DENVER — The husband of a lady who disappeared on Mom’s Day 2020 is about to seem in court docket in Colorado on Tuesday for the primary time since being charged once more with homicide in her loss of life.
Barry Morphew was arrested June 20 in Arizona after being newly indicted within the loss of life of Suzanne Morphew, three years after the preliminary case towards him was dropped due to prosecutorial points with proof.
Authorities introduced Monday that he had arrived on the jail within the small southern Colorado metropolis of Alamosa, not removed from the place Suzanne Morphew’s skeletal stays had been discovered off a dust highway in September 2023.
Her stays had been found by accident as authorities had been trying to find one other lacking girl a 12 months after prosecutors dropped their preliminary prosecution of Morphew.
A 2024 post-mortem report stated Suzanne Morphew died of “unspecified means” however dominated her loss of life a murder. Whereas her stays confirmed no indicators of trauma, investigators present in her bone marrow a drug cocktail used to tranquilize wildlife that her husband had a prescription for, in line with the indictment.
Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence since his spouse disappeared.
Two attorneys listed in court docket paperwork as representing Morphew at Tuesday’s listening to, David Beller and Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, didn’t instantly return phone or e mail messages looking for remark. Beller has beforehand criticized prosecutors for permitting “their predetermined conclusion to guide their seek for proof.”
The thriller surrounding Suzanne Morphew started when the 49-year-old mom of two daughters, who lived close to the small mountain group of Salida, Colorado, was reported lacking on Mom’s Day 2020.
Her mountain bike and helmet had been present in separate spots not removed from her dwelling, however investigators suspected the bike was purposefully thrown right into a ravine as a result of there have been no indications of a crash. Per week after his spouse went lacking, Barry Morphew posted a video on Fb pleading for her protected return and the case shortly drew consideration.
In Could 2021, prosecutors charged him with homicide. They subsequently dropped the case in 2022 simply as Morphew was about to face trial.
A choose had barred prosecutors from calling key witnesses after the attorneys repeatedly didn’t comply with guidelines for turning over proof in Morphew’s favor.
The most recent case is being prosecuted by a distinct prosecutor in a separate judicial district the place Suzanne Morphew’s stays had been discovered, a rural space about 40 miles south of the Morphews’ dwelling.
Investigators discovered on the web site a port by way of which Suzanne Morphew may obtain drugs to deal with follicular lymphoma, a kind of blood most cancers that she had. In addition they discovered biking garments much like what she was identified to put on.
Primarily based on the situation of the stays and garments, a forensic anthropologist theorized that the physique doubtless decomposed elsewhere earlier than being moved to the positioning, in line with Morphew’s new indictment.
