Investigators now have more answers about the death of Suzanne Morphew, a Colorado woman who went missing nearly four years ago on Mother’s Day.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation released the official findings of Morphew’s autopsy report  Monday — seven months after her remains were found in a a remote field south of Moffat, in Saguache County.

The autopsy, performed by the El Paso County Coroner’s office, found Suzanne Morphew’s cause of death to be undetermined, and the manner of death to be homicide.

Specifically, the findings of the report, including the long-awaited toxicology results, show that the Colorado mother died of “homicide by undetermined means in the setting of butorphanol, azaperone, and medetomidine intoxication.”

Why did it take so long for the autopsy findings to be released?

The autopsy report was finished on Sept. 27, 2023, just days after Morphew’s scattered bones were found by a team from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, which was searching for a different missing person. While the remains were positively identified, additional findings were not released until the toxicology tests were completed.

What were the chemicals found in Morphew’s body? 

Butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine — the chemicals found in Morphew’s femur, according to the report — are used by biologists, wildlife officers and hunters to anesthetize large-sized animals such as deer, bear, moose and horses. The report described the compound as an “injectable chemical immobilizer” for wildlife, the symptoms of which can be reversed.

Butorphanol, azaperone and medetomidine are the same substances that Suzanne’s husband, Barry Morphew, told investigators he routinely used to immobilize deer before he removed their antlers.

The chemical mixture is often sold in kit form with the acronym “BAM.”

The chemicals were at the crux of the prosecutors’ case in the high-profile trial for Barry Morphew, which 11th Judicial District Judge Ramsey Lama dismissed without prejudice nine days before it was scheduled to begin. Barry Morphew walked out of the courthouse a free man on April 19, 2022.

Before the trial was dismissed, during a preliminary hearing, prosecutors theorized that Barry Morphew caught his wife at home sunbathing and texting her lover on May 9, 2020, and, enraged that his suspicions about the romance were true, injected her with the chemicals to put her to sleep and killed her later, according to testimony from the preliminary hearing in August 2021.

What does this mean for the case?

Whether the toxicology findings would bring new life to what has at times appeared to be a doomed case is unclear. When a case is dismissed without prejudice, it means that a case is dismissed but can be refiled at some point.

There is a good possibly that if the Morphew case is retried, that it won’t happen in the 11th Judicial District, where the investigators believe Suzanne Morphew was killed. An alternative would be to start over in the neighboring 12th District, where her remains were found.

Where is Barry Morphew now? 

Barry Morphew, 56, now lives in Indiana and as next of kin, received the results of his wife’s autopsy report last week. He is planning a celebration of her life on Saturday, May 4. He’s always maintained his innocence.