At a pretrial hearing for Barry Morphew, investigators shared text messages with the court, showing that Suzanne Morphew told a friend she wanted out of her marriage — but didn’t believe her husband would let her go without a fight.
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing on May 10, 2020; a year later, Barry Morphew was charged with murdering his wife. Suzanne’s body has not been found, but the lead prosecutor said this spring that the District Attorney’s office is confident in the evidence they have against Barry Morphew.
Barry Morphew is in court on Monday for a preliminary hearing, where witnesses, including members of law enforcement, have testified about evidence collected in the case as well as Suzanne and Barry’s relationship at the time of Suzanne’s disappearance.
Fox 21 News reporter Lauren Scharf is also in the Chaffee County courtroom Monday, and has been live-tweeting the proceedings, as cameras are not permitted.
According to Scharf, the court saw and heard text messages between Suzanne Morphew and her close friend Sheila Oliver, in which Suzanne discussed her desire to leave her marriage. As CrimeOnline previously reported, a detective revealed earlier Monday that Suzanne Morphew had been having an affair with a former high school classmate from Indiana. Morphew and that man, Jeff Libler, first renewed contact in September 2018 and first became physical in February 2019, a year and three months before Suzanne vanished. Suzanne and Libler are believed to have visited each other around half a dozen times.
Reporting from the courtroom, Scharf posted on Twitter that Suzanne said in a text message to Sheila that she wanted to be married to Libler.
According to Harris, Suzanne wanted to be married to Jeff Libler. Libler got rid of his Linked In account. He learned about Suzanne's disappearance on May 12 when someone sent him a link.
— Lauren Scharf (@LaurenScharfTV) August 9, 2021
As previously reported, Libler did not come forward to police after learning of Suzanne’s disappearance, but cooperated after investigators located him.
According to the text messages either shown or read in court Monday, Suzanne told her friend that Barry had tried to discourage her from leaving him — in one instance, by bringing up finances.
According to Harris, When Suzanne told Sheila that she wanted to leave Barry. He would respond by saying, "How would you pay for things, like your medical bills for cancer?"
— Lauren Scharf (@LaurenScharfTV) August 9, 2021
“How would you pay for things, like your medical bills for cancer?,” Barry allegedly said to Suzanne.
In another instance, Sheila reportedly told investigators, Barry pushed Suzanne into a closet and put a gun to his head, asking her if that what was she wanted — presumably for him to die.
Agent Harris mentioned that Sheila told him in 2018, Barry allegedly pushed Suzanne into a closet and put a gun to his head and asked her if this is what she wanted.
— Lauren Scharf (@LaurenScharfTV) August 9, 2021
“I just wish he would get fed up with me and let me get out of the marriage,” Suzanne told Sheila in another text message.
The preliminary hearing is continuing through at least Monday afternoon. CrimeOnline will provide further updates when more information is available.
Read CrimeOnline’s complete coverage of the Suzanne Morphew investigation here.
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