Suzanne Morphew's remains are found, but mystery endures for Colorado investigators

Now that Suzanne Morphew’s remains have been located, the three-plus-year-old case takes on a new life and perhaps even starts over with a new team of investigators joining the original group.

Previously, investigators from the Chaffee County Sheriff’s office, the 11^th Judicial District Attorney’s office, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation and the FBI have combed the case from the beginning to present.

Morphew's remains were found scattered in a dry, high-desert field south of the town of Moffat on Sept. 22. The remains are currently at the El Paso County Coroner’s Office, where an autopsy is being performed, according to Saguache County Coroner Tom Perrin.

The discovery of her remains in Saguache, a bordering county to where she was originally thought to be located, brings in a new law enforcement body — namely the Saguache County Sheriff's Office.

Morphew went missing on Mother's Day, May 10, 2020. Her husband, Barry Morphew, was the last known person to see her alive, an arrest document stated.

Her last known "proof-of-life" photo was a selfie she sent on May 9 at around 2 p.m. to her lover, with whom she was texting. She and Jeff Libler, a high school friend, had reconnected, it was revealed in the preliminary hearing.

He lived in Michigan and produced receipts and cellphone evidence from that weekend, which showed investigators that he was not in Colorado when Suzanne disappeared, testimony from the evidentiary hearing showed.

“It will become a joint effort between every investigative agency, which has any interest in the case,” Saguache County Sheriff Dan Warwick told The Denver Gazette Thursday. “I don’t know that this is starting over, but I can say that we are getting fresh eyes on the case.”

The lead FBI investigator who wrote the 130-page arrest affidavit has retired and now works for Douglas County Schools as director of safety and security. Jonny Grusing, a cracker-jack detective, has been an integral force in investigating numerous Colorado murder cases. That includes the case of Dylan Redwine, whose bones were also found after years of going missing. Grusing has continued to advise on the case, sources close to the investigation have told The Denver Gazette.

Morphew charged and then freed

Barry Morphew was charged with first-degree murder almost a year to the day of when his wife went missing, but the prosecution asked the judge to dismiss the case on the eve of trial in April 2022 because they felt they were close to finding her body.

"She is in a very difficult spot. We actually have more than just a feeling … and the sheriff’s office is continuing to look for Mrs. Morphew’s body,” Deputy District Attorney Mark Hurlbert said at the time. 

Morphew walked out of a Fremont County courthouse a free man, flanked by his two daughters, Mallory and Macy, who stood by him throughout the pre-trial hearings in the case in which he was accused of killing their mother.

“The family is in shock,” said Morphew’s attorney, Iris Eytan.

She said that as Suzanne’s next of kin, Barry Morphew was notified by the coroner that his wife’s remains had been found and that he was so stunned, he could not recall the conversation.

Suzanne's family is also reeling from the finality of the news. In a statement, her nephew Chris Moorman wrote that while his family is  "grateful to all those who searched for Auntie Suzanne the past 3 years, there is no possible way to call yesterday's discovery good news."

He went on to describe Mrs. Morphew as a warm and loving person and asked for people to "Please pray for her daughters and that justice, however long delayed, comes for the monster who committed this heinous crime.”

The field where Morphew’s remains were found was 30 to 40 miles from the Morphew family home, where she was last seen on May 10, 2020. Morphew told police that he drove off that morning for a landscaping job in Broomfield at 5 a.m. and that the last time he saw his wife, she was sleeping soundly, according to the preliminary hearing.  

New discovery, new questions

Investigator must now look at whether Morphew could have had time to kill Suzanne, drive the 40 minutes to a field on the east side of Saguache, bury her in a shallow grave, and retrace his journey on Highway 285 north to Broomfield for his landscaping job. 

Eytan and other sources close to the investigation confirmed that GPS from Morphew’s truck and tracking evidence from his cellphone show that he was not in Saguache on May 9 or 10 — the weekend Morphew went missing.

The discovery of her remains brings up a few key questions:

• Was Morphew kidnapped? Was she murdered? If so, how did she die? What happened during her final hours?
• If she was murdered, where was she killed? That location could determine which jurisdiction prosecutes the unsolved case.
• Was there more than one person involved in her disappearance?
• Will the old guard, which has been investigating the case for more than three years, be able to put egos aside and play nicely with new agencies, specifically the Saguache County Sheriff’s Office, which will now likely be brought in to piece her last hours together?

These next days will be filled with meetings between investigators regarding the case, according to Warwick. He admitted that his department, with eight to nine employees, is “tremendously smaller than Chaffee County's,” which has been in charge of the investigation into Morphew’s death from the beginning and took it over again when the case was dismissed in April 2022.

But that doesn’t sway him.

“I don’t give a damn what it takes. I’ll make it happen. Whatever it takes we’ll make it work and the commissioners will pay the bill,” he said.