Log in
My Account
Subscribe 99¢ for 3 months
Newsletter

Today's Digital Newspaper

The Gazette

Weather Block Here

Login
My Account
Subscribe
Newsletter

Archive Information

Carrier Portal

Search

Buy Our Photos

Documents released in Barry Morphew murder case reveal behind-the-scenes details

By Carol McKinley November 8, 2021 | updated 4 years ago

1 of 2
Suzanne Morphew.jpg

Suzanne Morphew was reported missing Mother's Day 2020. Her body has never been found.

A judge on Monday released hundreds of pages of documents in the case against Barry Morphew, a Chaffee County man accused of murdering his wife, Suzanne, on or around Mother’s Day 2020.

Documents obtained by The Denver Gazette show 454 pages of motions, filings and court orders that until Monday had not been made public, including the prosecution’s over 500-person witness list. On that list are the Morphews’ two adult daughters and also people who were close to the couple including siblings, neighbors and family friends.

Exclusive: Barry Morphew attorneys to sue case investigators for false arrest, defamation

Also scheduled to testify are several of Barry Morphew’s employees who witnessed his behavior on the day Suzanne Morphew, 49, was reported missing. Taking the stand as well are numerous investigators from the FBI, Homeland Security, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and Chaffee County sheriff’s deputies — many of whom have worked on the investigation from the beginning — and trackers who used bloodhounds to search for the Maysville mother of two.

Also on the witness list is Suzanne Morphew’s lover of nearly two years, Jeff Libler, whom she knew from high school and started contacting by text message when the couple moved to Colorado from Indiana in 2018.

Top Morphew prosecutor leaving the case

The documents released Monday also include protective orders against Barry Morphew from at least 10 of his missing wife’s friends and family including her sister and brothers, Melinda, David and Andrew Moorman; two close friends with whom she confided about her failing marriage; and one of Barry Morphew’s employees.

The case filings reveal a battle between Barry Morphew’s attorneys and prosecutors over DNA, which was collected via a swab by investigators from the glovebox of Suzanne Morphew’s Range Rover soon after she disappeared. The defense said the DNA belongs to a sex offender who lives in Prescott, Arizona.

In a motion for sanctions filed Aug. 2, Barry Morphew’s attorneys contend that the prosecution knew about the possible suspect and didn’t share their findings until after the four-day evidentiary hearings this past August.

DA requests Barry Morphew's bond be revoked because ankle monitor can't be detected

In a response dated Aug. 3, District Attorney Linda Stanley admitted that when the alert went out June 2 regarding the discovery of a match between the glovebox profile and a sex offender in Arizona, the investigators assigned to the forensics didn’t do any work on it.

Sign Up For Free: Weekly 7

Catch up with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories delivered to your inbox every Thursday.

View all of our newsletters.

Success! Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter.

View all of our newsletters.

function subscribeSuccess() {
var nsltrform = document.querySelector(“#nsltr”);
var nsltrSuccess = document.querySelector(“#successnsltr”);

nsltrform.classList.add(“hideblock”);
nsltrSuccess.classList.remove(“hideblock”);
}

function validateEmail(email) {
return String(email)
.toLowerCase()
.match(
/^(([^()[]\.,;:s@”]+(.[^()[]\.,;:s@”]+)*)|(“.+”))@(([[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}.[0-9]{1,3}])|(([a-zA-Z-0-9]+.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,}))$/
);
}

function validateEmailAddress() {
const result = document.querySelector(“#result”);
const email = document.querySelector(“#email”).value;

result.innerText = “”;

if(validateEmail(email)) {
newsletterSubscribe(email);
} else {
result.innerText = ‘The email entered: ‘ + email + ‘ is not valid :(‘;
result.style.color = “red”;
}
return false;
}

function newsletterSubscribe(email) {
fetch(“https://services.gazette.com/mg2-newsletters.php?action=subscribe&site=denvergazette.com&emailPreferenceId=69&email=” + email, {
method: “POST”
}).then(res => {
console.log(“SUCCESSFUL POST”);
subscribeSuccess();
});

}

#nsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: #2076b3;

background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/dg%20weekly%207.png);
background-size: cover;

}

#nsltr-header {
color: #fff4f4;
}
#nsltr-body {
text-align: center;
color: #ffffff;
}
#nsltr-button {
margin-top: 5px;
}
#successnsltr {
min-width: 100%;
margin: 10px 0;
padding: 10px 20px;
background-color: green;
text-align: center;
color: white;
}

#successnsltr a {
color: white;
}

.hideblock {
display:none;
}

h6 a {
color: black;
text-decoration: none;
padding: 5px;
background-color: #bbccdd;
font-weight: 600;
}

@media only screen and (min-width: 768px) {
#nsltr {
background-image: url(https://static.gazette.com/emails/circ/Audience%20Images/dg%20weekly%207.png);
background-size: cover;
}
}

Featured Local Savings

It’s unclear whether the prosecution ever followed up on the DNA lead.

Barry Morphew girlfriend arrested for trespassing at former family home

In response to defense allegations that the prosecution is burying them with reams of documents, Stanley wrote that evidence in the case involves a terabyte of discovery that was delivered to Barry Morphew’s attorneys by an investigator on June 22, plus at least 86 DVDs, numerous CD’, flashdrives and external hard drives listed as being delivered since July. “Discovery is an ongoing process and will continue until the conclusion of the case,” Stanley wrote.

The investigation involves numerous hard drives that contain search warrants, witness interviews, DNA reports, cellphone records, surveillance video and telematics, or technology that shows GPS records of where a vehicle has been.

In a motions hearing scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, the defense plans to ask that the case against Barry Morphew, 54, be dismissed based on discovery and pretrial publicity issues. The defense argues that Stanley “crossed the line” by speaking to reporters and doing an interview with several YouTube programs, which they say was an attempt to influence a prospective jury.

Barry Morphew, who was released on $500,000 cash bond in September, is living close to the Morphew family home in Maysville in the San Juan Mountains west of Salida. The area is so remote the GPS on his ankle monitor goes undetected. After discovering this problem, District Judge Patrick Murphy recently ordered Barry Morphew to check in every day in nearby Pagosa Springs to download GPS data of his whereabouts for investigators.

Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence since his wife’s disappearance. Early on, he speculated that she might have been dragged away by a mountain lion. His attorneys have suggested that she was kidnapped and killed by someone else, even suggesting in court that she fled to Ecuador to wait for her lover. Her car keys and purse were found, but not her cellphone.

Prosecutors say Barry Morphew killed his wife in an act of domestic violence because he knew she was planning to leave him. They believe he murdered her when he came home the Saturday before Mother’s Day, upon discovering her sending Libler a photo of her in a bikini. In court, prosecutors say they eliminated Libler as a suspect because his phone and credit card records placed him in Michigan that weekend.

According to courtroom testimony from investigators, Suzanne Morphew and Libler fell in love over text and WhatsApp, meeting in person at least six times in New Orleans, Indiana, Florida, Michigan and Texas.

Tuesday’s hearing starts at 1:30 p.m.

69f66328-40db-11ec-8bee-2fcc139dabd5

View Original Article | Split View
Carol McKinley

Reporter

PREV

PREVIOUS

Native Americans sue Colorado to throw out mascot ban

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A law passed by the Democrat-controlled Colorado legislature threatening public schools with a $25,000 fine for using any American Indian name as a mascot is being challenged in federal court by Native Americans who believe it violates their civil rights. Five plaintiffs filed a lawsuit […]

NEXT

NEXT UP

Colorado hospitals, nursing homes need hundreds more staff to meet Gov. Jared Polis' 500-bed surge goal

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s hospitals and nursing homes will need hundreds of additional staff in the next month to meet Gov. Jared Polis’ goal of adding 500 hospital beds by mid-December, industry officials said Thursday. Colorado has the health infrastructure to add the needed beds, officials say. What’s […]