Barry Morphew, the man charged with the first-degree murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, made his first appearance in 12th Judicial District Court Tuesday afternoon. Chief Judge Amanda Hopkins presided over the hearing.
A 12th Judicial District Grand Jury handed down a first-degree murder indictment in late June. A warrant was then issued for his arrest. He was living in the Phoenix area under the name Lee Moore. He was arrested by Arizona police and taken into custody days after the indictment. He was extradited and booked into the Alamosa County Detention Center on Monday.
Barry Morphew’s counsel, David Beller and Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, requested 60 days to review the discovery and grand jury materials from 12th District Attorney Anne Kelly.
A status conference was set for Sept. 2, where a challenge to the probable cause may be filed by Morphew’s counsel.
Suzanne Morphew was declared missing on May 10, 2020, Mother’s Day. Barry Morphew was originally charged with the death of Suzanne Morphew in the 11th Judicial District in 2021. Those charges were dropped in 2022 with prejudice, meaning they could be filed again.
After charges were dropped, he filed a lawsuit seeking $15 million in damages against investigators from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, Chaffee County, and the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office. He and his family have maintained his innocence since Suzanne Morphew was declared missing. One of his daughters was present in court Tuesday.
The remains of Suzanne Morphew were found along Highway 17 in Saguache County, near the town of Moffat, in September 2023. CBI investigators were searching for the remains of another person when they found Suzanne Morphew’s body.
An autopsy conducted by the El Paso County Coroner’s office confirmed her identity and that her cause of death was determined to be “homicide by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication.”
This chemical mixture is a common tranquilizer used on a wide variety of animals. It is commonly referred to as BAM. BAM can only be acquired through a veterinarian prescription. According to the grand jury indictment, Barry Morphew had several prescriptions of BAM filled in Indiana before he and his wife moved to Colorado in 2018.
Investigators obtained records of BAM prescriptions in Chaffee County and surrounding counties. They also spoke with Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Parks Service, which keep a stock of the mixture. The indictment states that no private business or person had filled BAM prescriptions from 2017-2020. CPW and NPS did not have any doses 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.”
Video from Pool Report/KRDO13: