Suzanne Morphew death: Colorado DA set to prosecute Barry Morphew says investigators "never stopped fighting for justice for Suzanne"
The Colorado district attorney who will be prosecuting the new case against Barry Morphew in the killing of his wife Suzanne says she's proud of the work that led to this week's grand jury indictment. Barry Morphew was arrested in Arizona on Friday, two days after the indictment was handed down, on a first degree murder charge and will be extradited to southern Colorado. His bond was set at $3 million.
A booking photo of Barry Morphew was taken on June 20, 2025, in Arizona.
Maricopa County
"I look forward to having our team present this case in court," Anne Kelly, the district attorney in Colorado's 12th Judicial District.
Suzanne Morphew was 49 when she went missing on Mother's Day in 2020 in Chaffee County. Her remains were found in Saugauche County three years later. In between those dates, her husband Barry Morphew was arrested and tried on a murder charge but his case was dismissed because of prosecutorial issues with evidence.
A 2024 autopsy report said Suzanne Morphew died of "unspecified means" but ruled it a homicide. While there was no indication of trauma in her remains, a drug cocktail used to tranquilize wildlife was found in one of her bones, the report said.
A tranquilizer gun and accessories were found in the Morphews' home, according to investigators. The couple were parents to two sisters.
Kelly said in a news conference Friday evening that Barry Morphew will be tried in Alamosa County. She referred to the death as a cold case and answered a question about why it has taken this long for a new case against Barry Morphew to take shape.
"We as prosecutors in Colorado and law enforcement in Colorado, we are very dedicated to making sure that we don't forget the victims of cold case homicides, but we also understand that it is so important to make sure that we have done everything we can to bring a case to court, and we are proud of the work that we've done," Kelly said. "Every victim of homicide, murder in Colorado deserves that kind of attention, deserves that kind of work from law enforcement, and I would say that having the opportunity to work on these cases and to bring justice for these victims has been very important to me."
Suzanne Morphew
Suzanne Morphew/Facebook
Kelly said Suzanne "has been in the hearts and minds of the people of Chaffee County" since her disappearance.
"Law enforcement, the Chaffee County community and Colorado as a whole has never stopped fighting for justice for Suzanne," Kelly said.
Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence since his wife disappeared, and his attorney David Beller blasted the new indictment.
"Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence," Beller said in a statement. "Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed, and the outcome will not either."
Iris Eytan, who was Morphew's attorney in 2021 but no longer represents him, said prosecutors "fumbled" the original case.
"Not only is he is a loving father, but he was a loving husband," Eytan told The Associated Press on Friday.
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The mystery surrounding Suzanne Morphew began when the 49-year-old mother of two daughters, who lived near the small town of Salida, was reported missing on Mother's Day 2020. Suzanne Morphew's mountain bike and helmet were found in separate spots not far from her home, but investigators suspected the bike had been purposefully thrown down into a ravine because there was no indications of a crash. A week after she went missing, Barry Morphew posted a video on Facebook pleading for her safe return. 'No questions asked, however much they want, I will do whatever it takes to get you back,' he said. When he was initially charged, the arrest affidavit laying out investigators' case against Barry Morphew said his wife insisted on leaving him. He later changed his statements as evidence developed. Morphew, an avid hunter, did not initially tell investigators that he went out of his way as he left for work on Mother's Day, driving toward the place where his wife's bicycle helmet was eventually found. Later, he said he went that way because he had seen an elk cross the road, according to the initial arrest affidavit. Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents stumbled upon Suzanne Morphew's skeletal remains in September 2023 in a shallow grave during an unrelated search near the small southern Colorado town of Moffat, about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the Morphews' home. Most of Suzanne Morphew's bones were recovered, and many were 'significantly bleached,' according to the affidavit. Investigators removed a port through which Morphew could receive medicine to treat follicular lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, and found clothing similar to bicyclist clothes she was known to wear. Based on the status of the remains and clothing, a forensic anthropologist theorized that the body decomposed elsewhere, the affidavit says. Toxicology testing revealed all three drugs in a sedative used for wildlife called 'BAM' were in the bones. The presence of a metabolite for one of the drugs, butorphanol, suggested the remains would not have been contaminated with BAM after death, the affidavit says. The coroner's office determined the cause of death was 'homicide by unspecified means' through intoxication of the three drugs, butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine. Barry Morphew obtained and filled several prescriptions for BAM while living in Indiana, shortly before the Morphews moved to Colorado in 2018. Barry Morphew was a deer farmer in Indiana and allegedly told investigators he used BAM to tranquilize deer in Indiana and Colorado, according to the indictment. In the area surrounding their home in Colorado, no private citizens or businesses, only Colorado Parks and Wildlife and National Park Service officials, had obtained BAM between 2017 and 2020, records show. No government officials reported missing BAM supplies. '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 concluded.
