What Barry Morphew Called Himself While Out on a Murder Bond

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski. Here now, Tony Brueski.

**Tony Brueski** (0:07)
Suzanne Morphew's siblings had already booked their travel to Alamosa. Hotels reserved, flights arranged. They'd been through two arrests, one set of drop charges, a disbarred prosecutor, and the discovery of their sisters remains in a shallow grave. After six years of that, they were finally going to sit in a courtroom. October 13th was the date.
Six weeks of trial.
Then the defense stood up and said they weren't ready.
Judge Samantha Hopkins granted the delay. The trial for Barry Morphew now moves to spring of 27, at the earliest, possibly summer. Five weeks before that hearing, Barry Morphew's defense team had filed 31 motions in a single day. Remember that number.
Here's what the judge told the defense after granting the continuance. Next time, I'm going to take that to heart that you're giving me your best estimate. That's not boilerplate. That's a judge putting defense attorneys on notice on the record that they promised to be ready by fall and broke that promise. Keep that in your pocket. It comes back around here in this piece. To understand why another delay in this case lands the way it does, you have to understand the road that led here. Suzanne Morphew disappeared on Mother's Day of 2020 from Chaffey County, Colorado. Her bike was found on the side of a cliff off a county road. Her helmet turned up about a mile away on Highway 50 Her sunglasses and hydration pack were still in her car. Investigators believe the scene was staged. That Suzanne never went for a bike ride that morning. Barry Morphew was arrested in May of 21 and charged with first-degree murder. He pled not guilty, then the prosecution imploded. District Attorney Linda Stanley's office missed discovery deadlines, withheld potentially exculpatory evidence and committed violations so egregious that the judge barred 14 of their 16 expert witnesses nine days before trial. In April of 22, prosecutors moved them to dismiss the charges. They said they believed they were close to discovering the victim's body. Stanley was later disbarred. That's how bad it was. Barry walked out of the courthouse with his daughters Macy and Mallory on either side of him. And he moved to Arizona. After the charges were dropped, Barry went on national television. He told the interviewer he'd done nothing wrong. He said he and Suzanne had a wonderful marriage. He had $15 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the DA filed, the sheriff's office, the CBI and the FBI. He relocated to Cave Creek, Arizona, more than 600 miles from Chaffey County. And he started a new life. His daughters said publicly that their father was innocent. The system had failed. The case was over and Barry Morphew appeared to be moving on. Then a CBI team found what they were looking for. In September of 23, investigators searching for an unrelated missing person stumbled on to human remains in a shallow grave near the small town of MoFAT in rural Sagochi County. The remains were identified as Suzanne Morphew, a forensic anthropologist, a botanist and an entomologist. They all concluded that the body had decomposed somewhere else and had been moved at least twice. Then the autopsy found something called BAM. It's a mixture of drugs that make up a tranquilizer compound used almost exclusively by biologists and veterinarians to sedate large animals. According to the Grand Jury indictment, the only private citizen in the Salida area in possession of BAM, it's not something you go pick up at Walmart. At the time Suzanne disappeared, it was Barry Morphew. He told investigators he used it to sedate deer before cutting off their antlers.
A Grand Jury in the 12th Judicial District indicted Barry for first degree murder in June of 25 He was arrested in Goodyear, Arizona during a traffic stop. He posted a $3 million bond with money from anonymous supporters and he pled not guilty in January 26 Judge Hopkins set trial for October 13th, six weeks. Both sides agreed. Barry waved his right to a speedy trial. That's the timeline, six years to arrest, two sets of charges. And now another postponement. The defense's argument is that they're drowning in evidence. Attorney Alexis Bair-Elson told the court they didn't have a sufficient grasp of the discovery to question witnesses effectively. They asked for four to six additional months.
And to be fair, this is a massive case. The original prosecution generated a 130-page arrest affidavit. The evidence includes phone data, truck GPS records, forensic toxology on the BAM compound, an unknown male DNA that partially matched three unsolved investigations in other states. On top of that, spy pen recordings from Suzanne's closet, botanist and entomologist reports on the remains, cremation paperwork, Barry signed in early 2026, and the complete record of the first prosecution's misconduct. Barry's current attorneys, David Beller, Jane Fisher, Breslin and Blair Ellison were not on the first case. Iris Eaton handled the original defense. This team is reviewing everything from the beginning. Judge Hopkins said she understood. She described the volume of evidence as unbelievable. And she offered a rationale that on paper makes sense. No one wants to do this more than once.