Discovery of Rare Animal Tranquilizer Helped Police ID Suspect in Suzanne Morphew Cold Case Murder — Her Husband

Suzanne Morphew went missing from the Colorado home she shared with her husband and two daughters on Mother’s Day 2020.

Five years later, and three days after Father’s Day, her husband Barry Morphew was indicted by a grand jury for her murder on June 18, 2025.

It is the second time that Barry had been charged with killing his wife, after the initial charges filed against were ultimately dismissed two weeks before his trial at the request of prosecutors, who filed their motion without prejudice in the event they wanted to retry the case.

The case then grew cold, yielding no developments for close to two years. Then, authorities got a huge break.

On Sept. 22, 2023, a team investigating the case of a missing woman stumbled upon the remains of Suzanne approximately 50 miles from where she went missing.

And close to two years after that discovery, her husband is now set to stand trial after being charged with his wife’s murder, again.

A copy of the grand jury indictment filed in Colorado’s Twelfth Judicial District and obtained by PEOPLE reveals that Barry’s second arrest came after the El Paso County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Suzanne’s cause of death to be “Homicide by unspecified means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication.”

It was law enforcement who requested the medical examiner test for the presence of butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine  according to the indictment.

That is because the three drugs combine to make BAM, a powerful animal sedative that authorities allege Barry was in possession of at the time of his wife’s disappearance.

The indictment also alleges that “law enforcement found one of these needle caps in the dryer” after Barry dried the shorts he was wearing on the day of Suzanne’s disappearance.

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Barry allegedly admitted to using BAM both on a deer farm he previously had in Indiana and in Colorado, just one month before his wife’s disappearance while sedating a deer in their yard, according to the indictment.

That admission proved to be a crucial part of the vase against Barry.

Law enforcement reviewed records throughout the state, which “showed that no other private citizens or private businesses in any of the surrounding counties had purchased BAM prescriptions from 2017-2020,” according to the indictment.

What’s more, the indictment said that the only purchases of BAM had been by members of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the National Parks Service. Both agencies keep a careful record of any use of the drug, according to the affidavit.

Barry made his first appearance in a Colorado courtroom this week, having been extradited to the state from Arizona, where he was arrested last month.

One of the two couple’s two daughters was there to support her father, while the other was not in attendance at the hearing.

Barry did not enter a plea to the charge, but when he was previously charged with his wife’s murder, he entered a not guilty plea.

He is also not being represented by a lawyer at this time due to a conflict of interest with the public defender’s office.