How law enforcement's discovery of rare drug in Suzanne Morphew's body led to her husband's eventual arrest

Fox News

4 hours ago

The investigation into Suzanne Morphew's disappearance appeared to be at a standstill following the dismissal of Barry Morphew's murder charge in 2022. That changed when investigators found a rare chemical compound inside her body, which prosecutors say ties Barry Morphew directly to her death.
Barry Morphew was arrested near Phoenix, Arizona on June 20 following a grand jury indictment for allegedly killing his wife, 49-year-old Suzanne Morphew, a mother of two, who vanished on Mother's Day in 2020. The Morphews lived near Salida, Colorado. Morphew waived an extradition hearing and is now at the Alamosa County Jail in Colorado.
Just months after murder charges against Barry Morphew were dismissed in 2022 due to prosecutorial misconduct, investigators found Suzanne Morphew's body in September 2023 while searching in Saguache County, located in the southwestern part of the state.
According to the June 20 grand jury indictment charging Barry Morphew with first-degree-murder after deliberation, many of Suzanne Morphew's bones were found "significantly bleached" when her remains were found in 2023.
When an autopsy was performed in 2020, according to prosecutors, a deer tranquilizer called "BAM" was found in her bone marrow, which stands for the chemicals butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine.
Court documents say that Barry Morphew used the "BAM" deer tranquilizer to transport deer on his farm in Indiana.
Barry Morphew was the only individual with a prescription for the deer tranquilizer within the area of Colorado he lived in.
"Ultimately, the prescription records show that when Suzanne Morphew disappeared, only one private citizen living in that entire area of the state had access to BAM: Barry Morphew," the indictment states.
Barry Morphew's attorney, David Beller, told Fox News Digital that Morphew "maintains his innocence."
"Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence," Beller said. "The case has not changed, and the outcome will not either."
Colin McCallin, a Colorado-based lawyer and former deputy district attorney for the 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office in Colorado, told Fox News Digital the alleged connection between Barry Morphew and the deer tranquilizer makes this case "very strong."
"And so now with the discovery of Suzanne Morphew's body and of course the forensic evidence that the autopsy has yielded, we can see that this tranquilizer was indeed found inside Suzanne Morphew's remains," McCallin said. "And when I initially heard that, I was like, okay, well, there could be explanations for that. But then you find out how rare this compound is, this tranquilizer."
The BAM deer tranquilizer, according to McCallin, is a tightly regulated substance used in certain situations - not on humans.
"It's something that's made by one company. It's a highly regulated controlled substance that's only usually used by veterinarians or parks and wildlife officers," he said. "And then you found out that Barry Morphew is the only person in the region who has this prescription for this tranquilizer. All of a sudden, this looks like a strong case against Barry Morphew."
Though an autopsy revealed the presence of BAM in her body in an April 29, 2024 announcement, it would be over a year before Barry Morphew was charged again. McCallin said this could be explained by 12th Judicial District Attorney Anne Kelly being "methodical" in her handling of the case.
"Just because they found the body and they found that tranquilizer, investigators still have a lot of work to do. There's no statute of limitations for murder. They can charge Barry Morphew now. They could charge him five, ten years down line. And I think they wanted to dot their i's and cross their t's and make sure that they were never in a position like the first prosecution," McCallin said.
Eric Faddis, a Colorado-based attorney and former prosecutor, told Fox News Digital that the evidence allegedly tying Barry Morphew to the deer tranquilizer is a "game changer."
"There are other folks in the region who have access to the drug, but my understanding is they're mostly veterinarians, and people who work in animal sciences. And surely this revelation sort of points directly at Barry Morphew, which is a problem for the defense," Faddis said.
While Faddis says the alleged evidence tying Barry Morphew to the deer tranquilizer is an issue for the defense, he said that the prosecutors still face a major challenge.
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"I think prosecutors absolutely have an uphill battle and any sort of celebration for justice would be premature. I think that, you know, the case is largely circumstantial," Faddis said. "And on top of that, the prosecution has been handcuffed by the court based on their prior prosecutorial misconduct. And so they are not going to be able to call many of the experts who would be beneficial to proving the case. So for all of those reasons this is by no means a slam dunk and, in fact, I think on the balance it's actually going to be very difficult to prove."