Missing Colorado mom Suzanne Morphew and her husband were under ‘financial strain’ with family problems leaving her ‘scared’ on the last day she was seen alive, her sister claims.
Melinda Moorman said she believed Suzanne, 49, and her husband Barry – now charged with his missing wife’s murder – had been struggling financially.
The couple shared a $1.62 million home in Salida, Colorado, with Suzanne last seen alive on May 8 2020, and reported missing by her teenage daughters two days later.
Moorman told CBS Denver that money worries were straining Suzanne and 53 year-old Barry’s 26 year marriage around the time of her disappearance.
She said: ‘I think pressures and stresses in life, I think financial pressure bears in on people very heavily.
‘It creates an atmosphere of discontent and strife and sometimes living beyond your means is a very hard thing to do.
‘Learning to be content with what you have is a very powerful thing in this life, and it brings great peace, and I don’t think Barry and Suzanne had gotten there yet, and that’s what I think kinda happened and I can’t really say more than that.’
‘I think pressures and stresses in life, I think financial pressure bears in on people very heavily,’ Suzanne Morphew’s sister Melinda Moorman, pictured, said
Moorman did not comment further on the alleged financial issues. Suzanne ran a non-profit while Barry ran a landscaping business, and worked as a part-time firefighter.
The couple previously lived in Arcadia, Indiana, before moving to Colorado in 2018. Suzanne claimed to have sold their house shortly before the move on Facebook, although property records seen by Heavy claim the $895,000 home did not sell.
The Morphew’s Colorado property sold for $1.62 million in March, with Barry moving into a smaller condo afterwards. He was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder last Wednesday, having repeatedly denied any involvement in his wife’s disappearance.
Moorman also told Inside Edition, how Suzanne ‘lengthy, powerful’ text the Friday before Mother’s Day that was ‘very revealing.’
‘The Friday before Mother’s Day, my sister had sent me a text message that morning. It was very lengthy. It was very powerful. It was very revealing,’ Melinda said. ‘She had been ready to share some things close to her chest. She said she was scared.’
That message – whose exact contents Moorman did not share – would have been sent on the last day Suzanne was seen alive, May 8 2020.
She was reported missing on May 10 2020 – Mother’s Day – after going for a bike ride from the luxurious wood-framed home she shared from Barry, it was reported.
A week later, Barry made a video, pleading for someone took her to return her safely ‘no questions asked,’ safe return. He also offered a $200,000 reward for information.
But Moorman said her family were instantly suspicious of Barry.
Suzanne Morphew, pictured, is said to have left the Colorado home she shared with husband, Barry, and their two teenage daughters on Mother’s Day 2020
The Morphews’ former $1.62 million family home in Salidas, Colorado. Barry Morphew had sold it and moved into a smaller condo before being arrested
The Morphew family home, pictured, was sold six months after Suzanne disappeared, with Barry living in a smaller condo at the time of his arrest
Suzanne is pictured with her teenage daughters Macy and Mallory. The girls were on a camping trip to Idaho when their mom vanished
This was a picture from a vacation from several years ago
Suzanne’s husband of 26 years, Barry Morphew, 53, is pictured after his arrest last Wednesday, which saw him charged with first-degree murder
Morphew appeared in court for the first time last Thursday. Investigators do not have a body, but say they have information about an unspecified ‘incident’ which happened around the time of the mom’s disappearance
Moorman pleaded with Barry (middle) to confess to killing Suzanne and ‘save us all the heartache’ of a lengthy trial the morning after his Thursday appearance in court
Barry and Suzanne are pictured on vacation before she vanished. The missing woman’s family have blamed Barry for the disappearance, and urged him to tell investigators what he knows
Throughout the investigation and last Wednesday’s arrest, Barry maintains his innocence.
He claims Denver for a volunteer firefighter training session when his wife vanished.
DailyMail.com later reporting the hotel room he’d stayed in had reeked of bleach the next day – even though the hotel said it did not use such products to sanitize its rooms.
Investigators discounted a theory that Suzanne had been attacked by an animal, and said they found a personal item – believed to be a bicycle helmet – while searching along a road around 20 miles from her home.
Prosecutors and law enforcement haven’t said what led to the landscaping boss’s arrest, and even though Suzanne’s body was never found, prosecutors are sure she’s dead.
Barry Morphew’s arrest came after over 135 searches across Colorado and interviews of over 400 people in multiple states as part of an ongoing investigation, Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said, according to Fox News.
Barry was charged with first-degree homicide, tampering with evidence and attempting to influence a public servant.
He made his first court appearance last Thursday where his two young daughters mouthed ‘I love you’ as he was ordered into custody until his next court date.
Macy and Mallory Morphew have continued to stand by their father.
Less than 24 hours after Barry was in court, Melinda Moorman told Good Morning America, ‘If he has any kind of sense at all and if he loves his girls at all, I hope he’ll do the right thing and confess and save us all the heartache.
In Barry’s public appeal video that he made a week after his wife’s disappearance, he appeared as a loving husband saying, ‘We’ll do whatever it takes to bring you back.’
‘We love you, we miss you, your girls need you. No questions asked, however much they want – I will do whatever it takes to get you back. Honey, I love you, I want you back so bad,’ he continued.
Barry appeared distressed and on the verge of tears during the recorded statement.
But Patti Wood, a body language specialist, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview that, on closer inspection, Barry displayed some troubling tics.
Scroll down for video.
Suzanne and Barry Morphew on vacation several years ago
They were married for 26 years before Suzanne disappeared on Mother’s Day 2020
The Morphews’ daughters Macy and Mallory have continued to stand by Barry Morphew, and mouthed ‘I love you’ during his first court appearance last week
Prosecutors have not found Suzanne’s body, and have not shared how they were able to charge Barry Morphew, but mentioned evidence of an alleged ‘incident’ shortly before Suzanne’s apparent death
Barry Morphew shared an emotional video begging for information on Suzanne’s whereabouts days after she disappeared, and offered a $200,000 reward for information
‘He shakes his head [as if to say no] subconsciously to all the messages that might not be true or are not what he wants,’ Wood told DailyMail.com.
‘He starts shaking his head when he says ‘If anyone is out there’ and ‘I will do whatever it takes’,’ she explained.
Wood also noted that while Barry looks anguished, his face does not change at all.
‘We see pain in his face, but notice it doesn’t move across his face and change as he speaks, but seems set like a mask which reveals that he put on or faked the pained expressions,’ she theorized.
Wood concluded that she found the video ‘unsettling to watch, because Barry’s nonverbal delivery is so off from what would be normal baseline behaviors for someone whose wife is missing’.