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In 2020, in a small California mountain town, five women disappeared. I found out what happened to all of them, except one. A woman known as Dia, whose estate is worth millions of dollars. I'm Lucy Sheriff. Over the past four years, I've spoken with Dia's family and friends, and I've discovered that everyone has a different version of events.
Hear the story on Where's Dear? Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder.
This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.
Today I'm back to finish discussing the case of Suzanne Morphew. This is part two of a two-part series, so if you haven't listened to part one, go back and listen to that first or else this won't make much sense. Last week I discussed Suzanne's background, her relationship with her husband Barry Morphew, the very odd circumstances surrounding her disappearance, the
the search for her, and the many interviews conducted in this case thus far, including many discrepancies from Barry. Throughout the course of this investigation, detectives did discover that Suzanne was engaged in a romantic relationship with another man. But this was a secret that Suzanne kept from everyone, even her closest friends. So investigators had no idea who this man was other than his first name, Jeff.
But in November 2020, about six months after Suzanne went missing, investigators finally identified the man Suzanne was having an affair with as Jeff Libler. This is the case of Suzanne Morphew.
Investigators discover that Jeff Libler is a married father of six, who lives in Michigan. He and Suzanne had a brief fling in high school, and Suzanne reached out to him on Facebook in 2018. She said, This message sparked a nearly two-year affair, and they ended up meeting in person in various cities on five occasions. In order to keep this affair a secret, Suzanne and Jeff communicated through apps like LinkedIn and WhatsApp.
No one in Suzanne's life, not even her best friend Sheila, knew about this affair. When investigators contacted Jeff, he immediately asked if he was a target of their investigation, and cooperated fully. He willingly provided DNA, phone records, and login information for his social media accounts. And they quickly confirmed that Jeff was in Michigan when Suzanne went missing. They did this by analyzing data from his credit card.
But of course, talking to him was essential, because they learned a lot about Suzanne and her marriage. And on top of that, with his help, they were able to better solidify a timeline for Suzanne's last days. And we'll get to that. But Jeff told agents that when he found out Suzanne was missing, he was immediately concerned that Barry killed her. His two theories were that Barry found out about the affair, or that Suzanne threatened to leave Barry, and he snapped and killed her.
But also, investigators want to know why he never came forward after hearing that Suzanne had gone missing. He tells them that he just didn't want his wife and children or Suzanne's daughters to find out and get hurt. He said that he loved Suzanne, and he didn't want her memory to be tarnished by this affair.
He also said Suzanne was his soulmate, because they had the same approach to the world and treated other people the same way. He said Suzanne, quote, Jeff also said that he didn't think Suzanne intended to start a relationship when she initially messaged him in 2018, and that she was naive in some ways, because she always saw the best in others.
And we learn how Jeff and Suzanne met. This apparently happened at a party at Suzanne's house the summer after Jeff started college. According to Jeff, Barry and Suzanne were a couple at the time, and Barry was at this party, but he and Suzanne, quote, kind of hooked up, but not really. So something romantic happened.
Now Jeff was an avid golfer, and played every day on the course that Suzanne lived on, and Barry worked on. He says that after the party, Barry found out what happened, and found Jeff on the golf course. He says Barry jumped off his tractor and came to him, quote, ready to beat him down, but stopped when Jeff said that he'd lose his job. So there's a long history here between Barry, Suzanne, and Jeff.
Jeff says that before Suzanne went missing, she was taking classes to become a certified fitness instructor and attended a conference in Arizona to help receive her certification. He said her plan was to establish a new career as a trainer so she could leave Barry after both of her daughters went off to college. He also relates to investigators that Suzanne discussed how she and Barry fought a lot and how the relationship was bad for her mental health. Jeff says he asked Suzanne directly if she was scared Barry would hurt her.
And she responded, quote, he would never cross that line. He's learned. Now, Jeff says that he didn't push for further information, but assumed this meant Barry had shoved her or hit her at least once.
Suzanne also told him she dreaded having to be alone with Barry. Jeff told investigators that Suzanne said Barry often held their million-dollar home and expensive vehicles over their head, but Suzanne craved a simpler life. He also reported that Barry refused to go to counseling with Suzanne because he wanted their marriage to appear perfect.
He said that as long as Suzanne was gratifying Barry sexually, things were tolerable, but that Suzanne was not deriving any pleasure from their intimate relationship. Apparently, Suzanne often suspected that Barry was having an affair, and even once said that she wished he'd find a girlfriend and leave. Speaking to Jeff gives investigators a lot of context about Suzanne's life before she went missing.
And luckily, he was extremely cooperative, because when they sifted through Jeff's text messages to Suzanne, they were able to find what they believe is her last proof of life. Now, with access to Jeff's messages, investigators uncover that Suzanne was outside sunbathing and messaging Jeff when Barry arrived home on May 9th, 2020, the day before she was reported missing. That morning, Suzanne messaged Jeff, quote, "'We need to be husband and wife,'
But that wasn't the only message she sent that day. They exchanged over 60 messages, which was apparently more than normal. At 2 of 7 p.m., Suzanne sent Jeff a selfie of her laying outside in the sun in a swimsuit. This picture is considered by the FBI to be Suzanne's last proof of life. At 2 of 11, she messaged Jeff via LinkedIn, saying, quote, I'm on WA, referring to the encrypted messaging app WhatsApp.
This is the last known communication Suzanne made with anyone. Jeff responded at 2.44 p.m. and again at 2.46, one minute before Barry Morphew's phone was placed into airplane mode at 2.47. In January 2021, FBI agents sat Barry down to tell them what they'd uncovered about Suzanne's affair.
When confronted, Barry insisted that he had no idea about the affair and said that he wouldn't have had to suffer all this time had he known. He suggested that Suzanne's disappearance was God's judgment on her for having an affair, and he implied that he now understood why God took Suzanne from him.
He told agents, quote,
Barry then became defensive, telling agents that if they were implying that he found out about the affair and did something to Suzanne, that they were wrong. He said as soon as people found out Suzanne was having an affair, they'd say, quote, Old hothead Barry found out and killed his wife.
In this interview, agents asked him if he ever hit Suzanne, and he admitted that he had clipped her nose once, but said that this was the only time anything of that nature had ever happened. Barry was asked why he sent Suzanne messages that implied he was considering suicide, and he told them that he only did it to make her feel bad and hurt her, but he would never do it because of his daughters.
Agents also asked about the trash runs again, to which Barry said, quote,
Cahill and Graham ask him to recount the events of May 9th again, and this time he said that during the time he left home, in between eating lunch and coming home and putting his phone in airplane mode, he went to have the blade on his bobcat replaced. During this interview, Barry also says he thinks Suzanne's body is in the river, whether it was in there by accident or by an abductor.
Barry was interviewed again the next day, and he suggested that Suzanne ran away. A month later, agents sat down with Barry again, and they noted a comment that he made, saying that when politicians say, quote, I don't recall, it means that they're lying.
This was interesting to them, because Barry himself had answered a number of questions with this phrase. During this interview, investigators showed him the selfie Suzanne sent to Jeff, that is considered to be her last proof of life. And Barry said, quote, Well, look at her. She's obviously drunk. Look at her eyes. Do you know what drunk eyes look like?
Now, this is very interesting to investigators, because Barry had told them many times that he and Suzanne had a great time on the 9th because she hadn't drank any alcohol or taken any drugs. Barry also told them, quote, Your evidence does not matter, because if it's anything to do with tying me up with her disappearance, it's wrong.
He told agents that the tranquilizer dart evidence could be explained because he had shot two deer in his Colorado property. But if you recall, this does contradict his earlier statements where he said that he had not used tranquilizers since living in Indiana.
Agent Grusing confronted Barry about his phone movements around the house after he arrived home on May 9th. Basically, it shows him running from porch to porch in a Z-shaped pattern. And he was going pretty fast. Barry explained this by saying that he shoots chipmunks. He actually explained that he shot over 85 chipmunks on his property since moving to Colorado, because they got into his furnace once, and it cost him a lot of money to replace it.
Grissing asked if he was shooting chipmunks when he returned home that day, and Barry said yes. Now, this is the first time investigators had heard this alibi, and the first time Barry admitted to using a gun when he returned. The next day, Barry did give investigators the .22 caliber altered rifle that he claims he used to shoot chipmunks on May 9th. In an interview on March 1st, the agents noted that Barry was altering his statements to match the evidence they had presented to him.
For example, he admitted to turning left on Highway 50 when he left the house on May 10th, turning in the direction where Suzanne's helmet was found, saying he turned because he saw a bull elk and wanted to follow it to see where it came from. But then when Agent sat him back down on March 5th, he recanted some of his previous statements, saying that when Agent Cahill had interviewed him back in 2020, he was quote, out of his mind.
He told Agent Grusing that Derek Graham and Joe Cahill had turned their backs on him, which made him lose faith in the investigation. He told agents repeatedly that if he was guilty, he wouldn't have turned over his gun to them. And he continued to answer questions with, I don't recall.
He told Agent Grusing, quote,
I mean, you think 32 years of a lover, you could look him in the eyes and say, honey, I've never done that to you. And they would believe you, but she didn't. And I think she took that mindset with her alcohol and her pills, her depression, her and her cancer, all of this. And I think she just made this monster in her head. And it just blew up. In this same interview, Barry asked, quote, and what about immunity? Can you give me immunity if I sit and just open my life to you?
Agents asked him what he would be granted immunity for, and he said, quote, I think in case someone falsely convicts me. During this interview, Barry also accuses Suzanne of taking $70,000 to $80,000 out of his safe in the garage, and tells investigators he wants to go to Mexico to search for her, because he thinks she ran away.
He says he wonders if she thinks she could get across the border with $70,000. This, of course, completely contradicts his recent statement that he believes her body is in the river. Investigators also ask when is it acceptable to stop looking for Suzanne, and he said never. He also claims he personally searched every mineshaft in the area for Suzanne.
He also expressed that Suzanne had perhaps gained too much confidence in the months leading up to her disappearance, saying, quote,
He said he might have believed that Suzanne was having an emotional affair with someone, but he couldn't believe it was physical, saying, quote, She loves the Lord. She knows God's word. We, I mean, we gotta answer to the Lord when we do things like that.
Barry also said he didn't remember Suzanne ever saying she wanted to get a divorce. And another thing that Barry does frequently in these interviews is judge how well he and Suzanne's relationship was going at a certain point by discussing how frequently they were having sex. He was questioned about his phone activity and admitted that he often did put his phone on airplane mode because Suzanne was always trying to track his location. He said that she would show up at his job sites trying to catch him cheating with a client and embarrass him.
He said that he did delete texts from Suzanne, only because he didn't want his daughters to see them. But he had never deleted his call history. When asked if he visited porn or dating sites on his phone, he said, quote,
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Ten months after her disappearance, Barry sold the home he shared with Suzanne, and by spring, there was a new woman in his life, a local woman named Shoshona Dark. He was seen leaving a hotel with her on Valentine's Day 2021, and in the photo, she was wearing a wig. Barry carried her luggage while she carried flowers.
Agent Grusing brought up Shoshona in an interview on April 5th. Barry said, quote, I'll tell you right now that she is a special person in my life, and it's, I've told you before, she's a dear friend. There's nothing sexual going on with her, and I didn't meet her until October 25th. Grusing also told Barry that he was concerned that he was planning to end his life, because he'd lost significant weight, he was selling off his assets, and he was making statements about not being around much longer.
He was also questioned about Sheila's claims that Barry had stalked her and Suzanne while she was visiting their Colorado home. He explained, quote, I told Suzanne this, and I don't know what she told Sheila, but I was in Arizona hunting, and I'd been camping for seven days, smelled like crap, looked like crap.
He says the neighbor Pete Cushman came outside with a gun because Suzanne and Sheila called him.
Next, Barry was questioned about security cameras on their property. He said the cameras only worked for a little while when they first moved in. He said when they were working, he could sometimes access them on his phone. But after a while, they never worked. And he actually accuses Suzanne of sabotaging them in some way.
Grissing told them that they tried to recover footage of him chasing and shooting chipmunks on May 9th, but were unable to retrieve anything. Barry says the security cameras were in the safe on May 9th. This is despite officers responding to the scene reporting that there were cameras hanging up outside.
In this interview, they also show Barry a photo. This is of a crack in the doorframe in the primary bedroom. Investigators say that the previous owner said that it was not there when the Morphews purchased the home. Barry said he didn't know it was there or what it was from.
Grusing asked Barry if he sent the friend request from Suzanne's Facebook to see if she had a boyfriend, and he denied it. He said the only time he'd ever gone through Suzanne's phone was on that 2019 trip to Mexico. That's when he went through her Snapchat and text messages and apparently didn't find anything. He denied Suzanne's claim that he chased her through the resort to take her phone.
So, in that same interview, on the same day Barry initially told Grusing that he had not told his daughters about Suzanne and Jeff's affair because he didn't want to hurt them, he later said he had told them, and that they were shocked and heartbroken over the news. Now, Barry didn't know Jeff's identity at this time, because investigators were trying to protect Jeff.
Grusing told Barry that Suzanne's lover's theories were that Barry either found out about the affair and killed Suzanne, or that Suzanne threatened to leave him and he killed her. Barry said,
I don't know what to say about that. I mean, I would not. If she would tell me, I love her so much that if she would want to say, Barry, I'm not happy. I've found love somewhere else. That I would say, we don't need to get a, if you want, if this is what you want, I don't want to be with you if you don't love me. I love you, but I want you to be happy. I would have wrote her a check for half and let her be on her way. I mean, I gave her everything since she was 17 years old and I loved her better than anybody could.
so it doesn't make sense to me why she did what she did. Barry once again discussed May 9th, and this time he said that he was chasing a turkey around the property. He admitted that the evidence in this case made him look bad, but said it was all in God's hands. Then investigators asked him why there were burned files in the fireplace when the house was searched, and Barry answered that he and Suzanne had cleaned out filing cabinets that week.
But investigators noted that many of the pages looked like they came from Suzanne's journal, and that her leather-bound journal was never found in the house. Barry simply said he did not recall her having a journal. And Grusing took this opportunity to remind him of his statement that when politicians say they do not recall something, they're lying.
Grissing showed Barry the beach towel in the last proof-of-life selfie of Suzanne and noted that they were not able to find it in the house. Barry said he didn't know where it was. He was also asked what he did with the $30,000 that was raised on Suzanne's GoFundMe page after her disappearance. Barry answered, quote, I don't recall where the money went, but, but like I said, if it...
Now, for context, George is Barry's friend, whom he knows through volunteer firefighting, and works out with frequently. He says George helped him search for Suzanne in the months following her disappearance.
Barry was questioned about what tranquilizer chemicals he uses, and he said that he used BAM and Telazol. Now, no tranquilizer chemicals were recovered from the home, but a veterinarian was interviewed about these chemicals and was shocked that a civilian could get Telazol, saying that it was only used in veterinary medicine. She also said that she had heard of one one-hundredth of a dose of BAM being used to sedate a human, but a full dose would most likely be fatal.
Before wrapping up the interview, Grusing asked Barry again to take a polygraph. Barry said he would, quote, pray about it, and that he had to go. This was the last interview investigators conducted with him. Investigators reached out to Shoshona Dark, and when they sat her down for an interview, she deleted multiple items off her phone while sitting in front of investigators. They believe one may have been a second phone number for Barry.
She says that she didn't know Suzanne, but that she'd called in a tip in May of 2020 because she saw suspicious vehicles near the street the Morphews lived on when Suzanne disappeared. Police interviewed another woman who claimed she was involved with Barry at this time, Holly Wilson. Holly actually recorded her conversations with Barry between October and December 2020. She says Barry said something to the effect of, quote, "'You are Suzanne to me.'"
Holly reports that Barry held her hand while in the car with her and her husband, gave her a kiss goodnight, and even touched her breasts, but pretended it was an accident. Holly also says Barry told her that Suzanne would approve of whatever happened between them, and that Barry told her and her husband that he had an ex-FBI guy working for him, and that he'd paid a private investigator $50,000 to look for Suzanne.
Holly also told investigators that Suzanne had attended Alcoholics Anonymous, and the skills she learned there helped her detach from Barry. Investigators spoke to another couple, Laura and Andrew, that the Morphews knew through church. Suzanne had confided in Laura that she was taking classes to become an athletic trainer, because she felt it would give her a second chance at life.
Andrew said Barry told him that he did not take a polygraph because he wouldn't pass it. And Lara says Barry called her in December 2020 and told her, quote, Suzanne's not dead. She's coming back.
Investigators also tracked down that contact titled Tim Backhoe in Barry's phone, the guy he was texting on the 9th. It was a man Barry was inquiring with about purchasing a backhoe attachment for the bobcat. During the time in between him having lunch with Suzanne and when he came back, he went to Tim's house to see this attachment, but decided not to buy it. Tim says that this attachment could be used to dig a deep hole in a short amount of time.
By April 26, 2021, police say that over 1,400 tips had been called in, each one investigated, and none provided any other legitimate suspect other than Barry Morphew.
So on May 4th, 2021, nearly one year since Suzanne was last seen, Judge Patrick Murphy of Colorado's 11th Judicial District signed an arrest affidavit for Barry Morphew. He was being charged with murder in the first degree, tampering with physical evidence, and attempting to influence a public servant. And on May 5th, Barry Morphew was arrested and booked into the Chaffey County Jail.
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In a press conference following his arrest, Sheriff Speezy said, quote, "'More than 70 investigators with the Chafee County Sheriff's Office, Colorado Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and dozens of other local law enforcement agencies helped execute more than 135 search warrants across the state, interview more than 400 people, and investigate more than 1,400 tips. Today is not the day for celebration.'
nor does it mark the end of this investigation. Rather, it is a next step in this very difficult, but very important journey as we seek justice for Suzanne and her family. My team read the 129-page affidavit, and most of the evidence and the interviews and outlines are the evidence you've heard so far in these episodes, but very little if any of this information was known to anyone but investigators before this affidavit was signed. The introduction to the affidavit reads in part, quote,
Suzanne took clear, articulable steps in January 2020 in attempts to separate and divorce from her husband, Barry. She told her family and close friends about her intentions, secretly recorded her notes of abuse in her phone because Barry monitored it, confronted Barry in arguments that she secretly recorded with help from a friend,
and finally sent him a text four days before she disappeared saying that she was done. Let's handle this civilly. Barry, however, initially represented to investigators from CBI, FBI, and CCSO that his marriage with Suzanne was perfect, and she had no intention of leaving him. Barry's statements about his actions on the days before and after Suzanne's disappearance have been proven to be false and misleading by this investigation.
Barry knowingly destroyed evidence that his relationship with Suzanne was deteriorating and that he was involved in her disappearance and homicide.
On May 6, 2021, exactly one year after Suzanne sent him the text saying, I'm done, Barry Morphew made his first appearance in court with a public defender representing him. He reportedly didn't say anything other than yes sir to the judge when asked if he understood his charges. A protective order was also put in place so Barry could contact Mallory and Macy.
And in a very strange turn of events, the next week, Barry made headlines again, when court documents revealed that he was also accused of submitting a fraudulent vote for Donald Trump on Suzanne's behalf.
This happened in October 2020 when he knew she was missing. The county clerk's office said that they received a suspicious mail-in ballot from Suzanne Morphew, but it lacked her signature, which is required by law. Barry Morphew, however, had signed it as a witness. When interviewed by the FBI in April, they asked him why. He said, "...just because I wanted Trump to win. I just thought, give him another vote. All these other guys are cheating."
When told this was a crime, Barry replied that he didn't know you couldn't vote on your spouse's behalf. So, charges of felony forgery and misdemeanor ballot fraud were added to Barry's record. And they weren't the only ones, because on May 18th, Barry was also charged with possessing a short rifle, a weapon that is banned in Colorado, and tampering with a deceased human body.
The public servants who he's accused of trying to influence were listed as well. They include Joseph Cahill, Derek Graham, Jonathan Grusing, and Alexander Walker, the chief investigator with the district attorney's office.
Now, the affidavit was not public at this time, but media organizations were desperate to get their hands on it. According to the Associated Press on June 7th, 2021, "...a coalition of news media organizations, including the Associated Press, had petitioned the court for the release of the 130-page document arguing in part that the public has a presumptive right to know what led to Morphew's May 5th arrest."
However, that same day, Judge Murphy declared that the affidavit would remain sealed until after the preliminary hearing. A hearing was held on July 26 prior to the start of the preliminary hearings. At this point, Barry had hired a high-profile defense attorney, Iris Eton. In what would be the first of many bumps in the road for the prosecution, the judge said that the defense was lacking access to some of the evidence they were supposed to have received in June. So let's go through the hearings.
The first of four preliminary hearings was held on August 9th. In this hearing, Commander Alex Walker was questioned by District Attorney Linda Stanley and cross-examined by Defense Attorney Drew Nielsen. They outlined Barry's initial response to his wife being missing on May 10th, 2020 and investigators finding her bicycle undamaged that evening.
Drew Nielsen, one of Barry's attorneys, stated that although the couple had spats, they always made up. He also noted that Barry did not protest his home and truck being treated like a crime scene. Nielsen asked Walker if any of Suzanne's blood had been found in the home, including the bedroom with no sheets. Walker responded, no. Nielsen then asked if Suzanne's blood had been found at any point in the investigation, to which Nielsen also answered, no.
Nielsen pointed out that even after extensive searches using a number of resources, law enforcement was unable to locate Suzanne's body to prove that she was dead. Nielsen also brought up the unidentified male DNA found in Suzanne's Range Rover, saying it partially matched an entry in CODIS, but no other information about it was given on this day.
The details of Suzanne's affair with Jeff Libler were also discussed heavily on this day. Mary's lawyer said that Suzanne kept a lot of secrets and didn't even tell her sister or best friend about her nearly two-year affair. They also bring up that in conversations between Jeff and Suzanne, she mentions that at one point they could move to Ecuador together and she could teach language, theorizing that maybe this is where Suzanne went.
In the second day of the preliminary hearing on August 10th, FBI agent Jonathan Grusing testified about the data collected from Barry's cell phone and his truck movements. He pointed out that according to the truck, the doors were opened and closed several times between 3.25 a.m. and 3.51 a.m., although Barry says he didn't wake up until 5. He also said that around the same time, Barry's phone pinged near a location where Suzanne's bike was found.
However, he did state that because of how poor the service was in the area, that was inconclusive. Grissing discussed Barry's five trash runs, and addressed that although Barry told his neighbor that he was at the job site when he called about Suzanne being missing around 5, surveillance video confirmed that he didn't leave his hotel room between 12.42 and 5.55 p.m.,
This is the picture that Gruising paints. On May 9th, Barry came home to find Suzanne sunbathing and talking to Jeff. He says Barry's phone pings indicate him running around the house, presumably chasing Suzanne. This is the same time that Barry's phone goes into airplane mode. Suzanne was still receiving new messages from Jeff while Barry's phone was moving rapidly around the house.
When Drew Nielsen questioned Agent Grusing, he pointed out that neighbors did not report hearing any unusual noises. Grusing brought up the point that Barry Morphew spoke to law enforcement 23 times in 2020, but never made the claim that he was chasing and shooting chipmunks until earlier in 2021. Nielsen says that the pattern the prosecution claims Barry was moving with his phone would have had him moving through walls at an impossible speed.
The prosecution also accused Barry of looking for another woman to date, saying that he had searched AshleyMadison.com and other sites, then deleted his web history.
The defense then questioned Grusing on the things that he chose not to include in his testimony, like Barry visiting Salida Stove and Spa between 4.30 and 5 p.m. on May 9th. The employee who interacted with him didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. There is also a receipt and surveillance to confirm that Barry made this stop to buy those hot tub chemicals. Grusing also said that Suzanne's phone had apparently tried to make an outgoing phone call at 2.53 a.m. on May 10th, shortly before Barry's truck doors opened.
Drew Nielsen replied that maybe Suzanne was the one opening the truck doors. The third hearing was held on August 23rd, and this centered around the supposed needle sheath found in the dryer and the ammunition found on the Morphew's bedroom floor.
In the afternoon, testimony was presented that Barry asked investigators about receiving immunity in the case. They also discussed the location of Suzanne's bike helmet, and Barry's lawyer argued that the tire tracks from where the helmet was found didn't match Barry's F-350 or either of their Range Rovers. She also said that the DNA found inside the helmet did not match Barry. It was revealed that Barry's DNA was also not a match on the needle sheath cap.
And if you recall from episode 1, they also discuss why Barry's room may have smelled like chlorine. The defense presented a letter from the manager of the Holiday Inn where Barry was staying, and apparently his room was directly above an indoor pool, which could account for the chlorine smell that his co-workers reported. But there's a caveat to this. They don't know if the pool was open or closed because of COVID restrictions.
On day four, they discussed Barry's left turn on the morning of the 10th, placing him in the area where Suzanne's helmet was found. Investigators showed photographs of the scratches on Barry's arm that, quote, appeared to be caused by fingernails. However, perhaps the most intense moment was when Iris Etan called FBI agent Joseph Cahill to the stand. She wanted answers about the male DNA found on Suzanne's glove box.
Etan stated that Agent Cahill was listed as the CBI contact on letters sent to law enforcement agencies in Tempe, Phoenix, and Chicago, informing them that a partial match to the CODIS profile of a man accused of sexual assault in all three cities was retrieved from Suzanne's Range Rover.
Cahill testified that he was not aware of the letters at the time that they were sent, but did become aware of them when the district attorney's office gave them to him later on. Cahill further testified that he did not follow up on the CODIS matches. He did, however, hear from a Chicago detective, who said that he'd follow up on the match, but never checked back in to see if he actually had.
Etan asked Cahill if a DNA match from CODIS should be followed up on as an investigative lead, and Cahill said yes.
Ultimately, at the end of day four, the defense tried to poke holes in the prosecution's theory by bringing up the unidentified DNA matches on Suzanne's bike helmet and bike, as well as the DNA from her car that partially matched the CODIS profile of the sex offender, Barry's visit to the hot tub store, and the pings on Suzanne's phone after the time the prosecution says he killed her.
Nearly every aspect of the evidence we've discussed so far was mentioned in these preliminary hearings, and it was truly four days of them just going back and forth, so I didn't cover every single thing mentioned in those hearings. But you get the point of how confrontational this whole thing was. Even after these four days of testimony, Judge Murphy postponed his decision as to whether or not Barry should stand trial.
But on September 17th, Judge Murphy ruled that Barry Morphew would stand trial for Suzanne's murder. This is Jessica Knoll, host of the new series, Back in Crime.
If you're a follower of true crime, you're probably familiar with some of the most shocking stories from our history. Horrific tragedies like the Columbine Massacre. And notorious criminals like cult leader Charles Manson.
In a scene described by one investigator as reminiscent of a weird religious rite, five persons, including actress Sharon Tate, were found dead at the home of Miss Tate and her husband, screen director Roman Poliansky. But what if we were to turn back the hands of time and relive these events as they unfolded? Follow along each week as we take a fresh look at crimes from the past. Back in Crime is available now.
The prosecution requested a $10 million bond, but Judge Murphy reduced it to $500,000 cash only. Barry posted bail and was let out of jail on an ankle monitor. Less than two weeks later on September 29th, Barry's friend, Shoshona Dark, the one he was seen at the hotel with earlier that year, was arrested for trespassing on the Morphew's former property, the house Suzanne went missing from.
Now, this had already been sold to another family, and she was apparently caught on security cameras picking up a package from the front of the home. The new owner stated that there was a clear no trespassing sign posted. In the end, Dark cooperated with police and was charged with second-degree criminal trespassing. She was released on bond.
On October 7th, prosecutors filed a motion requesting stricter terms on Barry's bail, saying that the ankle monitor he was wearing was sometimes undetectable because of poor service where he was staying. Now, Barry was actually staying with his former neighbors, the Cushmans, the same neighbors from Puma Path, who he said came out of the house with a gun when Sheila and Suzanne said he was stalking them.
Court documents state that Barry was renting a home near the courthouse, which was well within the reach of cell towers, but he refused to stay there. Now, like many cases, Suzanne's case saw many changes in leadership over the years. The first big change on the case came in October 2021, when a key prosecutor, the Deputy District Attorney Jeff Lindsay, resigned.
DA Linda Stanley assured the media that this wouldn't affect Suzanne's case negatively, and that she was going to hire four additional prosecutors, one of which would be specifically dedicated to the Morphew case. And as always, there's a lot going on at once. Documents filed the same week accused the prosecutors and law enforcement of intentionally withholding key evidence from the defense. This evidence, of course, is that DNA sample from Suzanne's car, that potential match to a serial sex offender.
These documents stated that under new Colorado law, those involved could be tried civilly for defamation and false arrest. Barry's attorneys alleged that the prosecution knew the identity as early as August 2nd, before the preliminary hearing. The document also alleges that they intentionally waited until Barry was ordered to go to trial, and thus, quote, conspired to commit a fraud upon the court by withholding exculpatory evidence.
The prosecution countered that it wasn't addressed because it was only a partial profile. But Linda Stanley admitted in an official response that when the alert went out on June 2nd that the sample was a potential match to a serial sex offender, the forensics team did not do any work on it. Around this same time, the court issued protective orders against Barry for over 10 people. This includes all of Suzanne's siblings, two of Suzanne's closest friends, and one of Barry's employees.
Barry was also asked to leave the Puma Path area while Jean and Martin Ritter installed a security fence. According to the prosecution, the Ritters are afraid of Barry. In a status hearing on October 9th, Judge Murphy was exasperated by how long the court had to spend hearing defense motions and called their tactic, quote, old and a bit broad.
Still, Iris Eton maintained that there are, quote, outrageous discovery violations by prosecutors. The prosecution denied having hidden evidence from the defense.
Now, Barry's friend Shoshona Dark was set to be a witness in the upcoming trial, but apparently her lawyer is a close and personal friend of Judge Patrick Murphy. Barry's defense team formally asked him to step down, and on December 30th, he did. Judge Murphy admitted that he had been a close friend of Dark's attorney for over 40 years, and that the attorney is the godfather of his niece.
So, after the first of the year, Judge Ramsey Lama was assigned to the case. And let's just say he was not as patient with the prosecution as Judge Murphy was. His first act in the case was to order the prosecution to turn over all police reports and videos from their 20-month investigation into Suzanne's disappearance over to the defense team.
In January, Agent Joseph Cahill, one of the primary investigators on the case who conducted many interviews with Barry, left the CBI altogether. He had stepped down from the Morphew case in August. The Denver Gazette reported that he stepped down two days before CBI's internal affairs launched an investigation into him because his personal weapon went off inside his home while he was off duty.
In late January hearings, Barry was granted permission to travel to see his daughters while out on bond, and more texts between Suzanne and Sheila were revealed, including one where Suzanne wrote, "'He's not stable. "'It's guilt and desperate measures he's taking.'" A screenshot was retrieved from Suzanne's iCloud showing that she was learning to say romantic messages in Spanish, and Iris Eton was quick to remind prosecutors that Suzanne discussed running away to Ecuador.
On February 1st, Judge Lama ruled that Barry's trial would be moved out of Chaffey County and into Fremont County, because he said with the amount of pre-trial publicity the case had gotten, and Salida's small population, Barry couldn't receive a fair jury trial there.
In a hearing on February 11th, Judge Lama ruled that he will not allow Sheila Oliver to testify about domestic violence between Barry and Suzanne. At this point, it seemed like things were on a downward slope for the prosecution. But things only got worse for them in March, because former investigator Joseph Cahill spoke out to say that he believed Barry's arrest was premature, and was the, quote, "...worst decision that could be made."
Because of this, the defense motioned to have the case dismissed. The prosecution called this motion, quote, utter nonsense. And Linda Stanley said Cahill had already been discredited as an official, so his opinion didn't matter. Stanley also accused Cahill of being, quote, put out because he was out of town when the arrest was made. It was revealed that Cahill said that there was a, quote, erosion in the framework of the case he and agent Derek Graham had built against Barry Morphew.
On March 4th, it was reported by the Denver Gazette that law enforcement was now saying that there was probable cause to arrest Barry, but they disagreed with when Barry was arrested. An agent testified that Agents Cahill and Graham asked him to investigate more before Barry was arrested, but he was arrested anyway.
On April 8th, Judge Lama issued a 20-page order in which he criticized the prosecution for being, quote, sloppy and reckless, and declared that the prosecution's offenses were so brazen that he wasn't going to allow 14 of the state's 16 expert witnesses to testify. These witnesses included experts on cell phone records, DNA, and telematic vehicle data.
And this truly seems like the final blow for the case, because on April 19th, 2022, only nine days before the trial was set to begin, the state motioned to dismiss the charges without prejudice pending further investigation. Judge Lama granted the motion, and charges against Barry Morphew were dropped. He walked out of the courtroom a free man.
Carol McKinley of the Denver Gazette reported, quote, "'The case was dismissed for lack of evidence by its own prosecution team, and the air was so tense in the courtroom a service dog whined as if to comfort people observing the proceedings.'"
Now, of course, for the charges to be dropped without prejudice means that they can be refiled at a later date, if more evidence is obtained. The state said that the evidence they needed was Suzanne's body, and they claimed that they believed that they were close to finding it. They just needed to wait for the snow to melt so they could excavate a certain area.
In the weeks following, the Morphews address the public for the first time by appearing on Good Morning America. In the interview, Barry sits between his two daughters, holding each of their hands, and all three of them are in tears. In the interview, Macy says, "'I just hope that Linda will step up to the plate "'and do everything she can to find our mom, "'because what they've done is not fair, "'and we're never gonna stop looking for our mom.'" She is referring to Linda Stanley, of course.
Etan also appeared on GMA and said, quote, Prosecutors need to be held responsible, and they need to pay for the damage they've caused Barry, which is frankly nearly irreparable, because it is hard for anybody to believe that Barry is not who they claim he was. And this wasn't a hollow threat, because on May 7th, Etan announced that she was asking the state to launch an investigation into Linda Stanley and into some of her staff, saying, quote, I'm
I've never seen prosecutorial misconduct this egregious in my entire career. She says that the state's claims that no leads led anywhere other than Barry were false, and instead says that they intentionally didn't follow up on leads that didn't point to Barry. She says they never explored the area of the Arkansas River where a dog track Suzanne sent to, and says that investigators found a half cup of coffee on the counter of the Morphew home, along with a bowl of cat food waiting to be put in a dish.
She argues that Barry doesn't drink coffee and never feeds their cat. Now, whether it was from this report or by coincidence, Linda Stanley's law license was temporarily revoked on June 1st, 2022, officially because she failed to complete legal training that was required of her.
The Office of Attorney Regulations Counsel said that Stanley refused to complete her required hours of continuing legal education in 2019, 2020, and 2021, despite receiving reminders to do so. However, they did say that her license could be reinstated once the hours were completed, which is what happened shortly after. As for the forgery charge Barry was facing, he pled guilty to felony forgery.
As a part of the plea, he didn't receive any jail time. Instead, he paid a $600 fine and was given supervised probation for one year. Now, as a side note, I do think it's kind of funny that on that forged ballot, Barry actually voted for Linda Stanley for district attorney on Suzanne's behalf.
Now, besides a few failed attempts by Barry to get his chipmunk gun back, everything related to Suzanne's case was pretty quiet in the media until March of this year. That's when the Denver Gazette reported that Linda Stanley was facing more trouble with the Colorado Supreme Court's Attorney Regulation Council. Two additional complaints were filed about Suzanne's case. One complaint is from a man who participated in searches for Suzanne. He reported Stanley for a lack of professionalism and said, quote,
My concerns were further realized when DA Stanley failed to provide formal interviews with actual news organizations while holding online interviews about this murder case with amateur YouTube crime channels. He's referring to Linda going on the YouTube channel Profiling Evil in April 2021. Our reporter Brooke watched her interview with host Mike King and noted that it was an overall casual interview. She laughed about how Barry was shorter than her.
and even introduced her husband to the host during the interview. In it, Stanley made sure to reaffirm numerous times that she wasn't doing anything wrong by being on the show. She said, quote,
I wanted to let people know. And if they don't know this about me, they need to know this about me. I'm never going to compromise my ethical beliefs at all, or compromise a case at all for anyone or anything. So if Mike asked me to come on the show to talk about some stuff regarding the prelim, yes, I did. I talked about probable cause. I talked about presumption great, proof evident, etc.
The second complaint filed against Stanley came from Fremont County Sheriff Alan Cooper, who claimed Stanley's prosecutors lied in court about his deputies, saying that they were not sharing evidence with them. Cooper says it became so bad that he would hand carry evidence to the judge himself, just so he would know the sheriff's office was not withholding documents.
Barry's attorney, Iris Eton, filed another formal complaint against Stanley in April of this year, 2023. She says the prosecution team had tunnel vision when it came to Barry. And Stanley fought back, saying, quote, Ms. Eton appears to be seeking to circumvent the procedures in place that protects due process by holding a press conference before any official action has taken place.
Now, later this year, the Attorney Regulation Council themselves released a complaint about Stanley. They accused her of launching a domestic violence investigation into Judge Ramsey Lama after she received unfavorable rulings in the Morphew case.
They also rebuke her for texts she sent to Mike King of Profiling Evil. That section of the complaint reads, quote, On May 15th, 2021, when Mike King of Profiling Evil texted Stanley, asking her for more information about the short rifle Barry Morphew allegedly used to kill Suzanne Morphew, as had been identified in the complaint, Stanley replied, Um, I will see what I can do. Only because it's you, Mike.
When King texted Stanley and asked her if perhaps Mr. Morphew strangled Suzanne in the hot tub, Stanley replied, We know it wasn't bloody. The hot tub was drained, with crust around the drain areas, indicating it had not been used in a long time. But keep on spinning ideas in your brain. When King texted Stanley and asked her about Suzanne Morphew's car keys, Stanley replied, We think she always left her purse in the car.
In June 2021, when King texted Stanley to comment about a new video on Barry Morphew, Stanley replied, I'm great, thanks, we got him, no worries.
In May, Barry filed a $15 million federal civil rights lawsuit against Linda Stanley and her prosecutors, law enforcement officers including Sheriff John Speezy, and several current and former investigators with the CBI and FBI. The suit alleges that Barry was wrongfully arrested and jailed for a crime he did not commit.
The same week the suit was announced, Suzanne's nephew, Chris Moorman, told the Denver Gazette that he was tired of this legal limbo. And he said none of this has anything to do with finding Suzanne. For the same article, the Gazette spoke to Sheriff Speezy, who said the investigation was open, but by CBI guidelines, if a case went unsolved for more than three years, it's a cold case. And that's where the case stood. But not for long.
On September 22nd, 2023, investigators conducted a search of Sewatch County, Colorado, but they weren't looking for Suzanne. They were combing an area of Moffitt, Colorado in search of clues on the whereabouts of another missing woman, Edna Quintana. Now, I won't go too far into Edna's case, but she was last seen on May 3rd, 2023, walking around Sewatch County.
She was 56 at the time of her disappearance. As of this recording, she has not been found and her case remains unsolved. But like we see in so many cases, in their search for Edna, they found someone else. Investigators uncovered human remains in a shallow grave. On September 27th, they were confirmed to be Suzanne Renee Morphew by her dental records and cancer port.
There were 1,235 days between when Suzanne was last confirmed to be alive and when her remains were positively identified.
So let's talk about where Suzanne was found. Moffitt is part of Sewatch County, and is about 36 miles south of the Morphew's former home in Maysville. According to Tom Perrin, the Sewatch County coroner, the bones were found in a remote area, which he describes as a desert field of sagebrush and natural grasses. He said it appeared that Suzanne had been buried in a shallow grave before her remains were scattered. Suzanne's sister Melinda told the Denver Gazette, quote,
So, what happens now? After the case against Barry was dismissed, investigators in Chaffey County said that their number one priority was to find Suzanne's body. They believe they knew where her remains were.
which of course ended up not being the case. Charges can be brought against Barry again, but only if investigators can tie him to the body or discover other relevant evidence. Iris Eton and other sources close to the investigation were quick to confirm that GPS data from Barry's truck and tracking evidence from his cell phone do not show that he was in Sewatch County at the time.
However, it is worth noting that it was previously determined that Barry's truck does not record each and every event that occurs, and there are many hours on the evening of May 9th and early morning of May 10th in which Barry is unaccounted for, because his phone was in airplane mode. There were two Range Rovers at the Morphew house that day, and telematic data from those vehicles has not been made public.
Of course, we can't forget about that male DNA found on the glove box of Suzanne's car. It is a partial match to the perpetrator of three sexual assault cases. It's also worth noting that the partial samples of male DNA found on Suzanne's bicycle seat, handlebars, and helmet is still unidentified. So what happened to Suzanne? How was she killed? Was she killed in Sewatch County or just buried there?
Although finding Suzanne's body adds a lot of new questions and layers to this case, it might just be what the case needs to get a fresh start. Now her case will be investigated by Sawatch County Sheriff's Department, not Chaffey County.
So, Wacha County Sheriff Dan Warwick told the Denver Gazette, "...it will become a joint effort between every investigative agency which has any interest in the case. I don't know that this is starting over, but I can say that we are getting fresh eyes on the case."
The Sewatch County Sheriff's Department is notably smaller than Chaffey County, having only eight or nine employees, but Warwick says this will not prevent him from finding answers in Suzanne's case. He said, quote, "'I don't give a damn what it takes. "'I'll make it happen. "'Whatever it takes, we'll make it work.'
Which brings me right to our call to action. Please share Suzanne's case. It's far from over, and there are so many unanswered questions that could lead to finding answers for her loved ones. There is always hope. As a reminder, Suzanne Morphew was last known to be alive at her home in Maysville, Colorado on May 9th, 2020. Her remains were located in Moffett, Colorado in 2023.
The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is asking anyone with information about Suzanne's disappearance to email CDPSSuzanneMorphewTipline at state.co.us or call the tip line at 719-312-7530. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.
Voices for Justice is hosted and produced by me, Sarah Turney, and is a Voices for Justice media original. This episode contains writing and research by Brooke Haynes. If you love what we do here, please take a moment to follow, rate, and review the show on your podcast player. It helps us and helps more people find these cases in need of justice. Welcome to the Secret After Show.
I don't do a lot of two-parters. This is a very, very difficult case in its own, you know, unique way. And there's no denying, getting choked up, it hits really close for home to me. And I am extremely thankful to have had Brooke's help in this episode. The goal is to present the facts without my opinion as much as possible.
And I think the best thing I can say about this case in terms of my personal opinion is that I'm just sending love to Suzanne's daughters, and I really hope that they can get some concrete answers very, very soon about their mom. I will also say, please, whatever you think about this case, whether you think Barry is innocent or guilty, whatever you think happened to Suzanne...
Please don't go after her daughters. At the very least, let's just acknowledge that Suzanne probably wouldn't have liked that. On to other personal... Gosh, like I said, this episode really did hit close to home, and there's no denying that. There are just so many things in there, but...
Moving on to what's going on in my life, you guys may have seen that on Twitter, I dropped a little hint about Voices for Justice Media, which is something you guys hear every week in the credits to my show, and that is because I have been in the process of launching a
a network, a podcast network for quite some time, and I am so excited to announce what that is coming soon. But right now I can tell you that the first new podcast on Voices for Justice Media Network will be coming to you in early 2024. I am very busy, but everything is very exciting, and there will be a lot more to come in the coming weeks.
I can't spoil it, y'all. I gotta wait. I gotta wait. And you will hear about it, I promise. I can't wait to share it with you guys. It is not only just a podcast, but hopefully... How do I say this without giving it away? Uh...
hopefully something larger for true crime, something that, um, offers a unique perspective and something a little bit different, um, that hasn't really been done before. So yeah, I'm very excited about that. I think that it's going to be fantastic, um, and just offer a different perspective in the true crime community that, um,
isn't often heard or honestly sometimes respected. So, uh, yeah, I can't wait. It's been fantastic and, um, lots more to come. Before I totally give it away, let's move on to our segment of hope. Uh, this week's segment of hope comes from 69 News WFMZ TV and the title reads, Burke's DA, Arrest Made in Cold Case Homicide of Cynthia Baver.
So yes, I am here to talk about another solve. Reading directly from the article, it says, quote,
I believe it's Reading. Me quote. I believe it's Reading. It says Reading, Pennsylvania, but I believe it's Reading, similar to California. Reading, Pennsylvania. Authorities in Berks County held a press conference Friday to announce an arrest in the cold case homicide of a Reading woman that has gone unsolved for over two decades. Berks County District Attorney John Adams was joined by members of the Reading Police Department and the victim's family to announce that the murder of Cynthia Baver has been solved.
And why I picked this for the segment of hope beyond it just being solved is this part right here. And I could cry. It's so emotional. It's been emotional a few weeks covering this case. So just bear with me. Oh my gosh. And can you hear my laptop going into overdrive? I could cook waffles on it right now. But essentially, this case was reopened at the urging of her dad, who's in his 90s.
They reopened the case in 2021.
So let's talk about what happened. The article reads, "'46-year-old Baber was found unconscious inside her home in Redding, California in April of 2001. It appeared that she suffered fractures to her forehead and stab wounds and that there were ligature marks on her neck. Her death was ruled a homicide. They were able to recover apparently a bunch of blood at the scene that was not hers, and there was no match at that time in 2001.'
And this led to 62-year-old Timothy Bernard, who admitted that he was from Virginia and lived next door to Baver at the time of her murder. Now, he says that he actually heard noises through the walls of her home and knocked on her first floor window to complain about the noises, but just went back into his home.
But again, his blood was a direct match to the blood found at the scene. And he is charged with first-degree murder, third-degree murder, burglary, and related offenses. But yeah, that is our segment of Hope. Again, gosh, I'm so emotional today. It's just, I mean, it's just the coolest show of Hope for families to not give up. I mean,
Obviously, 2001 is a year I'm very familiar with. I know exactly how long that feels and how long that is. And I mean, I just want to say if you're a family out there,
Don't be afraid to keep pushing. Of course, try to do it in the most polite and business way that you can just to keep that relationship good with police. That's my advice. But look what can happen when you push. You know, you get a case reopened after so many years. They throw some DNA into a database. Of course, it's not that simple, but there is always hope. With that being said, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.