The husband suspected of killing missing Colorado mother Suzanne Morphew has now been charged with voter fraud after he submitted a mail-in ballot voting for President Trump in his wife’s name five months after she vanished.
Barry Morphew, 53, was arrested last week on suspicion of murdering his 49-year-old wife after she vanished near their home in Poncha Springs in southern Colorado on Mother’s Day in 2020.
Morphew, who is already being held without bail, has now been charged with forgery over the mail-in ballot he allegedly submitted in his wife’s name for last year’s election.
A Chaffee County Clerk had alerted authorities in October last year that they had received a voting ballot in Suzanne’s name even though she was missing.
The ballot was submitted five months after Suzanne, a mother of two adult daughters, went missing. Her body still has not been found.
Authorities say the ballot did not have Suzanne’s signature on it but listed her husband as a witness.
When questioned by an FBI agent in April over the ballot, Morphew said he submitted it because he ‘wanted Trump to win’.
‘I know she (Suzanne) was going to vote for Trump anyways,’ he allegedly told the agent.
‘I figured all these other guys are cheating,’ he said, adding he thought he would ‘give him another vote’.
Morphew allegedly said he didn’t know submitting a ballot on behalf of a spouse was illegal.
‘I didn’t know you couldn’t do that for your spouse,’ he said.
It is not clear whether Morphew filed the ballot because he wanted Trump to win or to make it appear as though his wife was still alive.
Morphew was taken into custody on May 5 on charges of first-degree homicide, tampering with evidence and attempting to influence a public servant in relation to his wife’s disappearance.
Suzanne vanished without a trace on May 10 last year after setting off from her home on a Mother’s Day bike ride.
Morphew has long maintained his innocence.
Suzanne’s brother and sister have both publicly said they suspected Morphew of murder.
Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said following Morphew’s arrest that they believe Suzanne is dead after conducting over 135 searches across Colorado and interviewing 400 people in multiple states.
Morphew’s arrest affidavit remains sealed but investigators insist they have a strong case against him.
They also suggested they had knowledge of an ‘incident’ that led to Suzanne’s killing but did not elaborate.
A week after Suzanne was reported missing, her husband issued a bizarre video online pleading for her to come home and saying: ‘Honey, I love you and I want you back so bad.’
On the day of his wife’s disappearance, Morphew was at a hotel that he left smelling of chlorine and covered in wet towels.
Last month, Morphew sold the home he shared with his wife $1.62 million. He also sold a two-acre plot of land in Salida in February that he had bought just weeks after Suzanne disappeared.
That plot of land was searched extensively back in September when cadaver dogs picked up the scent of human remains there.
During his court appearance last week, prosecutors said they did not object to Morphew from being able to have contact with his two daughters as long as it was civil.
The judge allowed the contact but ordered that it could not be harassing.
Prosecutors were given 10 days to file charges against Morphew and he is scheduled to appear in court again on May 27.