ANDERSON — The indictment of former Alexandria resident Barry Morphew in connection with the 2020 death of his wife indicates Suzanne Morphew’s remains were moved at least twice after her death.
Barry Morphew, 57, was charged in Colorado with the 2020 murder of his wife and he was arrested last month in Arizona, where he was using the alias “Lee Moore.”
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing from her Colorado home on Mother’s Day 2020. Her body was found in a shallow grave in September 2023.
“The majority of her bones were recovered,” the indictment states.
Aa board-certified anthropologist, a botanist and an entomologist were brought in to analyze the remains and concluded that “it was unlikely Suzanne decomposed from a fresh body to a skeleton at this location.”
The indictment maintains that Suzanne Morphew’s bones were moved to the shallow grave after her body had decomposed elsewhere and that her reamins had to have been moved at least twice after her death.
Filed in the 12th Juridical District in Colorado, the indictment states that she was intoxicated on “butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine” at the time of her death.
The three drugs are known in combination as “BAM,” a powerful animal sedative that law enforcement officials believe Morphew possessed at the time of his wife’s death.
Law enforcement requested the medical examiner test for the presence of butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine, according to the indictment.
The document alleges that law officers found a needle cap in the clothes dryer after Barry Morphew dried the shorts he was wearing on the day of Suzanne’s disappearance.
Barry Morphew, allegedly, admitted to using BAM both on a deer farm he previously had in Indiana and in Colorado, just one month before his wife’s disappearance while sedating a deer in their yard, according to the indictment.
Law enforcement reviewed records throughout the state, which “showed that no other private citizens or private businesses in any of the surrounding counties had purchased BAM prescriptions from 2017-2020,” according to the indictment.
The indictment said that the only other purchases of BAM had been by members of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Parks Service. Both agencies keep detailed records of any use of the drug, according to the affidavit.
Barry Morphew did not enter a plea to the charge in his latest court appearance. When he was previously charged with his wife’s murder, he entered a not guilty plea.
His bond is set at $3 million full cash.
Barry Morphew was first arrested and charged with the murder of his wife in 2021, but those charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning authorities reserved the right to charge Morphew again.