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Suzanne Morphew’s body may have been moved twice after she died, according to a forensic scientist.
Barry Morphew was re-indicted by a grand jury in Colorado on a murder charge on June 20 after he allegedly killed his wife, 49-year-old Suzanne Morphew, who vanished on Mother’s Day in 2020. The Morphews lived near Salida, Colorado, where Suzanne Morphew was last seen alive.
Barry Morphew was arrested near Phoenix, Arizona, on June 20, booking documents show. He was living inside a trailer park located in Cave Creek, Arizona, according to property tax records.
Though Suzanne Morphew went missing in 2020, agents with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found her remains on Sept. 22, 2023. According to prosecutors, a 2024 autopsy report showed a deer tranquilizer called “BAM” was found in her bone marrow, which stands for the chemicals butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine.
Prosecutors said Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found “in and around a shallow clandestine grave” in Saguache County, Colorado, a “few hundred feet” off Highway 17.
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Suzanne Morphew in an undated picture provided by deputies. Barry Morphew enters Alamosa, Colorado court on Jul. 1, 2025. (Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office and Pool via KRDO)
According to the indictment charging Barry Morphew with first-degree murder after deliberation, the clothes on Suzanne Morphew’s body “lacked evidence of decomposition.” Officials also said a “very small amount” of dried soft tissue was found on the bones, no hair mass was located and there was a lack of animal predation visible on the bones.
“All these features would have been expected if this had been the original gravesite where decomposition occurred,” a board-certified forensic anthropologist, a botanist and an entomologist told prosecutors. “The forensic anthropologist opined that based on these factors it was unlikely Suzanne decomposed from a fresh body to a skeleton at this location.”
Peter Valentin, associate professor of forensic science at the University of New Haven, told Fox News Digital the body was moved “at least” one time.
“There’s certainly every indication that decomposition occurred in a place other than where the body was found,” Valentin said. “Now, I’ve seen that people have said the body’s been moved at least twice. And I think that’s a reasonable inference. But you can’t know that for sure, because that assumes, that makes an assumption, that the body was killed in one location. Transported to a second location where the decomposition occurs, and then brought to the third location where the body is discovered. And I don’t think you know that for sure yet.
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Barry Morphew was booked into the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office)
Valentin also said there’s an “absence of evidence” suggesting that the clothing Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found in is what she decomposed with.
Suzanne Morphew’s bones were found “significantly bleached,” according to the indictment. Valentin said the term “bleached,” in this context, refers to how much sun exposure the bones had.
In this case, Valentin said the “significantly bleached” bones help support prosecutors’ argument that Suzanne Morphew’s body was moved.
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Suzanne Morphew and Barry Morphew (Fox News/ Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office)
“As part of the decomposition process, so if some bones are bleached and some aren’t, you can get a sense of you know how the remains are positioned. If where Suzanne Morphew’s remains are found, are in a place that are not exposed to the sun, therefore they couldn’t be bleached at the site where they recovered that would be another indicator that she was.”
Barry Morphew’s next court date is Sept. 2.