Updated at 3:46 p.m. on June 20, 2025
A grand jury indicted Barry Morphew on Friday, charging him with first-degree murder in the 2020 death of his wife, Suzanne Morphew.
Morphew was taken into custody on Friday in Arizona, according to a press release from Twelfth Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelley.
“Federal, State and local law enforcement have never stopped working toward justice for Suzanne,” Kelly said in a statement. “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.”
Suzanne went missing on Mother’s Day in 2020, and her case was embraced by true crime podcasters across the country, some who traveled to Colorado to search for her. Suzanne’s body was eventually discovered near Moffat, Colorado in 2023 by agents for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
The coroner ruled her death a homicide and found evidence of tranquilizer chemicals in her remains. Investigators believed that Morphew had used animal tranquilizer, and found a tranquilizer gun and some other supplies in the home the couple shared, but no chemicals. Morphew’s attorney argued that he used the tranquilizer to hunt.
Morphew was previously arrested and charged with murder in the case in 2021, before his wife’s remains were discovered, but the charges were dropped in 2022 at the request of prosecutors, without prejudice, meaning charges could be refiled.
The new indictment lays out what remains a largely circumstantial case against Morphew — there are no witnesses to Suzanne’s death. There is no smoking gun. But this time, there is a body, and evidence in Suzanne's death that ties it to a chemical Barry Morphew acknowledged using in the past.
But Morphew's attorney said the new case is like the old case in one important respect.
“Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence," said attorney David Beller in a statement. "Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed and the outcome will not either.”
The indictment pieces together a meticulous timeline of events using data from his and her cell phones, along with data generated by his truck. Perhaps as important should the case reach trial, the indictment relies on periods when his phone was turned off and his truck failed to provide data, despite evidence it was moving.
Investigators also moved proactively to anticipate possible defenses, finding that only three people could even remotely be connected to a jumbled mix of DNA found in the glove compartment of Suzanne’s car, and none of them have any involvement in the case.
The timeline, as laid out by the indictment, looks like this:
The last time anyone heard from Suzanne was 2:11 p.m. on May 9, when she sent a message to a man with whom she was having an affair, 32 minutes before Barry Morphew returned to the home. From that point forward, her phone was never used again.
At around 5 p.m. on May 10, 2020, a neighbor called Barry Morphew, who had left the home early that morning, and told him that his daughters were concerned because they couldn’t reach Suzanne on her cell all day. Morphew instructed his neighbors to check the house and look for her bike. When they couldn’t find her or the bike, Morphew instructed the neighbor to call the sheriff.
Officers responded to the home near Salida about 45 minutes later. The home was locked, Suzanne and her bike were missing. Her bike was located less than a mile from her home, her bike helmet was located a mile and a half away from the Morphew home, about 10 meters off the side of Highway 50.
Morphew told investigators that he was out of town on a pre-planned work trip to Broomfield, and he said she was asleep in the home the morning of May 10 when he left at 5:00 a.m. Investigators discovered that Morphew spent very little time at the Broomfield jobsite.
“Instead, besides two brief visits to the jobsite area, electronic evidence and cameras from businesses showed him driving around to various locations and discarding unknown items in separate trash cans,” reads the indictment.
Morphew claimed early on that his relationship with Suzanne was “the best.” But investigators quickly determined that Suzanne was unhappy in the weeks and months leading up to her disappearance, and she had discussed plans with a close friend to divorce her husband. Suzanne kept notes about the problems in her relationship. She was also carrying on an affair with someone out of state, according to the indictment.
A forensic download of Barry Morphew’s phone found he deleted a text chain with Suzanne, but an image from May 6 was recovered. “That image revealed a text from Suzanne 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.’”
A search of the Morphew home turned up a tranquilizer rifle in a safe, along with packages of Pneu-Dart brand tranquilizer darts. In the clothes dryer were shorts Barry Morphew appeared to be wearing on May 9 and a needle cap for a tranquilizer dart.
A search of Barry’s phone found “that Barry Morphew's phone download showed it was turned off at 2:47 p.m. on May 9, 2020, only a few minutes after he arrived home at the residence where Suzanne Morphew sent her last electronic communication to anyone.”
Investigators also found “an irregular gap in recorded activities” from the infotainment system on Barry Morphew’s truck in the days around Suzanne’s disappearance.
The first time Barry Morphew faced charges in the case, Suzanne's body had not yet been found. That lack of a victim made murder particularly hard to prove.
Then, in 2023, the body was found. After scientists determined Suzanne had been exposed to the same type of tranquilizer that Morphew said he previously used to sedate deer, investigators searched for anyone else in the area at the time of Suzanne’s death who may have had access to the types of tranquilizer chemicals found in her remains. That’s a specific blend called BAM (Butorphanol, Azaperone and Medetomidine) that Barry Morphew said he used in his prior work in Indiana.
But use of those chemicals, available only by prescription, was unusual in southern Colorado. Investigators tried to find anyone outside of wildlife officers or veterinarians with access to the drugs.
According to the indictment, “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.”
Morphew has maintained his innocence throughout, while the case has had more twists and turns than most.
The original district attorney who charged Barry with murder in 2021, Linda Stanley, was disbarred by the State of Colorado following several instances of misconduct related to the Morphew case and a separate high-profile case.
Stanley was a frequent guest on shows about the Morphew case, where she was accused by state authorities of making “improper extrajudicial statements about the case and enlisted her own employee to initiate a criminal investigation against the judge presiding over the case” in retaliation for his rulings.
Those who have defended Barry Morphew continue to believe in his innocence.
“Not only is he is a loving father, but he was a loving husband,” said Iris Eytan, who defended Morphew in 2021. She does not represent him now. “I’ve handled thousands of cases, and I’ve never seen prosecutors mishandle a case so recklessly. This case was fumbled so terribly, three prosecutors were penalized,” Eytan continued in a message to CPR News. “After Barry’s case was rightly dismissed, I dedicated the second half of my career to ensure what happened to Barry doesn’t happen to another innocent person.”
The couple’s children have also stood by their father, accompanying him after charges were dismissed. Morphew sued the district attorney for malicious prosecution, a case which was dismissed by a federal judge who found that while the original prosecution was flawed, it wasn’t malicious.
Now it all begins anew.
Colorado will seek to extradite Morphew from Arizona. When he returns, he will be held on $3 million cash bail.
