Barry Morphew used fake name while living in Arizona before arrest

A newly released arrest report says Barry Morphew was living under the fake name Lee Moore in Arizona before his arrest in Suzanne Morphew’s murder case. The report also says he had been staying with an unnamed woman for about a month and had concealed his real identity before deputies took him into custody in Goodyear, Arizona, nearly 11 hours from the area where Suzanne vanished.

Suzanne Morphew was reported missing on May 10, 2020, after disappearing from the couple’s home near Salida, Colorado, at 19057 Puma Path. Investigators have said Barry Morphew was the last known person to see her alive. Her remains were found on September 22, 2023, and positively identified on September 27, 2023, turning the missing-person case into a homicide investigation with a body, a suspect, and a timeline that kept tightening.

Colorado authorities said a grand jury indicted Barry Morphew on June 18, 2025, on first-degree murder charges, and he was arrested in Arizona on June 20, 2025. It was the second time he was charged in Suzanne Morphew’s death. Earlier charges were dismissed without prejudice in April 2022, before prosecutors returned with a new indictment after the remains were recovered and identified.

The latest indictment says investigators linked Suzanne Morphew’s death to the wildlife tranquilizer compound BAM. Court records and a 2024 autopsy reportedly ruled her death a homicide in the setting of intoxication by butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine. CBS also reported that the indictment says her body was moved at least twice. Those details, combined with the arrest report’s account of an assumed name and hidden living arrangement, add another layer to a case that has already produced multiple arrests, a forensic re-evaluation, and a growing paper trail.

District Attorney Anne Kelly said law enforcement had never stopped working toward justice for Suzanne Morphew. CBS reported that the couple’s two adult daughters stood by their father, while Barry Morphew has maintained his innocence. In January 2026, he pleaded not guilty, and a June 2026 status conference included a request to move the trial from October 2026 to May 2027. For a case that began with a disappearance on Mother’s Day in 2020, the newest disclosure is not the indictment itself but the picture of a defendant living quietly under another name while the case kept closing in.