Barry Morphew indictment: New details on tranquilizer found in wife’s body

DENVER — A grand jury indictment released Friday includes new details on how investigators connected Barry Morphew to an animal tranquilizer called BAM that was found in the bones of his wife, Suzanne, whose remains were discovered in October 2023.

Barry Morphew was taken into custody Friday in Gilbert, Arizona, according to a news release from the 12th Judicial District Attorney’s Office. He will be extradited to the San Luis Valley to face a charge of first-degree murder. His attorney, David Beller, said Morphew maintains he is innocent.

Suzanne Morphew, 49, was last seen on Mother’s Day 2020. She lived in Maysville in Chaffee County, west of Salida, with her husband and their two daughters.

The initial investigation into Suzanne’s disappearance centered on her husband Barry, who was charged with first-degree murder in May 2021. Days before he was set to stand trial in April 2022, all charges were dropped when prosecutors asked for the dismissal of the case.

More than a year later, Suzanne’s remains were found in October 2023 in Saguache County. Her autopsy report, which was released in April 2024, classifies her death as “homicide by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication,” according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

According to the indictment released Friday, butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine, also known as BAM, is tightly regulated and only sold by one company in the United States.

The indictment notes that Barry Morphew was the only private citizen living in that 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.

During a preliminary hearing in January 2022, prosecutors with the Chaffee County DA’s Office said that on the afternoon of May 9, 2020, Barry Morphew loaded a syringe for a tranquilizer dart, put his phone on airplane mode, and then shot his wife with the dart. He then chased her around the house until the tranquilizer took effect, prosecutors said.

According to the 2021 affidavit, Morphew admitted that he frequently used BAM and other tranquilizers to sedate deer so he could remove their antlers to sell in his hunting business.

When detectives told Morphew “a tranquilizer dart had been fired in or around the house,” he revealed he would often shoot the deer from inside the house.

“I’ve shot deer from that little breezeway from between the garage and the laundry room, out that back door … If there was a tranq dart out there or outside or in the house it’s from me shootin’ deer,” Morphew told detectives.

During a search of the property on May 19, 2020, investigators found empty darts, a dart package and a dart needle. The affidavit detailed multiple interrogations specifically concerning a needle cap found in the Morphew’s laundry room, in the dryer among other washed sheets.

Morphew denied using a tranquilizer gun on May 9 and said he has “no idea” how the needle cap got in the dryer. He said the last time he used BAM tranquilizers and shot from the window near the breezeway was in late April. No tranquilizer BAM was found during the search of the property in May 2020.

In spring 2024, after autopsy results were released, Morphew’s defense attorney argued that the autopsy results showing Suzanne had BAM in her system did not incriminate him.

“Barry Morphew is innocent and he could not have killed his wife,” said Jane Fisher-Byrialsen, one of Barry’s attorneys, at the time. “She got up the morning of Mother’s Day, had her cup of coffee, that is now confirmed with the autopsy report. Also confirmed with the autopsy report is that she put on her bike clothes. She was on a bike ride and abducted. 

“The tranquilizer that was found in her bones, allegedly, is a very common animal tranquilizer that could be used on farms or by hunters, which are people who are very prevalent in that area of Salida,” Fisher-Byrialsen said.

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

This story includes reporting by Rhea Jha and Janet Oravetz.

> The video below is from April 2024: What are the drugs found in Suzanne Morphew’s body?