Barry Morphew repeatedly threw away trash on day wife disappeared

SALIDA — On the day his wife was reported missing, Barry Morphew traveled to suburban Denver for work and was seen throwing away items in trash containers five times there, a retired FBI agent testified Tuesday.

Barry Morphew, 53, is charged with first-degree murder and other crimes in the death of his wife Suzanne Morphew, who disappeared on Mother’s Day 2020. Barry Morphew had pleaded for her safe return on social media.

During a court hearing to determine if Barry Morphew will stand trial, retired FBI agent Jonathan Grusing testified about data collected by Morphew’s truck and cellphone on May 9 and 10, 2020, The Denver Post reported. Suzanne Morphew was reported missing by a neighbor on May 10, which was Mother’s Day.

Barry Morphew left his family’s home near the mountain community of Maysville to travel to Broomfield for a landscaping job early on the morning of May 10, he said. Once there, he stopped at trash cans next to a bus stop, near his hotel, at a McDonald’s and near a Men’s Warehouse store in the morning, Grusing said. In the afternoon, Morphew placed a full trash bag, a tree planter and a camouflage jacket in a trash bin near the hotel, he said.

Morphew did not visibly react when prosecutors showed surveillance photos of him putting items into the bins. At the start of the day, Morphew, wearing a white cloth mask, smiled and waved at members of his family attending the hearing.

Someone used Morphew’s truck at 3:25 a.m. on May 10 and, about 30 minutes later, the truck appeared to be in the area where Suzanne Morphew’s bicycle was later found off a county road, Grusing said. However, the data is inconclusive because of the poor cellphone service in the area, he said.

The last ping from Suzanne Morphew’s phone was at 4:23 a.m., Grusing said. Morphew’s phone and her body have not been found despite extensive searches.

Investigators say Morphew told them that Suzanne Morphew was sleeping when he left for his work trip around 5 a.m.