New Colorado prosecutor to decide potential charges in Suzanne Morphew murder

The once-cold Suzanne Morphew investigation has gotten warmer.

According to Linda Stanley, the original prosecutor on the case, new charges that could be potentially filed in the investigation are now on the desk of a new district attorney. Stanley first took on the case in January 2021, only to see it implode with a dismissal 16 months later.

The new eyes on the star-crossed case belong to Anne Kelly of the 12th Judicial District Attorney's Office. The district is in the San Luis Valley area where Morphew’s remains were discovered. She has been consulting on Morphew's murder with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, according to a CBI press release.

Stanley said it was the right thing to do. “There are no jurisdictional issues in the 12th, so they will likely be pursuing any charges in the case,” said Stanley told The Denver Gazette by phone on Wednesday.

Stanley is under investigation by the arm of the Colorado Supreme Court that takes complaints against attorneys, in part for what some complained was her  mishandling of the case, but others believe she laid the foundation for the investigation moving forward. 

Suzanne Morphew's remains were found last September south of Moffatt, which is in a different jurisdiction from where the 49-year-old mother of two was last seen. Investigators believe that she was killed at the family home sometime between May 9 and May 10, 2020. According to the arrest affidavit and an evidentiary hearing, the crime likely occurred on the grounds of the family's Maysville home.

Maysville is located west of Salida by way of U.S. 50. Morphew’s bones were found scattered in a field about 45 minutes south of the family home. That location happened to be across the border separating the 11th and 12th juditional districts. 

The day the case went away. 

On April 19, 2022, murder charges against Suzanne Morphew's husband, Barry, were dropped when Stanley and her team asked 11th Judicial Judge Ramsey Lama to dismiss the case without prejudice just nine days before trial. Morphew walked out of the courthouse a free man.

Dismissed without prejudice means that the investigation can be re-opened though the original prosecution is over.

Morphrew, 56, moved to Arizona but held a memorial service for his wife in Indiana last weekend. The two met, married, and started a family there. Suzanne Morphew's side of the family was not invited to the "celebration of life," according to family members who wished to remain unidentified.

Heaps of information

Anne Kelly inherits a voluminous four-year-old case with at least 80,000 pages of discovery, not including hours of police body-worn camera footage and video interviews. But the recent autopsy results revealed a critical clue. A request by the El Paso County Coroner to a forensic lab for extra toxicology revealed that the chemicals butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine were found in Suzanne Morphew's femur, according to the report.

Sources who wished to remain anonymous confirmed that the chemicals were discovered in the marrow of the bone, a place that forensic pathologists say can be a treasure trove for storage of materials that may not be found in an initial cursory search.

The three chemicals are used by biologists, wildlife officers, and hunters to anesthetize large-sized animals such as deer, bears, moose, and horses. The report described the compound as an "injectable chemical immobilizer" for wildlife, the symptoms of which can be reversed.

The autopsy report, performed by the El Paso County Coroner's office, found Suzanne Morphew’s cause of death to be undetermined and the manner of death to be homicide.

Butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine are the same substances that Suzanne's husband, Barry Morphew, told investigators he brought to Colorado from Indiana and routinely used to immobilize deer before he removed their antlers.

The chemical mixture is often sold in kit form with the acronym "BAM."

Still, Barry Morphew's attorney said that law enforcement should "take their blinders off" and stop focusing on his client. "Other people could have access to those chemicals who knew that Mrs. Morphew was alone that day (on Sunday, May 10, Mother’s Day)." Iris Eytan suggested that investigators will be able to get the prescription records. “Special veterinarians have the ability to prescribe these controlled substances. If they do their job...they’ll be able to get the prescription record, which farmers and ranchers had it and especially in that area."