New evidence leads to Barry Morphew’s arrest in the alleged murder of his wife
Celeste Springer
Officials held a press conference with the latest updates on Friday evening. You can watch above.
CHAFFEE COUNTY, Colo. (KRDO) – Barry Morphew, the Salida man accused of killing his wife, Suzanne, in 2020 has been indicted and charged with first-degree murder, the 12th Judicial District Attorney’s Office has confirmed.
On May 10, 2020, Morphew supposedly went on a bike ride in Chaffee County and never returned. A neighbor reported her missing, and her bike and helmet were eventually found along the side of the road the day she disappeared.
A year after her disappearance, her husband, Barry, was arrested and charged with murder – but the case was dismissed in 2022.
The case faced a tumultuous journey, with accounts from those involved saying it was botched due to the actions of Linda Stanley, the prosecutor on the case, who was later disbarred. Morphew’s defense said that Stanley’s team hid evidence from the defense.
@krdo__13 Today, Barry Morphew was indicted by a grand jury in the case of his wife’s alleged murder. Morphew was accused once before, but the case was dropped following a legal battle. More than a year after charges were dropped, investigators found Suzanne Morphew’s body, and what they say is new evidence. With this latest indictment, the case is able to move to trial. Read more on the KRDO website. #colorado #coloradosprings #salida #morphew #suzannemorphew ♬ original sound – KRDO13
Though the case was dismissed, it was known that it could be retried if new evidence came to light. Suzanne’s remains were later found in 2023, leaving many to wonder if the break in the case would allow for it to head to court once again.
When her body was found, the coroner determined Morphew died by “homicide by unspecified means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine (BAM) intoxication,” – three drugs commonly used as animal sedatives.
Now, over two years later, new information tied to those sedatives has led Morphew to be charged once again for her murder.
According to an indictment, law enforcement located a locked gun safe in the Morphew residence, which held a tranquilizer rifle. Investigators also discovered packages of darts in the safe, and found a needle cap for one of those darts in the Morphews’ dryer.
After Suzanne’s autopsy confirmed the presence of the chemical mixture BAM in her system, investigators obtained records for those with BAM prescriptions in the area where the Morphews lived, as well as in the area where her body was found.
Those records showed that at the time Suzanne disappeared, just one private citizen living in that area of the state had access to the chemical mixture – Barry Morphew.
According to the indictment, Morphew had obtained and filled several BAM prescriptions just months before moving to Colorado. BAM is only sold by one company in the U.S. and can only be obtained by prescription from a veterinarian, and agencies enforce tight regulations to monitor the chemical’s prescription and use, the indictment reads.
Read the full indictment here.
Friends of Suzanne tell KRDO13 they’ve waited for this indictment, but say the details are hard to read.
“It was pretty horrid to read that that was found in her body, because that’s a pretty slow death. It wasn’t easy,” Tisha Leewaye said.
According to the 12th Judicial District Grand Jury, Barry Morphew was taken into custody in Arizona on June 20, 2025. Prosecutors plan to extradite him to Colorado.