Suzanne Morphew's disappearance and murder has baffled the country since the mother of two vanished from a bike ride near her Colorado home on Mother's Day in 2020.
The case has since become even more muddied after District Attorney Linda Stanley – who filed since-dropped murder charges against Suzanne's husband, Barry Morphew – was accused of prosecutorial misconduct.
In the three and a half years since Suzanne's disappearance, her husband, Barry Morphew, was charged in 2021 in connection with her murder; a judge dismissed those charges in April 2022; authorities located Suzanne's remains in a "shallow grave" about 45 miles south of Maysville in September; and Stanley, who first brought charges against Barry, is under investigation.
"At this time, the Morphews are extremely discouraged and saddened as it has been two months [since Suzanne's remains were recovered] and they have not received any victim notification about the manner and cause of their mother and wife’s death, nor any general information regarding the death investigation," attorney Iris Eytan, who is representing the Morphew family, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
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Suzanne's bike was found in a ravine along Highway 50 and County Road 225 in Chaffee County, near her family's Maysville home, the same day she went missing. Barry said he was working in Broomfield, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, at the time.
Barry was initially accused of killing his wife when he was charged with murder and tampering with physical evidence in 2021 in connection with her disappearance and presumed death.
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A year later, prosecutors dropped charges against Barry, saying they needed more time to find his wife's body and related evidence that could impact the case against him. A judge then accused Stanley of procedural violations just before Barry was set to stand trial.
On Oct. 30, the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel (OARC) filed a complaint against Stanley, alleging that she exhibited multiple instances of prosecutorial misconduct.
The deadline for Stanley to reply is 28 days from when the complaint was filed, which would be Monday. Fox News Digital has reached out to Stanley's office for comment.
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"We are pleased the OARC is taking action against Ms. Stanley on our request for investigation for her prosecutorial abuse and misconduct," Eytan told Fox News Digital of the probe into Stanley's conduct as DA.
The complaint first accused Stanley of frequent communication with Mike King, the host of a true-crime YouTube channel called "Profiling Evil." Stanley allegedly responded to King's requests for information about the case.
When King speculated that Barry killed Suzanne in their hot tub, for example, Stanley replied, "We know it wasn’t bloody. The hot tub was drained with ‘crust’ around the drain areas indicating it had not been used in a long time. But keep on spinning ideas in your brain!"
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The district attorney appeared on the show in August 2021 to discuss the case and allegedly "made written statements in the online comment section after the podcast ended," using her real username.
Stanley was also in contact with Julez Wolf, the host of another true-crime show called "True Crime with Julez." When Wolf asked Stanley if Barry might flee, she apparently said, '[P]ossibly."
The complaint also alleges that the district attorney failed to share discovery, including DNA-match evidence, with the defense in a timely manner, among other accusations of misconduct.
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No signs of human remains or blood have ever been located near the Morphew home in Maysville or in their family vehicles.
But DNA was found on Suzanne’s glove box. The partial profile investigators were able to obtain matched profiles developed in sexual assault cases out of Chicago, Phoenix and Tempe, Arizona, Colorado Bureau of Investigation agent Joseph Cahill said during a hearing in 2021, as reported by the Denver Post. Barry's DNA did not match that sample, his lawyers told KUSA-TV at the time.
In a July interview with FOX 21 Colorado Springs, Stanley called the OARC's investigation "a witch hunt."
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"I stand up for people all the time, every day. So, me not being able to stand up for myself was difficult," she told the outlet. "As of right now, the office is majorly underfunded. … If one person quits, it will set back everything, and that’s the kind of shoestring budget it is at this point. … But we have nothing but very, very experienced prosecutors in this office, and I’m so proud of that."
Earlier this year, Barry's legal team filed a $15 million lawsuit against prosecutors and investigators, accusing them of violating his constitutional rights.
"Barry was the most scrutinized, dissected, surveilled individual, minute by minute, hour by hour, using law enforcement cameras posted by his home, phone taps and GPS devices placed on his car – all during the time frame of her disappearance and the years following," Eytan said in a statement at the time.
"What needs to be done instead of pointing fingers at Barry Morphew, is asking the officials about the number of missing people and number of human remains that have been recovered in or from Saguache County in the recent past," Eytan continued.
Authorities are asking anyone with information about the case to contact 719-312-7530.
