The Suzanne Morphew Case: Missing Mother Found After 3 Years

The disappearance of Suzanne Morphew, a mother of two from Colorado, became one of the most mysterious and widely followed true crime cases in recent years. On Mother’s Day, May 10, 2020, Suzanne vanished after what was believed to be a routine bike ride near Salida, Colorado. Her bicycle was later found abandoned in a ravine—but there were no signs of a crash, struggle, or blood, raising immediate suspicion.

As investigators dug deeper, cracks began to appear in her seemingly quiet family life. Evidence revealed marital issues, secret messages, and an affair, along with suspicious behavior from her husband, Barry Morphew, who was later charged with murder before those charges were dropped.

The case remained unsolved for over three years—until September 2023, when human remains discovered in a remote area were confirmed to be Suzanne. The discovery reignited the investigation and raised new questions about what truly happened that day.

This video explores the timeline of Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance, the suspicious evidence, the investigation into Barry Morphew, and the shocking discovery of her remains years later.

Transcript

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A Missing Colorado Mother, Secret Affairs, and a Tragic Loss. Today's video is about Suzanne Morphew, a mother of two from Colorado. Suzanne went missing on Mother's Day weekend in 2020 and was never heard from again. Suzanne lives with her husband and two daughters in a quiet life in Colorado, a western U.S. state with river canyons and snow-capped Rocky Mountains. On May 10, 2020, Mother's Day, her bicycle was found down a steep ravine off Shaffee County Road 225 from Highway 50. It did not look like it had been involved in a crash and there was no body to be found on the scene. There was also no blood or damage on the bicycle. The details just didn't add up. It took three years for the police to finally find the Colorado woman's body. So, what went down on Shafi County Road that fateful day? Stay tuned as we dig deep into the mystery of Suzanne Morphew's tragic disappearance and death.

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What have these last three years been like for you? Very, very sad, very confusing, and just so traumatic. Like literally our worst nightmare.

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Suzanne and Barry Morphew's love story begin in Alexandria, Indiana, an all-American small town community surrounded by countryside, an hour northeast of Indianapolis. They met on the golf course where Barry worked during the summers when he was home from college. Suzanne was still in high school back then and lived on the first T. The then 17-year-old Suzanne was a shy yet beautiful woman, the baby of the family. Morpheus was popular in his hometown as a sports legend drafted by the Toronto Blue Jays. Barry and Suzanne married in 1994, and Suzanne gave birth to their two daughters, Macy and Mallory. Later, she left her job as a school teacher to raise her two daughters, and Barry started a landscaping business. The Morpheus then moved to Salita, Colorado, in 2018 to live nearer to their eldest daughter, who went to college there. Or was it perhaps to give their Rocky marriage a fresh start? Sadly, a couple of years before her disappearance, Suzanne's cancer, Hodgkin's lymphoma, returned, an illness she had battled before. The story takes a turn when Suzanne sparks up a romantic affair with Jeff Libler, her friend from Alexandra Monroe High School, in February of 2019. The relationship was in no way platonic. Investigations revealed the couple had had several secret chats and meetups, possibly deepening the cracks and barriers in Suzanne's marriage. On 6 May 2020, Suzanne sent her husband Barry a heartbreaking text making it clear that she wanted to end the relationship. The text read, I'm done. I could care less what you're up to and have been for years. We just need to figure out this civilly. The mystery only deepened since the investigator's report stated that the message had been deleted. It was only retrieved from Barry's cash. Was he trying to hide crucial evidence? Stay tuned to find out. On May 9, 2020, a day before her disappearance, Suzanne texted Libler, proving the end of her marriage with Barry. We need to be husband and wife in one of those 59 text messages exchanged between the pair that day. Suzanne also sent Libler a selfie, which prosecutors commented was her last proof-of-life photo. Little did she know this was the last selfie of her life. On Mother's Day, 10th of May, Suzanne allegedly left for a routine bike ride but never came back. The reports say her bicycle was found down a steep ravine off Shaffee County Road 225 from Highway 50. What didn't make sense to investigators was that her bicycle didn't look like it had been involved in a crash. The investigation took another dark turn when the investigation revealed that no blood was recovered from the scene. Barry told police he left early that morning for Broomfield to fix a retaining wall for his landscaping company. According to his account, Suzanne was sleeping soundly in their bedroom when he left. He was the last person to see his wife alive as their daughters were away on a camping trip to Idaho. That Mother's Day, when the girls texted Suzanne, they never heard back from her. It was the first warning sign that they would never see their mother again. The girls called their father, who asked Gene Ritter, their neighbor, to check up on his wife. Gene would make a shocking discovery. Gene called Barry and told him there was no sign of Suzanne or her bike at the home, but a Ranged Rover was still in the garage. She was supposed to go for a cancer treatment that day. However, the hospital said that she did not show up for her appointment. Barry wouldn't drive home immediately. Instead, he drops off some other tools, including a shovel, for his co-workers at a hotel. He would only begin driving home at 6 pm that evening. One tiny detail that staced Barry as the prime suspect was that he threw out trash at multiple locations around Broomfield, Colorado, while in town for work. His defense was that he often dropped trash in inaccessible bins to avoid paying to have it disposed of at a landfill. Investigators, however, believed the trash bags contained important evidence that might prove Barry to be the killer. Law enforcement officers also contacted Miles Harden, a friend of Macy's. He was the one to point out that Suzanne couldn't have taken her bike on that trail for a fun ride because it was impossible to climb, making way for the possibility that the evidence might have been staged after all. Later that night, when Barry arrived home, he started asking suspicious questions. He asked the deputies whether they had seen a lion, a mountain lion, in the area. Investigators even searched Barry's car, but it was squeaky clean. On May 13, 2020, investigators found Suzanne's bike helmet untouched just a mile away from where they have found her bike, approximately 10 meters off the highway. According to the family, Suzanne had a habit of taking her camel back in sunglasses on bike rides. Surprisingly, these items were found inside her SUV, confirming by all merits that the scene may have been staged, and that Suzanne never really went for the bike ride that Mother's Day morning. Soon, the FBI got involved, accompanied by a team of geologists to help crack the case, but even with their resources, the case remained unsolved.

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Suzanne's husband Barry, initially charged with first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, but those charges dropped just before his trial.

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Sadly, this proved to be another dead end. Barry's cell phone records from May 9th showed suspicious activity. His phone had been pinging all around the house. During the inquiry, Barry said on record that he was trying to shoot chipmunks with his tranquilizer gun, wreaking havoc across his property. Was he chasing chipmunks or was it his wife that he wished to tranquilize? Another piece of the puzzle that pointed to this disturbing theory was the presence of scratch marks on Barry's body and a long vertical crack in the couple's bedroom. TFBI, CBI, and civilian volunteers aided the local and state authorities in a large-scale search across the harsh terrain. Even a scuba diving team tried to look for Suzanne's body in the nearby waterway, but all their efforts were in vain. Ten days after Suzanne Murphy was reported missing, investigators found a spy pen hidden discreetly in the couple's walk-in closet. Suzanne, being suspicious of Barry having an affair, had placed his voice-activated spy pen to catch him red-handed. Instead, Suzanne had accidentally recorded herself calling Jeff Libler, putting the affair in the spotlight, turning Libler into a person of interest and sending shockwaves across the community. After a year-long effort to gather evidence, prosecutors charged Barry Murphy, the husband, with first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and attempting to influence a public servant. A preliminary hearing started in August 2021, where prosecutors presented evidence to a judge to determine if there was enough to send the case to trial. His family attended each day, and his daughters, Mallory and Macy, sat in the rows behind the father in support of him. Their belief in his innocence was unwavering. Days before the trial was to begin, prosecutors dropped charges against Barry Murphy without prejudice, meaning the investigators didn't let Barry off the hook completely in case more evidence popped up. Barry Murphy filed a 15 million civil suit on May 5, 2023, against several prosecutors, Chaffee County, the Colorado Bureau of Investigations, and the FBI. The lawsuit stated that Murphy was seeking damages caused by the prosecutors, Chaffee County, and law enforcement officials. This was a major step from Barry in the hopes of turning the tables in his favor. Almost one year after Barry filed a civil suit, new evidence surfaced on 22 September 2023 changing the outcome of this whole mystery. During a searching and unrelated case, CBI investigators unearthed remains in a shallow grave near Mofat in Sagwatch County. The grave was dug about 40 miles south of where Suzanne Murphy was reported missing in a remote field of sagebrush and grasses. After three days, the El Paso County coroner identified the remains found by CBI investigators as those of Suzanne 3 years and four months after she had disappeared. How did Suzanne's body get there? While we don't know the answer to that, we can be sure that her life was stolen from her unjustly. We don't know for sure how the events of May 10, 2020 unfolded. Three years later, Suzanne's loved ones are still looking for answers as they mourn the loss of a loving mother and compassionate wife. Did the justice system fail the Morpheus? Did they add to the family's anguish by bringing charges against Barry? With Suzanne's body being found, the family might get answers to the questions that have tormented them for three long years. If you enjoy this content, please consider subscribing to the channel and remember, stay safe out there.