Latest / Deadly Divas True Crime Podcast / Episode 27: Barry Morphew

Transcript

Episode 27: Barry Morphew · Deadly Divas True Crime Podcast

0:20
SPEAKER_00: Hello, all you True Crime Divas and Dudes.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm Tina, and thank you for joining us for this week's episode of your favorite true crime podcast, Deadly Divas.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: And I'm Sarah.
0:31
SPEAKER_01: If you're new here, welcome.
0:33
SPEAKER_01: If you're a returning listener, we're glad to have you back.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: And today we're covering a case that is genuinely so bizarre and frustrating.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just letting y'all know up front that this case completely infuriates me.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: So be ready for me to crash out a lot.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: A woman disappears on Mother's Day weekend after supposedly going on a solo bike ride, but investigators quickly start uncovering some pretty damning evidence against her husband.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Things like conflicting GPS data, a tranquilizer gun, multiple dumpster trips, and witness intimidation.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: That's right, guys.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: This case has it all even chipmunks.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Even chipmunks.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And today we are diving into the disappearance and death of Suzanne Morphew and the investigation into her husband, Barry Morphew.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So let's get started.
1:26
SPEAKER_01: I almost feel like he should be a Peterson.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: Right.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: He would fit right in with the Peterson Trifecta.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: So it's Mother's Day weekend, May 2020.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: The mountains outside Salida, Colorado were still cold at night.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: The kind of cold that settles into the trees and makes even silence feel heavy.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: By Sunday evening, panic was beginning to spread through the small community of Maysville.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: A woman was missing.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: Her bicycle had been found abandoned down an embankment near Highway 50.
1:58
SPEAKER_00: Her helmet would later be found separately.
2:01
SPEAKER_00: And almost immediately, the story started unraveling in strange directions.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: Because this wasn't just a missing person's case.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: This became a forensic maze involving secret affairs, tranquilizer chemicals, suspicious digital evidence, chlorine smells, discarded boots, witness intimidation, conflicting timelines, and a marriage that investigators believe was quietly imploding behind the scenes.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And at the center of it all was Suzanne Morphew, a woman who had survived cancer multiple times, a mother, a wife, a woman who, according to prosecutors, had finally decided she wanted out of her abusive and controlling marriage just days before she disappeared forever.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: But before we go into the investigation itself, we need to understand Suzanne and Barry's relationship.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne and Barry met when they were young in Indiana.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: People who knew them described them as the all-American couple.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne was bubbly, social, warm, and family-oriented.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: Barry was athletic, hardworking, outdoorsy, and ambitious.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: And they built a life together over those decades.
3:25
SPEAKER_00: They eventually had two daughters, Mallory and Macy, who became the absolute center of Suzanne's world.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Cute names, Mallory and Macy.
3:34
SPEAKER_00: I thought that too.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: Very cute.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: Now, Barry worked as a landscaper and an excavation contractor, and by most accounts, he was financially successful.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: Before moving to Colorado, Barry and Suzanne had owned a large deer farm in Indiana, and after relocating, Barry continued running his landscaping business while the family lived in a spacious million-dollar home near Salida.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Friends and investigators alike described the Morpheus as living a comfortable, affluent lifestyle, complete with expensive property, vacations, luxury vehicles, and the kind of image that from the outside appeared picture perfect.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: But then came the cancer.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne battled cancer more than once throughout her life.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: And that became a huge part of how people viewed her publicly because she was seen as resilient, tough, the kind of woman who just kept surviving things.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: Friends said that she fought incredibly hard to stay alive for her daughters.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: And from the outside, the Morphews looked like they had survived and come out stronger.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: But investigators would later uncover something very different behind closed doors.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Because according to Suzanne's messages, the marriage had become deeply unhappy long before she disappeared.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: And not just unhappy in the ordinary sense, controlled, emotionally exhausting, and at times even frightening.
5:09
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne reportedly confided in friends and family that Barry had a temper and could become intimidating.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: One of the most important things investigators discovered was that Suzanne had started documenting things privately, including using what's often referred to as a spy pen.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: Yes, a literal recording pen.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: Sounds like mission impossible.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: Right?
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne allegedly used it to secretly record interactions and conversations with Barry.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: And psychologically, that says a lot.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: People don't secretly record their spouse because things are healthy and stable.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: They do it because they feel that they need protection, because they fear gaslighting, manipulation, escalation, abuse, and then inevitably denial over all of that later.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And according to investigators, Suzanne was quietly preparing herself for a future without Barry.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Then investigators uncovered something else.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne was having an affair and not just a casual fling.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: She had reconnected with an old boyfriend from high school named Jeff Libler.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: The two had begun communicating extensively.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: Their conversations reportedly became deeply emotional and romantic.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne talked about wanting happiness again.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: She wanted peace and freedom.
6:42
SPEAKER_00: And according to investigators, this relationship became critically important because it showed Suzanne wasn't simply fantasizing about leaving.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: She was actively building another life emotionally.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: At the same time, her text to friends and family painted a picture of a woman reaching an emotional breaking point.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: She texted her sister about Barry's behavior and her unhappiness.
7:07
SPEAKER_00: She also texted her best friend about problems in the marriage.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: And then came what would become one of the most significant texts in the entire case.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: Just days before her disappearance, Suzanne texted Barry, I'm done.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: I could care less what you're up to and have been for years.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: We just need to figure out how to do this civilly.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: And that text completely destroyed the image Barry later tried to present of a happy marriage.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Because according to prosecutors, Suzanne was preparing to leave him, and they believe Barry knew it.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: That changes the motive dramatically.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: This was not a thriving marriage interrupted by tragedy.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Investigators believe this was a collapsing marriage reaching its breaking point.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: So now let's move into the final weekend.
8:01
SPEAKER_00: Saturday, March 9th, 2020, Mother's Day weekend.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne and Barry's daughters were out of town on a camping trip.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: And prosecutors believe that timing matters enormously because it meant Suzanne and Barry were alone together at the house.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Investigators later determined Suzanne's last confirmed proof of life occurred that afternoon when she sent a selfie to Jeff Libler.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: She appeared in that photo, relaxed and normal.
8:33
SPEAKER_00: But according to prosecutors, behind the scenes, tensions inside the home may have already been escalating.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Investigators believe Suzanne was killed sometime later that evening or during the overnight hours before sunrise on Mother's Day.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: And this is where the digital evidence becomes extremely important.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: Because Barry's truck telemetry and cell phone data reportedly began showing strange activity during those early morning hours.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, telemetry is just a fancy term to describe a vehicle's data, like its GPS location, the speed, and stuff like that.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And as it turns out, a whole lot of data in your car is recorded.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And his truck doors opened and closed repeatedly, like more than would be reasonable just to get it in and out of car.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: And there were unexplained movements around the property.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: Vehicle activity during hours, investigators considered unusual.
9:35
SPEAKER_00: And at one point, Barry's phone allegedly went into airplane mode during a critical stretch of time.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: Prosecutors argued the data looked less like a normal work morning and more like someone staging, moving, cleaning, or disposing of items.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: Suzanne's phone activity, meanwhile, suddenly stopped altogether.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: No messages, no calls, no communication with Jeff, nothing.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And investigators found that extremely suspicious because Suzanne was known to communicate constantly with people she loved.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: Then there were the physical details inside the house.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: Investigators reportedly found a crack in the master bedroom door frame.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: Not a small crack, a huge one indicating extreme force or some kind of struggle.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: Nearby, they also found an unspent 22 caliber bullet.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: Those details are eerie because they don't necessarily prove homicide by themselves, but they contribute to a larger picture investigators found troubling.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And then there was Barry himself.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: Investigators reportedly observed various scratches and abrasions on Barry's body that some interpreted as possible defensive wounds.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: Barry reportedly explained those as work-related, but prosecutors viewed the timing suspiciously, especially because there was so little obvious evidence of a violent struggle elsewhere.
11:14
SPEAKER_00: And that becomes important later once we get to the tranquilizer evidence.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: Barry's official explanation for leaving the house that morning centered around work.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: He claimed that he was heading to Broomfield, Colorado for an emergency retaining wall landscaping project.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, I'm not in construction.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't know anything about it.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: But really?
11:40
SPEAKER_00: Really, truly.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: But like an emergency retaining wall project?
11:47
SPEAKER_00: Like, are those even emergency situations?
11:49
SPEAKER_01: Like Well, a retaining wall can be to stop a flood.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: So in that in the case of a flood, it could be an emergency.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: So if there was a flood, I guess it would make sense, but I I have not seen any reports that there was actually a flood.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: So I think that that was kind of a few.
12:03
SPEAKER_01: That's the only way that I would like couple those two things together, emergency and retaining wall, would be if there was a flood that needed to be stopped immediately.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I don't think that was the case, um, especially with all the other evidence, because according to investigators, almost nothing about that job made any sense.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: And Barry's co-workers later contradicted parts of Barry's story.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: One of the key witnesses was a woman named Morgan, and she was a worker connected to Barry's landscaping crew.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: Morgan reportedly told investigators the work site was not even prepared for the work that they were there to do.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Some workers questioned why they were even there on Mother's Day.
12:50
SPEAKER_01: Good point.
12:51
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Others reportedly said that the tools Barry brought did not even align with what the job actually required.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps most damaging of all, Barry allegedly claimed he was working at the site all day.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: But investigators later determined he may have only actually been physically present there for about 29 minutes.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: 29 minutes.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: That's a full day's work.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Why do I sign up?
13:19
SPEAKER_00: Right?
13:20
SPEAKER_00: That's a far cry from the roughly nine hours that Barry claimed to have been there.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: And for prosecutors, that didn't automatically prove anything on its own, but it did something important.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: It created gaps, gaps in the timeline, gaps in the alibi.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: And in a case built heavily on reconstructing missing hours, those inconsistencies became a key point of scrutiny as investigators worked to piece together what really happened that Mother's Day.
13:51
SPEAKER_00: Investigators increasingly believed the Broomfield trip functioned as an alibi, a distancing maneuver, and potentially a disposal operation.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: And once Barry arrived in Broomfield, investigators say his behavior became even stranger.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: Now we move on to the hotel room.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: This is one of the most infamous details in the case.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: In Broomfield, Barry checked into a Holiday Inn Express.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And according to reports later discussed publicly, multiple suspicious details emerged about the room.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Barry's coworkers and hotel staff allegedly noticed a very strong smell of chlorine, not something you get just a faint whiff of.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: It was a strong, unmistakable odor.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: Strong enough that people remembered it clearly.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: And one person even said it burned their nose.
14:46
SPEAKER_00: There were also reportedly soaking wet towels throughout the room.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: And here's where it gets even stranger.
14:53
SPEAKER_00: The hotel pool was closed during this time because of COVID.
14:57
SPEAKER_01: And my mind immediately went to pool with wet towels and chlorine.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, now I know why he was building a retaining wall.
15:03
SPEAKER_01: He was building a pool.
15:05
SPEAKER_01: Right.
15:06
SPEAKER_01: That's why he needed the chlorine.
15:07
SPEAKER_01: I kind of all figured out.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: But so yeah, there was no obvious innocent explanation involving swimming.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: And even more suspiciously, hotel staff reportedly stated that they did not use any chlorine or bleach-based cleaning products in housekeeping, meaning they had no clear explanation for where such a strong chlorine odor would have originated.
15:31
SPEAKER_00: Investigators became extremely interested in this because chlorine and bleach obviously are commonly associated with attempts to destroy biological evidence.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: And some reports later suggested the Morphew home itself also carried a chlorine smell when investigators entered.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, none of this proves murder by itself, but viewed collectively alongside the timeline, prosecutors believed it pointed toward cleanup activity.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Mary's co-workers also later described his hotel room in a way that did not quite line up with his claim that he had slept there.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: They reportedly said the bed did not appear to have been used, and nothing in the room looked lived in the way you'd expect it after an overnight stay.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they noted that strong fluorine-like smell and an unusual number of wet towels scattered around the room.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: Taken together, those details created an unsettling impression for investigators, even if they weren't definitive on their own.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Like if he hadn't actually slept there, it raised new questions about how the night was spent.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: If he didn't sleep there, what was he doing?
16:45
SPEAKER_00: Was he using chlorine bleach?
16:48
SPEAKER_00: And what for?
16:49
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've stayed in many hotels in my life, and I've never traveled with bleach, but also I'm not a murderer.
16:56
SPEAKER_01: So he was just cleaning the room for them.
16:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you're going to use the towels, and that's why it looked like it had never been slept in.
17:04
SPEAKER_01: Unlike when we jick out of a hotel.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Right, because that's such a man thing to do.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: He was definitely in there cleaning.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, as if that wasn't sus enough, then came the trash runs.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Barry reportedly made multiple separate dumpster stops throughout Broomfield.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: Not one dumpster, multiple dumpsters scattered across different locations.
17:30
SPEAKER_00: Investigators believed this looked intentional, almost as though someone was trying to separate discarded evidence so that it could never all be recovered together.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: And at one point, investigators also became interested in a pair of boots Barry allegedly threw away while keeping the shoelaces.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: That detail sounds bizarre because it is bizarre.
17:52
SPEAKER_00: And it became one of many small but memorable details people following the case fixated on.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Because why discard boots but keep the laces?
18:03
SPEAKER_00: And when asked about it, Barry said the boots were no good, but the laces were still fine.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: Right.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: Like you're living in a one million dollar home, but you're worried about keeping shoelaces.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: These laces are still good.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: So defense attorneys argued prosecutors were twisting ordinary behavior into suspicious behavior.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: But prosecutors believe the pattern told a story.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: And I happen to agree with them.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: One suspicious detail is innocuous.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Several suspicious details start to paint a vivid and in this case horrifying picture.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: And then we get to what may be the single most chilling forensic detail in the case, the tranquilizer evidence.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: Inside the Morphew home, investigators reportedly found a blue plastic cap in the dryer.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: That cap was identified as part of a syringe or dart system used with tranquilizer equipment.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: Initially, Barry reportedly claimed he had no idea how it got there.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Totally clueless.
19:14
SPEAKER_00: But later, conveniently, he changed his story.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Suddenly, Barry said he did in fact use tranquilizer guns on deer and not just casually.
19:25
SPEAKER_00: He claimed he regularly used them to sedate deer and remove their antlers to sell.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Illegal.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, and when I heard this, I was like, what the fuck?
19:37
SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't necessarily believe that he was telling the truth here, but if he was, and this is something that he commonly does, I just find it disgusting.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Like you're going out in the woods and tranquilizing these poor, unsuspecting deer and sawing off their antlers to sell.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: The other thing is if you're gonna lie to police to get yourself out of one thing, think of something that's not illegal to get yourself out of it.
20:00
SPEAKER_01: Right.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that is something that is legal.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: So like it just doesn't make any sense.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: And as if I needed one more reason to hate this guy, ugh.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, prosecutors, of course, believe the tranquilizer evidence was enormously important.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: The tranquilizer mixture associated with the equipment was something called BAM.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: BAM is a potent wildlife immobilization drug cocktail used on large animals like deer, elk, and bears.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: The compounds can rapidly induce sedation, motor impairment, slowed heart rate, confusion, and loss of coordination.
20:42
SPEAKER_00: And according to prosecutors, this may explain one of the biggest mysteries in the case, why there appeared to be so little evidence of a violent struggle.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: Because if Suzanne was chemically incapacitated quickly, she may not have been physically capable of defending herself normally.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: And I just shudder at this detail because he hunted his poor wife with cancer like game.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Like imagine the terror that she must have felt being hunted and then tranquilized, unable to run away, just having to accept her fate that the man that she used to love so dearly, the father of her children, was going to kill her.
21:25
SPEAKER_01: You know what his punishment should be?
21:27
SPEAKER_01: If he should be hunted down, shot with a tranquilizer gun, and they should hack off his penis.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: I love it, especially in the last part.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Lorraine bobbed him.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if he's gonna hack off the antlers.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: And this is something that I actually don't think that I touched on with the GPS data.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: But the reason that I came to this conclusion is his phone and GPS data showed him like a squirrel, like running from one end of his house and property to the other, just ping, ping, ping all over, like a chipmunk.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: And when the cops asked him about this.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: He's like, Oh, I was shooting chipmunks.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: It's like and they pressed him about it and they're like, What do you mean you were shooting chipmunks?
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Oh yeah, these chipmunks, they just absolutely terrorize us.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: So I've been shooting chipmunks for years.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: I'd be like, Show me all the dead chipmunks.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Right.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Where they'd be at.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: And what are they doing to terrorize you?
22:19
SPEAKER_00: I love chipmunks.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: They're so cute.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: They're adorable.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: And this is not factual information.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: This is pure speculation on my part.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: But I think that those movements, those quick movements throughout the house within a short succession, I think that he was hunting her.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: Was that from phone data?
22:38
SPEAKER_00: How did they get the movement?
22:39
SPEAKER_00: That was from his, yeah, that was his phone.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: It was like an Apple Watch on while committing murder.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: He might have, yeah.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, that just that detail makes me sick that she was probably hunted.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: Hunted by her husband.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, three years after Suzanne's disappearance in 2023, her remains were finally found, and toxicology reports revealed compounds consistent with BAM chemicals.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: That revelation completely changed the trajectory of the case.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: What made the BAM evidence so significant was how rare and tightly controlled the drug is.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Investigators reportedly searched prescription and purchase records across southern Colorado and said no private citizens besides Barry Morphew had documented access to BAM during that time period, with the only other known holders being Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Park Service.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that doesn't look good for old Barry.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: But then, if you can even imagine it, the case became more convoluted because investigators also discovered unidentified male DNA in the glove box area of Suzanne's Range Rover.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: This became a massive problem for the prosecution because eventually the DNA reportedly linked through CODIS to unsolved sexual assault cases in other states, including Arizona and Illinois.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: Defense attorneys immediately seized on this.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: Online speculation exploded.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: People began theorizing about serial predators and alternative suspects.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Some people even connected Suzanne's case to the disappearance of another Colorado woman named Edna Quintana after Suzanne's remains were later found during searches connected to Edna's case.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: For a while, internet theories about a possible unknown offender operating in southern Colorado spread heavily online.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Prosecutors argued the glove box DNA was likely just transfer DNA and completely unrelated to Suzanne's disappearance.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Still, it became one of the most controversial aspects of the case, and one of the biggest weaknesses in the original prosecution.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Now let's go back to Barry's coworker, Morgan.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Morgan's involvement adds a really unsettling layer to this entire story.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: Morgan cooperated extensively with investigators.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: She turned over her phone, she did interviews, and she reportedly contradicted elements of Barry's timeline and work story.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: But according to Morgan, after Suzanne disappeared, two unidentified men approached her, and the interaction reportedly felt very intimidating.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: Morgan said the men discouraged her from speaking with the police.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: At one point, they allegedly said things like, You have rights, and you don't have to give the police your phone, right?
25:54
SPEAKER_00: They also reportedly discussed paying her what she was owed from her job, like her paycheck, while specifically saying they didn't want it to be misconstrued as hush money.
26:05
SPEAKER_01: These are complete strangers to her, right?
26:07
SPEAKER_01: Correct, correct.
26:08
SPEAKER_01: A complete stranger comes up to me and says, You have rights and you don't have to give the police your phone.
26:13
SPEAKER_01: I'm probably macing them and running.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Right, right?
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Like that would be so scary.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: So freaky.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: So this is an incredibly strange thing to say if hush money isn't already on your mind.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that sounds like blackmail or a very lightly veiled threat to me.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: But thankfully, Morgan ultimately did cooperate with law enforcement anyway.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: But after that, Barry fired her.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: Naturally.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: Naturally.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: So that entire situation became one of the more disturbing side stories in the case because it introduced this feeling of danger and intimidation around witnesses.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And you don't need to intimidate a witness if you're not guilty.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, as the investigation intensified, Barry's public image also started shifting dramatically.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: At first, many people sympathized with him.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: His emotional plea videos circulated online, and people hoped that Susan would be found alive.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: Because remember, it took them three years to find her remains.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: But over time, suspicion toward Barry grew rapidly, especially once details from the investigation started becoming public.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you've got the digital evidence, the chlorine, the dumpsters, the tranquilizer materials, the marriage problems, the affair, timeline consistencies, the coworkers completely contradicting him, and then came Barry's first arrest.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: In 2021, Barry Morphe was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, despite Suzanne's body still not being found at that time.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: The prosecution also charged him with attempting to influence public servants, alleging he intentionally misled investigators repeatedly during the investigation.
28:03
SPEAKER_00: But the legal process quickly became chaotic.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Defense attorneys aggressively attacked the prosecution.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Discovery violations and procedural issues created enormous problems, and the glove box DNA unfortunately complicated everything.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: So eventually, in 2022, the case was dismissed without prejudice shortly before trial, meaning prosecutors did retain the right to charge Barry again later.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Thank goodness.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: And for a while, the entire future of the case seemed uncertain.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: Meanwhile, reports later surfaced that Barry had relocated and at one point was allegedly living under another identity in another state.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: That detail only fueled public suspicion further.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: A woman local to the area that Barry was living in at that time even came forward and stated that he tried to pick her up in a bar under his fake name.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: I know.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: And thankfully, she recognized him and basically told him to fuck off.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: Which is what Drew Peterson's women in bars should have done.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: Mm-hmm.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and she was a smart woman.
29:18
SPEAKER_00: Luckily.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: But this detail really tells you all that you need to know about Barry, about his total lack of integrity and his priorities.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: I mean, his poor wife is missing, presumed dead, and he's out trying to pick up women in bars.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't done anything wrong, why move to a new town and assume a fake identity?
29:41
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:41
SPEAKER_01: Didn't somebody come up to him and say, hey, you're Barry?
29:44
SPEAKER_01: And he was like, no, I'm not.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: I'm Fred or whatever.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: You're calling yourself.
29:48
SPEAKER_00: It was Lee Moore, I think was his alias.
29:51
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, now comes the discovery that changes everything.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: In September 2023, investigators searching for another missing woman, Edna Quintana, we mentioned her earlier.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: They discovered human remains near Moffitt, Colorado.
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Those remains were identified as Suzanne Morphew, and suddenly the case exploded back into national attention because Suzanne had not simply vanished into the wilderness.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: She had been buried miles away from where her bike was found.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: That geographic separation became extremely important because investigators believe it further undermined Barry's original bike ride narrative.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And when toxicology reportedly detected BAM-related compounds in Suzanne's remains, prosecutors appeared more confident than ever.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: Barry was eventually arrested again, and his second arrest reignited every argument surrounding the case.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: Supporters of Barry argued the evidence remained circumstantial.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Others believed the totality of evidence overwhelmingly pointed toward him.
31:04
SPEAKER_00: And through all of it, Suzanne and Barry's daughters remained publicly supportive of their father, which is one of the saddest parts of this case, because regardless of what ultimately happened, these daughters lost their mother while standing beside the man accused of killing her.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: And that emotional complexity makes this case uniquely heartbreaking.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: We briefly discussed it, but let's go over that in the after show.
31:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so what makes the Suzanne Morphew case so haunting is that it doesn't revolve around one single dramatic piece of evidence.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Instead, it's accumulation.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: A woman secretly recording conversations, a marriage quietly collapsing, an affair, texts to friends and family expressing fear and exhaustion, and I'm done message, suspicious GPS movements, phone silence, a staged-looking bike scene, an immediate mountain lion theory that investigators didn't buy.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna pause here because I don't think that I went over this and I should have.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: You would find a body, right?
32:48
SPEAKER_00: Right.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: And and Barry's like, oh, the mountain lion probably, you know, dragged her far away.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And he was just really committed to this mountain lion theory.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: Um and as a matter of fact, he told, I believe it was Morgan, the coworker, um, during that whole contradictory work thing.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, because she, I think she had called him and she was like, Hey, we don't have the right tools to build this retaining wall.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: Can you help us out?
33:17
SPEAKER_01: And he was retaining lions.
33:19
SPEAKER_01: Right.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: He was retaining lions.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Oh, yeah, I'll get those to you, ASAP.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: And then he calls back and tells Morgan, oh, actually, I'm not gonna be able to get those to you because Suzanne has been attacked by a mountain lion.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: So he was telling fucking everybody that it was a mountain lion.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: And there's absolutely no reason to stick to this one ridiculous theory right off the bat, unless you are deflecting.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have been, unfortunately, in a scenario where a loved one of mine passed.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: And my first question was, what happened?
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Not, oh, a mountain lion got her.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's just that's abnormal.
34:04
SPEAKER_01: So there was an incident I remember of a mountain lion attacking a cyclist.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: And I remember it being in the news, and I wonder if that was around the same time, and so he latched onto it.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: It probably was.
34:16
SPEAKER_00: He probably saw that, and that's like, oh, well, that's how I can do this and get away with it, because he's a fucking moron.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: And he's probably thinking if he says it enough times, they'll believe it.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, he was wrong.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, back to this mountain of evidence.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: You've got the hotel room that smelled so heavily of chlorine with no source of that chlorine.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: You've got the wet towels, the trash dumps, the conflicting coworker statements, that crack in the bedroom door, the bullet, the defensive wounds, the tranquilizer materials, the witness intimidation, and then eventually Suzanne's remains, which were buried miles and miles away from the original supposed bike crash.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: And each detail on its own could be argued away.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: But prosecutors believe together that they tell the story of what happened to Suzanne Morfew, a woman who survived cancer repeatedly, literally fought so hard for so long just to live, only to disappear, just as investigators believe she was finally preparing to reclaim her freedom.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: And somewhere between the timelines, the chemicals, the lies, the dumpsters, the chlorine, the bike, and the silence, investigators believe the truth has been there all along, waiting to finally be proven.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: And before we wrap up, I do have a current and absolutely infuriating update for y'all.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: Barry Morphew was released from jail in September 2025 after posting bond.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: The judge set his bail at$3 million, but it wasn't a straight cash payment.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: The court later modified the conditions to allow for only a portion of the total amount to secure his release.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: So once that bond was posted, he was released from the Alamosa County jail and placed on GPS monitoring and strict house arrest conditions.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: And this pisses me off so bad.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: That man should be under the jail.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: But he has once again, of course, pleaded not guilty to Suzanne's murder.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: His trial is currently scheduled to begin on October 13th, 2026, nearly six and a half years after Susan first disappeared.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: Prosecutors say the discovery of Suzanne's remains and the BAM toxicology evidence fundamentally strengthen the case against him, while Barry continues to maintain his innocence.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: So after years of twists, dismissals, refilings, and unanswered questions, this case may finally be heading toward the courtroom where Suzanne's story could be fully heard in October.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: And I am praying the jury finds this man guilty and Suzanne gets some justice because she deserves it.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: Rest in peace, Suzanne.
37:19
SPEAKER_01: So the lion injected her with bam, left the cap in Barry's washing machine.
37:27
SPEAKER_01: The lion framed him.
37:29
SPEAKER_01: Dragged her miles and miles away and then buried her.
37:35
SPEAKER_01: That's that damn lion.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: That's plausible.
37:38
SPEAKER_01: Of course.
37:41
SPEAKER_00: And it's like the with the crash with McKenzie.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: Like all of these little things, they add up and they're it's irrefutable.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Like if you use logic, it is absolutely irrefutable.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: Well, I've made a few notes, but let's talk about them in the after show.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: Yes, let's do that.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so that is all we have for you this week.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Subscribers, we will see you in the after show.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: And for the rest of you, we will see you next week with Do We Know?
38:10
SPEAKER_01: Uh another I don't have the schedule in front of me, but it'll be another true crime case.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: It'll be another true crime case, and you'll love it.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: Until then, be divas.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Not deadly.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: Bye.