logo
#

Latest news with #ASSOCIATEDPRESS

Husband rearrested in death of Colorado woman, whose remains were found after 3-year search
Husband rearrested in death of Colorado woman, whose remains were found after 3-year search

Toronto Sun

time21-06-2025

  • Toronto Sun

Husband rearrested in death of Colorado woman, whose remains were found after 3-year search

Published Jun 20, 2025 • Last updated 0 minutes ago • 4 minute read Barry Morphew leaves a Fremont County court building in Canon City, Colo., with his daughters, Macy, left, and Mallory, after charges against him in the presumed death of his wife were dismissed, on April 19, 2022. Photo by Jerilee Bennett / Files / ASSOCIATED PRESS DENVER — The husband of Colorado woman Suzanne Morphew, whose remains were discovered over three years after she was reported missing on Mother's Day 2020, was arrested again Friday on a first-degree murder charge, authorities said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Barry Morphew was arrested Friday in Arizona after a Colorado grand jury returned an indictment Wednesday, three years after the initial case was dropped due to prosecutorial issues with evidence. His bond was set at $3 million, cash only, according to court documents. The district attorney's office said in a statement that it is seeking to bring him back to Colorado. A 2024 autopsy report said Suzanne Morphew died of 'unspecified means' but ruled it a homicide. While there was no indication of trauma in her remains, a drug cocktail used to tranquilize wildlife was found in one of her bones, the report said. A tranquilizer gun and accessories were found in the Morphews' home, according to investigators. Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence since his wife disappeared, and his attorney David Beller blasted the new indictment. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Yet again, the government allows their predetermined conclusion to lead their search for evidence,' Beller said in a statement. 'Barry maintains his innocence. The case has not changed, and the outcome will not either.' The first case was dropped in 2022 Morphew was first charged with murder in May 2021, but prosecutors dropped that case the following year just as Morphew was about to stand trial. A judge barred prosecutors from calling key witnesses for repeatedly failing to follow rules for turning over evidence in Morphew's favour. That included DNA from an unknown male that was found in Suzanne Morphew's SUV. At the time, prosecutors said they wanted more time to find her body. RECOMMENDED VIDEO The judge agreed to drop the case against Morphew but allowed prosecutors the option of filing charges against him later. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Barry Morphew filed a $15 million lawsuit against county officials, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights. His lawyers also filed a complaint asking that the prosecutors be disciplined for allegedly intentionally withholding evidence. Iris Eytan, who was Morphew's attorney in 2021 but no longer represents him, said prosecutors 'fumbled' the case. 'Not only is he is a loving father, but he was a loving husband,' Eytan told The Associated Press on Friday. Suzanne Morphew disappeared on Mother's Day The mystery surrounding Suzanne Morphew began when the 49-year-old mother of two daughters, who lived near the small town of Salida, was reported missing on Mother's Day 2020. Suzanne Morphew's mountain bike and helmet were found in separate spots not far from her home, but investigators suspected the bike had been purposefully thrown down into a ravine because there was no indications of a crash. A week after she went missing, Barry Morphew posted a video on Facebook pleading for her safe return. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'No questions asked, however much they want, I will do whatever it takes to get you back,' he said. When he was initially charged, the arrest affidavit laying out investigators' case against Barry Morphew said his wife insisted on leaving him. He later changed his statements as evidence developed. Morphew, an avid hunter, did not initially tell investigators that he went out of his way as he left for work on Mother's Day, driving toward the place where his wife's bicycle helmet was eventually found. Later, he said he went that way because he had seen an elk cross the road, according to the initial arrest affidavit. Suzanne Morphew's remains were found in 2023 Colorado Bureau of Investigation agents stumbled upon Suzanne Morphew's skeletal remains in September 2023 in a shallow grave during an unrelated search near the small southern Colorado town of Moffat, about 40 miles (65 kilometres) south of the Morphews' home. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Most of Suzanne Morphew's bones were recovered and many were 'significantly bleached,' according to the affidavit. Investigators removed a port through which Morphew could receive medicine to treat follicular lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, and found clothing similar to bicyclist clothes she was known to wear. Based on the status of the remains and clothing, a forensic anthropologist theorized that the body decomposed elsewhere, the affidavit says. Toxicology testing revealed all three drugs in a sedative used for wildlife called 'BAM' were in the bones. The presence of a metabolite for one of the drugs, butorphanol, suggested the remains would not have been contaminated with BAM after death, the affidavit says. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The coroner's office determined the cause of death was 'homicide by unspecified means' through intoxication of the three drugs, butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine. Investigators linked Barry Morphew to the drugs Barry Morphew obtained and filled several prescriptions for BAM while living in Indiana, shortly before the Morphews moved to Colorado in 2018. Barry Morphew was a deer farmer in Indiana and allegedly told investigators he used BAM to tranquilize deer in Indiana and Colorado, according to the indictment. In the area surrounding their home in Colorado, no private citizens or businesses, only Colorado Parks and Wildlife and National Park Service officials, had obtained BAM between 2017 and 2020, records show. No government officials reported missing BAM supplies. '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 concluded. — Gruver reported from Cheyenne, Wyoming. Associated Press reporter Jaimie Ding in Seattle contributed. Toronto & GTA World Toronto & GTA Hockey Columnists

Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform
Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform

Yahoo

time10-06-2025

  • Health
  • Yahoo

Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform

ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) — Calley Means has built a following by railing against the U.S. health system, often hammering on alleged financial conflicts within the medical establishment. Means, a top aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was hired as a White House adviser in March. He has used that position to accuse physician groups, federal agencies and government scientists of financial interests that bias their work. Means, however, has his own stake in the sprawling health system. He's the co-founder of an online platform that offers dietary supplements, herbal remedies, exercise equipment, light therapy lamps and other wellness products. The Associated Press found that Means' heated rhetoric against the medical mainstream dovetails with the interests of his company TrueMed, which features vendors who are prominent supporters of Kennedy's 'Make America Healthy Again' movement. Because of his status as a temporary government employee, Means is exempt from publicly disclosing his financial details. The AP reviewed more than two dozen interviews, speeches, articles and podcast appearances by Means both before and after he joined the government. Here are some takeaways from the AP's reporting: Attacking prescription drugs, promoting wellness alternatives Means' company, Truemed, helps users take tax-free money out of their health savings accounts, or HSAs, to spend on things that wouldn't normally qualify as medical expenses, such as meal delivery services and homeopathic products — remedies based on a centuries-old, debunked theory of medicine. As a top messenger for the administration, Means has been promoting a new government report that calls for scaling back prescription drugs for depression, weight loss and other conditions. By criticizing the use of drugs and other rigorously tested products, health experts say Means is furthering the interests of his company, which offers alternatives to traditional medicine. 'It reeks of hypocrisy,' said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a health researcher at Yale University. 'In effect, he is representing another industry that is touting nonregulated products and using his platform within the government to financially benefit himself.' In a written statement, Means said his government work has not dealt with matters affecting Truemed and has focused on issues like reforming nutrition programs and pressuring companies to phase out food dyes. 'Pursuing these large-scale MAHA goals to make America healthy has been the sole focus in my government work,' Means said. Undisclosed interests The full extent of Means' potential financial conflicts are unclear because of his status as a special government employee. Unlike presidential appointees and other senior officials, special government employees do not have to leave companies or sell investments that could be impacted by their work. Also, their financial disclosure forms are shielded from public release. 'It's a big problem,' says Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush. 'I think it's a loophole." Plugging products and business associates While promoting the administration's accomplishments, Means has not shied away from plugging his own brand or those of his business partners. When asked to offer health advice to listeners of a sports podcast, Outkick The Show, in April, Means suggested they read his book "Good Energy,' which he co-authored with his sister, Dr. Casey Means. He also recommended blood tests sold by Function Health, which provides subscription-based testing for $500 annually. The company was cofounded by Dr. Mark Hyman, a friend of Kennedy and an investor in Truemed, which also offers Hyman's supplements through its platform. Like dietary supplements, the tests marketed by Function Health are not clinically approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 'It ends up favoring these products and services that rest on flimsy grounds, at the expense of products that have actually survived a rigorous FDA approval process,' said Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who is now president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Steering medical dollars into health savings accounts Means says he has not worked on issues impacting HSAs since joining the federal government. Federal ethics laws forbid government employees from taking part in decisions that could impact their financial situation. But before joining government, Means said the mission of his company 'is to steer medical dollars into flexible spending.' 'I want to get that $4.5 trillion of Medicare, Medicaid, everything into a flexible account,' he told fitness celebrity Jillian Michaels, on her podcast last year. Truemed collects fees when users and partnering companies use its platform. Means also founded a lobbying group, made up of MAHA entrepreneurs and TrueMed vendors, that listed expanding HSAs as a goal on its website. Means said in a statement that the group focused only on broad topics like 'health care incentives and patient choice — but did not lobby for specific bills.' Benefits of HSAs questioned Expanding HSAs has been part of the Republican health platform for more than 20 years. The tax-free accounts were created in 2003 to encourage Americans in high-deductible plans to be judicious with their health dollars. But HSAs have not brought down spending, economists say. They are disproportionately used by the wealthiest Americans, who have more income to fund them and bigger incentives to lower their tax rate. Americans who earn more than $1 million annually are the group most likely to make regular HSA contributions, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most Americans with HSAs have balances less than $500. HSA expansions in Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' are projected to cost the federal government $180 billion over the next 10 years. 'These are really just tax breaks in the guise of health policy that overwhelmingly benefit people with high incomes,' said Gideon Lukens, a former White House budget official during the Obama and Trump administrations. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform
Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform

Hamilton Spectator

time10-06-2025

  • Health
  • Hamilton Spectator

Takeaways from AP's report on financial interests of RFK Jr. adviser who runs wellness platform

ASSOCIATED PRESS (AP) — Calley Means has built a following by railing against the U.S. health system, often hammering on alleged financial conflicts within the medical establishment. Means, a top aide to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was hired as a White House adviser in March. He has used that position to accuse physician groups, federal agencies and government scientists of financial interests that bias their work. Means, however, has his own stake in the sprawling health system. He's the co-founder of an online platform that offers dietary supplements, herbal remedies, exercise equipment, light therapy lamps and other wellness products. The Associated Press found that Means' heated rhetoric against the medical mainstream dovetails with the interests of his company TrueMed, which features vendors who are prominent supporters of Kennedy's 'Make America Healthy Again' movement. Because of his status as a temporary government employee, Means is exempt from publicly disclosing his financial details. The AP reviewed more than two dozen interviews, speeches, articles and podcast appearances by Means both before and after he joined the government. Here are some takeaways from the AP's reporting : Attacking prescription drugs, promoting wellness alternatives Means' company, Truemed, helps users take tax-free money out of their health savings accounts, or HSAs, to spend on things that wouldn't normally qualify as medical expenses, such as meal delivery services and homeopathic products — remedies based on a centuries-old, debunked theory of medicine. As a top messenger for the administration, Means has been promoting a new government report that calls for scaling back prescription drugs for depression, weight loss and other conditions. By criticizing the use of drugs and other rigorously tested products, health experts say Means is furthering the interests of his company, which offers alternatives to traditional medicine. 'It reeks of hypocrisy,' said Dr. Reshma Ramachandran, a health researcher at Yale University. 'In effect, he is representing another industry that is touting nonregulated products and using his platform within the government to financially benefit himself.' In a written statement, Means said his government work has not dealt with matters affecting Truemed and has focused on issues like reforming nutrition programs and pressuring companies to phase out food dyes. 'Pursuing these large-scale MAHA goals to make America healthy has been the sole focus in my government work,' Means said. Undisclosed interests The full extent of Means' potential financial conflicts are unclear because of his status as a special government employee . Unlike presidential appointees and other senior officials, special government employees do not have to leave companies or sell investments that could be impacted by their work. Also, their financial disclosure forms are shielded from public release. 'It's a big problem,' says Richard Painter, former White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush. 'I think it's a loophole.' Plugging products and business associates While promoting the administration's accomplishments, Means has not shied away from plugging his own brand or those of his business partners. When asked to offer health advice to listeners of a sports podcast, Outkick The Show, in April, Means suggested they read his book 'Good Energy,' which he co-authored with his sister, Dr. Casey Means. He also recommended blood tests sold by Function Health, which provides subscription-based testing for $500 annually. The company was cofounded by Dr. Mark Hyman, a friend of Kennedy and an investor in Truemed, which also offers Hyman's supplements through its platform. Like dietary supplements, the tests marketed by Function Health are not clinically approved by the Food and Drug Administration. 'It ends up favoring these products and services that rest on flimsy grounds, at the expense of products that have actually survived a rigorous FDA approval process,' said Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA official who is now president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Steering medical dollars into health savings accounts Means says he has not worked on issues impacting HSAs since joining the federal government. Federal ethics laws forbid government employees from taking part in decisions that could impact their financial situation. But before joining government, Means said the mission of his company 'is to steer medical dollars into flexible spending.' 'I want to get that $4.5 trillion of Medicare, Medicaid, everything into a flexible account,' he told fitness celebrity Jillian Michaels, on her podcast last year. Truemed collects fees when users and partnering companies use its platform. Means also founded a lobbying group, made up of MAHA entrepreneurs and TrueMed vendors, that listed expanding HSAs as a goal on its website. Means said in a statement that the group focused only on broad topics like 'health care incentives and patient choice — but did not lobby for specific bills.' Benefits of HSAs questioned Expanding HSAs has been part of the Republican health platform for more than 20 years. The tax-free accounts were created in 2003 to encourage Americans in high-deductible plans to be judicious with their health dollars. But HSAs have not brought down spending, economists say. They are disproportionately used by the wealthiest Americans, who have more income to fund them and bigger incentives to lower their tax rate. Americans who earn more than $1 million annually are the group most likely to make regular HSA contributions, according to an analysis by the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Most Americans with HSAs have balances less than $500. HSA expansions in Trump's 'One Big Beautiful Bill' are projected to cost the federal government $180 billion over the next 10 years. 'These are really just tax breaks in the guise of health policy that overwhelmingly benefit people with high incomes,' said Gideon Lukens, a former White House budget official during the Obama and Trump administrations. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store