CAVE CREEK, Ariz. – More than 600 miles from Salida, Colorado, where Suzanne Morphew disappeared on Mother’s Day in 2020, Barry Morphew has found solace in Arizona, distancing himself from the state where authorities once attempted to charge him with his wife’s murder but did not succeed.
Barry Morphew was charged by a grand jury with first-degree murder on June 20, concerning the case of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, a 49-year-old mother of two. He was taken into custody in Goodyear, Arizona, which is nearly 11 hours away from where Suzanne was last seen.
After murder charges related to Suzanne’s disappearance were withdrawn in 2022 due to claims of prosecutorial errors and failure to follow discovery rules, Barry Morphew made his home in Cave Creek, Arizona. The mishandling of the case led the judge to prohibit several key state witnesses from giving testimony.
One restaurant employee in Cave Creek, Arizona told Fox News Digital he didn’t know Barry Morphew by his first name – and thought he was an entirely different person. Charlie Loots, bar manager at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral, told Fox News Digital that Barry Morphew went by the name “Bruce.”
Libby Spruill said Barry Morphew flirted with him when they were at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral in 2024. (Libby Spruill)
According to the June 20 grand jury indictment, Barry Morphew went by the alias “Lee Moore.” A local gas station clerk told Fox News Digital he knew Barry Morphew by the name “Lee.”
Public records indicate Barry Morphew paid property taxes at the Stardust Trailer park and was self-employed. In Colorado, he was a landscaper and independent contractor, but he didn’t hold any professional license to do either in Arizona.
Colin McCallin, a Colorado-based lawyer and former deputy district attorney for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office in Colorado, told Fox News Digital the use of two aliases is uncommon.
“That’s weird,” McCallin said. “I mean, that certainly is evidence that this is a person who does not want to be known by his true name, maybe even, know, a little reckless with the use of those aliases.”
“It’s clear he did not want to be known by Barry,” he said, adding its possible Barry Morphew was trying to live a double life in Cave Creek, Arizona.
Prosecutors wrote in a June 20 indictment that the chemicals butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine were found in Suzanne Morphew’s bone marrow. They alleged that Barry Morphew used “BAM” deer tranquilizer to sedate and transport deer on his farm when he lived in Indiana.
Barry Morphew (R) and Suzanne Morphew (L) (Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office and Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)
Barry Morphew was also the only person with a prescription for the deer tranquilizer within the area of the state he lived in, prosecutors said. The only two other entities with access to the BAM compound within the surrounding counties were Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Park Service, officials said.
“Ultimately, the prescription records show that when Suzanne Morphew disappeared, only one private citizen living in that entire area of the state had access to BAM: Barry Morphew,” the indictment states.
Morphew’s attorney, David Beller, previously told Fox News Digital Morphew “maintains his innocence.”
“Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence,” Beller said. “The case has not changed, and the outcome will not either.”
Barry Morphew’s lawyer declined to comment.
