ALAMOSA — At the request of his defense counsel, the trial of Barry Morphew has been postponed until sometime in 2027. Last Wednesday, June 26, defense counsel asked the court for additional time to prepare, saying they could not be ready for trial as it was currently scheduled because too much information had been provided by the prosecution for them to go through in time. 

District Judge Amanda Hopkins, presiding, granted the motion, indicating that both parties, including the prosecution, were dealing with voluminous amounts of material. The trial could now start as late as July of 2027. 

Several media outlets have reported that members of Suzanne’s immediate family protested the continuance. According to the Denver Post, the attorney representing Suzanne’s sisters said they were afraid Morphew was a flight risk and they had already made travel arrangements to return to the Valley for his Morphew’s trial in October. 

Morphew is standing trial on charges of first-degree murder in his alleged connection with the death of his wife, Suzanne. The last time the 49-year-old mother of two was seen was on May 10, 2020 when she went for a bike ride on Mother’s Day. When she did not return home, she was reported missing to the Chaffee County authorities.  

Although her body had not yet been found, Barry Morphew was arrested and charged in  Suzanne’s death about a year after she went missing. Trial was scheduled for April of 2022 but, just days before it began, the case was abandoned when the judge barred key witnesses from testifying due to serious procedural errors on the part of the prosecution.   

Despite national attention on the case and an extensive search of the area around her home involving multiple agencies, it was not until three years after her disappearance when, about fifty miles away in September of 2023, Saguache County law enforcement discovered remains ultimately identified as Suzanne Morphew off a dirt road near the tiny town of Moffat in a remote area of their county.   

With Suzanne’s remains finally in possession of law enforcement, DA Anne Kelly for the 12th Judicial District engaged multiple agencies - both local and at the state level - in investigating the case.  

On June 18, 2025, the Twelfth Judicial District Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Barry Morphew with first degree murder.  

Two days later, he was taken into custody in Arizona where he was living and extradited to the San Luis Valley.  

When Morphew first appeared in the court of Alamosa District Judge Hopkins, Kelly requested bail be set at $3 million cash, which the court granted.  

Morphew’s defense attorney subsequently filed a motion claiming the $3 million cash was too high, requesting the amount be reduced to $500,000. It was argued that Morphew is “an innocent man” who has not been difficult for law enforcement to find and was taken into custody without incident.   

Kelly argued that Morphew was a flight risk; he has no connections to the San Luis Valley, had recently been moving around “large sums of money”, went by different names and changed the license plates on his car depending upon where he was driving.   

After listening to arguments, Hopkins declined to lower the bail and, instead, modified the conditions, keeping bail at $3 million but setting it as cash surety or property bond. That paved the way for a bail bond company to post Morphew’s bail for a non-refundable fee of $300,000. 

Morphew was subsequently released from the Alamosa County Detention Center after posting bail and has been living in Arizona since that time where his movements have been electronically monitored.  

The Valley Courier reached out to the district attorney following the continuance but, unsurprisingly, she declined to comment.  

Court theatrics are often a part of the judicial experience but, for those who have been following the case, there is just a twinge of irony in these latest developments.  

In the bond hearing, Morphew’s defense attorney had repeatedly stated that his client was innocent, going so far as to emphatically tell the court that “there is no new evidence” in this case. “The district attorney has nothing new to present to the court.” It would now seem the amount of discovery defense has to sort through somewhat contradicts that original argument.  

Barry Morphew is scheduled to appear in court again on July 6 for a motions hearing. All defendants are considered innocent until proven otherwise by a court of law.