Newly unsealed records in Suzanne Morphew case reveal missing mum-of-two’s messages to lover
Newly unsealed records in the Suzanne Morphew case have revealed the missing mum-of-two’s messages to her lover.
Morphew, 49, disappeared from her remote home in Salida, Colorado, in 2020 amid plans to leave her husband of 25 years Barry Morphew. He was charged with her murder and was set to go on trial before the case was dismissed without prejudice in April 2022.
Now a judge in the case has unsealed the missing woman’s communications with her lover, a former high school flame with whom she had re-established a secret relationship.
“Nobody loves you...like the way I do. I crave time with you. I crave the feeling I get when we connect. Physically or emotionally. You’re my guy. Always,” court documents show she texted her lover, named as Jeff Libler, a father of six who lived in Michigan, on 7 May 2020.
And the following night she texted him as she was out for dinner with her husband, saying, “You’re the only real love I’ve known...the only love I want.”
Morphew disappeared on Mother’s Day 2020, just a few days after the messages, and has never been seen again.
The messages were made public after a judge rejected Barry Morphew’s request that records in the case were sealed indefinitely.
Barry Morphew has maintained he had nothing to do with his wife’s death. He was arrested in 2021 after a yearlong investigation and eventually released on bail.
He was then charged with her murder and was set to go on trial before the case was dismissed without prejudice in April 2022.
Park County District Judge Amanda Hunter ordered the records, which also contain statements made by Mr Morphew’s wife to her best friend Sheila Oliver before she disappeared, to be unsealed.
The affair came to light when investigators found a spy pen in her closet, which she had bought to hide in her husband’s car as she suspected that he was also having an affair.
Now prosecutors say that it could be months or even years before they have enough evidence to prove Morphew was murdered or bring it 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 on Monday.
But he insisted that investigators have a strong idea of where her body is.
“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, according to The Denver Gazette.
