Barry Morphew has 1st Colorado court appearance since new charge in wife’s death

ALAMOSA COUNTY, Colo. — Barry Morphew — who is now charged in his wife Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance and death for the second time — made his first court appearance Tuesday afternoon in Alamosa County.

Suzanne, 49, was reported missing on May 20, 2020, which was Mother’s Day. She lived in Maysville in Chaffee County, west of Salida, with her husband and their two daughters. When she vanished, the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office said she went for a bike ride and never returned home. Her remains were found in September 2023 in Saguache County.

On Tuesday, Morphew appeared in a small Alamosa County courtroom wearing an orange-and-white striped jumpsuit. During the hearing, which lasted about 30 minutes, attorneys discussed several issues, including a possible conflict of interest between Morphew and the public defender’s office.

His next court appearance was set for Sept. 2 at 1:30 p.m. after Morphew’s defense counsel asked for 60 days to review the discovery in the case.

Morphew was previously arrested in May 2021 and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Suzanne’s disappearance, even though she remained missing. Days before he was set to stand trial in April 2022, all charges were dropped when Fremont County District Judge Ramsey Lama granted a motion filed by prosecutors that asked to dismiss the case without prejudice.

That allowed charges to be filed again if new evidence came to light, and on June 20, the 12th Judicial District announced that a grand jury had indicted Morphew on a first-degree murder charge.

An autopsy lists Suzanne’s manner of death as “homicide by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication,” according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI). 

Butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine, also known as BAM, is tightly regulated and only sold by one company in the United States, the indictment says.

The indictment notes that Morphew was the only private citizen living in that entire area of Colorado with access to BAM. Records show no other people or businesses, besides the Bureau of Land Management and Colorado Parks and Wildlife, purchased BAM prescriptions between 2017 and 2020. None of the BAM from the government agencies was unaccounted for, the document says.

Morphew was arrested in Gilbert, Arizona, and waived extradition to Colorado during a hearing there late last week. He’s now being held in the Alamosa County Jail on a $3 million bond.

David Beller, Morphew’s attorney, said he maintains his innocence.

“Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence,” Beller said. “Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed, and the outcome will not either.”