A Colorado landscaper who was hired by Barry Morphew to work the weekend his wife disappeared has insisted she was not having an affair with him, and said he was acting strangely at the time she vanished.
Suzanne Morphew, 49, was reported missing from her Salida, Colorado home by neighbors on Mother's Day - Sunday May 10.
Landscaper Morgan Gentile denied rumors that she had been having an affair with Barry, saying: 'I got treated through all this just like I'm the other woman, even though I'm not the other woman. I just happen to be a woman.'
She said the experience had left her frightened of her former boss.
'I'm scared of Barry,' she said. 'I don't want to see him again, ever again.'
Barry insisted he had not been having an affair at the time of his wife's disappearance.
'Everybody's out there saying, 'oh, you got a girlfriend, you must have an affairs,' he told Fox21.
'Where is it? There's nobody. There's never been another love in my life.'
Morgan Gentile, who worked for Morphew, told Fox News that he had been acting strangely
Barry and Suzanne Morphew are pictured with daughters Mallory and Macy. Suzanne, 49, was reported missing on Mother's Day - May 10 - and has not been seen since
On May 9, the day before Suzanne went missing, Gentile was working on a riverside area near Salida with Barry, 52.
'He was acting really weird about the beach area,' she told Fox21 News. 'I was like: "Barry what's up?"
'He seemed stressed. He definitely seemed weird on Saturday.'
Gentile had agreed to work in that area for the entire day but said Barry dismissed her from the job early, at 11am.
'He said that he had to go make the wife happy – do some hiking or biking,' she said. 'And I found out, like, later that day that he was in town all day.'
Suzanne Morphew was reported missing by neighbors from their $1.5 million home
Gentile said she heard Barry was out shopping by himself.
The following day, May 10, Gentile was surprised to suddenly get a call from Barry asking her to work on a project in Broomfield, 150 miles away, with him.
They had talked about doing it in April, and then May, and then suddenly he made his decision.
'Last minute he changed everything,' she said.
'In fact, he called me that Sunday – Mother's Day – and was really frantic, really didn't sound like himself.
'I hung up the phone and I thought he just had the worst night of his life.'
She then drove up to the Broomfield site with another contractor, Jeff Puckett, and met Barry there.
Suzanne and Barry Morphew had been together for over 30 years, Barry said
By the evening of Sunday May 10, Barry had already been hard at work.
'Barry said that he had been up there all day, like getting the job ready for us,' Gentile said.
Barry then told Gentile and Puckett that there had been a family emergency, and he needed to leave, she says.
'But we didn't have the tools that we needed,' she said. 'It looked like Barry had emptied out his truck.'
Gentile and Puckett said they waited at the Holiday Inn where Barry expected them all to stay.
Puckett took over Barry's room, when he left, and told DailyMail.com that he found it scattered with wet towels and strongly smelling of chlorine.
'We opened the door and, I mean, the chlorine hit you and you're, like, my eyes started watering and burning,' she confirmed.
'And the towels were like super wet on the floor, and it looked like he had made the bed before he left.'
Speaking with Fox 21, Barry admitted that the room smelled strongly of chlorine, but claims he had nothing to do with the stench.
'I'm not going to beat around the bush: it smelled [of chlorine] real strong,' he conceded.
'I did not go to the pool and I did not get chlorine. I'm sure that they washed the rooms with that for the COVID. I don't know, but I [smelled] it too when I was in there.'
A manager at the $92-a-night property told DailyMail.com that they do not use chlorine to clean guest rooms. The pool is also currently closed.
Jeff Puckett and Morgan Gentile stayed at the Broomfield Holiday Inn for Morphew's job
Puckett (pictured) and Gentile waited at the hotel for Morphew but never visited the site
Puckett and Gentile waited at the hotel for further instruction.
On the morning of May 11, Barry called to say his wife had 'gotten attacked, or a mountain lion has got her,' Gentile said.
He told Gentile they were going up the mountain to find his wife.
Gentile said she and Puckett packed up and drove back to Salida.
She said, back in town, she was approached by two men, both of whom she told Fox were 'linked' to Morphew, who told her: 'We would give you your paycheck, but we don't want it to look like hush-hush money. You have rights, but you don't have to give CBI (Colorado Bureau of Investigation) your phone.'
Gentile ignored the men, and spoke to the CBI five times, and handed over her phone.
'I know my rights and I don't have anything to hide,' she said.
She said she was then fired by Barry.
'He fired me because I gave up my phone, I wasn't staying quiet and I was complying with CBI,' she said.
'I feel like if he was innocent, he would have talked to me. I worked with him every day for a long time.'
Suzanne Morphew has not been seen since she was reported missing on May 10
Barry said Gentile's account could not be trusted.
'She's a meth head,' he told Fox21.
'She's mad at me because I fired her and don't let her work for me anymore.
'She's mad. So they're not gonna say anything good about me.'
Authorities investigating her disappearance have not named and suspects or persons of interest.
'I am innocent. 100% innocent,' Morphew told Fox21 News.
'The social media and the news media has made it seem like I'm a bad guy.'
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