Suzanne Morphew: The Mountain Mystery

On Mother’s Day 2020, Suzanne Morphew, a wife and mother battling cancer, allegedly went for a bike ride near her home in the Colorado Mountains and vanished. What began as a missing persons case quickly unraveled into a web of confusing secrets, including an affair, deleted messages, and the shocking discovery of tranquilizer darts.

From the beginning, her husband, Barry Morphew, was under scrutiny as his stories seemed to keep changing. Although charges were eventually dropped against him without prejudice, the case was far from over. We revisit this complex and deeply tragic story, and discuss the significant new developments. We break down the recent, heartbreaking discovery of Suzanne’s remains and the crucial finding of a specific drug in her bone marrow. This new evidence completely changes the dynamic of the investigation. Listen as we discuss the shocking twists and what comes next in the search for justice for Suzanne and her two daughters.

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TRANSCRIPT:

[00:00:00] It was Mother's Day 2020 when Suzanne Morphy, a wife and mom in the midst of a cancer battle, allegedly went for a bike ride near her home in the Colorado Mountains and never returned. What started as a missing persons case quickly spiraled into a web of confusing secrets that included an affair, tranquilizer darts, deleted messages, and a husband whose stories just keep changing.

Hey guys, and welcome to the Moms and Mysteries podcast, a True Crime podcast featuring myself, Mandy, and my dear friend Melissa. Hi, Melissa. Hi, Mandy. How are you? I am doing well. Just sitting by the window and watching the rain clouds roll in, hoping it doesn't start raining. As we are recording, yes, and because I'm paranoid and it rains all the time.

I am back in the closet, back in the closet, back in the closet. Not like r Kelly. Um, [00:01:00] wait, no, that's Eminem cleaning out my closet, right? No, but r Kelly has something about, you're thinking of two different songs. Hold on. Our Kelly cleaning up. Wait, no. What was our Kelly's piece? Came out trapped in the closet.

Trapped in the closet, Melissa. But you know what? I do need to do clean out my closet. So maybe that's really what I was thinking. Same. Yeah. It's al always, every time I have to go in here, I'm like, oh, I gotta, I gotta start working in this and then I won't. I'll just be mad about it the next time I have to come in the closet.

But yes, we had a great episode last week, last Thursday as one of our extra episodes. We talked to Kate Casey with Reality Life, with Kate Casey, and we talked about. Documentaries and she mentioned one that I had not watched and I started, and I am only stopping right now just to record this and I want to get back to it.

So let's get into it, man. Which one is that though? I want know The Keepers. It's the one, the keepers that she, oh, okay. There's so many layers in that, but. Yeah, it just is so much more [00:02:00] than I even realized. But if you want more documentaries, that's a great episode. To kind of find like Kate, who like literally talks to these directors and everybody that's involved in these and she has a memory like nobody.

I've met amazing how many times She was just rattling off names. I'm like, off the top of your head, right? Like, and dates and and things and all towns, everything. I'm like, we can't even say a town whenever it's written right in front of us. Right? And you just remembered it. So anyway, it was a lot of fun and if you're looking for something to watch, that would be a great episode to listen to.

Awesome. So today we're discussing the mysterious case of Suzanne Morphy. She was a woman who really seemed to have it all on the outside, but her story took a dark and tragic turn on Mother's Day in 2020. Suzanne was born in Indiana in the spring of 1971 to her parents, Jean and Adrian, she was raised with a sister named Melinda and two brothers named David and Andrew.

The family lived in the small town of Alexandria, Indiana, and [00:03:00] they lived the typical small town life. Suzanne was popular and well liked after high school. She went on to attend Purdue University where she met one of her lifelong friends, Sheila Oliver. Suzanne began a career as a teacher, but she eventually decided to focus on raising a family.

She married Barry Morph in 1994, who is someone she actually knew from high school, and the couple eventually had two daughters named Mallory and Macy. As I said before, from the outside, this was a family who seemed like they really had it all, but as we know, things aren't always what they seem. Barry had a successful landscaping business in Indiana and later in Colorado where he also owned some real estate and worked as a volunteer firefighter.

He'd been drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays right out of high school, so he was kind of this local golden boy, if you will, in 2018. He convinced Suzanne to move the family to Selita, Colorado, and he [00:04:00] said that they were moving there to be closer to one of their daughters who was in college. But Suzanne's sister later said that she believed Suzanne agreed to the move as a last ditch effort to save the marriage.

Ferry later admitted that the move actually had a lot to do with him wanting better hunting. By 2020, Suzanne was in the middle of the biggest fight of her life. She'd been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and the prognosis was devastating. At this time, her cancer was stage four. Despite everything though, she had recently gotten into mountain biking and it was something that she was doing on a regular basis, even as she was going through treatment.

Then on May 10th, 2020, which was Mother's Day, Suzanne was reported missing at 5:46 PM a neighbor told authorities that she thought Suzanne was missing and believed she'd been gone since about eight or nine o'clock that morning. When the police arrived at the Mor few house just to check on things, they found all the doors were locked, and there were no signs of [00:05:00] forced entry anywhere.

Suzanne's car was in the garage, but she was not there. It was also noted that her bike was gone later. Suzanne's blue Santa Cruz mountain bike was found, tossed down a hill off a dirt road less than a mile from her house. There were no signs of a crash, no skid marks, no blood and no damage to the bike.

It looked like the bike had been purposely thrown down in that spot. Days later, Suzanne's helmet was found about a mile away off the side of Highway 50, and there were tire tracks nearby. But otherwise, no sign of any attack. Barry told the police that his wife had planned on going for a bike ride that morning.

He said he left early to go on a work trip to Broomfield and Suzanne was still asleep when he left. He said she usually wore her turquoise bike helmet and a windbreaker when she went for rides, and she would always take her phone with her when police told Barry that they had found Suzanne's bike. He started crying and said that he was headed home.

Then he asked if they had found her phone. Barry was the last person to have seen [00:06:00] Suzanne alive, which immediately made him a person of interest. When he was interviewed, Barry said that he woke up at four 30 that morning and left at five for his work trip while Suzanne was still asleep. He got to Broomfield and checked into a hotel before going to his job site.

At about 5:00 PM Barry got a call from his neighbors saying that his daughters hadn't been able to reach Suzanne and they were worried about her 'cause. Keep in mind, this is Mother's Day. Barry said that he told the neighbors to look for Suzanne in the house and to look for her bike when neither Suzanne or the bike were found.

Barry told the neighbors to call the sheriff and he said he was going to come back home. Authorities were told that Barry was driving back home and didn't have cell service, but it was later determined that he was still at his hotel and he did have service, and we'll get more into that in a bit, but authorities weren't able to get ahold of him again until 7:10 PM So here's where things start to get even more suspicious.

In the days leading up to Mother's Day, [00:07:00] Suzanne and Barry had been home alone together. One of their daughters had gone on a camping trip out of state with the other daughter and a friend. Suzanne was the one who drove them to Gunnison on May 5th and sent them off on their adventure. So from May 5th to May 10th, it was just Suzanne and Barry in the house.

And according to those who knew the couple, that really wasn't a comforting thought. A man named Jeff who will come into the story again later told investigators that anytime Suzanne was alone with Barry, she dreaded it. She had told him that she didn't want to be alone with her husband. And even though Barry told the police that he had left his house for his work trip super early that morning, the investigators started to realize that that story really wasn't lining up.

They talked to Barry's employee Morgan, who told them a completely different story. She said the plan was for her and Barry to leave for Broomfield together on the evening of May 10th, not first thing in the morning, but then at the very last minute, [00:08:00] Barry changed the plan and just simply left town without her.

He called her at 1118 that morning and let her know that he was already on the way to Broomfield. When Morgan arrived later that evening, she realized that Barry hadn't even brought the proper tools along for the job and some of the crucial. Tools that were supposed to be delivered to the job site actually weren't there either.

Barry claimed that he didn't want to pick up Morgan because she smoked and he didn't want to ride in the car with her and didn't bother her to tell that before. Right. Tell her that before you left to like just leave her hanging without a ride. But Morgan told the police that Barry called her at 6:09 PM on May 10th, that's Mother's Day, and told her that he had to go home due to a family emergency.

It wasn't until the next morning that he told Morgan that his wife was missing and said that he believed a mountain lion had attacked her. Wow. Investigators received footage from the hotel and other businesses in Broomfield that showed [00:09:00] some of Barry's movement on May 10th. What they found was that Barry's story wasn't quite lining up with the facts.

Barry actually spent less than 30 minutes at the job site on May 10th, despite claiming that that's where he was all day, and the rest of the time he was driving around Broomfield. Stopping at various locations and throwing things into different trash cans for a good chunk of the day. Between 12:34 PM until almost 6:00 PM he was holed up in his hotel room.

He told the police that he was at work when he learned that his wife was missing, but evidence showed that he was really at the hotel. When Barry left that hotel room, his coworkers noticed that it wreaked of chlorine. But Barry had no explanation and he blamed the odor on strong cleaning supplies that were being used because of COVID.

Again, this is 2020 when police started digging into Barry and Suzanne's marriage. Barry was very quick to paint a picture of a very happy couple. He told them that they had the best marriage, and if Suzanne were there, she'd say the same thing. He said [00:10:00] they just spent a wonderful weekend together. At first, one of the couple's daughters backed that up and said there were no issues between her parents.

But in a later interview she opened up about it and said that her parents actually did fight a lot, and at the time of her mom's disappearance, she believed they were headed for separation. I totally understand how a kid would do that to be like. My dad didn't do, you know, right? My dad's not a part of this.

Everything's fine. Like, stop looking here. Look somewhere else. Like there's, you know, somebody else said this, so I don't blame her at all, but she said the couple was not doing well and things felt unsafe emotionally. She admitted that she thought it would be for the best of her. Parents did get separated.

When asked if she thought her mom would ever just up and leave without telling anyone, the daughter said no. Suzanne would never do something like that. If she wanted to leave, she would've let her girls know what was going on and that she was safe and okay. And what's even more heartbreaking is a text sent from the youngest daughter's phone at 3:50 PM on Mother's Day.

The message said, [00:11:00] I'm just so sad. My sister and I text mom for Mother's Day and she still hasn't answered and I'm scared. Her and dad probably got into a big fight and I don't even know. It just made me want to be gone even more because I don't wanna be around them. It hurts me. Later in 2021, Barry himself admitted to the FBI that things hadn't exactly been perfect at home.

He admitted that his daughters had been dragged into at least one of their arguments in the past, which was something that upset Suzanne. A great deal. Those close with the couples said that Suzanne and Barry did not have a happy marriage, and in fact, Suzanne had been unhappy for months after she went missing.

Several people told the police that they thought Barry had killed her or said that they wouldn't be surprised if he did. One of Suzanne's close friends named Sheila said that Barry was very domineering and controlling. According to an arrest affidavit, in January of 2020, Suzanne took steps to separate from Barry.

We'll get right back into it after a quick break to hear a word from this week's sponsors. Before the break, we introduced [00:12:00] Suzanne Morphy, a mom on a cancer journey, who seemed to have an otherwise happy life, but behind closed doors. Her marriage to Barry was falling apart. On Mother's Day 2020, Suzanne allegedly went out for a bike ride and never came back.

Her bike was found, dumped down a hill, and her helmet was found a mile away. There were no signs of an accident. There were no blood and no skid marks. Claimed that he was away on a work trip, but his story was starting to fall apart. Surveillance showed that he had spent most of the day in his hotel room or driving around, dumping things in trash cans, but his timeline kept changing and his hotel room wreaked of chlorine.

Friends, family, and even one of the couple's daughters later admitted that the marriage wasn't what it seemed. Suzanne had been unhappy and people close to her said they wouldn't have been surprised if Barry was involved in her disappearance. A search of the couple's home and of Suzanne's electronic devices revealed notes created by Suzanne about problems in her marriage to Barry, including different abusive [00:13:00] things.

The list included very specific times that Barry had done things to her that were just unkind or straight up abusive. And it included things like mental abuse while drinking on New Year's. Eve said I only needed him for money. Uh, another thing was took phone. She also has slam on breaks. When angry threatened to jump out of car, she had a bullet point that just said Gun.

Um, gosh. I know these are like horrifying things. Wiring money from investment account without discussing. Um, and then she had a note that says left two times on treatment weeks and there was many more things. Oh, wow. Suzanne also used a spy pen that her friend Sheila gave her to record conversations with Barry at home.

Investigators did find the pen at the house and the audio recordings were later recovered. Those recordings showed that money was a huge issue in the couple's marriage. A text exchange between Suzanne and Sheila [00:14:00] on March 25th highlighted some of Suzanne's frustrations. She vented that she had been taking care of herself physically and in a stressful marriage at the same time, and she said she and her daughter had actually talked about this tension at home and her daughter was practically begging Suzanne to divorce Barry.

Sheila asked Suzanne if she had talked to Barry about splitting up at all, and Suzanne said quote, he probably thinks I'm not strong enough to do it given finances. Suzanne mentioned that she had discussed this idea of getting a restraining order with her 16-year-old daughter and talked about how it made her feel sick that she even had to have that conversation with her child.

She also described Barry as having a Jekyll and Hyde personality and said that he won't speak of divorce. She said he was begging for another chance and she felt very torn, but she said in her heart she knew exactly who Barry was. Just two days before her disappearance, Suzanne sent a text to her sister Melinda, where she talked about how hard it was to [00:15:00] deal with Barry's abrasiveness and hard to even show him respect.

She said she was angry that she had allowed him to treat her this way. Melinda was actually shocked by this text, and when she found out that Suzanne was missing two days later, she just felt in her gut that Barry had killed her. Melinda explained that Suzanne had been treated like a submissive housewife, expected to play a role and to put up with all of it.

Of course investigators went through Barry's phone as well, and what they found was suspicious. They discovered a deleted text thread between him and Suzanne, but someone which was likely, Suzanne had taken a screenshot of that conversation on May 6th, so the evidence was still there. The screenshot showed that the text Suzanne sent to Barry said, I'm done.

I could care less what you're up to and have been for years. We just need to figure this out. Civilly. End quote. Suzanne had long suspected that Barry was cheating on her, and the forensic download of his phone didn't help. His case on his phone were internet searches, [00:16:00] including ones like find a cute girl near Selita for his part.

Barry denied making any such searches. Soon it was learned that Suzanne had also been having an affair. She had reconnected with an old acquaintance named Jeff who lived in Michigan. They first started messaging in mid 2018, just after the more fuse moved to Colorado. Over time, the friendship turned into something more.

What started as daily messages on Facebook, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp eventually became a full-blown relationship. By 2019, Suzanne and Jeff were meeting up in person. She was traveling to places like Indianapolis, Dallas, Michigan, and Florida to meet with him. Suzanne's last communication with Jeff was on May 9th, the day before her disappearance.

At 2:11 PM Suzanne sent Jeff the last message she'd ever sent him. Barry returned home 32 minutes after that text was sent, and the last bit of electronic activity on Suzanne's phone was logged at 3:08 [00:17:00] PM on May 9th, over 24 hours before anyone reported her missing. Jeff tried to send Suzanne a couple more messages that afternoon, but she never responded, which was completely out of character for her phone.

Records did indicate that Suzanne was a regular texter, so it was very strange that she wasn't replying to friends and family who were trying to reach her that day. Despite all of this, Barry tried to insinuate that he and Suzanne had a nice night together on May 9th. He claimed that he made steaks for dinner.

Then the couple had sex and went to bed. He said he fell asleep before Suzanne did. But the details of that night did continue to change. By June, Barry had added that he and Suzanne went on a hike together that afternoon, but investigators were later able to prove that did not happen. When Jeff was asked about all this, he said that he did know about the struggles that Suzanne was having in her marriage and that she was trying to figure out how to leave.

She had told Jeff that she didn't think Barry would ever actually hurt [00:18:00] her, and according to Suzanne, keeping Barry happy meant keeping him sexually satisfied, but that didn't mean that Suzanne was actually enjoying it. In fact, she even told Jeff that she wished Barry would find a girlfriend, so he would leave her alone.

Wow. Yeah, Jeff told the investigators that he thought Barry either learned about them and snapped, or maybe Suzanne had told him that she was planning on leaving him as it would turn out. Barry had actually been suspicious of Suzanne's affair since 2019, and he'd been actively trying to confirm these suspicions.

He had started stalking her around the house and at one point he snatched her phone out of her hands while she was talking to Jeff, but he couldn't figure out who the guy was that she was talking to. Suzanne even made a note in her phone that Barry had accused her of having a boyfriend on May 6th, which was four days before she vanished on May 11th.

Police searched the morph you home and collected potential evidence, DNA swabs and [00:19:00] anything else that might give them a clue about what happened to Suzanne. None of what they found supported the idea that a random stranger had come in and taken her and the things they did find it actually raised a lot of eyebrows.

Inside of a locked gun safe, they found a tranquilizer rifle and packages of tranquilizer darts. There were also two guns found inside the house that were not locked inside of a safe. They also found something pretty damning. There was a load of laundry in the dryer that included a pair of men's shorts that matched the description of the ones he was seen wearing on May 9th.

And mixed in with those shorts was the cap to one of those tranquilizer dart needles. Whoa. But Barry had a history with tranquilizers back in Indiana. He was a deer farmer, and people who knew him said he'd used a tranquilizer called BAM to sedate and move deer. Barry admitted to using BAM, both in Indiana.

In Colorado. He said he tranquilized a deer on their property just a month before Suzanne disappeared. [00:20:00] But the tranquilizer cap wasn't the only thing they found in the home. In the primary bedroom on the floor next to the bed, investigators found an unfired 22 caliber route. According to phone records, he turned his phone off and on multiple times between May 9th and 10th, and each time he turned his phone off it disabled location tracking.

This is interesting because nowadays no one. Turns their phone off. Your phone is always on, like, right, unless it dies, then you charge it and then you've got it again. But nobody's turning it off and on unless you are literally trying to avoid, I, I truly can't think of another reason. Either you legally have to at your job or something, or, uh, you're trying to hide something.

'cause otherwise, why, why would you do it? So the phone was shot off at 2:47 PM on May 9th, just minutes after he got home, and it stayed off until 10 17 that night. Which again, I feel like in this day and age, who's going that long without looking at their phone at all. Who goes [00:21:00] from, you know, 2 47 until 10 17 and that doesn't wanna check their phone?

Exactly. I'm suspicious. Right, right away. Absolutely. And the interesting thing is, during that time, that's when Suzanne has texted Jeff, so we know that. He's home with her at that time, and so that kind of puts in my head what could have happened, right? You know, after that there's nothing on his phone for hours.

It's possible it was put in airplane mode as well. Again, something you don't use a whole lot unless you have to and not in your home. Either way, the phone wasn't recording anything, so he turned it back on at 5:37 AM as he was supposedly headed to Broomfield. Telematics from Barry's truck, which is basically the truck's internal tracking system showed activity between 3 25 and 3:49 AM on May 10th, which was in the Morphus driveway, which of course is weird because Barry claimed he didn't get up until four 30.

There's also a gap in the truck's data, right? At the time he claimed to be driving to Broomfield. Suzanne's phone though was never found. [00:22:00] Less than a month later, Barry filed paperwork in Indiana to be granted guardianship over Suzanne, which would give him the power to sign documents in her name and sell off their properties, which by the way, he started doing immediately.

According to CBS news, male DNA was found in Suzanne's car and in October of 2020, a partial match came back to three unsolved sexual assault cases in Tempe, Phoenix, and Chicago. This is really the only piece of evidence that's out there that points away from Barry. So as investigators continue to question Barry, in the months after Suzanne disappeared, his words and attitude started to speak volumes about who he was and how he operated.

Right off the bat, Barry tried to shift the focus of the investigation by claiming that Suzanne struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and that she'd been using substances to cope. He claimed he deleted messages about it from his phone because he didn't want his daughters finding them. It was also noticed that Barry had a scratch on his arm, which he said was [00:23:00] from a tree.

When they were out hiking, Barry named several other people he thought the police should look at and kept asking why he hadn't been cleared as a suspect yet. He said he was frustrated that people were still suspicious of him. It was suggested that maybe he could take a polygraph to help clear his name, but Barry said he didn't think he would pass.

Now that's different than saying, I don't wanna take one is to say, I don't think I'd pass. Is that's a little different. I mean, at least you're honest, I guess. It doesn't help your case buddy at all. Right on May 21st, Barry doubled down on this idea that Suzanne had been abusing substances, including alcohol and antidepressants to cope with the stress and anxiety of cancer treatments.

He also claimed that it was Suzanne who wanted to move to Colorado. Then Barry made the most ridiculously, like full of audacity, just all the audacity in the world comment I've ever heard. Um, to the investigators who are trying to figure out what happened to his [00:24:00] wife, he said, we, as in we men need sex.

That's all we need, and we'll be good. That's a weird thing to say when your wife is missing and the investigators are trying to figure out where she is, is it not? Yeah. I feel like that's one of those, that's an inside thought, especially in this kind of an investigation. Like if you really think back, just don't, don't say it right.

Right. How is that an appropriate thing to say in this context or in this investigation? No. No. Um, but that really just was literally Barry's take on marriage. Um, he described and when he spoke about the arguments that he and Suzanne had, he described her as being mean and angry. It was clear that Barry really did have some kind of hangup about his sex life, because when he was asked.

Even when he was asked why someone might want to make Suzanne disappear, if that was what happened, if someone had taken her, he went straight to the topic. Again, he replied sex because my wife is beautiful, [00:25:00] and that's my nightmare right now. Like if somebody's got her and sexually abusing her right now as we speak.

That just gave me the biggest creeps, like just even, yeah. I'm like, what? Like. I dunno. We did, we covered the Sherri Papini documentary on uh, HBO Max and one thing her mom said basically, which was so wild to me, and this is only the second time I've heard it, is like, I thought she was gonna be a sex slave because she's so beautiful.

So hearing this, I was like, really, people even say this, this is so wild because it seems like. I don't know. It's just such a weird way of talking about your wife. Yes, exactly. And there's literally no evidence that she was abducted or anything of the sort. Right. So like it is just very odd, like just to me, like speaks to like where Barry's thoughts are and like right where his head is at.

Like For sure. So during the same interview, Barry revealed that he gave Suzanne a weekly spending allowance because according to him, she didn't want [00:26:00] to go to the ATM. By May 28th, Barry started talking more about these tranquilizer darts that were in Hi, A Safe in the Couple's House. He said that he had used these back in Indiana, but he had not used them since they moved to Colorado.

In June of 2020, Barry's deflections reached a completely new level. When he suggested to the police that Suzanne's own family might be involved in her disappearance, he said that her siblings were into marijuana and might have had something to do with it. He actually called her sister Melinda Wicked and said that her brother David, was a brilliant man.

Definitely smart enough to do something like this. That's what Barry said. Interesting. That he calls the woman wicked and the man Brilliant, brilliant. When you're really trying to say the same thing, like they're both, they both could be capable of this, right? Interesting. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, ironically though, he also said sometimes when people are guilty, they point the finger because of their guilt, [00:27:00] literally while he's pointing the finger, you know?

Yeah. I mean, sometimes they like to give like little breadcrumbs through these stories, and that might be one. By July 8th, Barry was getting really deep into the details and he was telling investigators exactly what he and Suzanne did on the night of May 9th, including what they ate and the fact that they used two plates when they had their meal.

This was interesting to the authorities because only one plate was actually found in the dishwasher. In the history of your life, have you ever. Like willfully shared a plate with your husband. You might eat something off of the plate, but even like romantic, that does not sound romantic at all. Mm-hmm.

Romantic is a full meal appetizer. Meal Dessert for me, don't make me share on your plate. So this just seemed like, why would you even make that comment that you use two plates like duh. Right. Well, of course. Right. Of course. There was two plates. There was two of you. Right? Right. So like, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

Um, but as I said, there was only one plate found in the dishwasher. And so when they confronted [00:28:00] Barry with that, he said. He must have hand washed his plate again. When has a man ever hand washed a plate on his own accord? I had the same thought. I was like, this is digging you in a hole, because these are just not things that happen.

I mean, I was already into it with the laundry, but you know, I let that go As, as he said, I must have hand washed. I would've been like, you didn't. You didn't jail. You did not. Uh, but that's what he said. But in a later interview, he ended up changing the story and then went on to what you were just saying.

Now he says, actually, you know what? I didn't hand wash the plate. I forgot. We ate off of one plate together in our home where we have multiple plates available by early 2021, Barry was still giving interviews and still contradicting himself with each of the interviews. It was around this time that the FBI finally told Barry about Suzanne's affair with Jeff and Barry claimed that he had no idea until they told him, and then he tried to spin the entire thing honestly, in the most [00:29:00] absurd and outrageous way you could possibly imagine.

He suggested to the investigators that perhaps whatever happened to Suzanne was God's way of punishing her for having an affair. Oh my gosh. He said in part. If I would've known this in the beginning, I wouldn't have had to suffer for nine months not knowing why God did what he did. I'm not saying he did it to punish Suzanne, but it makes more sense than what I knew before you guys came today.

I'm a lost that person that said that I'm not a story. That is a crazy thing to say. So he, so it's not, I would've known more about where my wife could have, it's no nothing helpful about Suzanne. It's like I have suffered wondering why God did this to my wife. Right. Not where is she? What's happened? That is a crazy, crazy, wild statement to say.

To the police. To the police. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, mind-boggling. And there is a lot more mind-boggling, uh, [00:30:00] subject matter to get into with this one. After one last break, to hear a word from this week's sponsors, before the break, we saw how the investigation kept uncovering more and more red flags about Barry ew and the state of his marriage.

Police also discovered Barry's suspicious behavior, like deleted texts, searches for other women, and a history of tracking Suzanne around the house. Meanwhile, Suzanne had started an affair with an old friend Jeff. Their last communication was the day before she disappeared, and after that she went silent, which was completely out of character.

But Barry's timeline fell apart too. His phone and track records didn't match the story. He turned off his phone at key moments and investigators found a tranquilizer dark cap mixed in with his laundry. He also deflected blame onto Suzanne's family, painted himself as a victim and. Even suggested that Suzanne's disapp appearance was God's judgment for her affair.

And although Barry is still acting shocked over the news of this affair that Suzanne was having, he was still trying to [00:31:00] dig for details. He pressed the FBI for information about who the man was or where he lived and how long the affair had been going on. The agents didn't give Barry much information, which is very good, and told him that he probably already knew the answers.

So basically like, why are you even asking us? You, you know, you've been into her stuff and you've figured this out before, but Barry tried to get ahead of the allegations that were sure to come by making a comment about how he knew they were just going to say that. Old hothead Barry found out about his wife's affair and killed her.

Barry said that it was Suzanne who was always paranoid that he was cheating, but he insisted he'd never touched, talked, or texted another woman. When it came to all the strange behavior on the day Suzanne disappeared, like the driving around to all these different trash cans and whatnot, Barry said it was nothing.

He said that his truck is always messy and he always stops to throw things away in random places. Melissa. As someone [00:32:00] who still to this day has a car that sometimes has some trash in it, one and done. No. And like sometimes I will throw things away, like if I'm at a gas station. At the gas station. Yeah.

And I'm like, I have to get some of this outta my car. So I have room for the new snacks. I just want, but like that's, I'll do it like while I'm standing at the gas pump or something like, or whatever, or take it up and throw it, you know, in the trash way. I'm not walking further. It's gotta be right next to me.

I'm not driving around town to go to. Clean out my car. Yeah, no, that doesn't make a lick of sense. I do understand though, he, he does work in landscaping and stuff, so maybe he is collecting stuff as he goes along, but it just seems like a weird thing that you'd need to make so many stops. You'd think it'd be like the end of the day you'd go get rid of all this stuff.

Otherwise, again, kind of like the phone thing before, it seems like there's a reason you are going to different places and not just to one, and it's just so convenient. Right? Very like, oh, I always do that. I always do that. [00:33:00] Like I wonder like gaslighting the FBI, I know it's such a crazy thing. Then Barry was asked if he'd ever hit his wife, and he actually admitted that he did, but he said it was just one time, and he justified this by saying that she, meaning Suzanne had physically come at him several times in their marriage, and he just took it.

He claimed Suzanne left scratches on his face and he just had to lie about where they came from, but he said he would never lay a hand on his wife. The one time it happened was just a crazy reflex, is what he called it. The next day, Barry spoke to the FBI again and asked whether they thought that maybe Suzanne had simply just run away, but he continued to ask more questions about the affair.

As 2021 progressed, it was clear that the more evidence the FBI showed Barry. The more his story changed and therefore the more he tried to deflect and manipulate the narrative. On February 28th, Barry was still fixated on Suzanne's affair and he once again asked the FBI for the [00:34:00] man's name and tried to confirm whether some of Suzanne's trips were to see this man.

What is that gonna do at this point? Like unless this guy is a suspect or whatever, what is having that information going to? It seems, I honestly feel it's the wrong thing to be looking for. Right. But I do believe that he may not have known exactly who the other man was. Like he may have known for sure that there was someone, but I feel like he was legitimately asking 'cause he didn't know like the man's name and like personal information.

Totally. Because if he did, I don't think he would've been asking the FBI if. Yeah. My point was like, if it was just. Your wife had an affair, she died. Nobody thinks that other guy did this and he's not involved. Why do you need to know about the trips? Why do you need to know who exactly it was? Like that's done and gone.

So you wouldn't be asking that, like you said, unless you needed that information and you were heated about it and still. Wanted to know that and I'm glad that this, or so he's, you know, doing the whole thing where he's trying to make himself a victim of some kind. True. [00:35:00] He's looking for evidence of her being a villain essentially, you know?

Right. He's like trying to figure out like, oh, can you guys confirm that she was having, you know, she was doing her affair stuff like when she was on this trip. Like, he's just looking for more evidence, you know? True. That she was the one that was the problem, not him. Um, good point. Very. I feel like that's exactly what was going on there.

Yeah, no, that makes sense. The agents told him though, what he already suspected that the affair had been going on about two years, and that it started through social media. Barry then asked what app they used and the agents wouldn't tell him. That's when Barry said he needed to know who the man was for closure and said he wasn't going to do anything to the guy.

He just wanted to know who it was for his own peace of mind, and again, insisted he had no idea that it was happening at all. But as we know, evidence showed that Barry had been trying to figure out if Suzanne was having an affair since 2019, so he knew. During that same interview, Barry changed his story again about the events of May 9th.

[00:36:00] This time he admitted that he was carrying a gun around the property, which he said he was using to shoot chipmunks. He said that, you know, explained some of that unusual activity on his phone that showed him moving all around, all over the property that day. But investigators believe he wasn't out there chasing chipmunks.

By early March, Barry's account had changed to fit more of the evidence that, of course, he's now learned about through speaking with the FBI evidence that he didn't know about at first, but now he's had more information, which has helped him shape his story. Of course. So for the first time ever, he admitted that as he left the house on May 10th, he turned left on Highway 50.

Now, that's the opposite direction from the route to Broomfield where he was supposed to be going for his work trip. But it's the same direction that Suzanne's helmet was later found. Barry said he went that way to see where some elk were going. He just basically said, you know what? I was on my way to go to this work trip, Cland work trip, and I just like a little kid, saw some [00:37:00] elk, got distracted, turned completely out of the direction.

I was going to go follow him and see where they were going. Again, that's not something people do. No, it really isn't. And I have to say, I don't think I would admit to doing that if I actually did. No, exactly. I think I'd be like, can. Exactly. I can drive in a straight line. Right. But of course, this little detour, he supposedly took, um, conveniently explained some of the missing miles from his odometer.

And when they were adding up, you know, where he went. On March 5th, Barry made a desperate plea and asked for immunity and. Pretty much begged to not be thrown in jail. He insisted that there was no evidence against him, and he claimed that he was the victim of Suzanne. He said that she made him a monster and that if he had abused her in any way, it was emotionally, and it was only because she provoked him by accusing him of cheating when he wasn't.

Ferry said that Suzanne's phone should have been found by now, and he said that he always had an intuition about her affair. He actually alleged [00:38:00] at this point that Suzanne was drunk when he came home in the afternoon of May 9th. In several other interviews he had said that she was outside sunbathing when he got home.

Almost a full year after Suzanne disappeared. Barry was finally arrested on May 4th, 2021, and the charges were serious. He was being charged with first degree murder, tampering with a deceased human body, tampering with physical evidence, possession of a dangerous weapon, and attempting to influence a public servant.

He pleaded not guilty to all of it. For a while, it seemed like the case was headed to trial. Ferry was released on bond that September, and the trial was set for the spring of 2022. But then in a surprising turn, everything changed on April 19th. Just days before this trial was set to begin, prosecutors asked the judge to dismiss the case without prejudice, which meant that they would be able to file charges again in the future, and the judge agreed to [00:39:00] this.

The prosecutors explained that they weren't dropping the case because they thought Barry was innocent by any means. They just wanted more time to search for Suzanne's remains, and they admitted that without her body, they just did not really have enough to get a conviction. They hoped to be able to finish the search before the trial, but the weather and snow had made that impossible and they just wanted more time.

But the lack of a body wasn't the only blow to the prosecution's case. The judge had recently barred the prosecution from calling several of their key witnesses because they had failed to hand over crucial pieces of evidence to the defense, including DNA, evidence like that male, DNA, that was found in Suzanne's car that didn't match Barry.

That meant the defense didn't have what they needed to prepare, and the judge wasn't just going to let the state benefit from that. That's not all. Two of the prosecutors along with the DA were later accused of misconduct over how they handled the case. State regulators eventually ruled that the [00:40:00] DA should be disbarred for withholding evidence and for the way that Barry's case was managed.

After the charges were dropped, Barry and his daughters went on Good Morning America. The girls stood by their father and said they did not believe that he had anything to do with their mother's disappearance. One daughter said, we're never gonna stop looking for our mom. Barry's attorney also spoke out and said the prosecutors needed to be held accountable for the damage they've caused.

Barry, which they said is irreparable at this point. Just like that. Barry was a free man, at least for the time being. But even after the charges were dropped, Barry wasn't exactly off the hook. He still had more court battles ahead, and not all of them had to do with his wife's disappearance. Barry ended up facing criminal charges for forgery, attempting to influence a public servant and mail ballot fraud.

After Susanna had been missing for six months, Barry submitted a ballot in her name during the 2020 presidential [00:41:00] election. Barry claimed he didn't know you couldn't submit a vote on behalf of your spouse. This guy's gotta be the dumbest person I've ever, I mean, really like the things that he doesn't know.

I'm like, were you frozen in time for four years? Like, that's how you made it this far in life. Obviously a lie. Everyone knows you can't do that buried. Yeah. That's such a, that's a very, I, I don't understand that at all. That's crazy. So this was actually caught right away by the county clerk who noticed that the ballot belonged to a missing person and they reported it to the sheriff's department.

That I thought was really cool to me that, um, that they, they actually flagged it like that quickly. Yeah. That they knew. I was surprised. Yeah, I was surprised to hear that. But I mean, of course it's databases and I'm sure like it's all connected, but like that is, uh, very interesting that they flagged that, that quickly and alerted the sheriff's department.

Barry was also fighting for a $15 million civil rights lawsuit. That's right. He filed a complaint about the [00:42:00] prosecutors and asked that they be punished and disbarred, and he asked for $15 million to remedy the fact that he was wrongfully charged in Suzanne's alleged death and that his rights have been violated.

The fact that people go to prison for 20 years and don't get. A million dollars makes me say 15 million's. Not, that's not your number there, Barry. It just feels like the, during this whole thing, he's been trying to like just hurry up and quickly push things along and shut the door on everything. Right?

And he's like, you know, because truly the only reason they didn't take him to trial right then and there is because they were waiting for it. See if they can find Suzanne's remains. Literally, they have evidence against you, Barry. Like, it's not like they don't have a case. They have a very good case, but they know, we all know from listening to these stories, you know, it is very hard to get a conviction if you don't have a body and you can't prove someone's cause of death or, or that they are even deceased.

Mm-hmm. Like you have to have that. Um, it's a huge component in a murder trial of course. So it makes sense. But the fact [00:43:00] that Barry was like. Just because they basically said, we're putting this on hold for a minute. Yeah. Like, while we figure this out, Barry was like, all right, I'm suing you now. You've wrong you, you've wrongfully charged me.

You've done this and that. I'm like, okay. Like it's very clear that you're making these desperate attempts just to get like things closed out and done so that you are free and clear. In September of 2024, the judge dismissed the case and ruled that while the prosecution may have handled some things poorly, that didn't mean that Barry was wrongly charged.

There was still evidence like Mandy was saying, that he had a motive means, and the opportunity to kill his wife, and it was proven that his alibi was fabricated and his credibility was dubious. Finally, after years of searching the answers, everyone had been bracing for arrived. On September 22nd, 2023, human remains were found in a shallow grave less than an hour south of the Morpho home near Highway 17.

These remains were identified as belonging to Suzanne. [00:44:00] Along with her decomposed remains were some of her clothing, including pieces that matched what she would've worn on a bike ride as well as her cancer port. What really stood out was the condition of Suzanne's remains. The bones showed significant bleaching and experts concluded that her body had not been in that spot for the entire time.

The lack of insect activity, animal damage, and just the way the clothing had decomposed suggested that she had been moved there at some point, because if her body had been there since May of 2020, it would've looked very different. The manner of death was ruled a homicide. It was determined that her bones had traces of these three different compounds, these three specific drugs, and these are the three drugs that actually make up the animal tranquilizer that Barry used on his farm.

It's called Bam for short, but like each of these. Compounds, like you know, makes up. It's an acronym, and they found all three of these in her system, which [00:45:00] would suggest that she was at some point given this tranquilizer, right? All three of these drugs were found in her bone marrow. It was also revealed that her body had started to metabolize this drug before she died, meaning that her death was not instant.

Bam is typically not lethal on its own, but it can cause brain damage in humans if given several doses. But it was still clear that it somehow did play a role in Suzanne's death insanely. This is the most insane thing ever. Yeah. The only person with a prescription for BAM in that region of Colorado was none other than Barry Morphy.

He had last bought some in May of 2018, but records showed that he was the only resident in the area who even had access to it. That is wild to allegedly use something that specific and yes. Everything and to be the only one. Like what are you gonna do now? I mean, how do you point it away [00:46:00] from you? Right.

How do you explain that one Barry? Like that you just, I mean, someone came in your house and took it from the, from you. I mean, I mean, what would be the, what would you even, right. How would you even explain that? A setup? I'm sure that's what his defense will be. Um, sure. So on June 20th, 2025, that was literally just six days ago from when we were recording this.

A Colorado grand jury handed down an indictment and Barry was arrested again this time in Arizona. He was charged with first degree murder and held on a $3 million cash bond. Barry's attorney was quick to issue a statement he said. Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence.

Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed and the outcome will not either. And that's where things are today. After five years, two arrests and countless twists and turns the truth of what happened to Suzanne Morphy might finally be known. It's heading back to a courtroom. We will have to see if [00:47:00] justice is served and yeah, definitely what burs defense will be.

Now that they did find Suzanne's remains and did find that drug in her bone marrow. I'm very, very curious to see what his defense is going to come up with. Totally. I remember when he was, when the charges were dropped without prejudice, that. I was very surprised because there did seem to be so many things pointing to him, but I wasn't sure if they would ever find anything.

I remember them finding Suzanne's body and stuff, but you just wonder like how long, when you see these things happening in real time. And obviously I'm following it, but it's not somebody in my family. It's not something like that that I'm following so closely, but it, it's five years out that we are, and it, it's crazy how long these things can take sometimes.

Yeah, it really is. So we will definitely be following along with that one, and we'll make sure we bring you an update whenever there is one. Really, this is, uh, very interesting and such a sad case. I feel so, uh, my heart definitely [00:48:00] goes out to Suzanne's two daughters and I can't imagine losing my mom at all.

But then this the way they did on Mother's Day and just, that's just such a, and she was already, and with her already having cancer and fighting through that, it's just, it's. Tragic is the only word for it. A total tragedy. Truly, truly. Thank you guys so much for listening to the episode this week. We will be back next week.

Same time, same place. New story. Have a great week. Bye.