Friends decorate Christmas Tree at Holiday Park in Salida for Suzanne Morphew
Michael Logerwell
SALIDA, Colo. (KRDO) – Every holiday season, many plan to get together with friends and family, but when those loved ones are gone, new traditions can help keep their memories alive.
For friends and family of Suzanne Morphew, that tradition is a tree planted in her honor that they decorate every year at Holiday Park in downtown Salida.
Many of the ornaments represent someone who was touched by Suzanne’s story. Tisha Leewaye, one of Suzanne’s friends, says people from outside of Colorado sent them in to show their support.
Leeway says it started 5 years ago after Suzanne went missing on Mother’s Day. Her body was found three years later in a shallow grave an hour south of her Salida home.
Now this tree in Salida has become a symbol of her life and the impact she made in her community.
“Because she doesn’t have a voice anymore. She didn’t deserve what happened to her, and so somebody has to be her voice, and there’s a handful of us that will continue to be her voice for her,” Leewaye told KRDO13.
“I hope that people understand what it represents. It is her getting her justice, because that’s the ultimate goal at the end of this.”
Suzanne’s husband, Barry Morphew, is now facing a second murder trial as the suspect in her death.
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He was released on a $3,000,000 bond in September. Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence since his wife’s disappearance.