Suzanne Morphew: Missing Colorado woman linked to Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie
SALIDA, COLORADO: Suzanne Morphew was a 49-year-old woman from Chaffee County, Colorado who went missing on Mother's Day, May 10, 2020. She was last seen by her husband, Barry Morphew, who claimed she had gone for a bike ride and never returned. Barry was accused of killing his wife in 2020 before charges against him were dropped in 2022.
Gabby Petito was a 22-year-old woman who was killed by her fiance Brian Laundrie while they were traveling together on a van journey across the United States in August 2021. Petito disappeared in late August, and Laundrie raised suspicions by driving the van back to his parents' Florida home and refusing to discuss her whereabouts. Petito's remains were found in Wyoming on September 19, and an autopsy found that she was killed by manual strangulation. Laundrie went missing soon after, and his skeletal remains were later found in Florida's Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park. An autopsy confirmed that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, and the FBI announced that he had admitted to killing Petito in his notebook.
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Barry Morphew left a strange note at a store
According to Stephen Hall, the co-owner of Poncha Market - a convenience store and deli in Poncha Springs, Colorado, both Petito and her boyfriend Laundrie visited the same store where Barry Morphew had left a strange note after his wife Suzanne's disappearance on Mother's Day in 2020. The note read, "Baby blue bike helmet. Bikers clothing." The note did not include any physical details about his missing wife, and he did not provide any contact information for the manager to follow up on the matter. "He could’ve written down a description of what she was wearing. I thought it was weird because he didn’t explain what color her eyes were, the color of her hair, how tall she was – anything," the store manager said.
Petito and Laundrie had made a brief stop at the same store during their tragic cross-country road trip in July 2021. Although the surveillance footage of Petito and Laundrie's visit to the Poncha Market has been deleted, Stephen Hall remembers their encounter vividly. He described the couple as "really cool" based on his recollection of their visit, according to The Sun.
"There were no signs of any trouble or things like that," he said. "They were both really nice, friendly, and just seemed like a really cool couple. They hung out here for a while, came in and out of the store, and were friendly and talkative. A few months later, we obviously saw the news about [Gabby]. But it wasn't until I saw a map of their trip that I realized they'd been in here. I couldn't believe it."
Did the Morphews know Petito and Laundrie?
Petito and Laundrie aren't known to have had any direct connection to the Morphews. The only connection between them is that Petito and Laundrie visited the same convenience store as Barry did after Suzanne's disappearance. However, it is important to note that these cases are separate and unrelated. The investigation into the disappearance of Suzanne Morphew is ongoing, and the authorities have not released any evidence or information that suggests any direct connection between the cases.