DENVER — On Tuesday, the husband of a woman who vanished on Mother’s Day in 2020 is scheduled to make his first court appearance in Colorado since facing new murder charges related to her death.
Barry Morphew was taken into custody on June 20 in Arizona following a new indictment in the murder of Suzanne Morphew, three years after the original case was dismissed due to issues with the evidence presented by prosecutors.
Officials reported on Monday that he had been transferred to the jail in the small city of Alamosa, located in southern Colorado, near where Suzanne Morphew’s skeletal remains were discovered off a dirt road in September 2023.
Her remains were discovered accidentally as authorities were searching for another missing woman a year after prosecutors dropped their initial prosecution of Morphew.
A 2024 autopsy report said Suzanne Morphew died of “unspecified means” but ruled her death a homicide. While her remains showed no signs of trauma, investigators found in her bone marrow a drug cocktail used to tranquilize wildlife that her husband had a prescription for, according to the indictment.
Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence since his wife disappeared.
Two attorneys listed in court documents as representing Morphew at Tuesday’s hearing, David Beller and Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, did not immediately return telephone or email messages seeking comment. Beller has previously criticized prosecutors for allowing “their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence.”
The mystery surrounding Suzanne Morphew began when the 49-year-old mother of two daughters, who lived near the small mountain community of Salida, Colorado, was reported missing on Mother’s Day 2020.
Her mountain bike and helmet were found in separate spots not far from her home, but investigators suspected the bike was purposefully thrown into a ravine because there were no indications of a crash. A week after his wife went missing, Barry Morphew posted a video on Facebook pleading for her safe return and the case quickly drew attention.
In May 2021, prosecutors charged him with murder. They subsequently dropped the case in 2022 just as Morphew was about to stand trial.
A judge had barred prosecutors from calling key witnesses after the attorneys repeatedly failed to follow rules for turning over evidence in Morphew’s favor.
The latest case is being prosecuted by a different prosecutor in a separate judicial district where Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found, a rural area about 40 miles south of the Morphews’ home.
Investigators found at the site a port through which Suzanne Morphew could receive medicine to treat follicular lymphoma, a type of blood cancer that she had. They also found biking clothes similar to what she was known to wear.
Based on the condition of the remains and clothes, a forensic anthropologist theorized that the body likely decomposed elsewhere before being moved to the site, according to Morphew’s new indictment.
