappeared, Suzanne and her lover messaged each other a total of 59 times and she even sent this Jeff person a selfie that she took, which investigators have noted as the last known photo of Suzanne. On this same day, Barry sent a text to Suzanne at 2.26 p.m. saying, quote, did you leave? And this text was never responded to. But get this.

When police checked Barry's phone, they found a deleted text from a few days prior to the disappearance that was sent to Barry from Suzanne saying quote I'm done. I could care less about what you're up to and have been for years We just need to figure this out civilly. So why is he deleting this text message? Yeah, it seems like he's trying to hide that they were having marriage problems and that Suzanne is telling him that She's essentially done with this marriage she wants out of it and she wants to just settle it.

It's only gonna get worse from here. So on the spy pen, police found a slew of conversations where Susanne told her lover, quote, ''Your heart, that's what I crave. I love how you love me. You're the sweetest thing I've ever known.'' But police needed to know one thing. Who the hell is Jeff? Well, it would take another six months of digging before detectives could find the identity of this mysterious lover named Jeff. And when they did, the name that came up was a man named Jeff Laiber, who was a husband and father of six living in Michigan.

But apparently, this romance wasn't something new because Jeff, like Barry and Suzanne, had also attended Alexandria Monroe High School at the same time. And Suzanne had even hooked up with Jeff at a party back in 1989, that Barry had not attended. Yeah, so essentially way back in 1989, at this party, Suzanne had cheated on Barry and hooked up with Jeff and she just never told, apparently never told Barry that that had happened because Barry wasn't at that party. And just a clarification,

this would have been the same year that they started dating. So maybe they weren't super serious yet. Maybe it was in the very beginning of their relationship or right before it. Like, that's kind of unclear to us, but it does appear that at some point in the past, Jeff Leibler and Suzanne had something going on between the two of them, whether they were, you know, friends with benefits or whether they had just hooked up one time or whatnot, it really seems like they cared a lot for each other.

Yeah, and then they went their separate ways. They both got married and had kids with different people. And now they're starting to rekindle, particularly at this time that Suzanne's marriage is not going well anyway. And she clearly very much wants out of it. Yeah, I just think it's so crazy that after so many years, I mean this was 1989 to, you know, 2020 that something was going on. Yeah, crazy. I mean, 30 years later. Yeah, and police also discovered that Suzanne and Jeff had sent each other nude photos in December of 2019,

and they even planned to move to Ecuador together after Suzanne eventually left Barry. Police also found that Suzanne and Jeff had met on at least six different occasions, including in New Orleans, Michigan, Texas, and Indiana, without Barry's knowledge. Texas and Indiana without Barry's knowledge. On May 8th, 2020, Jeff even texted Suzanne saying, quote, you need to be my wife, and she texted back, we need to be husband and wife. Texts show that Suzanne planned to meet with Jeff in August writing, quote, I'm thinking August and being wrapped up with each other, where we both belong. Nobody loves you like the way I do. I crave time with you. Being August and being wrapped up with each other, where we both belong, nobody loves

you like the way I do. I crave time with you, I crave the feeling I get when we connect. Physically or emotionally, you're my guy. Always. So police finally came in knocking on Jeff's door in Michigan in November of 2020, and they asked why he hadn't come forward when he knew that Suzanne had gone missing. And I guess to this, his response was that he didn't want Suzanne's legacy to be that she was having an affair with that guy.

And also because he was a married man and he had his own family. So police inevitably questioned whether or not Jeff could have been involved in Suzanne's disappearance, but they quickly discovered that he had an airtight alibi and he was actually in Michigan during that period of time. So, you know, he was ruled out as a person of interest. But was all of this like a motive for murder? Right, I mean, with Suzanne texting Barry that, she was done and she wanted to end it in a civil way. And then at the same

time she's sending pictures of herself and texting this other man and maybe Barry didn't want it to end, right? Or he at least didn't want it to end in that way. And it's possible that at some point in May, he might have found out about Suzanne's love affair. Well, and as we know, as, I don't know, like Barry has that very like controlling, like, I'm the man at a house thing. Oh, yeah. You do as I say, kind of thing. And this would not bode well, you know, with that personality. Absolutely.

And I think even Suzanne had mentioned at one point that she really like couldn't get a divorce for quote biblical reasons, so I know that faith was really important to both of them, but it seemed like she just really wanted out. Yeah, and I will say obviously anybody finding out that they're spouse of many, many years, the mother or father of their child is cheating on them would be devastating for anybody but so when I said you know that he's like the man of the house that kind of thing it's like that would devastate anybody but just knowing his type of personality based on what everybody else is saying I could see him

like snapping. Yeah he seems like a very stern guy you know and probably pretty controlling. Exactly. And that's what people said about him, right? So after finding out that Suzanne had been having an affair, a friend of Suzanne's name Sheila came forward to police and revealed that in the months leading up to her disappearance, Suzanne had spoken with her numerous times about how bad the relationship had gotten with Barry, so she provided

the police with text to prove this. In one text to Sheila, Suzanne stated, quote, I feel no peace when he's here. I would not feel safe alone with him." Suzanne was also adamant that Barry did not want to divorce, saying quote, he won't speak of divorce, begging for another chance. I'm so torn, but in my heart I know who he is." She also added QUOTE, he also asked me if I was talking to anyone about our marriage, like friends. And to this, Sheila responded QUOTE, make sure he doesn't see your phone. Suzanne Sister stated that she had mentioned the

abusive, manipulative, and controlling behavior that she was suffering many times. And Suzanne stated that Barry was trying to turn their two daughters against her and that they knew about their parents deteriorating marriage. So yeah, apparently Mallory and Macy kind of knew, at least to some degree, what was going on. Well, the situation got even more complicated when witnesses came forward saying that Barry had been seen

around town on two different occasions back in February of 2019 with another woman. One of which occasions he had been having dinner, but we're unsure if this has been officially confirmed or not. But we also have to remember that text that I read before when Suzanne had said, I'm done. I could care less what you've been up to for years. But there's also other texts that indicate that Suzanne

may have known that Barry was having in a fair. For example, she also texted him, quote, oh, I'm sure your mistress has you all happy now, so you can say you love me, but bully me when you're with me. Yeah, that's love. I went through a period of acceptance and I feel more angry now. Anger at what I've allowed. So it kinda seems like Barry was cheating possibly even before she was.

She's thinking I want out of this marriage but he won't even talk to me about divorce. I'm rekindling with Jeff and this man makes me happy and treats me well, and you don't. Well, and here's the other thing. You know, the fact that she said, I'm torn, and you know, he's begging for me to take him back. It kind of feels to me like, maybe he fucked up first, and then she just decided, well, fuck it.

I guess I'm just gonna go talk to Jeff for whatever. And, but, I mean, obviously, this is just my opinion, but I really don't know. But it's possible. Absolutely. But it really just did seem like, you know, the more police searched, the more damning evidence that they found against Barry. During another search of the more few home, detectives found what appeared to be a clear plastic needle cap found inside

the family's dryer. Police believe that this cap belonged to a tranquilizer dark, but they were unable to find a dark or a tranquilizer gun inside the more few home. But when asked about the possible connection, Barry said quote, the first thing I thought of when I came here and saw deer in my yard with big horns, I'm like, I'm getting them horns. And I'll tell you exactly what I did. I shoot them, they go to sleep, I cut their horns off, it's totally illegal, but you're gonna find trinked arts around my property because I've done that. That piece of shit, that's such a fucked up thing to do.

I know, like, such an asshole, right? Like, you're just gonna like, Deer in your yard just so you can take their horns off like I'm you to late them and then like oh my god horrible Well, and I guess kind of speaks to his character a bit, huh totally So then detectives found that Barry's phone had pinged all over his property on May 9th Which he explained ways saying that he had been running around the property shooting chipmunks because they had become a nuisance to him. God, he just think he runs the world. Yeah, and it's like police are like, wait, your phone is pinging literally and so many different areas of your own property like right cuz I'm chasing chipmunks, right? Yeah. Barry also told investigators that he went to bed around 8 p.m. on Saturday, May 9th. But the computer in his truck shows that this is not true.

And saved data showed that his truck actually did back up to the front of the house at 9.30 p.m. that night, and also that his truck doors opened at 3.30 a.m. on May 10th. Don't you love modern tech? I absolutely do and on top of all of this Barry's cell phone record show that his phone had pinged in the location of Suzanne's bike and that ravine at 351 a.m. on May 10th and then the computer show that there was no activity between 4 a.m and 8 a.m But police believe that that specific information was automatically overwritten at some point,

so they're really not concerned, or at least it's unfortunate that they don't have that information from the truck between 4 and 8. But still, a huge, huge information to have that his phone pinged in the area of her bike in the middle of the night. Like as if that was when he planted it there. That's huge.

Or allegedly. Oh, allegedly. Planted it there, yeah. Of course, of course. So on May 12th, two days after Suzanne went missing, Barry strangely handed a note to the manager of a local store that said, baby blue bike helmet, bikeers clothing.

And this was his way of asking the manager to keep an eye out for his wife. But like, it's such a weird way to do it. Like handing him a note? I don't get it. Well, in an interview with the manager, the manager said, quote, He could have written down a description of what she was wearing. I thought it was weird because he didn't explain what color her eyes were, the color of her hair, how tall she was, anything.

Around this same time, Detective noticed a large vertical crack on the doorframe of the master bedroom in the Morphe home that the previous owner stated was not there while he owned the property. But Barry said that he had no idea what that could have been from. So with all the information that investigators had to go on, they came up with a scenario that they believed was the most likely. They surmised that Barry had returned home on May 9th,

went into his garage to retrieve a tranquilizer gun that he was apparently experienced in shooting, injected a dart with sedating chemicals and shot Suzanne. They believe that the phone pings that showed him all over the property could have been buried chasing Suzanne after she had been shot and was trying to get away. They also think that the crack in the door frame

could have occurred during an altercation. Maybe while Barry was trying to subdue Suzanne. But again, this is obviously, it's just a theory, it's not been proven by the police, but it kind of seems like this is very much what could have happened. Yeah, and this is what they believe. And also, this is another big one.

Scratch marks were found on Barry's arm three days after Suzanne went missing. So this also raised alarms to investigators. And it's not like they appeared three days later, it's investigators noticed them three days later. Exactly. So in September of 2020, Suzanne's brother Andrew decided to put his own search together that consisted of about a hundred volunteers.

He also enlisted the help of a criminal behavior and intelligence team called profiling evil who can sult on high profile homicide investigations. Andrew said of the efforts to find his sister quote, we just can't get any closure on this thing. The investigators don't let loose a very much information. They protect a lot of it for investigative purposes, and that's been rough. He added quote, we're not going to quit looking until we find my little sister.

If I have to put on the largest manhunt ever known to man, I'll do it. Obviously during this time rumors were swirling like crazy with some supporting the innocence of Barry Morphew and others who believe he is truly responsible for his wife's disappearance. Andrew said in an interview quote, Please Barry, if you could see this, I would really love it if you would take the time

to revisit the authorities and go over everything once again. Take voice analysis in a lie detector test and clear yourself. Put my mind at ease and everybody out there's mind at ease if you want to shut the rumors down. That's the way you do it. You need to find your wife. That should be your only goal is to find your wife and whatever you're asked to do by the authorities is what you should do. If you're not guilty, step up to the plate. But instead of doing this, Barry was busy trying to get legal control over any property that the couple owned together so that he could sell them off, and this included the more few home and another property that they owned in Salida.

The legal documents would ensure that Barry had the right to sell the family home without the consent of Suzanne or her being present. So the home was listed in October of 2020 for $1.6 million, and then it sold a few months later in March of 2021. Then on May 5, 2021, nearly one year after Suzanne had gone missing, Barry Morphe was finally arrested near his home in Selida and taken into custody without incident. Over 135 search warrants across Colorado were issued and police had

interviewed more than 400 individuals in multiple states. The team had also investigated more than 1400 tips altogether before making their arrest. Barry's bail was set to $500,000, and he was charged with murder after deliberation, tampering with physical evidence, and attempting to influence a public servant. His trial was set for April 28th of 2022, but in a shocking turn of events,

just 10 days before the trial was set to commence. The prosecution filed a motion to dismiss without prejudice, meaning that all the charges brought against Barry would be dropped. But here's the reason why the prosecution decided to do this. So they believe that they knew the location of Suzanne's body. But they couldn't investigate quite yet, stating, quote, throughout the pendency of this case, the people and law enforcement have been unrelenting in our search for Miss Morpheu. For some time, a single location has been the target of ongoing investigation.

For the reasons expressed below, the people have a good faith reason to believe further investigation into this matter is essential to answering the most consequential question presented by this case. As this search cannot be accomplished in the coming weeks due to weather and snowpack conditions, the people respectfully ask this court to dismiss the current indictment

against the defendant without prejudice. So what exactly does this mean? Well, under Colorado's law, dismissing without prejudice means that although the case is dismissed for now, it could be refiled down the road. And I also believe the reason why investigators did this was because that they knew that if they could find Suzanne's body, they would have a much better shot at conviction.

So on April 19th of 2022, Barry, alongside his two daughters who both actually believe in his innocence, left the courthouse together. That's very interesting to me. Yeah, and I kind of wonder why they feel like he's innocent, just given all the details, and I understand, this is your dad, you never wanna believe

that your parent could be involved in killing your other parent, but maybe that's why. Yeah, and that's kind of what I'm feeling is is going on here. So the ankle monitor that Barry had been wearing while he was out on bond was removed and his passport was given back to him. Suzanne Sibling support this ruling, but for much different reasons, of course. David Mormons said, quote, I'm sure we'll be back in this courtroom in the future, and I look forward to it.

In another strange turn of events to this already baffling case, in July of 2022, Barry was charged for yet another crime, casting a ballot for his missing wife. And this is over two years after she went missing, but the crime occurred beforehand. Sorry, just keep explaining. Yeah, you got it. So he pled guilty to casting Suzan's mail-in ballot in the 2020 presidential election for Donald Trump. Stating, quote, I just thought, give him another vote. I figured all these other guys are cheating, but instead of serving time for this offense, Barry was sentenced to one year of supervised probation. It's just so weird because that would have been

months and months after she went missing, and obviously that's a very illegal thing to do. So to just do that, that's just crazy to me. Well, I guess he claimed that he didn't really realize that it was a crime to do that. Supposedly, that's what he said. Just, that's so weird. So as of July 2023, when this episode is coming out, detectives and the FBI are still searching for Suzanne's remains.

The prosecutor working the case, Marklbert said, quote, she is in a very difficult spot. We actually have more than just a feeling. And the Sheriff's Office is continuing to look for Mrs. Morpheus' body. In May of 2023, Barry filed a $15 million federal civil rights lawsuit against prosecutors and law enforcement officials stating that he was wrongfully arrested, jailed and prosecuted. And this just seems to be an ongoing lawsuit. Suzanne's sister Melinda wanted to make one thing clear to her two nieces, saying, quote, life for you girls. She would never leave you. She would never forsake you. She loved you with her

whole being. If you have any information regarding the disappearance of Suzanne Morpheu, please contact the FBI tip line at 719-312-7530 or you can contact the Chafee County Sheriff's Department at 719-539-2596. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all-new case for you guys to dive into. Obviously, this case is still developing right now and hopefully they do find Suzanne's remains very, very soon, especially because they've been looking in this one particular area for around a year. So hopefully answers will come soon and that will help really figure out what happened to her. I mean the last update that I saw about this case was basically just talking about how and this was from like early

July so like July 2nd or something about how they're you know they're still looking in this one one particular spot but that's really all the updates we have right now but I'm sure that there are going to be more coming out in the months to come. So we'll try to keep you guys tuned on that. Yes, and the best place that we, we really do post all of our updates on our socials, Instagram, at going West Podcast, Twitter, at going West Pod, and we're also on Facebook. So if you guys want to join those, join the conversation about this case and see any updates to come unless there is such a major update that we could discuss it in a 40-minute podcast episode,

you know, which, you know, is always great when that happens. It might happen. Yeah, it might happen. So, we'll see, but stay tuned. Thank you guys so much for listening to this one, and we'll see you again on Friday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. Thank you. you