It could be months, or even years, before prosecutors have enough evidence to prove Suzanne Morphew was murdered and bring the case to trial.

“That could be a long time. It could be quick, it could be long. It depends on a lot of our investigation,” said 11th Judicial Deputy District Attorney Mark Hurlbert in court Monday. 

In one of the boldest statements made in open court regarding the struggling case, Hurlbert insisted that investigators suspect they know where her body is located.  

“She is in a very difficult spot. We actually have more than just a feeling … and the sheriff’s office is continuing to look for Mrs. Morphew’s body,” he said.

The hearing was called after Barry Morphew’s attorneys requested to keep records in the case sealed indefinitely. Prosecutors in March 2022, before the case was dismissed, filed a motion to admit statements Suzanne Morphew allegedly made to her best friend about the couple’s failing marriage.

Earlier, defense attorney Iris Eytan accused prosecutors of operating on a hunch in going after Barry Morphew for first-degree murder. 

Park County District Judge Amanda Hunter ordered the records to be unsealed. But, as of Monday afternoon, they had not been made public.

Once unsealed, they could shed light on Suzanne Morphew’s mindset, as she poured her heart out to her best friend, Sheila Oliver.

Three months before she vanished from the couple’s remote mountain home near Salida, Suzanne Morphew, 49, was planning to leave Barry Morphew, her husband of 25 years. The conversations, which revealed her spiraling marriage to her best friend, would have been crucial to the prosecution’s case had it ever have gone to trial. 

Morphew’s thoughts were recorded on text, on a spy pen and relayed to investigators through the memory of Oliver. The two met while the they were students at Purdue University and remained close.  

Still, the public heard some of those conversations during Barry Morphew’s August 2021 four-day evidentiary hearing through testimony of FBI Special Agent Ken Harris. The details of Suzanne Morphew’s alleged comments to Oliver provided below came from Harris’ testimony in open court.

Heartfelt communications from Morphew strengthened the prosecution’s theory revealed in the evidentiary hearing that Barry Morphew had reason to kill his wife Mother’s Day weekend 2020. In motions filed a month before Barry Morphew’s first-degree murder trial was scheduled to begin, the government wanted to get them admitted.

But because Suzanne Morphew’s body was missing, the case was dismissed without prejudice April 19, 2022. Prosecutors felt they would have a better chance of convicting the father of two if they waited for stronger evidence.

To dismiss a case without prejudice means that the case can be retried. 

Morphew’s attorneys specifically wanted the court to keep the case’s pre-trial records under wraps in order to protect Barry Morphew’s constitutional rights. Morphew became a free man when the case was dismissed, but his attorneys said he’s struggling to get his life back to normal.

One of the motions Eytan wanted kept from a potential jury’s eyes was a request by prosecutors to allow Suzanne Morphew’s words about her failing marriage to be admitted at trial.

During Monday’s hearing, Eytan argued that revealing Suzanne Morphew’s frame of mind about her marriage would be bad for Barry Morphew as he attempts to make a living and restart his life after three years of being the only suspect in her disappearance.

“There is a cloud of suspicion unfortunately that’s hanging over Mr. Morphew’s head as a result of the prosecution’s continued statements that they have a hunch that he had something to do with Mrs. Morphew’s disappearance,” Eytan said.

She called the prosecution’s words in pretrial motions untrue, inflammatory and prejudicial.

Hurlbert said that except for one “erroneous” instance in one of their motions, everything filed has been the truth.

“We are going to continue to look for her body,” said Hurlbert. “We are simply trying to get this case prosecutable, whether that is against the defendant or against somebody else.”

At the time of her disappearance, Suzanne Morphew was having a long-distance affair with a high school flame and wanted to leave Barry Morphew to be with him, according to the evidentiary hearing. Morphew and Jeff Libler, a Michigan father of six, saw each other several times and fell in love.

The affair was discovered when law enforcement found a spy pen in Suzanne Morphew’s closet, which she purchased to place in Barry’s vehicle because actually she suspected him of having an affair. 

In text messages and conversations relayed to investigators by Oliver, Suzanne Morphew wanted to leave her husband, who she felt was turning their two daughters, Macy and Mallory, against her.

“He pulled Macy in again and left. My heart hurts for her,” Morphew texted. 

At the time, Macy Morphew was still in high school living at home. Her older sister, Mallory, was in college.

Other statements revealed in the motion show Morphew felt her husband was too controlling and unstable. She described him to Oliver as “narcissistic.”

Suzanne Morphew’s phone was never found, but prosecutors were able to pull up her text messages by searching Oliver’s phone. 

Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence in Suzanne Morphew’s death since the day she was reported missing on May 10, 2020. After nearly a year of investigation, Chaffee County sheriffs arrested Morphew in connection with his wife’s murder.

He was released on bail the following September after his preliminary hearing, when 11th Judicial District Judge Patrick Murphy ordered him bound over for trial. 

One instance during Monday’s virtual hearing showed how hard it is to control the curious public in a high-profile case.

One of the people listening into the hearing identified publicly on the WebEx as “Barry Killed Suzanne.” Eytan interrupted and Judge Hunt removed the unknown listener from the proceeding.