Barry Morphew, the husband of Suzanne Morphew whose body was found in Saguache County in September 2023, has been indicted on first-degree murder from a 12th Judicial District Grand Jury. Morphew was arrested in Arizona and is expected to be extradited back to the San Luis Valley in the coming days.
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing from Chaffee County on Mother’s Day 2020. Barry Morphew was first arrested in 2021 in the 11th Judicial District on first-degree murder charges. Those charges were dropped in April 2022 after the district attorney dismissed them with prejudice.Â
After the charges were dropped, Barry Morphew filed a lawsuit seeking $15 million in damages against investigators working forT the Colorado Bureau of Investigations and Federal Bureau of Investigation, Chaffee County, and the Chaffee County’s Sheriff’s Office. He and his family have claimed his innocence and that he was wrongfully charged with his wife’s disappearance.
“Federal, State and local law enforcement have never stopped working toward justice for Suzanne.” said 12th Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly. “The Twelfth Judicial District Attorney’s Office stands in solidarity with Suzanne’s family and the citizens of Chaffee and Saguache Counties in pursuing the Grand Jury’s indictment.”
Suzanne Morphew was first reported missing on May 10, 2020, after she didn’t return home from a bike ride. Her bicycle remained the only piece of physical evidence of her disappearance until her remains were found in an undisclosed location near Moffat in September 2023.
In April 2024, CBI announced the results from the autopsy conducted by the El Paso County Coroner and found the cause of death as “homicide by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication.” This combination of chemicals is referred to as BAM.
According to the grand jury indictment, records were obtained for prescriptions of the mixture relating to Barry Morphew, persons within the counties and counties adjacent to where the Morphews lived and where Suzanne Morphew’s remains were recovered. The indictment states that Barry Morphew filled several prescriptions while living in Indiana and his last purchase was in March 2018.
“Barry obtained multiple kits that each contained multiple doses just a few months before the Morphews moved to Colorado,” the indictment reads.
No further records showed that any other private citizens or private businesses in any of the surrounding counties had purchased BAM prescriptions from 2017-2020. Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Park Service were the only entities that received prescriptions of BAM in those counties from 2017 through 2020. Investigators learned that CPW and NPS enforce tight regulations to monitor the prescriptions’ storage and use.
“None of the BAM from those agencies was unaccounted for,” the indictment states. “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 12th Judicial District Attorney’s Office will be assisted by the Boulder County District Attorney’s Office during the prosecution. The Denver County District Attorney’s Office will also provide appellate support.
Any indictment or filing of charges is an official allegation. The defendant is presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.