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This is an iHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What happened to her?
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The studio that brought you weapons.
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Comes a terrifying new vision.
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What was our daughter doing in the 3,000-year-old sarcophagus? Lee Cronin's the Mummy only in theaters April 17th. New trailer online now. Crime Stories with Nancy Gr. Missing mom Suzanne Morphew's body, her remains, her bones found in a wasteland known as the Boneyard. This, as husband Barry Morphew insists in court. I didn't do it. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Barry Morphew, charged in his wife Suzanne's murder, walks free because now his wife's body turns up, what's left of it, full of animal tranquilizers. Did you have anything to do with the disappearance of your wife? Absolutely not.
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It's very hurtful to lose your reputation and your integrity.
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That from our friends at GMA Good Morning America. Welcome everyone. Thank you for being with us tonight. What a long and twisted and rocky road it has been to get husband Barry Morphew in court. I mean, straight out to veteran trial lawyer who shot to fame during the Alex Murdaugh trial in his backyard. Mark Tate, veteran trial lawyer joining us from the Tate Law Group. Mark, it's a field day for a defense attorney to have the original charges dropped. Thrown out. The original murder charges against Barry Morphew were. Were thrown out for various reasons, but the case was almost cooked, almost baked. You know when you open the oven and you look at the cake and it looks good, but you touch it, it's a little gooey on the inside. Too soon, right? The case was thrown out and Barry Morph, you did a little jig up and down the courthouse halls. Hey, I'm free. And he sued the government for $15 million claiming prosecutorial misconduct. That's bold. You should just take your win and quietly creep away. But. Oh, H E double L N O More few filed a 15 million dollar lawsuit against the prosecutors for prosecutorial misconduct and more.
B
Terrible.
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He's been re indicted.
B
Yeah, that's a terrible. The civil lawsuit.
A
Horrible idea.
B
Horrible idea. I'm a plaintiff's lawyer as well, and I think I would want to talk to that lawyer on behalf of Morphew and discuss the bad, bad advice that he got. It may well be legal malpractice to have done that because it certainly drew Barry back into the spotlight of this district attorney's office. I think that causes a real problem.
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Tate, back up. Tate. Tate, number one. It pains Me, But I agree with you. But you can't say the prosecutors refiled the indictment, the murder indictment against Barry Morphy, because they were PO'd. Technical legal term, it's a Latin derivative. PO'd over the lawsuit because they tried like H, E double L at the beginning to indictment, indict him and charge him in this case. And no lawsuit had ever been filed. But I will say that suing the prosecutor for $15 million and you're acting all innocent, like your hands are clean. Yeah, that did pour a little gas on the flame. I think you're right about that. I mean, if they weren't incentivized before to indict him, they were then taped.
B
Well, sure. Lawyers are motivated by many things. And you got somebody coming after you saying that you were inappropriate in your job. You're going to say, well, wait a minute, I think we need to go spend some more time on this. And in this instance, I think it made it so Their likelihood of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt changes significantly. Mainly because now they have apparently very well put together autopsy results. And so I know you like to say I want to get.
A
Yes, oh, yes. Let's talk about those autopsy results. Have you ever heard of bam? B, brother, A, alpha M, mother. It's butorphanol zaperone and metatoma meditomidine. Metatomidine. What is it? It's an animal tranquilizer straight out to Crime Stories. Investigative reporter on the case from the very beginning, Dave Mack. Dave Mack. How many people in the state of Colorado, the state, not the city, not the county, the state of Colorado, have access or have obtained bam?
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There's only one private citizen living in the entire state of Colorado that had access to bam. Barry Morphew.
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Did you hear that, Mark Tate? One person that's not a vet or a licensed professional and the whole state has access to bam. I don't know why he had to have animal tranquilizers. He came up with a story that I think that he would shoot the animals and then take their horns off of them.
B
I don't know. He likes sportsmanlike, but yes.
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The whole state. Okay, now we've got the setup. Now I'm going out to special guest. Joining us, Dr. William Maroney, medical examiner. Tony. Toxicologist, pathologist, opioid treatment expert, author of American Narcan. Dr. Maroney is running for the Michigan 35 district state senate seat. And I wish you luck on that. That although I hate to lose you to politics. Oh, that said, he didn't Just write a book. He created his own mobile opioid treatment facility. Mobile. He travels around trying to help people and explain to them and treat them for opioid addiction and overdose, and raises a family and is a medical examiner. That said. Bam. I will let you pronounce these. These drugs. Butorphanol, azaporone, and the other one, what are they?
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Butorphanol is used in migraine headaches. It's an opioid derivative, the metal metamidate that is only used to intubate in surgery and by ambulances. And azoprone is a family that we know from busperinone, which is an anti anxolytic, takes away anxiety, and in high doses, it's used to calm people down who are manic or having a panic attack. So that is a cocktail.
A
Okay, I need you to. And I had to struggle with medical examiners my entire prosecution career. No, no, no. I didn't disagree very often with what they said. I just can't understand what you're saying. It's like you're speaking in hieroglyphics. You know, Egyptian writing. If I can understand it, I don't expect a jury to understand it either. So these are my layperson notes. But torphenol is a synthetic. It's an opioid. And in us, it's a controlled substance according to the dea. In other words, you can't get it at Walgreens. Okay. The second one, the A in A Zaporine. The A in bam causes tranquilization. It's a tranquilizer. It reduces your motor activity. You can't move. That's what the A is for. So the first one is an opioid derivative, like heroin is an opioid derivative. The next one immobilizes you. You can't move. And the third one, the M, has been shown useful for anesthesia and immobilization in zoo animals. Now, the reason I'm pointing out zoo animals is bam. Including the M in that equation.
E
Right.
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Can take down a rhino. A rhino. Okay, explain.
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Well.
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Those large animals need to be controlled so we can do medical procedures on them. And in this case, in America, we use them on moose. We use them on elk in another country to study animal husbandry. You need to paralyze an animal, walk up to it and work on it. Paralyzing an animal has to be so that it's safe, so that you can make that animal sleepy. If you give all those medicines, the whole idea is to put somebody into a paralytic state or if you do very high doses, they may die. But the tomidate is very common in all of our ERs, but nobody uses it outside of the hospital. And azopurone, it's part of an antipsychotic or an anti anxiety family. So it makes you not care what's happening and you're dissociated. And the Statol is the brand name for butorphanol. It's used sparingly now, but it used to be used as pain management for headaches and especially migraines. But it's something that if you use it regularly, you can become addicted to your opinion.
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Okay, you're losing me.
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It's an opiate.
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You're losing me. You're losing me. Okay, come on. We're playing ping pong, not chess, okay? You're speaking to regular people. Yes, I have a law degree, but I know nothing about what you're saying. So you got me lost in the sauce, okay?
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It's a cocktail that paralyzes.
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The one word I got out of that is you shoot a moose. Okay, A moose. You lost me after that. I got a little bit of it. You shoot rhinos with this stuff. You bring down Giant Game. What would it do to a little lady that weighed about 120 pounds if you shot her with Bam? In a nutshell.
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In a nutshell. If it didn't kill her right away, she'd sleep for two weeks.
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To the best of our knowledge out here, it was at the time.
A
Well, wasn't it revealed in the autopsy that Bam was in her system?
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That is correct. I mean, between that and what was found inside the dryer at the amorphous Morphew residents, between the rifle or the tranquilizer rifle and the needle cap that was found along with Barry Shorts that are linked to the events surrounding May 9 and May 10, he put those three factors together and it seems like it should be a slam dunk case.
A
Well, that's what they said about OJ Simpson too. So I try not to use that particular vernacular or jargon. So Gregory Nietzsche, you said, well, to the best of our knowledge out here, she had BAM in her system. Yes. No. You are now on cross warning. Gregory Nieto, isn't it true the autopsy report showed BAM in Suzanne Morphew system? Yes. No.
C
Yes, it did show that.
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And isn't it true that a cylinder like a dart gun, a BAM dart gun cylinder, what was found in Morphew's dryer?
C
Two things. I mean, you find the needle cap that's associated with that sort of paralyzing agent, to put it in layman's terms. And then again, his shorts are found in the same dryer as that needle cap. Shorts that are attached to, again, the events of May 9, May 10. Shorts he was seen wearing in surveillance video at the time of Suzanne's disappearance.
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And the significance of May 9th is May 9th, isn't it true? Gregory Nieto around two o' clock in the afternoon, I believe was the last time that Suzanne Morphew was heard from on social media. Phones, texts, emails, nothing after that time. And he was wearing those shorts around the time she dropped off the face of the earth, isn't that true?
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That's true. Wearing those shorts at the time that she supposedly had gone out for that bike ride and never came back. And leading up to the events of him heading north of Salida allegedly later that weekend to head to a job site in Broomfield. So you attach. Okay, hold on, hold on.
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You put in the cart before the horse. You're putting the cart before the horse. And everything you're saying is absolutely correct. As usual, Nieto. But I'm focusing on the bam. Why am I focusing on the bam? Because you start your case always with a bang, with some of your strongest evidence, then you follow it up and then you end it with strong evidence. The fact that she has Bam in her system, One person in the state, according to Dave Mack and others had access to that outside of vets and medical professionals is Barry Morphew. Now I want to talk about how her body was found. Could you describe Nieto the so called boneyard. I just want you to tell me what is the boneyard? Where is it?
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Boneyard is about an hour south of Salida. It's in an area that if you didn't know it existed, you drive right past it. But it's known for unfortunately finding a lot of, as you mentioned, bones. But usually we're talking about animal bones. We're not talking about the bones of a mother and a wife.
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You know, I'm so glad you said that, Gregory Nieto, because sometimes we get bogged down. Including me. I can't see the forest for the trees. I'm so focusing on the probative value of each piece of evidence because that's how I'm trained. That's how I see the world now. But you just said mother. Mother. Suzanne Morphew fought cancer when her bones were found out in a desolate wasteland known as the boneyard. Her port, her cancer port was there with her remains. This little lady fought cancer with all of her heart, her soul, her strength because she wanted to be there for her two girls growing up. And isn't it the irony that it looks like she may beat cancer and then she's murdered? And I want to talk about this. I don't know how you're going to get around this, Mark Tate. You're the veteran defense attorney. Whoever killed her and the state says it's Barry Morphew left her body in the boneyard out in the open for animals to chew on and eat and tear apart. The killer never thought her bones would be found. But three years pass and they are found. How can you reconcile that with a jury? How can you look them and they're going to all look over at Barry Morphew and think he left her out there for this beautiful mom to have her body torn apart by animals and gnawed on.
B
The portrait that the prosecutors will be able to draw here is shocking. And he is absolutely, by what can be described a disgusting, repulsive human that you don't have anything to do with. So his. His issues that are.
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You're not helping.
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I'm not helping yet.
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The only helping him. You're the defense lawyer. You just said what I would say.
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My closing argument is I'm going to have to go hire another forensic pathologist, another medical examiner who can pick apart the autopsy results and cause some doubt. About whether that material was actually found in them. I don't see any other, any other thing to attack this with. If you take away the existence of the BAM or even cause there to be some question about whether it was actually found, you might have a chance. But all the story that you just spun, that will be an opening statements and enclosing arguments.
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I didn't spin it.
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Or if you look terrible. Well, that's your job. You're a prosecutor.
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Spin it. I'm not Rumpelstiltskin spinning hay into goat. I'm just telling you the facts. Karen Stark. He's in a whole heap of trouble, let's just put it like that. Joining me now, a renowned forensic psychologist. She is a tv, radio trauma expert, a consultant, and you can find her@karen stark.com. that's Karen with a C. Karen, in a nutshell, I do not know how a defense attorney is going to somehow shroud Barry Morphew in the indicia of respectability when they hear one person in the state. Unless that stat can be attacked. And I don't think it can be outside of med pros like vets and doctors have access to these three drugs. Dr. Maroney was describing the B, the M, the B, the A, the M. Not just that. I mean, they're going to be pain of the scene of her running away from him in the home and him chasing her with a dart gun, chasing his wife, his cancer survivor wife, the mother of his children, chasing her through this home out in the middle of nowhere with a dart gun. I guarantee you at trial we're going to hear about animal activity as it's euphemistically called, on her bones. Who in the H E double L would do that?
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See, this guy has no emotions, clearly, right? He's narcissistic. He coerced her, he controlled her. He did things like using a gun. Everything that you mentioned, he pinned her down to the bed. The fact that she was paralyzed and he could take control so he could preserve his image and it doesn't look like there was any domestic violence. Even the fact that he puts the blame on everybody else, the media, the police, her, everyone else is at fault except for him. Classic traits that show that this guy is not someone who feels anything. There is nothing about him that is a sensitive, good guy.
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I know that they won't like it, but I would make the jury, and I've actually had jurors turn away physically. I would make them, I would walk them through what happened to her body out there lying out There in the elements. And first one animal comes up, then another, then they start eating her body and tearing apart her bones. Literally tearing the flesh off her bones. What's the first thing to go? Birds taking her eyes? I don't know. But by the time I got to closing argument, I would know and I would have the jury walk through, even if I had to drag them. What happened to Suzanne Morphew? She went on a bike ride Mother's Day morning and never came back. Her daughters were camping on Mother's Day, and they called her relentlessly to talk to their mom on Mother's Day.
C
Why would she be riding that bicycle by herself on Mother's Day? Mother's Day weekend.
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Why was she by herself on Mother's Day? Why was that a hastily planned trip out of town for Barry Morphew? His co worker is very clear that they weren't supposed to leave till late that night. But Morphew leaves at what, five o' clock in the morning? That's a whole nother can of worms that I think is a probative value. But I want you to hear this.
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The Chaffee County Sheriff's Office arrested Suzanne Morphew's husband, Barry Morphew. He was taken into custody near his home in Pontia Springs. He was alone at the time of his arrest, and he was arrested without incident. Today is not the day for celebration, nor does it mark the end of this investigation. Rather, it's the next step in this very difficult, yet very important journey as we seek justice for our Suzanne and her family.
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We're not releasing the affidavit and we don't have a body, so how can I convince the public that we have a strong case? That's my job. I'm the one that considers how strong my case is before I bring charges. And I wouldn't bring charges unless I was confident. That was then, this is now. They didn't release the affidavit then. I've got it now. That was my friends at Fox31. I want to walk through this affidavit. Okay, this is what we learn. This is along with the murder charges. Murder in the first degree in Colorado. You go on and you see a supporting affidavit. So much stands out to me in the probable cause for count one. I want to talk to Scott Eicher joining us. He is a digital forensics expert. And listen to this founding member of the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Cellular Analysis Survey Team. Wow. He is currently with Precision Cellular Analysis handling criminal cases. Scott, thank you for being with us. I was going through what we learn about the digital trail of both More Few and Suzanne leading up to the time of her disappearance. That is death. And everybody the reason we're here tonight, Barry Morphew's first indictment was dropped. Everything was dropped. He sued the government for $15 million claiming he's the victim. Now he's been re indicted on murder and he's back in court. Will there ever be justice for Suzanne Morphew? The only way to get justice is to have a steel stomach and look at the evidence. What can I learn from the digital evidence?
G
Scott Eicher, as you have touched on a little bit before, we have cell phone records from the wife and from Barry and we also have vehicle telematics from his truck, his work truck. We have a lot of different what's.
A
A telematic, what is a telematic and what is an infotainment system?
G
So your vehicles also have cell phones in it. So there's a cell phone data you can pull from the phone company that handles that type of vehicle. Sometimes it's AT&T, sometimes it's T mobile. And then there's the infotainment system within the vehicle. It's more for maintenance but also has a lot of information of like when the vehicle was started, when it was moved, when the brakes were applied, when an accident occurred, things like that. So all this is put together to put that timeline and when I read that affidavit I really saw that they're putting a timeline together saying that her phone went off at this point in time. His phone went off at this point in time. His vehicle moved at this point in time. They're laying it all out in a very good manner to show he was there at the time that her phone went off.
A
You know, I'm interested in another thing. His digital data reveals he stated that he left 5am that's not true. Based on the digital data. The digital data shows that he left at a completely different time. Isn't that true? Gregory Nieto?
C
That is true. He was supposed to head up from Salida up to the Broomfield area again just north of Denver for a job site work project. And initially he was supposed to head up to that Broomfield location with this co worker that he stayed in contact with over the next couple of days. But the stories just don't match. I mean you see the surveillance video of Barry in the hallway at this hotel. You also have surveillance video of Barry going to various dumpsters in the Broomfield area and he Maintains that he was at the job site at the time that he was notified about his wife. And this co worker had said that basically couldn't be true because he didn't bring the necessary tools that we needed to complete the task.
A
Okay. Number one, the co worker says they were supposed to leave that evening, late that evening for an alleged job in Broomfield. That's not true. Morphew says that he left at 5am 5am that is not borne out by his digital forensics. He left at a completely different time. Why is he lying? What was happening at that home during those hours? She's not seen or heard from after May 9th. That's the day before he leaves. Her children don't hear from her, her friends. She has no social media, no phone calls, no anything. He is supposed to ride with a friend. Instead, he leaves that morning around 3am why? What in the hay? Then he goes to Brumfeld and he basically lounges around the hotel room for nine hours. Doing what? Oh, and there's one more thing. Isn't it true, Gregory Nieto that he visited multiple trash cans and dump sites? Explain.
C
It is true. Caught on surveillance video visiting these various dumpsters in and around that hotel where he was staying up in Broomfield. And that was a major facet or tenet when we first visited this case back when Barry was originally arrested. It still coincides in a bad way with what went down back at the Morphew home in regard to that dart rifle or tranquilizer rifle and the needle cap that was found in the dryer along with his shorts. You match what was seen on surveillance video outside the Morphew home. You match that with what was seen up outside that Broomfield and inside the Broomfield hotel. And the stories, again, don't add up. And they don't match up when it comes to that co worker that he was supposed to be with. At least for the drive up and perhaps the drive back.
A
Yeah, he called the coworker. Oh, yeah, I already left. Sorry. I want you to think back on Photis Doulos, his wife, the mother of his five children, a Connecticut mom of five, Jennifer goes missing. Her body's never been found. There was a profuse amount of blood, her blood in the garage after a drop off that morning. She dropped the children off at school. She's never been seen again. And Fotus Doulos went on a trash roundup. Listen.
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Investigators believe surveillance video from Hartford shows Fotus Doulos the same day Jennifer Farber Doulos disappeared. Getting in and out of a truck and disposing of black trash bags with Michelle Traconis in the passenger seat, several.
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Pieces of evidence, including a bra that had been cut down the middle of the front and the Vineyard Vines shirt Jennifer Doulos is believed to have worn the day she vanished, stained with blood. There's photos of Doulos going all around town dumping his trash, much like we see Barry Morphew. Straight out to Tate. Joining us, Mark Tate, veteran defense attorney, won a lot of cases. Why did Barry Morphew have to go out of town to throw out his trash? Why did he drive all the way to his next job site well over an hour to throw out trash?
B
Sure. Well, I assume do you do that.
A
When you go on vacation or a work trip, you just take a whole suitcase full of trash and dump it not just in one place, but let me see while he's talking. As much as I like to look at Tate, can we look at Morphew throwing out all that trash in all those different locations? There you go. He's. He's such a neat dick.
B
Nancy Grace, My job in this instance is not going to be to talk about why he's throwing trash away. My job is going to be to focus on that autopsy that found this sedative paralytic in a body.
A
Stop it. You can do that to a jury, but it ain't happening on crime stories. I asked you about throwing out the trash. What you're trying to do is make me think about your attack on the bam. You've already done that second verse.
B
Keep you from talking about this evidence. And you know I'd hate to do it. That's what we do. A lot of this inflammatory.
A
Can we talk about the trash coming in?
B
Nancy Grace it's not going to come in. All of this just guys bias the jury.
A
Don't be tricked by tape.
B
Oh, be tricked by me.
A
Do you just hear him throw out? I'll follow a motion. And Lemony, very simply, a motion. Lemony is when you go to the judge when you know that some evidence is particularly damning for your client.
B
You want to prejudice this jury. Do you remember that poor guy down there who was alleged to have blown up the Atlanta Olympics? I know you do. That poor guy's. Richard Jewell's life was ruined because there was a predetermined, determined outcome of his criminal trial. We got to respect the fact that there is one thing that can be attacked here and that is the results of this autopsy. And you know, there are forensic pathologists who have studied the ability to find these specific drugs in a decayed body. It was one published in 2025, in fact, and that's important. And we want to convict this guy if he's guilty, because what he did means if what he did is true, he should never walk this planet free again. That's why it's important that we prove beyond a reasonable doubt and make sure there is no doubt about that he did this. The story's inflammatory. It's biased against him. Nothing looks good about what he did. We got to look at the science of whether that drug was found in her. And even if it's not, even if there's a reason to find that it's reasonable that he may not have poisoned her with that drug or that have been there, then if he's found guilty despite that, then the jury's heard the information and still be found guilty.
A
Dr. William Maroney, as much as I hate to rehash what we've already talked about in Mark Tate's effort, and I understand what he's doing to avoid the fact that Barry Morphew took his trash from home all the way on a work trip. What, did he put it in a suitcase and then went to multiple dumps to get rid of it. And he's caught on tape. I can see him. It's him. Can you please address Tate? It's like the squeaky wheel. You know when you're driving Maroney, and you keep hearing something going or when you hit the brakes and they go and you know something's way wrong and it won't go away. Could you please explain in Regular people talk, Dr. Maroney, how the medical examiner found this deadly cocktail of animal tranq in Suzanne Morphew? Because it's going to be really hard to find another medical examiner to refute this. How did they do it, Dr. Maroney?
D
Two battling experts. One of them is going to say, we have the science to prove if we take dry tissue, if we take dry muscle, if we take desiccated dried organs like the liver, we can cut them up and rehydrate them, and then we kind of make like a slurry or like a milkshake. And then when it's in a liquid form, we extract.
F
Bam.
D
And then we can give you a concentration based on her size. And the expert that's going to throw it out is going to say, you don't have the published science to prove that's a fatal dose, or you don't have the published science to show that you can have a dose, and that dose is biologically incompatible with life. So it's two steps to prove that you have. It is one, you have to prove that you have the science. Forensically, the defense has the easiest job because they can just show that the science doesn't work, that the science is not representative. And even if you have to find bam in the first step from those organs and muscles that had been desiccated and dried out in the boneyard for three years and then rehydrated, and then the second thing you have to show is the concentration of those agents, those paralyzing agents, those opioids. The concentration available in her tissue, her organs, and her muscle is valid.
A
I understand so far you're stating that you have to show the jury how you extract, how you recreate her dried organs by making, as you said, a slurry like you get at Dairy Queen or McDonald's. You take her dried organs and you hydrate them. In other words, pour in distilled water or saline solution of some sort, and you make it a liquid. You blend her organs, her dried organs with liquid. By making it liquid, you can then extract various things. You can do drug labs, you can do all sorts of labs, but you can pull a BAM lab look for those three drugs. That's how you do it. Then you have to prove the concentration of the drug in her body. Okay? That's how you do it. Now, say somebody like Mark Tate brings in a hired gun to attack what you did. How do you prove what you did is legitimate? How can they possibly disprove that?
D
Well, that's where the Daubert comes in, is Daubert versus Merrell Dow. And in that lawsuit, the judge claimed that the court did not have the technology to verify what was presented as the prosecution's argument. And that was again verified back in 2007. I think the judge was Rose Aquilina. It was Lansing, Michigan. She threw out a homicide because she said they did not have the technology to prove that.
A
Hey, Maroney, I understand about Dobert. I understand the Dobert case very well. I'm asking you, simply put, when you were attacked in court, about your procedure, how do you prove that what you did worked? That's my question.
D
The first thing you do is you go to research in forensic chemistry and toxicology and you show that we've done studies like at the Body Farm or European studies when we looked at dead people who were given drugs. Have we successfully, in the last five or 10 years, been able to show that? And if you can show it in literature and your state police crime lab forensics follows the same protocol, use the same chemicals, then they will be able to say we've shown this in case law, we've shown this in research and, and we copied it. And this is a toxic level that there's no way you can have.
B
Bam.
A
Well, I mean to put it in simple terms, Maroney, we went through the same thing trying to get DNA approved, familial DNA all the way back to fingerprints. There's always been a defense attorney claiming that's not real. That's junk science. That's old as the courtroom.
C
Suzanne is found in a grave site.
A
Her body found in a cell miles away in a state of decomp and completely skeletonized that she was out of her clothes. We just know our dad better than anyone else and we know he was not involved in our mom's disappearance. I just love my girls and I.
C
Love my wife and I just want.
A
Her to be found. What they've done is not fair.
C
And.
A
We'Re never going to stop looking for a mom that from our friends at GMA Good Morning America. Grand Canyon University, an affordable private Christian university based in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona is one of the largest universities in the country. Praised for its culture of community and impact, GCU integrates the free market system, a welcoming Christian worldview and free and open discourse into 369 academic programs with over 300 of them online. Join a nationwide community of learners redefining what online education looks like through academically rigorous industry driven programs that can spark bold ideas and prepare you for a future that matters. In addition to federal grants and aid, GCU's online students receive nearly $161 million in institutional scholarships in 2024 alone. Find your purpose at Grand Canyon University, Private, Christian, affordable. Visit gcu Edu Myoffer to see the scholarships for which you could qualify. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know the phenomena of adult children refusing to accept their parents guilt. You know. To Gregory Nieto joining us, investigative reporter, Fox31 Denver KDVR on Suzanne's disappearance from the very beginning. Greg Nieto, the daughters don't have anything left. They don't. They've lost their mom and now they're looking down the wrong end of a barrel of losing their dad. They don't want to accept it at all. I also have wondered if they felt some sort of guilt because they went away from their mom on Mother's Day weekend. They shouldn't. It was a preplanned trip with some friends, probably before they even realized that was Mother's Day. And they're the reason, the daughters are the whole reason. The red flag of alarm went up that she was missing because they kept trying to call her for Mother's Day and they couldn't get her. So I think that they're just overwhelmed with fear of losing their dad too. And they weren't there.
C
Yeah, I mean, they've been by his side the entire time. Each and every court appearance on Monday, they're right there just behind where Barry is seated there down in Alamosa in the courtroom. And they've, I think you put it very well, Nancy. I think at a certain point you've lost your mother and you realize that your dad may be going away for the rest of his life and you'll lose two parents in the span of five and a half years. If the trial does indeed start in mid October.
A
That from our friends at cbs. To Karen Stark joining us, forensic psychologist, I think you could explain it a little bit better than I can. Why adult children. I've seen this over and over in court because normally the prosecutor has the victim's family lined up behind them in court. Not when adult children are involved. They, they cannot. It's not that they don't want to accept it. They cannot accept.
F
If you think about it, it makes perfect sense to me. Of course, I'm a psychologist. But when you are living with a parent, it is very and close to the parent. It's really difficult to be able to see them as human having flaws doing something that extreme as committing murder, especially with their mother. They are not able to self reflect. They are biased. They cannot, they have no choice about it. In their mind it has to be that their father is not guilty. And of course, you have to add the fact that they don't have their mother anymore.
A
The bike, the bike. I started counting how many times in the affidavit and the supporting documents that Morphew kept saying, look for the bike, bike, bike. She went out on a bike ride. I mean, he might as well taken out an ad on 3rd Avenue. The bike will exonerate me. As a matter of fact, Gregory Nieto, I enjoy watching this particular clip after all of his urging. Finally, the bike is found. See, this is what he's counting on, that somebody on that jury is going to believe she really went for a bike ride. Okay, let's listen to Barry Morphew. Is it a crash? I mean, the bike looked the way it was laid.
E
It kind of looked like it, but.
A
There'S not really that much damage.
E
To the bike.
C
Lion.
E
Yeah, no lion.
A
I didn't see anything that would.
E
I didn't see anything.
B
And they're not letting us go over.
A
The side because we're getting a trap just right now. I haven't seen any really, but, like.
E
People trucks, I didn't really notice, but.
B
I, I won't lie.
A
I'm not liking it. Okay, there you see him. Bike, bike, bike. And then actually says, Gregory, that he thinks the mountain lion took her. And I guess the mountain lion tried on her bike helmet because it was found, what, about a mile away.
C
That's correct, yeah. Again, if you remember, shortly after she went missing, we physically went down to the morphew house. We went down the dirt road that you're seeing there in the video. And at this point, I think you're just throwing things at the wall. Right. With the sheriff deputies. Could it be X, could it be Y? Could it be Z? Versus perhaps the obvious.
A
To Scott Eichor joining us, just to button that up. It's quite the coincidence that, that he says dozens of times she was on a bike ride, bike, bike, bike. Because I believe that he thinks evidence of her going on a bike ride will get him off the hook. I don't know how he's going to try to explain that her helmet was found so far away from the bike. But that said to Scott Eicher joining us, founding member, FBI Cellular Analysis survey team now with Precision Cellular Analysis. Scott, again, thank you for being with us tonight. You know what? I love deleted texts and emails. Do people. Do old people, as my twins call everyone other than themselves, do they not know to delete deleted emails and deleted texts? Because they're right there. I mean, even I can find them on the phone. So he deleted an entire text chain from Suzanne Morphy when she finally says, you know what? I'm done. I don't care what you've done in the past. I don't care how long you've been doing it, what you've been up to. I just want to get out of this civilly. That's all I want. Why did he delete that whole text chain? Everything else is still there. But that happened just before she disappeared. Oh, before the mountain lion got her. He chose to delete it. But he took a screenshot of it, and he still had the screenshot. That's weird. I don't. I very rarely screenshot a text chain. Tell me the whole thing. How does it work, Scott?
G
Well, obviously if. If he's deleting stuff off her phone, he wanted to make sure earth have everybody think they had this perfect marriage. Well, obviously from those text messages she wanted to get out of the marriage. So he's trying to hide that kind of information. So you can just go in and try to delete something off of phone. But a lot of times in the extraction of the phone where we hook it up to another device and it reads every little bit of that phone when it was turned on, text message, emails, pictures, everything, we can find those deleted text messages. So he's not doing that very well, that's for sure. If he's trying to hide that information that she wanted to break up with him or end that marriage and having it happen right after or right before she went missing, that's quite suspicious in my mind.
A
Last thing, Gregory Nieto, he was in court. He pled not guilty. Can I just show you the million dollar smile he flashed coming into that courtroom? Wait for it. Oh, there you go. There you go. Wait, that's my friends at Denver 7. He apparently doesn't have a care in the world. What's with that? Gregory Nieto? And did you say the trial's not until October?
C
Yeah, I think he's bought himself some more freedom time. Right? I mean, why wouldn't you want the trial to not take place for another 10 months or so? I thought it was fascinating. On Monday, you know, he walks in with his daughters and he's dressed in light jeans and a cream sweater, very casual look, and seemed very at ease with, I'd say, not only the process, but folks in the courtroom. There are very strict rules for the media in terms of not approaching Barry or his daughters as they walk in or out of the courtroom. But we have one account from one of Suzanne's buddies that he actually, you know, said hello to her and how you doing? That sort of thing. And that shocked, shocked her. But again, we have 10 more months of freedom. Why wouldn't you be smiling that from.
A
Our friends at cbs. Yeah. Every day is another day. He's innocent. And delay, delay, delay. A defense attorney's best friend. The case is still being built. If you know or think you know anything regarding justice for Suzanne, please call CBI, 719-312-7530. Repeat, 719-312-75390. Nancy Gray signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
Episode: MOM Suzanne Morphew's Body Found in "The Boneyard" Dump, HUSBAND "I DIDN'T DO IT"
Original Air Date: January 14, 2026
Nancy Grace leads a panel of legal, forensic, and investigative experts through the latest twist in the case of Suzanne Morphew, a missing mom whose remains have finally been discovered in an area known as "the Boneyard." With the chilling revelation that her body contained animal tranquilizers, and her husband, Barry Morphew—the only private citizen in Colorado with access to the drugs found in her system—again facing a murder indictment, the episode digs deep into the evidence, police procedures, and human drama at the story’s core.
"It may well be legal malpractice to have done that because it certainly drew Barry back into the spotlight of this district attorney's office." [02:48]
"But usually we're talking about animal bones. We're not talking about the bones of a mother and a wife." [16:29]
"There's only one private citizen living in the entire state of Colorado that had access to BAM. Barry Morphew." [05:13]
"It's a cocktail that paralyzes." [10:46]
"If it didn't kill her right away, she'd sleep for two weeks." [11:11]
"He coerced her, he controlled her. He did things like using a gun... even the fact that he puts the blame on everybody else... Classic traits that show that this guy is not someone who feels anything." [21:09]
"How can you look them and they're going to all look over at Barry Morphew and think he left her out there for this beautiful mom to have her body torn apart by animals and gnawed on." [18:48]
Scott Eicher (digital forensics, ex-FBI):
"They're putting a timeline together saying that her phone went off at this point in time. His phone went off ... His vehicle moved..." [27:11]
Gregory Nieto:
"Stories just don’t match ... surveillance video of Barry going to various dumpsters in the Broomfield area." [27:38]
Barry left at 3 AM, not 5 AM as claimed, did not bring the expected tools for a job, and was seen at multiple dumpsters [28:27–29:39].
"We take dry muscle, desiccated dried organs... we can cut them up and rehydrate them ... then we can give you a concentration..." [35:34]
Mark Tate on Morphew’s Lawsuit Repercussions:
"He sued the government for $15 million... That's bold. You should just take your win and quietly creep away." [01:42]
Dave Mack—Scarcity of BAM:
"There's only one private citizen... that had access to BAM. Barry Morphew." [05:13]
Dr. Maroney on the Tranquilizer Cocktail:
"It's a cocktail that paralyzes." [10:46]
Nancy Grace on Prosecution Strategy:
"You start your case always with a bang, with some of your strongest evidence..." [15:30]
Gregory Nieto describing "The Boneyard":
"If you didn't know it existed, you drive right past it. But it's known for unfortunately finding... animal bones. Not... the bones of a mother and a wife." [16:29]
Karen Stark—Forensic Psychology:
"This guy has no emotions, clearly, right? He's narcissistic." [21:09]
Nancy Grace on Jury Strategies:
"I would make the jury... walk them through what happened to her body... birds taking her eyes? I don't know, but by closing, I would know..." [21:55]
The episode presents a thorough, emotionally charged analysis of the case against Barry Morphew, drawing from forensic chemistry, digital sleuthing, psychology, and good old-fashioned investigative journalism. Nancy Grace and her guests highlight the damning scientific evidence while examining the strategies likely to play out at trial—and the toll the ordeal takes on the entire Morphew family.
For listeners seeking justice for Suzanne Morphew, Nancy Grace urges:
“If you know or think you know anything regarding justice for Suzanne, please call CBI, 719-312-7530.” [51:08]
Listen for:
Episode in a Sentence:
Suzanne Morphew's tragic story is back in the spotlight with new forensic evidence implicating her husband, and Nancy Grace’s team skillfully parses the legal, scientific, and emotional landscape of a haunting and still-unresolved mystery.