Barry Morphew is reported to have used a false identity while residing in Arizona prior to his arrest concerning the murder of his wife. According to a recently unveiled arrest report, he allegedly lived with a woman for a month, all the while keeping his true identity hidden.
A grand jury indicted Morphew for first-degree murder after careful consideration on June 20, 2025. The charges are linked to the death of Suzanne Morphew, his 49-year-old wife and mother of their two daughters. She vanished in Colorado on Mother’s Day in 2020, where the family resided. Barry Morphew was apprehended nearly 11 hours away in Goodyear, Arizona, from where her disappearance occurred.
He is slated for a status conference in court this Wednesday afternoon, ahead of his trial set for October.
The arrest report, accessible through a public records request by News Media, accuses Morphew of adopting the alias “Lee Moore” during his time in Arizona. The report mentions he cohabitated with a woman approximately a month before he was taken into custody.
Barry Morphew is seen entering a courtroom in Alamosa, Colorado, on July 1, 2025. In an undated image, Suzanne Morphew is shown, as provided by law enforcement officers. (Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office and Pool via KRDO)
News Media isn’t naming the woman, as she hasn’t been charged with a crime. The woman told troopers with the Arizona Department of Public Safety that she had only known Morphew as “Lee Moore.” She said he began living with her on May 1, 2025, and moved in much of his personal property. Barry Morphew and the unidentified woman met in late December 2024.
On June 15, for unknown reasons, the woman said that Morphew revealed his actual identity and claimed his wife, Suzanne Morphew, was “abducted” in Colorado, the arrest report stated.
According to an arrest report, authorities found an AR-15-style rifle and a silencer inside Morphew’s safe that was at the house he was living in.
Notably, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation first reached out to the Arizona Department of Public Safety in February, asking them to keep tabs on Morphew’s movements as a grand jury indictment was expected. A warrant was also obtained to place a GPS tracking device on his truck.
Barry Morphew’s booking photo was taken at the Alamosa County Jail. (Alamosa County Sheriff’s Office)
As News Media has previously reported, Morphew paid property taxes for a property at the Stardust Trailer Park in Cave Creek, Arizona, and was self-employed.
One restaurant employee in Cave Creek, Arizona, told News Media he knew Morphew by an entirely different name: Bruce.
Charlie Loots, bar manager at Harold’s Cave Creek Corral, told News Media that he didn’t know Morphew’s real name until June 20, when news reports began to surface about murder charges relating to Suzanne Morphew’s death.
Barry Morphew appears in court in Salida, Colo., on May 6. He was later seen leaving jail with his two daughters by his side. (KUSA/AP Pool)
“I was shocked that, again, I mean, I was very caught off guard about all of it,” Loots said. “I spent, honestly, as soon as I found about it, I spent like two hours reading articles about it. I was like, I was so intrigued, because I was, like, this s— doesn’t happen,” he said.
Loots said he began seeing Morphew, or Bruce, as he knew the murder suspect, after the coronavirus pandemic. He said Morphew’s go-to drink was beer, often switching between Miller Lite and Coors Light, adding that he was at the bar on June 13, exactly one week before his arrest.
Prosecutors wrote in the June 2025 indictment that the chemicals butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine were found in Suzanne Morphew’s bone marrow. They alleged that Barry Morphew used “BAM” deer tranquilizer to sedate and transport deer on his farm when he lived in Indiana. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder.
Suzanne Morphew, 49, went missing after leaving her Colorado home for a bike ride on May 10, 2020. Her remains were later discovered. (Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office)
Morphew was also the only person with a prescription for the deer tranquilizer within the area of the state he lived in, prosecutors said. The only two other entities with access to the BAM compound within the surrounding counties were Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Park Service, officials said.
“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.
Morphew’s attorney, David Beller, previously told News Media 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.”
News Media reached out to Morphew’s lawyer for comment.