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Callarogus Shark Media. Good morning, I'm Read Carter, and welcome
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to celebrity trials on this Wednesday, July ninth. Today we're
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bringing you three verdicts that show justice takes many forms,
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sometimes swift, sometimes delayed, and sometimes absolutely shocking. We've got
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an Australian suburban mom who thought she could commit the
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perfect murder with mushrooms, the Idaho killer who finally cracked
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after nearly three years, and a Colorado husband whose wife's
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bones just gave up his deadliest secret. Let me start
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with the story that's been gripping Australia for two years
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and just reached its stunning conclusion. Because, folks, what happened
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in a small town courtroom this week proves that sometimes
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the most diabolical crimes hide behind the most ordinary facades.
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The mushroom murderer's reckoning picture this July twenty ninth, twenty
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twenty three. A cozy lunch in Leongata, Australia, population five thousand,
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eight hundred sixty nine. Aaron Patterson, a fifty year old
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suburban mother, invites her estranged husband's family over for what
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she claims is an important conversation about her health. She's
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made individual beef Wellington's a fancy touch for what should
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be a family meal. But here's the thing about Aaron Patterson.
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She ate from a different colored plate than everyone else
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that day, and by the end of the week, three
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of her four guests were dead. On Monday, July seventh,
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just two days ago, an Australian jury found Aaron Patterson
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guilty of three counts of murder and one count of
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attempted murder. She deliberately laced those beef wellingtons with death
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cap mushrooms, the deadliest fungi known to humans. Let me
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paint you the picture of what prosecutors proved happened. That
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winter day, Patterson invited her former in laws, Don and
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Gail Patterson, both seventy, along with Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson
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sixty and her husband Ian sixty eight. Patterson's two children
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were conveniently sent to lunch in a movie with friends.
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The evidence against Patterson was absolutely damning. In April twenty
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twenty three, three months before the deadly lunch, she bought
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a food dehydrator. Her phone pinged near locations where death
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cap mushrooms grew wild. She researched their locations on a
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citizen science website, and here's the smoking gun. After her
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guests were hospitalized, she dumped that dehydrator at a waste center.
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When investigators found it, it had her fingerprints all over
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it and contained remnants of death cap mushrooms. But the
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most chilling detail, Patterson told her guests she had cancer,
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a complete lie designed to ensure they'd show up for
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what she called an important family discussion. Ian Wilkinson, the
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sole survivor, testified that Patterson seemed reluctant to let anyone
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help In the kitchen. She plated the food herself, making
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sure each guest got their individually prepared Wellington. Meanwhile, she
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ate from that different colored plate, insurance that she wouldn't
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accidentally poison herself. The victims started getting sick within hours,
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severe vomiting, diarrhea, organ failure, Don and Gale Patterson died
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within a week. Heather Wilkinson followed shortly after. Ian spent
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weeks in an induced coma, but survived to tell the story.
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What makes this case so disturbing isn't just the method,
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it's the calculated planning. Patterson bought the murder weapon from
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a website three months in advance. She researched the locations
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of wild death caps. She fabricated a cancer diagnosis to
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get them to her house. She prepared individual servings so
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she could control who got what, and then she lied.
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She told police she'd never owned a dehydrator. She claimed
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she got sick too, though hospital workers testified she showed
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none of the symptoms her guests displayed. She even did
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a factory reset on her phone to delete the evidence.
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During the nine week trial, Patterson finally took the stand
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and admitted to some of her lies. She acknowledged the
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fake cancer story. She admitted to the dehydrator, but she
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claimed it was all a terrible accident that she'd mixed
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up store bought and foraged mushrooms in her pantry. The
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jury wasn't buying it. After six days of deliberation, they
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found her guilty on all counts. She faces life in
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prison when she sentenced later this month. Here's what bothers
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me most about this case. The complete absence of remorse.
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Even after three innocent people died excruciating deaths, Patterson showed
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no emotion during the verdict, no apology to the families,
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no explanation for why she destroyed three lives and orphaned
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her own children. This wasn't a crime of passion, This
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wasn't a domestic dispute gone wrong. This was premeditated murder
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disguised as family hospitality. And it shows that sometimes the
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most dangerous predators are the ones serving you dinner. Now,
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let me take you from Australia to Idaho, where another
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calculated killer finally admitted what we all knew he'd done.
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Coberger's Confession, Part four, The Sudden Surrender for nine hundred
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sixty two days. That's two years, seven months, and twenty days.
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Brian Coburger maintained his innocence in the brutal murders of
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four University of Idaho students. He hired expensive lawyers, he
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fought every motion, he prepared for a death penalty trial
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that would have cost taxpayers millions, and then, just weeks
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before jury selection, he walked into a boisey courtroom and
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shattered everything with two simple words, yes and guilty. This
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isn't just another plea deal, folks. This is the complete
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capitulation of a man who thought he could commit the
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perfect crime and get away with it. What we learned
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in that courtroom last week fills in the final pieces
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of one of the most horrific cases in modern American history.
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Let me take you through what Prosecutor Bill Thompson revealed
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when he outlined the state's evidence. For the first time,
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we got the complete timeline of how a criminology PhD
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student became a quadruple murderer. It started in July twenty
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twenty two, four months before the killings. Coburger's phone began
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pinging a cell tower near eleven twenty two King Road,
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where Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen Zonikernodle, and Ethan Chapin lived.
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Between July and November, his phone connected to that area
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twenty three times, always between ten pm and four am,
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always during the hours when he could watch without being seen.
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This wasn't random. Coburger was stalking these students, studying their routines,
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planning their murders. He even had photos of one of
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the female victims on his phone, multiple photos that made
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it clear he was paying special attention to her. But
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here's the most damning evidence. In March twenty twenty two,
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eight months before the murders, Coburger bought a k bar
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knife on Amazon, the exact type of knife used to
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kill four innocent people in their sleep. November thirteenth, twenty
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twenty two, just after four a m. While his victims
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slept peacefully, Coburger drove eight miles from his apartment in Pullman, Washington,
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to Moscow, Idaho. He entered through the kitchen sliding door
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and went straight to work. The attack lasted about fifteen minutes.
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Madison and Kaylee on the third floor first, then down
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to the second floor, where he killed Zana and Ethan.
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Fifteen minutes to destroy four young lives and shatter a community.
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He left behind the knife sheath on Madison's bed, his
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first and fatal mistake. That sheath contained his DNA, the
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evidence that would ultimately lead to his arrest six weeks later.
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But here's what's really eating at me the timing of
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this confession. Why did Brian Coburger suddenly decide to plead
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guilty after nine hundred sixty two days of fighting? The
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answer reveals everything wrong with our justice system. Last month,
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Judge Stephen Hipler denied Coburger's motion to present an alternate
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perpetrator defense. His lawyers wanted to point fingers at four
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other people, but the judge called their evidence rank speculation.
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That ruling ended any hope Coburger had of beating these charges,
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so rather than face a jury with overwhelming evidence against him,
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he took the coward's way out, life in prison instead
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of the death penalty he deserved. The families got no closure,
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no explanation, no apology. Steve Goncalves, Cayley's father, tried to
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get prosecutors to amend the deal to require a full
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confession and the location of the murder weapon. Prosecutor said no,
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once a deal is accepted, it can't be changed. So
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Brian Coburger gets to take his secrets to the grave
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while four families are left with nothing but questions. We'll
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never know why he chose these specific victims. We'll never
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know if he knew them personally. We'll never know what
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motivated a criminology student to become the very monster he studied.
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What we do know is this Coburger thought he was
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smarter than everyone else. He studied criminal behavior, learned about
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forensic evidence, and believed he could commit the perfect crime.
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But he made amateur mistakes that any first year student
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could have avoided. He left DNA, he drove his own car.
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He kept photos of his victims. Brian Coburger will be
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sentenced to four consecutive life sentences on July twenty third.
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He'll die in prison, which is what he deserves. But
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he'll never have to explain why he destroyed four innocent lives.
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And that's not justice, that's just legal convenience. When we
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come back, I'm going to tell you about a Colorado
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husband whose wife's bones just gave up the evidence that
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prosecutors needed to put him away for good. Because sometimes
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the dead do speak, and what they're saying will shock you.
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Welcome back to Celebrity Trials. I'm Red Carter, and we're
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ending today with a story that proves sometimes justice takes years,
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but it eventually finds its way home. Barry Morphew thought
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he'd gotten away with the perfect murder. For five years,
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he maintained his innocence in the disappearance of his wife, Suzanne.
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He gave tearful interviews, He pleaded for her safe return.
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He even cast her ballot for Donald Trump in the
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twenty twenty election after she vanished. But on June twentieth
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of this year, Barry Morphew was indicted for first degree
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murder again, and this time prosecutors have evidence that ties
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him directly to his wife's death. Her bones. Let me
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take you back to Mother's Day. Twenty twenty, Suzanne Morpheu,
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a forty nine year old mother of two, disappeared from
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the family home near Salida, Colorado. Barry claimed she'd gone
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for a bike ride while he was out of town
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on a work trip. Her bike and helmet were found
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in separate locations, but Suzanne was gone. Barry Morpheu was
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first charged with her murder in twenty twenty one, but
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those charges were dismissed in twenty twenty two when prosecutors
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admitted they couldn't prove their case without a body. Barry's
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supporters claimed he was the victim of prosecutorial misconduct and
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false accusations. Then, on September twenty second, twenty twenty three,
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investigators searching for a different missing person made a discovery
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in a shallow grave near Moffatt, Colorado. They'd found Suzanne Morpheu,
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forty miles from her home, her bones scattered and bleached
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by three years of exposure, but those bones held secrets
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that would destroy Barry Morpheu's carefully constructed lies. When the
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Elpaso County Coroner performed an autopsy, they found something extraordinary
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in Suzanne's femur. Traces of buttrphenol, a zapparone, and metatomidine. Combined.
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These chemicals create BAM, a powerful animal tranquilizer used to
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sedate wildlife. Here's what makes this evidence absolutely devastating for
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Barry Morphew. Investigators searched prescription records throughout Colorado and found
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that only one private citizen in the entire region had
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legal access to BAM between twenty seventeen and twenty twenty.
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Only one person who could have obtained this rare controlled substance,
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Barry Morphew. Before moving to Colorado in twenty eighteen, Barry
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was a deer farmer in Indiana. He used BAM to
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sedate and transport deer on his farm. He'd admitted to
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investigators that he used the tranquilizer as recently as April
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twenty twenty, just one month before Suzanne disappeared, to tranquilize
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a deer on his Colorado property. When investigators searched the
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Morphew home after Suzanne's disappearance, they found a tranquilizer rifle
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in Barry's gun safe, along with new Dart brand tranquilizer darts.
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In the clothes dryer, they discovered the shorts Berry was
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wearing on May ninth, twenty twenty, the day before Suzanne
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was reported missing. And here's the smoking gun. Tucked in
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with those shorts was a needle cap for a tranquilizer dart.
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But the evidence gets even more damning. The autopsy showed
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that Suzanne didn't die immediately after the BAM entered her system.
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Her body had time to start metabolizing the drugs, which
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means she was alive and conscious when Barry Morpheus sedated her.
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She knew what was happening to her. The prosecution's case
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doesn't stop with the tranquilizer. Barry's phone was turned off
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at two forty seven pm on May ninth, just minutes
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after he arrived home, where Suzanne sent her last electronic
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communication to anyone. His truck's infotainment system shows irregular gaps
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in recorded activities around the time of Suzanne's disappearance. And
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then there's the marriage itself. While Barry told police their
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relationship was the best, the truth was far different. Suzanne
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had been discussing divorce with friends. She was having what
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prosecutors call a secret affair with an acquaintance. On May sixth,
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just three days before she disappeared, Suzanne sent Barry a
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devastating text, I'm done. I could care less what you're
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up to and have been for years. We just need
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to figure this out civilly. Barry deleted that text chain,
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but investigators recovered it from his phone. The evidence suggests
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that when Barry came home on May ninth and found
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Suzanne planning to leave him, he sedated her with the
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animal tranquilizer, killed her, and disposed of her body in
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that remote Saguache County field. The lack of decomposition at
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the burial site suggests her body was moved there after
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being stored elsewhere, possibly frozen for months or even years.
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Barry Morphew is now being held on three million dollar
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bond in Colorado, awaiting trial for a second time. His
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attorney maintains his innocence, claiming the government is letting their
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predetermined conclusion lead their investigation. But here's the thing about bones.
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They don't lie, they don't forget, and they don't let
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killers get away with murder even after five years. Suzanne
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Morphu's bones told the story her husband never wanted. Revealed
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they held the chemical signature of his weapon of choice.
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They proved he had unique access to the murder weapon.
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They showed she suffered before she died. Most importantly, they
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proved that sometimes justice is patient, but it's also inevitable.
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Justice isn't always fast, but it's always riveting. What connects
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these three cases, Aaron Patterson in Australia, Brian Cooberger in Idaho,
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and Barry Morphew in Colorado is the illusion of the