TV show prompts tips in Menlo murder TV show prompts tips in Menlo murder (September 04, 2002)

** The FBI will follow up on two leads in the 11-year-old Morrow mystery, says Menlo detective.

By Pam Smith
Almanac Staff Writer

Eleven years after Donna Morrow was reported missing from her College Avenue home, two Menlo Park detectives are still looking for her husband, who they believe killed her, then skipped town.

Their search has expanded well beyond the city's borders in the past couple of years, most recently with an appeal to a national cable TV audience.

"Unsolved Mysteries," a show that presents reenactments of crimes and asks average Americans to phone in with tips, aired a story on the Morrow mystery August 27.

The segment -- titled "Husband, Father, Killer?" -- garnered nearly 10 tips, and two have been deemed credible enough for the FBI to follow up on, said Det. Sgt. Eric Cowans, one of two Menlo Park detectives currently assigned to the case. "But I wouldn't say they're strong leads by any means," he cautioned.

Both tips were from people outside the Bay Area who thought they had seen Mr. Morrow, 54. The alleged murderer disappeared from Menlo Park about 15 months after his wife was last seen, the detective said.

Presumed murder

"Unsolved Mysteries" did "a pretty good job" of portraying the story behind Donna Morrow's disappearance, said Det. Sgt. Cowans.

Ms. Morrow has not been seen since December 1991, when her husband, Joe, reported her missing. Mr. Morrow told police that his wife, then 37 years old, had walked out of the house after a minor argument days before and never returned.

But police don't believe she ran off.

Though they never found a body, police did find a blood stain on a bucket in the Morrows' garage. DNA tests didn't match it with Mr. Morrow's blood type, nor those of the Morrow children. Police believe it's Donna Morrow's blood, though without her body, they can't do a direct comparison.

Police also note that Ms. Morrow's assets, bank accounts and credit cards have not shown any activity since her disappearance, in an affidavit written by Sgt. Jim Simpson, the detective originally assigned to the case.

Mr. Morrow was suspected of murdering his wife early on, but Menlo Park police didn't get a warrant to arrest him for homicide until 1998. "It's very difficult to be able to do that" without a victim's body, said Det. Sgt. Cowans.

Friends and family (and a former lover, who police say was cleared of suspicion) had reported that Donna Morrow was planning to leave her husband, Sgt. Simpson wrote in his affidavit. Those who knew Ms. Morrow also told police her husband had repeatedly threatened to kill her if she ever tried to leave him, Sgt. Simpson wrote.

One of the Morrows' four children told police she heard her mother screaming and "her father yelling at her mother to 'shut up,'" the affidavit said. Then, the girl told police, "the screaming eventually got quieter and quieter, and then stopped altogether."

Mr. Morrow disappeared in March 1993. At the time, he was also expected to start serving jail time on an unrelated fraud conviction in Santa Clara County.

New information

"There has been some good information that we've come up with" since issuing the warrant for Mr. Morrow's arrest in 1998, said Det. Sgt. Cowans.

Federal agencies joined the investigation more than two years ago, after it became apparent that Mr. Morrow had fled the country, said Det. Sgt. Cowans.

The U.S. attorney general's office discovered that the fugitive entered the United States four times since his disappearance, using a false passport and his friend's name as an alias, said Det. Sgt. Cowans.

"Each time he came in from the Philippines," and the last time was more than two years ago, he said.

Nine of Menlo Park's 43 homicides since 1971 remain unsolved, said Det. Sgt. Cowans.

All but the Morrow investigation have been suspended, he said, though others would become active again if new information were to arise.

E-mail Pam Smith at psmith@AlmanacNews.com.