Morgan, reaching out

I must admit I am incredulous as I write this, but there is a question that I have been told I can’t ignore, actually four questions to be exact.  So now I will take the time to answer those four in order.  Starting with number one, “is there really a stalker?”, and is this system that we call justice going to wake up, and be there for Morgan, because the way it is going for Morgan right now, it is woefully upside down.

Was there a stalker? Really? Yes, there REALLY was a stalker (this was a felony stalking case, detectives assigned to it and everything), and did the stalker/stalkers murder Morgan?  Yes, and I have strong, very strong feelings and information about that, but I also think an investigation into many things that were in fact never investigated needs to happen.   Sorry, I’m getting ahead of my self,  First – yes, there really was a stalker.  And the following points might be a little out of order, because that takes a lot longer to go through all my notes:

• At first the stalker taps on the window, Morgan thought it was trees or bushes, until we walked out to cut them back, and saw there were no bushes or trees near her window.  And no we hadn’t called anyone yet.
• Taps and knocks continue, I call Garfield Sheriff’s department and I will never forget, I was admonished for waiting so long to report this.  Well, I had now reported it and they came, and yes they saw “scuffs” deeply cut into the ground in front of Morgan’s windows.  The deputy said it was obvious to him that someone had stood here, right up against the glass, for a long time.  The Deputy had suggestions, water the ground thoroughly and rake it smooth, maybe we’ll get lucky and get some prints in the dirt.  So you better believe we did that.
• A bang on the bathroom window, and the prints we were hoping for are left.  Only now nobody cares about the prints left in the dirt, nice clear prints.  I ask in shock, “only the detectives can do that” I’m told, silly me I thought detectives were coming by later to do that.  But no, no one ever comes by to do anything with the prints.  Keep watering and raking they tell us, and we do.  We did take pictures ourselves.  Oh, and once a Deputy was practically pleading with his supervisor over the phone to be allowed to take a casting, after a while he was trying to get permission to take a picture, that too was a no go.  I guess now that I’ve seen how it works if you want to be able to claim you never saw any sign of a stalker you certainly can’t collect any evidence of a stalker.  I told the Deputy that day to not let it get him down, I’ll have Steve take pictures when he gets home.  A retired Special Agent told us that if we had cast them ourselves a Deputy would have been required to watch and oversee our efforts.  We didn’t know that back then, but want others to know in case this happens to you.  When we had a detective assigned he wasn’t quite sure what the deal was with prints.
• I saw the stalker on the front porch, positively, twice, once turning to run and once keying in two digits of our front door code.
• I saw him running between our cars in the driveway in broad daylight.  Now picture, if you can, a male, wearing a loose hoodie with the hood over his head and completely covering the side of his face. Spinning, head down, hands hidden, and then running, two, three strides and he’s ducking off to the side, and I can’t even tell you what kind of pants he was wearing.  Do you think you could “positively” identify him?  I wasn’t sure, Steve thought it was worth a line up to see. The Sheriffs didn’t agree.
• We have him on video, he was hiding out behind my car and another car drove up the street, he either had to run or risk being spotted behind my car, so he ran. The video just isn’t good enough to positively identify him either.
• We have him on video again, coming up across the back yard to the aspen tree that doubles as a ladder for him to make the “impossible” climb to the roof, yeah right, Steve is much older and has no problem climbing it.  Once again the picture that was taken in the middle of the night is not clear enough to identify him.
• Morgan went out with her puppy in the early morning, still dark, she became aware of a male standing just on the other side of our 3’ high fence, all dressed in black.  She was badly shaken, and we never heard her scream.  Steve said he wished she had screamed loud, he wished she had started, and never stopped.
• The stalker followed her, at least twice, first time we were completely unprepared, and it was up to Morgan to outrun him, race off in the opposite direction.  The second time we were only slightly more prepared, and we were waiting in the street as she drove up.  Only he did not follow her to the house, just to the subdivision.  Then came the plan to call 911, and have her keep driving, which I was never wild about as nothing had really worked before, so I was never very upset that we actually did not have a chance to try that.
• There was an officer staking out the yard for the stalker, right outside our bedroom, for a half an hour.  We have him beautifully on video, and suggested if they were going to do a stake out again, first don’t wear the uniform jacket with the reflective “SHERIFF” written across the back, oh and don’t text constantly, completely lights up your face, chest and shoulders you know.
• There is a gutter cracked in half directly over Morgan’s window that Steve assures me did not crack itself.
• Then there are the trails worn into the berm, none out there this year, went by and looked.  They were never there in the past before the stalking.  Now there is no one  to stalk, no stalker, no stalker trails, funny how that works.
• Of course there is the famous wildlife cam photo that I have been told someone is claiming is the most pathetic Photoshop job they have ever seen.  I know it isn’t.  I know we handed a copy to the Deputies fresh out of the camera that same night.  Wonder who she was protecting? Meaning the person that posted that it was photoshopped.
• Then in a weird, weird sequence Steve was giving chase around the house one night and when reviewing the video cameras later, stopped, said some colorful things, and told me,  “I thought I was chasing him!”  “He was following behind me the whole time.”  He could tell by the way the motion detector lights were going off behind him and then back on.

So there were more instances/proof of a stalking, that I have been asked not to release yet.   And then for reasons I can only guess at, certain people conducted alibi appearances at our house.  Not to be too mysterious, but coming up soon in this blog is a, what can you say moment, when someone walks around our house one night practically waving their arms in front of each camera, we look, and can instantly can tell it is not the stalker, even the deputies can instantly tell its not the stalker.  And to top that off the following morning, before the snow melted there were footprints to show exactly  where they “marched” around our house, and then those footprints actually led right to Brook’s dad’s house – imagine that!   “Just a big game to them,” one of the Garfield County Deputies said after seeing the video. Maybe somehow to them, but not when our 20 year old daughter ends up murdered, no way, no how.

There was a stalker, an individual that was suspected by Law Enforcement, there was at least one other person who was a party to this and was, to our knowledge, never even questioned.  Morgan was a victim, Steve and I were victims as well.  We have read Colorado Victims Rights, and I assure you that that memo did not make it to the Garfield Sheriff’s Department.  But make no mistake there is only one thing that burns as the most important thing to me now…the protocol Steve and I had was – not good enough – likewise the Sheriff’s protocol was – not good enough –  so to watch our Sheriff stand on camera, and not promise us that he will improve, when he chose to say they were at our house at least 50 times and never saw a sign of a stalker, that was heart wrenchingly disappointing.  If you’ve seen the wildlife cam photos just tell our Sheriff to tell his Deputies to look behind them – then maybe they’ll see the stalker.  Very disappointing for the safety of other young women in this county, because I have to warn you that if they do the same for you, that they did for Morgan, that is a crime in and of itself.