A Question About Morgan’s Stalking and Murder – what about the Amitriptyline?

Sun peaking through the rain clouds

Morgan captures the sun getting ready to dry up all the rain

There is question that I answer in just a few words quite often on private submissions. Today it was a comment to a post, and it went like this:

I just have a question about the elavil Morgan was taking two years ago… what was she taking it for? (Re: what medical condition)

 Was it for depression or something else?

Well, like a lot of things in this blog I had few minutes left before I had to move onto something else, and I took that time to answer a few comments. This was one of them, and for some reason, I went into far more detail than I usually do, and this is what I wrote:

Morgan NEVER took elavil for depression, as has been reported.  She took it specifically as a prophylaxis (preventative measure) for migraine headaches, and a sharp stomach pain.  No anatomical reasons were ever found for these symptoms so she was prescribed a low dose of elavil (10mg), which helped.  It was later increased to 25mg at the same time another medication was being discontinued.  Morgan never liked the fact that she was taking prescription medications continually with no end in sight, and about two years before her murder she stopped taking elavil completely, and never took it again.  Morgan had NOT had a prescription for years, and had not had a prescription filled by our pharmacy since the time she stopped taking it.  The first Forensic Pathologist honestly was on a phone call discussing how he could not change her manner of death from natural causes, and calmly said Morgan was taking Amitriptyline (elavil, WHICH SHE WAS NOT), for her porphyria (WHICH SHE DID NOT HAVE).  So how can a person so uninformed about Morgan Ingram be in any position to render an opinion about Morgan Ingram?  It was on this phone call that I was threatened by this Pathologist that if I continued fighting the natural causes he would have to look into suicide or accidental overdose, but he couldn’t because he did not find any pills or remnants in her stomach at the time of autopsy.  Now to BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR, I have advised everyone involved that she did not take Amitriptyline, and I advised the Sheriffs Detectives in person that I was threatened by the doctor long before he actually carried through on his threat. But have no fear, I’ve been assured by experts I have great trust in, that tests exist, which can correct all of these errors for Morgan, but it will take time, and as everyone knows, time works against Morgan in the pursuit of justice.

Then I smiled to myself, and said – I’ve just realized I got a little carried away with this, sorry, but I wonder, would you mind if your question and my answer were to become a Blog Post? – And she graciously responded:

I would love for you to do an entire blog post on this!

And she added:

And thank you for your answer. This is what I figured as well. Do you think the stalker was able to snoop in your medicine cabinets when he or she broke into your house? Also, do you have any ideas on why, if the stalker wanted to kill Morgan, why he would do so with these medications? Something seems to be niggling at me… like he wanted to make her think she was going crazy and then killed her in the same sort of manner (to make it look like it was in her mind vs the stalker…his mistake was the flexril (Cyclobenzaprine). The MO is the same in her death as the stalking itself… That no one believes her… that it is “her” if you will… Sorry if that did not come out the way I intended it to.

ps, have you looked at the half lives of flexural and elavil? She would have to have been given this stuff between noon and nine pm-ish for that high of a level in my opinion.

And to answer the part two let me borrow another answer from the Blog, and expand on it a little:

We did look into the half lives and here is the thing, when she drove home around 9:00 pm that night and I saw her and then her dad had a long really nice talk with her she was her normal self – very articulate, happy, nothing weird, and if she had that level of those drugs in her body there would have been signs.  I’ve been told and have read that within a half hour of a dose this great being administered there would be visible effects – Steve observed none.  He described Morgan to the Sheriff’s Detective as being “very Morgan”  More specifically, her normal self, they talked about plans, such as when they would take another art class together, how she was worried about the children she would be babysitting the next day, as she thought she was coming down with a cold or something.  How excited she was about things that were happening in her life.  As for someone in her room that night, it took us a long time for our hearts and minds to believe someone was in her room, especially for Steve, he just could not believe that fact, for one thing …it hurt too much.  But as evidence and expert opinions mounted there were no other options.  Morgan’s second Forensic Pathologist believes the Amitriptyline (elavil) was in liquid form and either injected or poured down her throat.  No containers or syringes were recovered from the scene.  I requested of the Sheriff’s Detective that she be checked for possible injections and he assured me that this is always done.  I have since learned that hiding an injection point is a simple matter, an innocent observation of Morgan at her viewing revealed that if an inspection for injections points was even undertaken at all, it was very cursory at best.  So coupled with the fact the stalkers, by nature, invade you life, it is ridiculous for Steve and I to think that Morgan’s stalker was not in our house that night – or that he was in our house many times.