A grand jury in Colorado has returned an indictment against Barry Morphew, charging him with the murder of his wife, Suzanne Morphew, officials announced Friday.
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing on Mother’s Day in May 2020. Her remains were found more than three years later while investigators were searching in an unrelated case. Her death was subsequently ruled a homicide.
Her husband, Barry Morphew, was charged with her presumed murder in 2021, but those charges were dropped in April 2022 just before a trial was supposed to begin.
The grand jury returned the indictment against Morphew on Wednesday. He was taken into custody in Arizona and will be extradited to the San Luis Valley to face charges, according to the Twelfth Judicial District Attorney’s Office.
Suzanne Morphew is seen in this undated photo released by Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office.
Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office
“Federal, State and local law enforcement have never stopped working toward justice for Suzanne,” Twelfth Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly said in a statement on Friday. “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.”
Barry Morphew was the last known person to see his wife alive, according to the probable cause statement in the indictment.
The day she was reported missing, he told police she had planned to go on a bike ride while he was out of town on a work trip, according to the indictment. Her bike and helmet were later located in separate locations near the home.
In early interviews with law enforcement following his wife’s disappearance, Barry Morphew allegedly said their marriage was “the best,” according to the indictment. Though his statements were “inconsistent with other witness accounts and evidence located,” the indictment stated, noting that Suzanne Morphew had “confided in people that she was unhappy in the marriage in the weeks and months leading to her disappearance” and had discussed plans to divorce her husband with a close friend.
Investigators also uncovered a screenshot of a text message from Suzanne Morphew on her husband’s phone that stated, according to the indictment: “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.” The screenshot was saved on May 6, 2020 — four days before she was reported missing by a neighbor, according to the indictment.
Suzanne Morphew’s body was found in September 2023 near the town of Moffat, less than an hour south of where she lived, according to the indictment.
Her death was determined to have been caused by homicide “by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication,” according to the autopsy.
Law enforcement specifically requested that the coroner’s office test for the presence of butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine, which comprise a chemical mixture known as BAM that is used for sedating animals, according to the indictment.
Prior to moving to Colorado in 2018, Barry Morphew was a deer farmer in Indiana and used BAM to sedate and transport deer on his farm, according to the indictment. He allegedly admitted to using BAM in Colorado as recently as April 2020 to tranquilize a deer on his property, according to the indictment.
According to the indictment, records of BAM prescriptions showed that Barry Morphew last purchased BAM by prescription in March 2018, and that no individual or business in the Colorado region where the Morphews lived and where Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found had purchased BAM prescriptions from 2017 to 2020.
“Ultimately, he 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 stated.
A mug shot of Barry Morphew, released by the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office on May 5, 2021.
Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office
Barry Morphew has denied any involvement in his wife’s death.
“Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence,” his attorney, David Beller, said in a statement to ABC News on Friday. “Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed and the outcome will not either.”
Barry Morphew and his daughters spoke to ABC News in May 2023 after they filed a lawsuit against prosecutors, saying he was wrongfully charged.
“They’ve got tunnel vision and they looked at one person and they’ve got too much pride to say they’re wrong and look somewhere else,” he said at the time. “I don’t have anything to worry about. I’ve done nothing wrong.”
