Husband of a Colorado woman who disappeared in 2020 pleads not guilty to murder

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DENVER (AP) — The husband of a Colorado woman who disappeared in 2020 pleaded not guilty to murder in her death for the second time.

Barry Morphew entered his plea in the death of Suzanne Morphew through one of his attorneys, David Beller, during a short hearing in Alamosa, Colorado.

Morphew was first arrested in 2021, almost a year after Suzanne Morphew’s disappearance, and charged with murder and tampering with evidence. But the case was abandoned in 2022 as it neared trial after a judge barred prosecutors from calling key witnesses in response to their repeated failure to follow rules for turning over evidence to the defense.

Suzanne Morphew's skeletal remains were then found off a dirt road in southern Colorado in 2023. Morphew was charged again with first-degree murder in his wife's death and arrested last year. He has maintained his innocence.

While Suzanne Morphew's remains showed no signs of trauma, investigators found in her bone marrow a drug cocktail used to tranquilize wildlife that her husband was the only person, other than wildlife officials, to have a prescription for in their area, according to the indictment.

The coroner’s office determined her cause of death was “homicide by unspecified means” through intoxication of the three drugs — butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine — in the cocktail known as “BAM.”

The mystery surrounding Suzanne Morphew began when the 49-year-old mother of two daughters was reported missing on Mother’s Day 2020.

Her mountain bike and helmet were initially found in separate spots not far from her home near the mountain community of Salida, Colorado, but investigators suspected the bike was purposefully thrown into a ravine because there were no indications of a crash. A week after his wife went missing, Barry Morphew posted a video on Facebook pleading for her safe return and the case quickly drew attention.

This time, Morphew is being prosecuted by a different district attorney for the area where Suzanne Morphew’s remains were found, a rural area about 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the Morphews' home.

Suzanne Morphew had been treated for follicular lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, before she disappeared. Investigators found a port with her remains through which she could receive medicine to treat the cancer. They also found biking clothes similar to what she was known to wear.

Based on the condition of the remains and clothes, a forensic anthropologist theorized that the body likely decomposed elsewhere before being moved, according to the indictment.