Trump Voter Allegedly Murdered His Wife Then Cast Her Ballot for Trump Too

Want the best of VICE News straight to your inbox? Sign up here.

Five months after Suzanne Morphew was first reported missing last year, she cast an absentee ballot for former President Donald Trump in Colorado. Turns out her husband, now accused of murdering her, actually sent in the ballot using her name, because he “just wanted Trump to win.”

A neighbor reported 50-year-old Suzanne missing on May 10, 2020, Mothers’ Day, after she didn’t come home from a bike ride near their home in Maysville. Barry Morphew, 53, was arrested earlier this month on charges of first-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and attempting to influence a public servant. 

And now, he’s facing more charges, related to the fraudulent ballot. 

Barry Morphew reportedly admitted to FBI agents that he had committed voter fraud using his wife’s name, casting an absentee ballot for Trump in October 2020.

“I figured all those other guys are cheating,” Morphew told investigators last month, according to the Associated Press. “I know she was going to vote for Trump anyway.”

The new accusation was made in an affidavit Friday by the Chaffee County Sheriff’s Office, which was obtained by the AP. Barry Morphew is being charged with felony forgery and misdemeanor ballot fraud, according to the AP. Morphew claimed he didn’t know it was illegal to commit voter fraud. “I just wanted Trump to win,” he told investigators.

“I just thought, give him another vote,” Barry Morphew told FBI agents last month, according to the AP. 

Less than two weeks after his wife’s disappearance, Morphew released a widely-viewed video on the internet making a plea for her to return home, saying in the video, “I want you back so bad.”

Suzanne’s body was never found, just her bike and “personal items,” Chaffee County officials said last May. “Our belief is that Suzanne is not alive at this time,” Chaffee County Sheriff John Spezze said last week.

Suzanne’s sister, Melinda Moorman, told the Washington Post Saturday that her family “did not want to believe he was capable of this, however, everything points to this happening.”

“To hear that Barry involved himself in voter fraud is beyond comprehension to me,” Moorman told the Post.

Meanwhile, it’s Trump supporters who can’t stop accusing Democrats of voter fraud, with many still insisting Joe Biden’s win isn’t legit.

Trump repeatedly and falsely claimed before, during, and after the election that massive electoral and voter fraud would and did result in the election being stolen from him. 

During an appearance in North Carolina last September, Trump explicitly endorsed voting twice in order to ensure his supporters’ first votes were counted. 

There has been no evidence produced to back up Trump’s election fraud claims and in fact, a litany of court rulings and defeats, but a few high-profile cases of Trump supporters committing voter fraud in 2016 and 2020 have emerged. 

Last month, a man in Pennsylvania admitted to voting for Trump using a ballot cast in his mother’s name, who had died more than a decade earlier.

“I was isolated last year in lockdown,” Bruce Bartman told a judge April 30 after pleading guilty to two counts of perjury. “I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake.”