70 - The Disappearance and Death of Suzanne Morphew

[00:00:04] At the intersection of true crime and real estate, you'll find Crime Estate. I'm Heather. And my name is Elena. As real estate agents and true crime junkies, we view crimes through a different lens. So walk through the door of some of the most notorious true crimes with us and discover how sometimes the scene of the crime has its own story to tell. Well, hey, y'all. Thanks for joining us on another episode of Crime Estate. I'm Heather,

[00:00:32] here with my fellow Dallas real estate agent and fabulous co-host, Elena, and our friend, producer, and commentator, Melanie. Hi, ladies. Hey, how are y'all? We're good. I'm good. Happy Friday night. Yeah. I know. Yeah, this is fun. You're a vision in green. I just noticed like everything- Well, you're a vision in green. You're a vision in dark green. Yeah. And your eyes are, yeah. I do think if we're going to do this podcast on video, which we'll get to in a minute,

[00:01:01] you're going to have to start doing everybody's eye makeup. Your eye makeup always looks great. Oh, absolutely. Deal. One of my favorite things about hanging out with you ladies, I feel like it's like compliment central. Like it's like, oh, no, you look so good. Oh, you're so smart. Oh, you're so smart. Like that's when you know you've got good friends that are building you up constantly. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we've got to do that these days, right? Okay. Well, whether you guys have been loyal listeners from the beginning- Thank you. On behalf of all three of us, thank you so much for that.

[00:01:30] Exactly. Or whether you're just joining us, that's fine too. Thank you for that too. Yeah, absolutely. We wanted to let you know that one, like Elena said, we appreciate you listening and sharing our show. We really appreciate you sharing our show with your friends and coworkers. And also guys, we have sort of some exciting news. Yeah. It's been our goal when we first started doing the podcast that we were going to do it on video and since the very beginning. And so we're almost there. So I'm excited about that. We're almost there.

[00:01:59] Our fourth attempt at the video episode. Yeah. I mean, we started the very beginning of the year with video and it is a two-step forward, one-step back process. Lots of trial and error. Yes. And thank God for my husband. Yes. Yeah. He has been quite the lawyer by day, videographer by night. And by day because you called him home early today. Well, I mean, technically it was like 4.45 on a Friday. So I'm not sure that's like early.

[00:02:29] In big law, that is. Yeah. So thanks to him for when I sent him a text message at 4.45 about not being able to get Melanie's headset to work. Right. Well, one of our favorite comments is that people feel like they're sitting around the table with us having a drink. So I'm excited to have this video component in and always you can catch us on what? YouTube at Crime Estate Podcast. Yeah. Our YouTube channel is at Crime Estate. So if you want to watch us live, grab, you know,

[00:02:59] a coffee or a cocktail. If you're not a drinker, that's fine. We like to hang out with you too. Coffee, cocktail, tea, diet soda, busy water, whatever. Yeah. But come hang out with us because that's, you're right. Like we love it when people tell us like, oh, we just felt like we were hanging out with you guys talking. That's my favorite. And also, can I say a huge shout out to Melanie who is learning how to run this all like whole

[00:03:23] video podcasting equipment? You know, from our perspective, we talk about houses, right? And we talk about the architecture and the interiors and the floor plans. So to have a video component to this is great because we hope that then you can go and like look at what we're talking about. But Mel's had to really step it up in her tech skills. I would say it is you teaching me. It is intimidating for those of you watching us on the

[00:03:53] video. It looks, I hope it looks seamless and easy because behind the scenes, it's been an adventure, but you know, we're just all diversifying our skill sets. Yeah. So I took a little video before we started and I'll post it on our socials of all the cords and cables. Well, running around in this room. You know, we've talked about Heather is got a beautiful home and she's very specific, a lot of things.

[00:04:20] And she is making all of us have lit. Well, actually she's making, okay, so I don't have a lid. That's true. But I was like, if I spill, I'm not going to be mad at you. If you spill, I'm going to be annoyed. I never want to see these people again. Plus I'm like back in the corner today. So there's not a lot for me to spill on. Okay. Okay. Well, we've got lids, so we're not going to hope we'll spill on all. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, my husband would say valid. He'd be like saying truth. Yeah. Yeah. She does spill a lot.

[00:04:50] Yeah. All right. Well, I think that's like enough housekeeping for one episode. Should we jump into today's story? Yes. Love it. All right. Okay. So today we are covering the home and the disappearance of Suzanne Morphew. Now, Suzanne and Barry Morphew met in their hometown of Alexandria, Virginia. Nope, not Virginia. Indiana. I just like, that just rolled off my tongue and I'm looking at, I'm like, no.

[00:05:18] I'm like, I've lived in Alexandria, Virginia, but I don't think the story is there. Because that's where I think Alexandria should be. It was Alexandria, Indiana. Okay. So an article in the Denver Gazette read, Suzanne Mormon and Barry Morphew's love story started when they grew up in the all-American small town of Alexandria, Indiana, a community surrounded by farmland an hour northeast

[00:05:43] of Indianapolis. Their relationship started on the golf course where he worked tending the greens during summers when he was home from college. She lived on the first tee and was still in high school. Morphew was a hometown sports hero who was drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. And Suzanne at 17 was the baby of the family, beautiful and shy. Her father, Gene Mormon, owned a popular root beer stand in a nearby town. That's charming. So charming.

[00:06:13] I love that. That is small town Americana. You know, we don't have A&W root beer stands in Texas, but like in different parts of the country, I remember being a kid and we'd be like on road trips and you would like see the A&W root beer stand. I don't know. I just thought that was cute. It is cute. Okay. But now Barry's baseball career was short-lived and eventually the high school homecoming queen and the all-American athlete attended Purdue University together. Side note,

[00:06:43] my sister-in-law Deb also went to Purdue and so I texted her and I was like, hey, when were you there? And they like didn't overlap by about two years. So that's unfortunate because I felt like Deb would have definitely had the info and she's like, send me her family name. Maybe I know them. No, we didn't. But anyway. That's hilarious. However, it's sort of really not the storybook ending that you're

[00:07:07] probably picturing from there because at the age of 20, unfortunately, Suzanne is diagnosed with lymphoma and Barry wins the hearts of like all of her family and friends when he is her rock during chemo treatment. That's nice. Yeah. And I actually say like, here's the deal. We're talking about 20 year olds, 20, 21, 22, 23. Anybody that's like willing to be a good guy at that point. We love our boys. 23 is not really

[00:07:36] an age when you like buckle down and get serious now. And get serious. Absolutely. But he was, you know, he loved her. He was there for it and he was willing to support her during all of that. Gotcha. Which is great. So the two went on to marry in January of 1994 and five years later, they bought a home on 10 acres in Arcadia, Indiana, only about 30 minutes from where the two grew up. Now,

[00:08:04] at this point, Barry's working in landscaping and Suzanne's teaching at the local middle school. God bless her. That is until they have two daughters and then Suzanne decides to transition to being like a full-time stay at home. And so they live on this idyllic 10 acres until 2018 when their oldest daughter, Mallory, decides to attend college all the way across the country at Western Colorado University.

[00:08:29] And so what does the family decide to do, Elena? They move to Colorado with Mallory. You would totally do that if your son was like, I'm moving to wherever. I mean, you can pack everything up the next day. We're going to have to really work on her over the next couple of years to let her son, poor son, go to college. So I will say, I mean, here's the thing about only having one kid is you can follow that one kid anywhere. And so I have said to him, like, wherever you end up, I could see us buying, like, a condo where I could come and go.

[00:09:00] I wouldn't be there full time. Might be going to go to school at SMU. That'd be great. That's what I'm hoping for. No, I'm not hoping for that. Well, they're here. It's here, but it's... No. No. No, don't hope for that. Well, I don't know. It's close. I mean, SMU's great. Dallas people. Yeah, I was like, watch out, guys. No, no, no. I'm not bitching about SMU, but I'm like, my children need a chance to go. Explore. Yes. Gotcha. But you're right. I might. I'd really do that at home. So you, you totally would. Would you?

[00:09:30] Oh. No. Melanie's like, when these kids are gone, we're buying, like, a cool condo somewhere. And your kids always, they already go, like, far away. Yeah. Like, for the summer and things. Yeah, well, I'm definitely trying to teach my kids some independence. I love it. And don't get me wrong, I'm getting texts from my kids right now. So it's, we got room to grow in independence. But still. I love that you're like that. Yeah. No, I, I mean. But when we've talked also about getting a condo somewhere, we've

[00:09:59] also talked about after they're through college, maybe getting a condo close to them. Like, but, you know, they could go, you know, college in X, Y, Z place and then get their first job, you know, cross country somewhere else. So, you know, you don't want to make a decision just based upon where they're going to college because they may only be there a couple of years. That's fair. That's fair. Although from a real estate investment standpoint, can I say that I have a lot of clients that do

[00:10:26] buy a place in the town where their kids are going to college and then they allow their friends or like allow their kids' friends to pay part of the rent. And a lot of times that's cheaper than paying for like college campus housing. I could actually see that. That could make sense. So we're going to pull this whole, you know, thing back to real estate as a thing to talk about.

[00:10:50] All right. So regardless of our feelings, this is how the Morphew family moves from, you know, Indiana to the quaint town of, I'm going to call it Salida, California, or excuse me, Colorado, because we have Salina, Texas. But do you think that's Salida? I would have said Salida. I would have said Salida. But will you go with whatever rolls off your tongue?

[00:11:15] Okay. So now I know we have a lot of listeners, you know, Dallas folks who spend a good amount of time in Colorado. Oh, oh, you got some calls from the kids? Hopefully not. I don't recognize this number, so I am good to not answer it. There you go. And so, you know, we spend a lot of good time in Colorado too. And so to give you guys a little overview of like the geography here, Salida is about an hour and a half south

[00:11:44] of Breckenridge. And so if you've ever gone like whitewater rafting on a trip out of Breck or Denver, there's a good chance you either did it out of Buena Vista, which is like just a little bit north of Salida, but then, or you could have gone to Salida because they have great rafting out of there. And, you know, I think that sort of gives you a feel for like the whole area, right? Totally. It's like mountainous, remote, perfect for families, outdoorsy people. 100%. Yes.

[00:12:12] And I'm guessing this is like maybe two hours from Denver? I mean, that's probably right if we're like an hour and a half south of Breckenridge. Like, yeah, ish. Okay. Yeah, I think that's right. So when they move here, Suzanne takes up mountain biking and becomes an avid biker, which totally makes sense if you're moving to Colorado. And Barry has always loved hunting, but Colorado provides him with like a different hunting adventure than he was used to

[00:12:40] in Indiana. And from the outside looking in, everything is picture perfect, including the home that the family buys at 19057 Puma Path. Now, let me read you the description while Mel shows you a pic of this house. It says gorgeous mountain home on the river, exclamation point, because we know I love those.

[00:13:06] Borders National Forest, exclamation point. Main level master luxurious five-piece bath, also with an exclamation point. Question, what is a five-piece bath? So that would be two sinks, a toilet, a shower, and a tub. Huh. I've never heard of it. It's not used a lot. Not used a lot. Okay. Yeah.

[00:13:35] Each guest room with full bath. Kitchen has all the fine finishes open to the great room, office area with built-ins, and bonus room for recreation or fitness area, also exclamation point. House has been fully updated from light fixtures, top-of-the-line sound system, indoors and out, great room features, floor-to-ceiling, full logs and windows, and prowl front. At this point, Melody, we should just assume that every sentence. It is.

[00:14:05] I'm actually, I'm like scanning the listing, and there is no period. There's like one period. Everything else is exclamation points. I like it. Very puppy. You like it. It's one exclamation point, not several after each sentence. No, but it's at every sentence. It is every sentence, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I digress. Where did I go here? Okay. So total top-of-the-line sound system, and then great room features floor-to-ceiling,

[00:14:35] full logs, and windows and prowl front. Log beams, elk chandelier, and impressive stone fireplace are the focal point of this amazing room. French doors lead out to stamped concrete patio, entertaining space with built-in kitchen area, the sound and view of the Little Arkansas River, and lush alpine forest fills the air. Stone staircase pathway down to park-like setting along the river, perfect for fishing or just relaxing.

[00:15:04] Stunning, snow-capped views from every room and outdoor space. Fully landscaped. Only 15 minutes to ski resorts or downtown Salida. Don't miss this. Perfect for vacation or year-round living. So very Colorado. Very. It's not a style everyone likes, but if you like it, it's under perfection. Yeah. I think you're spot on there. But I did have to Google the term prowl front. Have you heard of that before?

[00:15:32] I was wondering the same thing exactly when you said it. Yeah. I was like, there's not a lot I read in a listing description that I don't understand. But according to Google, a prowl front is a triangular front of a building that extends beyond the main part of the structure, similar to like the bow of a ship. And prowl fronts are often built in areas with great views, such as near lakes, mountains, or forest.

[00:15:57] Well, if you're watching us on the YouTube video, we're showing a picture of the house. And I kind of think that I know which one. I mean, there's a lot of peaks in this picture of the house, but I'm thinking I kind of know it. I think the prowl front, though, goes out the back. Oh, okay. Yeah. There's a prowl front out the back of this house. What do I know? Okay. Well, yeah. Well, it sounds like a deck. Is that not? No, but it's sort of like, remember when we did the one in Malibu and they had this like extension so that you had a view that was past the other houses?

[00:16:26] It's like your view extends out past the rest of your house. It's like a point. So think of a bow of a ship, right? Think about your living room, but it having this like V'd out area so that you could see beyond the rest of the house. Yeah. No, it's indoors. Outdoor. Yeah. Well, that's a deck. Right. Yeah. It's like almost like an enclosed deck. Gotcha. Okay. Got it. Right.

[00:16:52] Now, here they are in this gorgeous house, but unfortunately, Suzanne's cancer returns. And so she finds herself, new state, once again, navigating the same disease from her youth. And I want to sort of put a pin in that portion of the story for right now and come back to it a little bit. That makes me kind of nervous that you're putting a pin in cancer. Like there's something bigger that's brewing. I just want you to be aware that this happened. Okay.

[00:17:21] And then we'll come back to it. Okay. Okay. So at this point, we're in 2018. And then more of you family has moved to Salida, Colorado, where husband Barry is once again working in landscaping. Daughter Mallory is in college. She's not living at home. And daughter Macy, who's like 15 or 16 at this time, is in high school. And then mom, Suzanne, she's like adjusting to life in a new town, but also navigating this reoccurrence of her childhood cancer.

[00:17:49] And at this point, she is like super into fitness. And I can just say like we are moms of 15-ish year olds. I think we've all been in this boat where we're like, oh, we don't have our kids for much longer. We have to do some self-care. Self-care. Some like hobbies. Hobbies. It's maybe why we have a podcast, right? It's like what are we going to do when our kids are gone that's interesting for us. And so for her, it's fitness.

[00:18:16] And so she like joins the gym and meets people. She starts mountain biking on a regular basis. And, you know, she starts to make some new friendships from some of these new hobbies. And it's also at this time, y'all, that she decides to reach out to an old high school flame. That's a bad idea. Yeah. It's really probably not ever a good idea. But that's what she does.

[00:18:43] And now, according to, I hope I get this right, SK7161 on Reddit, who has a very detailed timeline of this case and seems to be very legit. She has a lot of fascinating, interesting stuff on other true crime stories. Do we know it's a woman? No. Well, I say she. I don't know. Her avatar looks female, but it could be a man. It could be a they. It could be.

[00:19:13] We like you, SK7161, whoever you are. Exactly. That's right. Thank you for pointing that out because that was very sexist of me. So, according to her timeline, though, Suzanne originally reached out to her old high school flame, Jeff Libler, in September of 2018. And for the next few months, they're sort of like on again, off again. You don't just reach out to an old high school flame and, like, hit it up right away, right? Right.

[00:19:41] Oh, like they're like a thing. Well, on again, off again, meaning. Well, on again, off again. And then, like, it's not like she reached out to him and, like, with a nude picture. She reached out to him and then, like, they had some back and forth. They had banter. They had banter. That's right. And actually, his daughter, like, borrowed his phone and saw some of the banter. And then he was like, nope, not interested.

[00:20:08] And then she ended up, like, reaching out to him on LinkedIn separately. And then they sort of, like, got back into it. What in the world? Okay. Yeah. So, all of that's what's going on. And they're like, but they haven't really, like, met up or whatever until they decide to take a romantic getaway in February of 2019. And over the course of the next year, the two men end up meeting seven times.

[00:20:37] Once actually meeting at the Galleria in Dallas. Not the most romantic hotel in Dallas. Definitely not. Like, if you guys need recommendations for a good hotel in Dallas, reach out to us. We can definitely recommend something more romantic. Just, like, don't tell us if it's not with your spouse. We don't want to know that. We'll just tell you, you know, where to go. Well, he lived in Michigan. And she lived in, I'm not going to say rural, but, I mean, she's not, like, in downtown Denver, Colorado.

[00:21:07] So, that took work to meet up. Like, this isn't your right. Seven times. Yeah. I mean, I have good friends that I see once a year that live, you know, this is, like, you took work. And what did she do? Well, she's not working. Okay. But she had enough money to, like. Oh, well, they're, yes, they have plenty of money. That's not an issue. So, maybe he thinks she's going to meet girlfriends. I don't know. Wow, weird. Yeah.

[00:21:33] Can we pause for a moment and talk about how this episode is sponsored by Baller Mom Kitchens? Yeah. Yeah. I think we should. Yeah. Can we do that? Because we were talking about recommendations in Dallas. Yes. And we have lots. So, if you're coming to Dallas, let us know. But if you live in Dallas, we have even better recommendations. You know, I think it's very clear. We're all very busy working moms. And I have personally been using Baller Mom Kitchens over the past few years.

[00:22:02] And y'all, I can't wait to tell you about how easy, healthy, and yummy this has been, like, a great meal delivery solution for our family. Well, you fed Baller Mom Kitchen meals to our kiddos one night after a recording session. And you were, I was like, you're holding out of me. Yeah. Why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? Yeah. Baller Mom Kitchens is an easy and healthy way to feed your kiddos or just even yourself. If you're anything like us, your evenings are hectic.

[00:22:29] Having something at home that's healthy, that you don't have to cook yourself. It is healthy, pre-made, and she uses some very high quality ingredients. Well, and yeah. So, that's the thing. She has, like, this sneaky meat sauce that she puts vegetables in. I love that. You feel like you're, like, feeding your family with good, healthy stuff. And I tell my husband, I'm like, anything I outsource, I get credit for. So, if this amazing meal shows up on our plate, I'm getting credit for it, even though I procured it from somebody else.

[00:22:59] Yeah, I agree with that. So, as a sponsor of Crime Estate, Mel, do you want to tell everybody what Baller Mom Kitchens is offering? Yeah. So, anyway, Baller Mom Kitchens is offering 10% off your orders of $50 or more to your listeners. Simply go to ballermomkitchen.com and enter Crime Estate at checkout for your 10% off. Mm-hmm. Suzanne is probably the kind of mom that's, like, really into family dinners. That's what I feel.

[00:23:26] If you move across the country for your family, you're into family dinners. I mean, I would say yes, but she's going to meet her old boyfriend seven times. Well, but that happened after the move. I can't answer that. Okay. I don't know. Regardless, I think it's easy to surmise that at this point, like, the relationship between Barry and Suzanne over the course of 2019 was not ideal. Like you said, she's meeting her boyfriend seven times. Yes.

[00:23:48] And according to Suzanne's longtime friend, Sheila Oliver, Suzanne felt like she really needed to leave Barry, but she couldn't, like, wrap her head around doing so. And I get that. Look, she had been a stay-at-home mom for years. Her previous profession was a teacher. She had no income of her own. And Barry often asked her when she brought this up, like, well, how are you planning to pay for your cancer treatments if you leave me? Oh, shit. Oh, that's lovely. Lovely.

[00:24:18] That's a good question. And so now, let's fast forward to May of 2020. It's the week before Mother's Day, and Suzanne drives her youngest daughter up to meet her oldest daughter so that the two of them can, like, meet up with friends and go on this camping trip. And at this point, Suzanne and Barry have the house to themselves, and it seems like, like, this ongoing argument that they're having heats up. So via text, we know that Suzanne told Barry, and I'm going to quote here, I'm done.

[00:24:48] I could care less what you're up to and have been for years. And then she went on to ask him if they could handle things civilly. Now, over the course of the next few hours, Barry sends and deletes several messages that refer to him, like, potentially committing suicide. It includes things like, quote, when I'm dead, quote, when I'm going to see my savior, and quote, this life on earth is a mere grain of sand compared to eternity.

[00:25:18] Dang. Now, this is a text exchange, right? And so four hours later, then Barry texts Suzanne again, and he says, you know, I'm sorry if things went the way they did. I have a problem dealing with the way you accused me of hiding checks. If you think I'm as terrible of a person to hide our accounts and have ones you don't know about, you don't know me. All I do is care for you and the girls when I'm dead, which won't be long.

[00:25:47] You guys will be taken care of. Please stop being angry. If I can control my hurt feelings and my heart, I think I can overcome your distant unlovingness towards me. Honey, I swear it's the hardest thing I've had to do. I love you. I always will. Process that for a minute. And then only an hour later, he messages her again and says, I promise you, you were wrong about all the crazy thoughts you had about me. I've always been faithful. Always.

[00:26:15] Why would I ever want another when I'm married to the most beautiful, sweet, kind, loving woman as you? Only a fool would stray from an angel like you. Hmm. I feel like you guys have thoughts. There is a lot of going up and down with all of this emotional. I keep thinking that, was that expression like, doth, what is it? Doth protest too much? Protest too much. I think this is not a text conversation.

[00:26:41] I think this is a, babe, can I come see you? Can we have cocktails? Can we have dinner tonight? We need to talk. I'm upset. It's definitely just kind of rambling. Now, interestingly enough, Suzanne thought that Barry was having an affair of his own, which of course was referenced in those text messages that I just read.

[00:27:01] And on one of her trips to Florida to see Jeff, the guy from high school that she's talking to, she went out and bought a spy pen to try to record Barry with this other woman. Hmm. How mission impossible. Very mission impossible. Yeah. I mean, I guess I know those things exist, but I. Would you know where to like go buy what? Radio Shack probably is where you get a spy pen. The Radio Shacks? Back in 2018. Oh. Were they still there? No. Probably not.

[00:27:31] I digress. All right. So, two days later, on May 8th, Suzanne texts her sister, quote, It's hard dealing with a harsh abrasiveness and having to show respect. He's also been abusive emotionally and physically. There's so much dot, dot, dot. I went through a period of acceptance and I feel more angry now. Anger at what I've allowed. End quote.

[00:28:01] Please go ahead. They both sound really immature. Well, I think if you're just having these conversations by text, that is accurate. Yes. That's what I'm thinking. That's why I'm feeling that they're both immature. But they also got married very young and hadn't like learned how to be adults yet. Yeah. Apart. Learn how to be adults. I think it was just very important. I mean. I agree. It's hard because we're not, we don't know what was going on in the relationship.

[00:28:30] I mean, if she's saying he was abusive physically, maybe she was scared of him. She was obviously financially scared of leaving him. And with the cancer, there's something about the familiarity. I mean, so, you know, I'm. As much as, you know, we're judgy that she is having this long distance affair. There's also something going on in the home life.

[00:28:58] Well, and I think like all three of us work full time. Right. And so if I'm just going to put myself in the position of being a mid-40s woman with older children, who's like going to divorce my husband, who's the breadwinner, and I haven't been working, that is terrifying. Yeah. How do you reenter the workforce? How do you make sure you can provide for yourself? How do you have health insurance even? I mean. If you have cancer, that's a big deal. That is absolutely.

[00:29:28] I definitely have known people who have gotten divorced and the health insurance has been one of the big, big issues that they've had. And then one of the comments, one of the text references may be hiding checks. So she may be fearful, I mean, of being able to access to the money. I think that's right. Yeah. So, okay. So that last text that she sent was May the like 7th or no 8th, excuse me.

[00:29:54] And then on Saturday, May 9th, Barry is working on a landscaping job and she texts Jeff, the man she's having the affair with, at 1.40 in the afternoon. And she says, guess who's alone again? And then not long after, she sends him a picture of her son bathing. Now, one documentary I watched said that they sort of texted back and forth and maybe he asked for like naked pictures or a video to which she replied that she was going to get on WhatsApp.

[00:30:23] But the two never connected after this exchange on Saturday afternoon, despite Jeff responding to her messages at 2.39 p.m., 2.46 p.m., and 2.47 p.m. that day. In fact, ladies, there is no evidence that anyone ever saw or spoke to Suzanne Morphew after that last text message exchange with Jeff. Okay. So 1.40 p.m. on May 9th was the last date.

[00:30:52] Saturday, May 9th. Saturday, May 9th was the last date that we have confirmed, you know, correspondence of any side. Correct. Okay. So that's the timeline according to text, which is easy to verify, right? But Barry tells sort of a slightly different story. He says that when he came home on Saturday night, the two made up, you know, because they've been having this text exchange and it was like they never fought. They had a nice dinner and they made love and then went to bed.

[00:31:20] And when Barry woke up the next morning to leave for his landscaping job, 49-year-old Suzanne was still asleep in bed. Now remember that Suzanne's daughters are on this camping trip. And this is Sunday, May 10th, 2020, which is Mother's Day. So the two independently text their mom to wish her a happy Mother's Day. And when they don't hear from her and then later Barry doesn't hear from her, they ask

[00:31:46] a neighbor to run by the house and check on her because Barry's like supposedly out of town on this landscaping job. Yeah, I feel like it wasn't in Colorado Springs or Denver. It was somewhere far. It was like an hour and a half away. Yeah. It was a good distance away. Yeah. And so the neighbors go by and they're like, well, her car's here, but nobody's answering the door. And he's like, well, hey, she loves to take bike rides. Will you just see if her bike's there? And so they report that, yes, her bike is gone.

[00:32:16] It's not at the house. At this point, Barry's like, well, would you please call 911? Which actually I think is weird. Okay. Yeah. I wanted to pause on that for a second. It's not. I was like, the daughters are calling neighbors to go look at it because your mom isn't there. I'm like, that's weird to me. Like I wouldn't, or maybe I'm not a good enough daughter, but I wouldn't be calling my parents' neighbors without a reason after, like if it's just the morning time. I think it's Mother's Day.

[00:32:46] That's the kicker. Like if I texted my mom on Mother's Day and she hadn't responded in two hours, I would be real worried. And I guess that's your relationship dynamic, right? I don't think it's a red flag. If your son's texted you on a Sunday at 10 a.m., happy Mother's Day, how long would it take you to respond? Oh, it'd be super fast. Three seconds. I'd be expecting their text. Exactly. No, I would be expecting a phone call. I would not be expecting a text.

[00:33:13] Well, but regardless, you would be expecting... Yeah, but I don't know. Like, I guess, like, I would assume my mom is at brunch with my dad. I would assume... But they talked to the dad and he was on the landscaping. Well, that's where I think that this is going. I don't think that the girls would have been calling the neighbor right away if they hadn't been talking to the dad. I think that's right.

[00:33:39] And the dad feeding the fire of, oh, oh, I wonder we should maybe get somebody else to go. I think that's suspicious. I would, you know, I'm sorry, an 18-year-old and a 20, or, you know, I don't know exactly. These are like teenage, early 20-something. They're up in their own business. They're not thinking that midday they're going to be calling a neighbor on Mother's Day to go check on your mom who your dad theoretically just saw a few hours before. Okay, I'll give you that.

[00:34:10] But... I'm not buying. I'm still not there yet. No. I would... If my mom doesn't respond to me within 30 minutes, I call my dad. I'm like, have you talked to mom? What's she doing? Where's she at? Why isn't she not answering my calls? Why isn't she answering me? I am a full-time priority. Thank you very much. Not like that. All right. But, gals, it's sort of like Suzanne Morphew just disappeared from the face of the earth. So, investigators quickly arrived after this 911 call, and they found Suzanne's sunglasses

[00:34:39] and her hydration backpack, which, like, presumably she both would have taken both of those things with her on a bike ride. They were in her car, and they also quickly found her mountain bike. Mel, I think we have a picture of this. Yep. Showing it. Yeah. So, this is a photo from the police department, and the way it's found... I think it's very possible that if, like, somebody had an accident in this area, they could have injured themselves. It's, like, sort of, like, down the side of a, like...

[00:35:08] It looks like a ravine. Hill, ravine. Yeah. Yeah. Like, you could see how if you were riding along and fell off and tumbled, you could have hurt yourself here. But then you would think if that's what had happened, you would also find your person there. Like, you're not going to fall off this bike in this area and then, like, crawl your way out. The body should be there, too. The person should be there, too. Right? And they very quickly found this.

[00:35:34] So, it's not like it took them 72 hours to find the bike. You know, they found it within, like, an hour or two of the phone call. And what you don't see, like, you don't see any signs of Suzanne. You don't see her helmet. But Barry's like, immediately. He's like, well, maybe she was picked up by, like, a mountain lion. Like, maybe a mountain lion attacked her.

[00:36:02] And not to be crass, but the investigators are like, no, we've lived in Colorado our whole lives. If a mountain lion attacks you, it's real obvious. Like, they don't just take the whole body away. There's blood. There's, like, a carcass. They get what they want. Right. And then they leave. I know that's very crass. But I feel like that's something that someone who's not from the country or not from a mountain area would be like, ooh, those bears, those mountain lions.

[00:36:30] But realistically, those aren't nearly that frequent. And you would also have some sort of evidence. The investigators are like, there would be blood here, at least. I mean, they're not going to even carry off the whole carcass. But let's assume they did. We would still have evidence that there had been a problem. And there's no blood. There's no, like, it's just the bike. That's all they find is the bike. So Suzanne's family thinks it's possible. Well, maybe she was abducted.

[00:36:58] Maybe she was, like, riding her bike down the road and came across somebody. That's a good theory. And so Barry puts up a $100,000 reward for her whereabouts. And then Suzanne's family matches that, bringing the reward to $200,000. And it just sort of continues to get stranger from here. So remember I told you that Suzanne purchased a spy pen in order to record Barry with his mistress? And we don't know if there was a mistress. We don't know that. No, she thought there was.

[00:37:27] But what we do know is that 10 days into this investigation, into Suzanne's whereabouts, the investigators find the spy pen. And it does not implicate Barry in any affair. But it does tell them a lot about Suzanne and Jeff, who up until this point, investigators knew nothing about. Dang. So she, like, recorded her own affair. Why would she do that? I think it has to be user error on her part, right? Yeah. You think she's, like, testing it out? I mean, maybe.

[00:37:57] I don't know. It's like with us with the video. I just can't figure this out. Five times to figure it out. I know. I'm still showing a picture of the ravine. So I need it. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. You can. Oh, there you go. Perfect. I get pulled into the story. I'm like, oh, we're still in the ravine picture. So was this national news yet? Does they know about the affair? Well, okay. So, Melanie, you're the one that brought this story to us. Because let's remember, this is May of 2020.

[00:38:25] So we're, like, full-blown COVID. Yeah. Yeah. I don't remember when I first learned about this. So it's, like, in kind of retrospect, I felt like I learned about it pretty soon. But it might have been, like, months later. But, yeah, this was full-on COVID. That took all the news going on. I bet this was more local scene. Because, truthfully, at this time, the story is a little boring in the sense of there's a missing woman. There's a bike. I mean, not boring to us. We found it interesting.

[00:38:53] But, like, there's not a lot salacious yet. Right. Right. I think it's not, like, 24-7 news coverage yet. But I think it makes a blurb on the national news. Yeah. Because it's... Drawing the parallel between Amber Fry was having the affair with... Yes. You're absolutely right. So... Oh. I love that you pulled that tie in there. Because if you see somebody on the news and you're like, oh... I'm sleeping with that woman.

[00:39:24] Uh-huh. Wouldn't you think you would call the authorities? I would think so. I would hope so. I mean, that's what Amber Fry did. Yeah. God bless. I mean... Look, Amber Fry is a whole other person. But I would like to have dinner with her and talk to her about a lot of things. Yeah. And for those who don't know who Amber Fry is, go back and listen to our Lacey Peterson episode. Yes. Yes. Please. Go back and listen to all of our episodes. Yes. Yes. And then give us a five-star review. Thank you. We'd like that. So, okay.

[00:39:52] Let me get back into where we are before we started talking because I forgot. You would think, like we said, that Jeff would have seen this blurb on the national news and reached out to police. In fact, he did see the blurb and he was terrified. And he was like, oh my God, I'm going to lose my family, my wife, and six kids. What? One, two, three, four, five. Six. Six kids and maybe I'll lose my job.

[00:40:19] I did try to figure out what he did for a living to figure out why he thought he'd lose his job and I couldn't figure it out. I know what he does. I mean, he's got a corporate job. I mean, he's got a name brand company job that he, spoiler alert, he still has. Okay. I saw his LinkedIn. Good job. Good job. I did ask you to check on that. But I mean, look, at this point, he's only guilty of having an affair, which a ton of people do. So he should not have to have his life ruined over that.

[00:40:48] And I don't want to ruin his, I don't really care about him, but his wife and their children. Agreed.

[00:41:24] Okay.

[00:41:54] Okay. So I'm going to call it an alibi for this date. Yes. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Yes. I just wanted to make sure that. One hundred percent. Jeff did not have anything to do with this crime. He was only guilty of having an affair. Period. Right. So there's some evidence to suggest that, in fact, Barry may have flew into a rage when he arrived home.

[00:42:17] We know from the text data that Barry texted Suzanne that he was on his way home only 15 minutes after she had texted Jeff that she was going to get on WhatsApp. Yikes. Which is, you know, if you're like getting cute and pretty and like disrobing not that long. Right. And so as if the police were not already looking at Barry for his wife's disappearance, they start digging a little bit deeper. Sure.

[00:42:44] And they find that Barry's cell phone shows sort of this odd pinging pattern like all around the perimeter of his house. And they're like, what's this? Like why were you outside your house like running the perimeter minutes after we think your wife Right. like could have been in danger. And he's like, oh, I was shooting at Chipmunks. Shooting at Chipmunks.

[00:43:13] There is so this is one of those parts of the story that I have remembered all long. I was like, I'm sorry. One who would ever shoot it. I mean, in Texas, we don't have chipmunks, but they're so cute. The chipmunks are cute. I will say. I hate the squirrels and I have often been tempted to figure out how to get rid of the squirrels, but I'm not like running around my house shooting at them.

[00:43:42] And they're pinging. They're seeing the cell signals. You know, it's a large kind of property, mountainous property. They're able to. It's amazing that they could do this. They're able to trace. Like, you know, why is he over here? Why is it like all like it's obvious that he's running around in a quick period. Ain't it so they know or they're speculating that theorizing that she's disappeared at this point. And then he's saying, well, I'm shooting chipmunks.

[00:44:07] Well, they are speculating that he came home and found her having some sort of conversation with Jeff or preparing for a conversation with Jeff because like Jeff had texted her like, hey, where are you? Where are you? Where are you? But perhaps he came home and found her like disrobing. Right. I'm just saying it's an odd explanation. Like, I don't know where my wife is at. The last known correspondence was at this time. Oh, and also I just took a minute to shoot some chipmunks. That's right.

[00:44:37] I drove into the driveway and I was obsessed with the chipmunks and I decided to get out my rifle and start shooting. Earlier when you guys were talking about the podcast and one of you said, did you put the thing about the chipmunks? I thought Alvin and the chipmunks. Yeah. The different kind of chipmunks. I was like, okay. You had a much sweeter like, oh, there's like something cute in pop culture. I do have a real estate fun fact for you guys though. Are you ready? Tell us. Tell us. Okay.

[00:45:02] So both Colorado and Texas have wildlife nuisance laws, which allow for a homeowner to protect their land by killing animals that are creating a nuisance without requiring any type of hunting license. Okay. So however, this makes, think about this, right? This makes sense. Some cities prohibit the use of certain types of weapons within their city limits.

[00:45:30] So you can still get rid of the animal, but you might not be able to use like a shotgun or a rifle or whatever. Now in Colorado, a homeowner could kill the chipmunks if they were causing damage to the property. However, if you're in Colorado and a black bear or a mountain lion is causing damage to your property, you are not allowed to kill those animals unless it's in protection of your own life. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:46:00] Okay. So let's go back to Barry, who says he's been running around the outside of his house, you know, shooting at these chipmunks. And investigators, excuse me, go on to find the cap to a dart that's used in hunting large game in the dryer of his house. Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. That's a good response. Now I'm a little unclear on when this was found, but I'm assuming it was found on the initial search of their marital home.

[00:46:27] And Barry, who remember is a big hunter, we talked about that earlier in the episode, says that he like routinely uses these darts to subdue large animals, but says he hasn't used one since he moved to Colorado. He only used it in Indiana. But it's in the dryer. It's in the dryer. Okay. Mm-hmm. Now, one article I read said that these darts typically impact an animal the size of a deer in four to 20 minutes.

[00:46:52] So imagine potentially how quickly it would act on a woman as small and lightweight as Suzanne. And investigators now think that Barry shot Suzanne with one of these darts. She ran for her life and then Barry continued chasing her around the house until the dart took effect, at which point he killed her if the dart hadn't already done so and then disposed of her body. But he says, oh no, I'm chasing chipmunks.

[00:47:20] They think he's actually chasing Suzanne. Oh my gosh. But okay. Barry goes on to look even more suspicious in the eyes of authorities because first they pulled data from his Ford truck, which shows them that he left at a different time than he told investigators he left that morning. It shows that he drove a different route than he would normally take to work that day. But he says, oh, I had seen this herd of elk. I was going to like drive by and see if it was still there, which I think that's possible.

[00:47:48] But maybe most importantly, it points them to the several stops that Barry made that he hadn't maybe told them about while his phone was in airplane mode. So he's driving his car, truck, Ford truck, thinking nobody knows his whereabouts because he has his phone in airplane mode. But he does not know that the truck is tracking his data. But this would have been the morning that she disappeared. That he's doing this weird stuff. Correct. Yes. Yes.

[00:48:17] So, you know, why would... Yeah. Yes. Sunday morning. Mother's Day morning. So why would you be driving... I mean, I don't... I mean, you're lucky if I put myself on airplane mode if I'm in an airplane mode. Like, I would never put myself in airplane mode while I was driving. Do you put yourself in airplane mode ever? Hardly. Never. On an airplane. Oh, yes. Yeah. But that's it, right? Yes. Any other time? Okay. Yeah.

[00:48:41] And I think this also just is a crazy juxtaposition with our recent Lacey Peterson story because, you know, it just goes to show in what is this? 10 years, 15 years, the amount of data and technology. Like, there we were talking about how they had cell phones but really didn't use them. And, like, nothing could be tracked. Like, you know, definitely no tracking of car, you know, signals.

[00:49:08] And here in a, you know, 2020 story and we're getting intricate details, not from even the phone but from the truck itself of where the car went. I mean, I just think that's a crazy amount of technology. Well, and I didn't add, like, all these details to the script. But, like, they're able to tell, like, did the passenger side door open? Did the driver's side door open? Like, they get lots of information from the service data. Yeah, yeah. So, but these suspicious stops they find.

[00:49:36] So, first, Barry stops at a bus stop and he throws away a bag of some sort. And then he pulls into the parking lot of the Holiday Inn where he's staying. So, he actually did have a hotel room there, like, presumably because this job he was doing was so far out of town that they had, like, a hotel room they were staying in. And he drops a bag in their dumpster. And then he checks in to the Holiday Inn. He goes inside. He changes his shirt. And then he leaves again.

[00:50:05] And he stops at a McDonald's and disposes of some trash. And then he stops again at a men's warehouse where he spends 40 minutes in the parking lot also disposing of a trash bag. And so, there's some, obviously, they have surveillance videos, right, to, like, confirm all of this. But they can't really tell what he's getting rid of. Like, the, you know, it's grainy surveillance footage. And Barry says, like, hey, I'm cheap. I was on this, like, landscaping job.

[00:50:34] I needed to get rid of stuff. And I just didn't want to pay for a dump run. So, I was just, like, dropping things at random places for free. And so, I know this story is, like, a little overboard at this point. And, in fact, like, the title of the 48 Hours documentary covering this case is called Nothing is What It Seems. So, before I tell you what happens next, I just want to check in. Like, do we have any questions?

[00:51:03] Because the story keeps getting more convoluted from here. So, if we have questions, we need to address them, like, right now. No. No. I don't have any questions, but I'm on, like, pins and needles to see where this is going. I have, like, okay. So, this is Mother's Day morning on a Sunday. A Sunday, too. And the daughters are camping. Okay, I get it. You're teen, age 20-somethings, you know, you're self-centered. You're not spending Mother's Day necessarily with your mom. At least they call it while we're texted.

[00:51:32] But, you know, he's landscaping business. And, okay, and I think I read that he normally would not have started on a Sunday. That that was unusual that he would have started Sunday. But, okay, let me do a leap of faith and say, okay, maybe there was a need to start on a Sunday. Why would you need to spend several hours be doing all this, like, throwing stuff away, even if you're cheap?

[00:51:58] Wouldn't you be spending, especially if you just made up with your wife, spend at least a few hours with your wife so she's not alone on Mother's Day, at least until after lunchtime? I don't know. That's just one of my thoughts. No, I think that's right. Right. You know, some background to that. He had several other employees that were coming to this Holiday Inn and spending the night because they were going to get started, too. So there definitely was a landscaping job that had some urgency.

[00:52:29] But to your point, he's the boss. You don't have to be there on a Sunday morning. Like, you can get it started Friday afternoon and be like, here's what we're doing this weekend. Obviously, he didn't have to be there right away Sunday if he had enough time to be going and doing all this trash duties. Well, and he had actually told one of his employees that, hey, I need to wrap up and go spend some time with my wife. Like, we're going to go hiking or something.

[00:52:57] Like, he was playing the good husband to the employees. So, all right. Now, remember when we, again, going back to Lacey Peterson, we talked about how suspect it was that Scott Peterson started selling off things. Like, before she came home because if you think your wife's just missing or abducted, you don't get rid of her things because you are hopeful that she will return. Right?

[00:53:28] And it looks bad when you start selling these things. And so, I'm going to read you a little bit of this article from CrimeOnline.com, which reads, CrimeOnline.com obtained documents from Hamilton Superior Court in Hamilton County, Indiana, showing that Barry Morphew filed a petition for guardianship of Suzanne Morphew on June the 1st. Remember, this happened like Mother's Day weekend, May, early May.

[00:53:56] The pending petition states that Suzanne Morphew is, quote, deemed incapacitated under Indiana law because she cannot be located upon reasonable inquiry, end quote. The document also states that Barry Morphew is requesting to sell real estate in Indiana on behalf of Suzanne, who is the joint owner of a property that is currently in contract and scheduled to close on June the 6th.

[00:54:26] The need exists for the appointment of a guardian of the alleged incapacitated person and that she cannot be located upon a reasonable inquiry and property in Hamilton County, Indiana, and it needs to be sold, the petition wrote. A member of Suzanne Morphew's family who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that Barry and Suzanne owned multiple rental properties in Indiana and said they recalled Suzanne saying that the couple was planning on selling at least one of them.

[00:54:55] The family member said they were unaware of Barry Morphew's petition for guardianship when CrimeOnline asked them to comment. The court documents show that Suzanne and Suzanne and Suzanne Morphew's eldest daughter, who is an adult, provided consent for her father to be appointed guardianship of Suzanne. Well, that answers that one question that we had during the Lacey Peterson, like how he was... Right. Yeah. We had a lot of questions about like how you sell a house when your spouse is missing.

[00:55:23] And it sounds like in this case, like the property was already under contract. It wasn't like they had another house in Indiana that he put on the market after she went missing. They had already contracted it before she went missing. And for those who haven't heard the Lacey Peterson story, Scott Peterson, shortly thereafter, his wife went missing, was meeting with realtors, trying to talk about if he could sell the house.

[00:55:50] And we had a whole question about how could he sell the house if her name was on the property, especially, you know, so early. Sounds like a guardianship might be kind of how you would do it. But I don't know. I mean, it just feels like this is like 10 days, you know. So yes, can I do think... Here's the thing. As somebody who... Like our biggest job is to get the sale across the finish line, like and figuring out every hurdle that comes up after you have it contracted.

[00:56:19] Like you sell it to get it contracted and they sell like eight more times to get it done. Right. And so I do think if you have already had a contract in good faith where both parties want to sign it and sell it, then you say, okay, what is required to make this happen? I mean, that happens when people are in the hospital. Somebody is, you know, killed in a car wreck. I mean, God forbid all the things that can happen in 30 days to a person.

[00:56:50] I don't feel like this is as shady as it was in the Scott Peterson case because they had both agreed to sell this house. Okay. When you say it like that, it feels weird. But if it really was under contract and maybe I can, in my mind going, he did offer up a $100,000 reward. Maybe he needed to get cash, you know, you know, liquid cash pretty quickly. I'm going to be nice there. All right. So here's where we are.

[00:57:19] Barry has sold this house that he has under guardianship. But he doesn't waste any more time selling their home on Puma Path either. This is where we give him no more grace. One timeline I read said that he listed in the house in October of 2020. So that is only five months after Suzanne went missing.

[00:57:43] Now, MLS shows that the house sold in March of 2021 after being on the market only 52 days. So I'm expecting that, like, maybe they privately listed it in October. It's Colorado. It's, like, cold winter season. We've talked about private listings where, you know, it's like, hey, if you want to buy this, it's available. But we're going to wait to put it on the market until a better time. And I think that's probably what happened.

[00:58:12] And in case you're curious, ladies, Barry sold the house for $50,000 more than they paid for it in 2018. Okay. But we remember that 2020-2021 market. Like, everybody was dying to buy a house anywhere else besides where they lived. Yeah. And especially in Colorado. I mean, like, I mean, that time period, you know, people were wanting lake houses or mountain properties or beach houses somewhere with a little bit of elbow room.

[00:58:41] You know, if you couldn't be, you know, socializing or working in person or going to school, you wanted to at least, you know, to occupy your time in the beautiful surroundings. Yeah. And they had a gorgeous house in Colorado. Absolutely. So, but I saw a few blurbs on the case and it looks like he sold a couple of other properties. Yeah. No, you're right. Absolutely. So, he had some farmland that he had purchased maybe like right after she disappeared.

[00:59:12] From what I can tell, he bought like these two acres of a vacant lot in June of 2020. So, like, really quickly after she disappeared. The only thing that makes sense to me and I, you know, like, obviously, I don't like this guy, but I'm trying to give him some grace, right? I can see if like the media is camped out in front of your house and you're like, oh, well, I'll just take my camper. I mean, this guy like likes to camp. Excuse me, likes to camp. He likes to hunt.

[00:59:42] His daughters like to camp. He probably liked to camp too. Like, maybe he like is like, I'll just go live on these two acres in my camper for a while while like everything dies down. That's what I'm thinking. That's my gilded, most beautiful view of this. Yeah. You know, because what do you buy? Like, it's not big enough to hunt on. It's only two acres. It's actually smaller than their lot on Puma Path. Okay.

[01:00:08] Which was, gosh, like seven and a half acres maybe. It was big. It was huge. I mean, big enough that you can have a chipmunk hunting. Right. But what makes even less sense. Okay. So he bought this in June of 2020 and then he turned around in February of 2021 and sold it for a loss of $15,000. Which is like. Interesting. Did he just need the money? Maybe? Like, I don't know. I don't know.

[01:00:36] It feels like I could have grace to understand the guardianship and the selling of the Indiana property. But then after that, he seems to be on a selling buying spree in a time period where his wife is still missing. Yeah. It's a little odd. But I'm going to assume he needed the money. That's my assumption.

[01:00:58] Because in May of 2021, almost a year to the day after Suzanne Morphew went missing, Barry was arrested and charged with first degree murder and tampering with physical evidence. Well, that took him long enough. I mean, it did. Right? Like, what were you doing? I obviously think Barry did it. I'm not. We can tell. Yeah. Can you? Okay. Thanks. Anyway.

[01:01:24] So don't get too excited though, Elena, because in April of 22, almost a year after his arrest and right before he was set to go on trial, the prosecutors in the case decided, oh, maybe we shouldn't actually bring this case. So they asked for the case to be dismissed without prejudice. Not the defense, the prosecutors. And dismissed without prejudice means they can bring the case again. So that's good.

[01:01:54] But like, why would they do that other than to stall? Well, I think that's what they were thinking. So, okay. So we're April and it's Colorado. And so they say to the judge, we actually think we're really close to finding her body, but it's so cold and the weather's so bad that we can't do it right now. And we don't want to go to trial right now because we think we need a body. And so just dismiss this for right now and then we'll bring it back.

[01:02:22] Because at this time, it's all circumstantial evidence. I mean, it's weird, you know, it'd be, you know, kind of like with Lacey and Scott Peterson. There's a lot of, there's not, you know, there's a lot of just coincidental things, but there's no smoking gun. Gotcha.

[01:02:41] So Barry's attorney, Iris Etienne, I'm going to say E-Y-T-A-N, said they absolutely dismissed this case at this point because they knew they were going to lose this trial. And Mr. Morphew was going to be acquitted and exonerated. And indeed, it sounds like sort of their chances of losing were pretty good because in addition to not having a body, the prosecution had failed to turn over exculpatory evidence.

[01:03:10] You know, that pesky info that supports a defendant's innocence in trial. And from what I've researched, that evidence definitely had the ability to prove jurors had a reasonable doubt because they found DNA matching an unknown sex offender in Suzanne's car. Right? Uh-oh. That's a big deal. Yeah. Like that is definitely reasonable doubt. Mm-hmm.

[01:03:38] Um, a CBS News.com article said, since Barry Morphew's arrest, his defense attorneys had asked Judge Ramsey Lama multiple times to dismiss the charges against him. Over the past several months, they pressed the judge to issue severe sanctions on the prosecution for failing to turn over potentially exculpatory evidence ahead of trial.

[01:04:03] And the judge imposed damaging sanctions, including barring 11 of their 16 endorsed expert witnesses, among others, experts in DNA, vehicle data, and a cell phone data analyst as punishment for violating discovery rules.

[01:04:41] Mm-hmm. They really just didn't have a case. Sounds like a big oversight? Oversight? Oversight or mistake or just shadiness? Yeah. I don't know. It feels like more shadiness than anything to me. There's something wrong. Like, you know, let's call a spade a spade.

[01:05:09] Like, you know, this was wrong for them to do that. Yeah. Doesn't mean that I still don't think that there's a—they have a case. But, you know, to be fair, they were going about it the wrong way. Gotcha. Essentially, they did not want to share with the defense that they had found this DNA of an unknown sex offender. And actually, like, I did a little bit of—when I was first researching this case, I was like, unknown sex offender. But I'm like, oh, they have DNA from an assault that they don't know who it matches. Yeah.

[01:05:38] So the DNA's in the system, but they don't know who it belongs to. Now, but if I seem to recall, wasn't it—I mean, it was like a fingerprint or— I just said—my research said DNA. It could— I mean, I thought—I mean, yes, somebody could have definitely been in the car, but it could have been that her car was cleaned recently or, you know, by somebody or she had touched—

[01:06:02] So it wasn't to say that there was a sex offender in her, like that she knew— Or Barry was a sex offender? How? Oh. Well, I think we would know about that. I bet they probably tested that. But I think you're right. Like, could she have taken her car to the car wash? Could she have taken it to be serviced? Could she have, like, had a valet that jumped in the car? There's a lot of ways you could have DNA in your car. Yeah.

[01:06:30] But regardless, ladies, Barry just, like, leaves jail and goes, so I'm a free man. Mm-hmm. He does get convicted of something, which reminds me of our Al Capone case. Like, if you can't get him on what you want him for, get him on something else. Yes. So apparently, Barry Leis really wanted to make America great again.

[01:06:59] And he thought that President Trump needed every vote he could get. Now, remember, this is, like, 2020, not recent, right? Mm-hmm. And so despite the fact that Suzanne is missing, he votes not only for himself, but also for Suzanne. And he completed an absentee ballot on her behalf. He later told authorities he just wanted Trump to win. Oh, yeah. Why not? Yeah. And a pusher was like, my wife would have voted for him anyway. She's not here.

[01:07:29] But, you know, he needs her vote. But he did go on to plead guilty of one felony charge of forgery and was sentenced to $600 and one year of probation. That's just a slap on the wrist. I mean, it's not even a slap. It's like a thumbs up. Wink, wink. Okay. But wait, ladies. This story is far from over. Still? I know. Still, right? Like, I just keep talking. And there's more to it.

[01:07:58] It's crazy. Well, I told y'all in our text, like, I spent more time researching this story than I have anything since our original JonBenet. Like, it... And I told you, like, I've been mentioning this for a while because I was like, I saw some pictures of the house. It's kind of cool. The fact that there's this weird stuff with the chipmunks in the house and the fact that it's just, like, twists and turns. Yeah. As a matter of fact, like, a couple weeks ago, I was like, so what story am I doing next?

[01:08:26] And Millie's like, hello, I gave you a list. This is a good one. I was like, oh, damn. Thank you so much. She went there in the text. Yeah. All right. So, story's far from over. We are going to now fast forward 13 months to May of 2023. Barry Morphew brings a malicious prosecution law school... Law school? Lawsuit against Chafee County.

[01:08:52] Its sheriff's department, its district attorney, Linda Stanley, and the local and state investigators. And he is seeking $15 million in damages. The lawsuit alleged that investigators fabricated evidence. They engaged in a conspiracy to charge him. They conducted a reckless investigation. And they didn't follow up on some evidence.

[01:09:19] And like we said, they withheld exculpatory evidence from the defendant. But that's really ballsy for the prosecution to hear because they can still press charges against him, right? Or still bring him to trial. Right. Yeah. So like they didn't press charge or like they didn't go to trial. So we're not talking a double jeopardy incident. Like they can absolutely decide to like charge him and go to trial again. It's dumb. Yeah.

[01:09:44] Well, and it makes me think of the JonBenet case. We just talked about that, right? But we've talked about how like if you actually weren't involved, why would you keep pursuing things? Why would you keep asking for DNA? Why would you keep filing lawsuits? Why? If you got away with it, why wouldn't you just like... Just settle down. Be cool, man. Be cool. Hubris. Right. Well, maybe that's it.

[01:10:12] Maybe that's part of the psyche of that kind of person. We would be like, oh my God, we got away with it. Let's just like chill, man. Chill. I mean, not that we would have ever done anything bad. Of course. So he files this lawsuit in May of 2023. And in September of 2024, like a year plus later, while investigating a totally separate case that has nothing to do with Suzanne.

[01:10:39] Suzanne and is about two and a half hours away from the town of Salida, authorities find Suzanne's body. Now, they completed her autopsy fairly quickly and they found that her cause of death was sort of undetermined, but they decided the manner of death was homicide. That sounds so weird. We don't know how you died, but it was bad. It was real bad. Yeah.

[01:11:06] It was not like natural causes. And I was actually really paying attention to the story at this time period because I had gotten into it a little while beforehand. And so when they found her body, it was like big deal. And what it was was they were actually looking for another missing woman. And it was while they were trying to find this other missing woman, they found her. Okay. Yikes. It's so sad. Horrible.

[01:11:35] And despite the fact that her autopsy was handled very quickly, it took seven months for the toxicology reports to be released. That's brutal. It's a long time. It's a long time. Can I ask something really fast? Yeah. Do you know anything about the daughters at this point? Well, so the daughters 100% believe that their dad is innocent. They are. Yeah. I don't know what they think happened, but they don't think dad had anything to do with it. Okay.

[01:12:02] So, like I said, it took seven months for the toxicology reports to be released. And in the meantime, a statement by Barry's attorney, like right after the discovery of Suzanne's body reads, quote, For the past four years, the Morpheus have agonized over Suzanne's disappearance. This included not only the pain of the loss of their wife and mother, but also the false accusations and prosecution of Barry Morphew.

[01:12:31] The Morphews have prayed the authorities would remove their blinders and not only find Suzanne, but find the suspect responsible for her disappearance and murder. However, the Morphews are left with more questions than answers and a lack of justice for Suzanne, the family, and the community.

[01:12:49] On May 10th, 2020, around 5 a.m., Barry Morphew went to work, driving approximately 160 miles north of the Morphew home for a job that had been planned for months. In 2020, investigators confirmed that Suzanne was a regular morning coffee drinker. And DNA testing done in 2020 confirmed that the half-finished cup of coffee left on the kitchen counter on May 10th, 2020 was covered in her DNA only.

[01:13:19] The autopsy now also confirms that on the day she disappeared, Suzanne had her morning cup of coffee, as shown by the caffeine in the toxicology report. The autopsy also confirms that she put on her mountain bike clothes, was either getting ready for or was already on her morning bike ride when she was abducted, allegedly drugged, and buried 50 miles south of their home. I'm almost done with this quote.

[01:13:45] Despite the fact that unknown male DNA was found in Suzanne's car where her bike was parked, on her bike grips, handlebars, and bike seat, the authorities will not tell the Morphew family whether Suzanne's bike clothes, collected seven months ago with her remains, have been tested for DNA. DNA left on her clothing by the murder could bring justice for Suzanne, her family, and the community.

[01:14:08] The authorities will also not provide the Morphews any information regarding whether they have performed any testing on the bullet that was collected with Suzanne's remains. Yep. Like, that was... But they weren't really sure, like, was it really with her? Like, they didn't tell that she was shot. It's like, could it have just been buried in the woods with her? This is a hunting area, right? Like, they didn't really know about that. So, um, the authorities offered the victims Barry, Mallory, and Macy the option to retrieve Suzanne's remains,

[01:14:38] but they want to ensure the suspect is apprehended before they take what could be an important piece of evidence in the suspect's prosecution. The family is quite skeptical about the integrity of this investigation, as the very same investigators that concealed the unknown male DNA continued to be involved in this investigation and were present at the autopsy of Suzanne Morphew. And look, I think this is valid.

[01:15:06] Like, as much as I think he did it, this is a lot of, like, questionable evidence, right? Like, I don't get why he brought up the DNA on the coffee cup. Well, I think they brought up the DNA on the coffee cup to show that she was alive that morning as opposed to the night before. Because they're...

[01:15:28] The investigator's theory is that he came home on Saturday and, like, went into a rage when she was, like, getting ready for this WhatsApp with Jeff to be, like, sexy time. Mm-hmm. But then, you know, I also wonder, okay, what if she just didn't wash her coffee cup from the day before? What if it's the same coffee cup? I mean, yeah. Like, give me, like, you know, it was a quick span of time. She could have just had the coffee cup, you know, on there.

[01:15:57] But they're saying she had caffeine in her system in the toxicology report. I don't know how long that... That's... That was what I say. That's amazing to me. They would have caffeine in a toxicology report, you know... Years later. Years later. Years later. Yeah. Okay. I mean, look, we all think Barry did it, right? I mean, do we have a show of hands? I think he did it. But is there enough evidence to be, like, eh? Yeah, there's enough evidence.

[01:16:26] From a reasonable doubt as a person on the jury. I don't know that I can convict him. I agree. There's reasonable doubt there. I think that's probably why the authorities haven't given a lot of details about this, is they are hedging their bets. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Okay. So, seven months after her remains were found, the coroner finally released these toxicology reports. And they found, like we said, that she had the caffeine in her system.

[01:16:53] They also found that she had chemicals in her bones that do not appear naturally in humans. Now, it noted remnants of her chemotherapy medication because we said, like, she had had this recurrence of her childhood cancer. It also noted the presence of these three chemicals. And I think this is the smoking gun.

[01:17:16] I'm sure to butcher their names here, but it's butyrophenol, azeperone, and metatomidine. I don't know. Regardless, it doesn't matter what they are. These chemicals are all used by biologists, wildlife officers, and hunters to anesthetize large-sized animals such as deer, moose, bear, and horses. And those probably could have also been chemicals that were in that dart.

[01:17:44] One hundred percent. Like, absolutely the kind of chemicals that were in that dart, which is like... Okay, here's my guess. He's going to wash his clothes because he doesn't want authorities to, like, get any sort of blood, blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever. He dries them. And he does not realize this dart cap falls out of some sort of, like... He's probably wearing, like, a hoodie with pockets or something.

[01:18:13] The amount of weird things I find in the washing machine that were in my kids' pockets. I'm always annoyed that some things, you know, that take out the wrappers or, you know, whatever. Right. It was the... And it was the cap to a dart they found. Not the dart itself. Yeah. It was the cap, right? Like, so a cap implies it's been used recently. And he was saying that he hadn't used that in... In years since they moved from... Yeah.

[01:18:40] So I should note, like we said, Barry's daughters stand firmly behind him. They believe he's innocent. And that's sort of the end of the story for now. Like, currently Barry's a free man, though he could be prosecuted again at a later date. But until they're able to, like, track down this unknown male sex offender's DNA, I think they always have that reasonable doubt issue where they're, like, worried to prosecute him.

[01:19:09] Because if they prosecute him and he's found not guilty, then they can't do it again because of double jeopardy. Right. So I think they're just sort of hiding their time. I should note that the judge did throw out Barry's $15 million lawsuit against everyone involved in his previous arrest and prosecution. And now we just sort of wait to see what happens. Spoiler alert, we sort of already talked about the house.

[01:19:38] Remember, Barry petitioned for guardianship and he sold it not even a year after Suzanne went missing. But I still have to ask the question of every episode, given what you know, given the house, given the location, given everything, would you live there or would you list it? No to both. Really? Okay.

[01:20:03] The thought of her being chased around the property really is upsetting. Okay. Would you list it? No. You wouldn't list it either. Okay. See, this is where I get lean. Like, I sure would love a Colorado mansion. Even with, what do we call it? That weird point. The prowl. The prowl. I love that though.

[01:20:32] That's random. That's weird. You know how I love windows. Yes. And you have great windows. Yeah. No, I mean, I think I would, mostly because we can't 100% say anything happened in the house. But if there was more evidence it had happened, I'd probably be different. Yeah, I think. And we know you love Colorado. I do love Colorado.

[01:21:04] I think I'd live there and I would list it. It's a big piece of property with great views. So that helps. Right? And you don't, you don't have a definitive answer. So I think in your mind, it's like when my kid goes skiing and I'm terrified, but I'm like, oh, he's probably at the bottom of the mountain right now. I don't have to worry because he's not currently skiing. I love it. That's what I, that's what I would do the whole time I lived there. I'd be like, we don't really know.

[01:21:34] She didn't really die here. Mental gymnastics. Mm-hmm. Yes, exactly. I would do mental gymnastics because the property is so amazing. Okay. Yeah. So that's, that's where I would be. Um, yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. But I'm sort of surprised she wouldn't live there. Just that the, that really creeps me out. Just thinking about like. Yeah. Like the terror. Chasing creeps you out. Yeah. Potentially. Yeah. I don't think so. No. And every time you saw a chipmunk, you'd be like, no, you should be dead by now.

[01:22:04] Yeah. I don't like it. And for our viewers, I put a picture of the house up on screen again. Yeah. It's so great. And I'm kind of like, chipmunks, like chipmunks are cute. What kind of damage could they have been doing? So next week, my plan is to have like some scrolling pictures of the house so we can get more. Because it's really gorgeous inside too. Like it is typical Colorado prime real estate gorgeousness.

[01:22:34] Like vaulted ceilings, antler chandelier. You know, it's not like what I would want in Dallas. But if I were going to move to Colorado, it's 100% what I would want. There's definitely houses that are of the location. Right. The location. Absolutely. Well, okay. Y'all, today's episode ran a little long. So thank you guys for sticking with us because we were really interested in this story and I wanted to cover it adequately.

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