DENVER (AP) On suspicion of first-degree murder, the husband of Colorado lady Suzanne Morphew was detained once more on Friday, according to authorities. Her remains were found more than three years after she was reported missing on Mother’s Day 2020.
After a Colorado grand jury delivered an indictment on Wednesday, Barry Morphew was taken into custody in Arizona on Friday. Court filings state that he was given a $3 million cash-only bond. In a statement, the district attorney’s office stated that it is working to return him to Colorado.
Since his wife vanished, Barry Morphew has insisted on his innocence, and his lawyer David Beller denounced the new indictment.
Beller stated in a statement, “Once more, the government lets their preconceived conclusion guide their evidence search.” Barry insists he is innocent. Neither has the case altered, nor will the result.
After his wife died in May 2021, he was initially taken into custody on suspicion of first-degree murder, tampering with a human body, and other charges. However, just before his trial the next year, prosecutors abandoned their case against him. For consistently breaking the requirements for turning over evidence in favor of Barry Morphew, a court prohibited prosecution from bringing important witnesses. Among them was the DNA of an unidentified man discovered in Suzanne Morphew’s SUV. Prosecutors claimed at the time that they needed more time to locate her body.
Barry Morphew has sued county officials for $15 million, claiming they violated his constitutional rights and that he had nothing to do with his wife’s death and disappearance.
Barry Morphew’s 2021 lawyer, Iris Eytan, who no longer works for him, maintained his innocence and said that the prosecution mishandled the case.
Eytan told The Associated Press on Friday that he was a loving spouse in addition to being a loving parent. In the thousands of cases I’ve handled, I’ve never witnessed prosecutors act so carelessly.
On May 10, 2020, Suzanne Morphew, 49, a mother of two daughters who resided close to the small town of Salida, was reported missing on Mother’s Day, sparking the mystery surrounding her. Soon after, Suzanne Morphew’s mountain bike and helmet were discovered in different locations near her house, but as there were no signs of a collision, authorities surmised that the bike had been deliberately tossed into a gulf. Barry Morphew sent a video to Facebook a week after she vanished, begging for her safe return.
He said, “I will do whatever it takes to get you back, no questions asked, however much they want.”
Barry Morphew’s wife insisted on leaving him, according to the arrest affidavit outlining investigators’ case against him at the time of his charges. Later, when the case’s evidence grew, he modified his statements.
An enthusiastic hunter, Morphew did not originally disclose to police that he drove toward the location where his wife’s bicycle helmet was finally discovered on Mother’s Day as he departed for work. The initial arrest document later stated that he went that way because he had spotted an elk cross the road.
Barry Morphew’s attorneys declared they had filed a complaint, requesting that the prosecutors be reprimanded for allegedly purposefully suppressing evidence in the case, after the prosecutors dropped the charges against him. In addition, Barry Morphew sued investigators and prosecutors for $15 million, claiming they had violated his constitutional rights.
Prosecutors may subsequently bring charges against Morphew, nevertheless, as the original charges against him were dropped without prejudice.
That occurred after, in September 2023, during an unrelated search close to the small southern Colorado town of Moffat, some 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the Morphews’ residence, Colorado Bureau of Investigation investigators discovered Suzanne Morphew’s skeletal remains in a shallow grave.
According to a 2024 autopsy report, Suzanne Morphew died from an unspecified cause, but it was judged to be a homicide. According to the investigation, one of her bones contained a mixture of medications intended to calm wildlife, but there was no sign of trauma.
Investigators discovered a tranquilizer gun and related items in the Morphews residence.
