Author Archives: Toni

At least next time use the right laws – #Stalking

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Morgan, as we all did, tried so hard to carry on with her life throughout her stalking.  She walked her puppy, visited with friends and went to school, that last semester when everything is just about taken care of, and you have to take only a few classes, but then you also take fun classes, pointe ballet, and jazz dance, just for the workout, and release, that was what Morgan did.

We all lived in a bubble where we thought the apprehension of the criminal would ultimately be by the Sheriff’s Department.  And as I look through report after report I see a problem with the approach – it goes like this.

After four months of stalking, Keenan would have been facing these charges:

  1. Third degree criminal trespass – (petty offense)
  2. Harassment (repeated communication at inconvenient hours) – (misdemeanor)
  3. Stalking – (felony)

Keenan already has two priors of criminal trespass, and it did little to stop him, because here he was, right back at it again.

Others – both Garfield officers and Private Investigators have suggested different laws enacted to deal with the crimes that were being committed, using those laws would have given the investigation more teeth, seriousness, and more chances for success, specifically:

  1. Felony Vandalism – being championed by one of the Deputies (felony)
  2. Invasion of privacy for Sexual Gratification – A sex crime which can start as a misdemeanor, and escalate to a felony.
  3. And Felony Stalking (felony)

Laws which allow for early confrontation and quicker arrest, before the crime escalates.  Read through the crime logs from any agency and I guarantee you will not see many arrests, arraignments, and high (serious) bails based on the charge of “third degree criminal trespass.”  It is a joke at best.  If you ever find yourself or anyone you love in a situation such as Morgan’s, ask about the laws, ask your victims rights coordinator about the laws, even research the laws yourself.  If the laws that relate to what is going on are not being employed, demand to know why.  Steve and I did not.  We left it all in the hands of the Sheriffs and that was a big mistake.  They of course did not want to see Morgan die, but they also were not prepared to protect us against the level of threat we were facing.

Once you have a suspect, I suggest you name him as the suspect that he or she is.  It is important for your friends and neighbors to know, who the suspect is and how dangerous is he considered!  Just so you all know I am not carelessly throwing out names, I will print a brief exchange that took place between Sheriffs concerning the suspect Keenan, and his father:

Subject of Narrative: Suspect Interview with lead Felony Stalking Sheriff’s Detective, Keenan VanGinkel

On November 16, 2011, I overheard dispatch notifying the zone one deputies to contact Wade VanGinkel reference his son being a suspect in a case.  The dispatcher advised that Wade wanted to know if there was a case open against his son.  I noted that Keenan, Wade’s son, is a suspect in this case.

I contacted Wade who was at the Sheriff’s office when he made the call to dispatch.  I offered to Wade that I could meet him and Keenan at around 1600 hours that day.  Wade told me that he had heard from his son that Keenan was being accused of stalking a girl.  Furthermore, Wade said that there was somebody on facebook.com threatening him.  Wade also said that he heard that there were some deputies at City Market, El Jebel, looking for Keenan.

This, of course, is the stalking that, James Harris, Brooke Harris’ father did not know was happening on the Dr. Phil episode and “wished we had told him.”  Actually Brooke did not speak up to correct her father about the stalking, the stalking that Brooke had heard there was video evidence that exonerated her boyfriend Keenan.  I’ve come across four instances of Keenan referring to this “video evidence that exonerated,” day when he “heard about an incident” but he was in Texas so it could not have been him.

Also, I have heard that you do not have to go out into the wild web very far to read that there are people stating now that there was never a stalking, either Morgan or me made it all up.  Does this mean if I pretend hard enough that Morgan will not be murdered?  Unfortunately I know all to well that this is not possible.  What practical purpose in the search for truth this pretending there was not a stalking serves is beyond me.  I lived through it, day by day, Morgan did her best to be brave and persevere, right up until she was killed.  Morgan’s stalking and murder was every bit the nightmare I hopefully have portrayed it to be.  And it obviously was very, very real.  Lastly, I have been assured that NOBODY has been cleared of the crimes committed against Morgan and our family.

Meanwhile it seems now that back then everyone knew who the stalker was, James Harris named Keenan as the stalker.  Brooke Harris told Steve and I in person that she “heard there was video evidence that exonerated her boyfriend Keenan.”  Very poignant choice of words “exonerated”, by the way, because it specifically means you were convicted and then later found not to be guilty.  This was in response to the videotaped march of an as of yet unidentified perp around our house.  Unfortunately for the best laid plans of those involved, most everyone who has seen the full video agrees it is a female, and all other images of the stalker are male.  Keenan names Brooke as the potential stalker.  And if you remember our neighbor Elliott, he thought the stalker, at least one of them, was James Harris.

The argument referred to by Keenan’s father Wade, on facebook.com can be found on this post from December 28, 2012 excerpts from Facebook “threats” read what Keenan has to say, and you tell me if he does not give indications of knowledge and guilt, because I think that he does.

So you can see that I name names, but everyone else is also naming names.  Actually everyone else seems to have a person to point fingers at, anyone but themselves.  Horrors for Morgan, and after her death, casts of characters all employing their own form of protection…Internet Cyber Stalking and Trolls.

Crimes were committed, horrific crimes were committed.  Situations such as Morgan and our family faced can quickly get out of hand.  The two weeks surrounding her death contained so many little events.  Taken together they point very strongly to a seriously increased danger for a victim in Morgan’s place.  And they also point strongly to the potential for an act of desperation on the part of the perps.  The lead detective even forecast it.  There has been over a year, and a half on the part of Steve and I, and so many others with far more expertise to piece it all together on a timeline.  It was all too real, and it is the truth, I will defend that fact under oath in any court in the land.

But that is not the real reason I’m writing this today.  It is for all of the victims that might happen across this and find some good advice, or a frightening parallel.  To know the true dangers of stalking, how one day we were just a happy family planning our next outing, and the next day we were victims of stalking, and a peeping tom, who turned our lives upside down.  How one day our Detective warned that he thought the stalking was going to escalate, and three days later Morgan was dead.  How out of control it becomes.  How everything you ever planned, or dreamed of is suddenly changed forever.  Steve and I will never get to give Morgan a beautiful wedding like her sister had, we will never get to play with the grandchildren she was planning on sharing with us, we will never ever get another hand squeeze that meant “I love you” from her, we will never get to hear about what her next big adventure was to be, because we no longer have Morgan with us on this earth – we will suffer her loss until the day we die.

I never want any of this to happen to another girl, another family when the resources and the knowledge exist to prevent it.  As always – in Morgan’s memory, and honor – I wish for you to have the awareness and knowledge we did not to keep you all safe from such tragedy.

To the untrained eye…

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To us everything looked wrong, horribly wrong.  Were Steve and I fighting a realization from the very first instant?  Did we see and know more than we could process?  I believe so, a year and a half later strange as it sounds I can think back on that day, and remember details that I could not at all in the first few weeks.  At the beginning Steve and I were in some internal turmoil to come to grips with the fact that our daughter was dead, and we focused immediately on her, not things around her, then came shock.  But we did register the facts, far more that we would have ever realized.  I don’t know how it is for others faced with this kind of situation, but that is how it has been for Steve and me.

After that meeting with Morgan’s doctor in Los Angeles, and homicide became a certainty in her opinion, a lot of different questions started coming up.  First was the obvious, was someone in her room?  And then questions centered on Wylah, Morgan’s puppy, a little over 6 months old that morning.  Why didn’t Wylah sound the alarm the night before if someone was in her room?  How could she have never made a sound, never barked? It seemed to rule out an intruder actually in her room that night.  I’m reading a book on crime scene investigation, and this is a common mistake.  As in MISTAKE!  We did not have an answer for months until Steve was talking with an investigator (not a Garfield County Sheriffs Department investigator), and their conversation was very slow and relaxed, detail by detail, and Steve remembered Wylah, sitting on the bed in the morning, looking dazed, and motionless as the activity by first responders was frenetic.  They rushed in and backed out of the room as Wylah looked on in silence, he pictured it perfectly.  He remembers asking a first responder if he should get Morgan’s pets out of the room for them.  He glanced at Wylah just sitting there on the bed and said no.

While that alone does not prove someone was in Morgan’s room it’s an example of how using the dog’s lack of barking to rule out an intruder was so short-sighted, and displayed poor investigative skills on our part.  Now I’ll give you another example.

A Garfield County Detective Sergeant noted in his report from the death scene some, “blanching on her chest area, and left arm as she had been reportedly found lying on her stomach.”  Morgan was found on her side, not her stomach.  Position of the body at the time of discovery – completely wrong.  Does it matter? YES!  I have been told that bodies on their side do different things and present differently than bodies on their stomach.  As more and more facts come my way it seems as if every tiny detail has significance in a thorough investigation.

I was the one that found her and Steve was there right after, and we are both absolutely sure of the position Morgan was in.  When I saw the first PER I noted the wrong body position being put in the report, among many other mistakes, and wrote around a six page letter correcting every one.

What kind of investigation can be expected when the position of the body, when first discovered, can not be ascertained from the first person who saw her, and then correctly shared with the other investigators?  Perhaps that’s just another reason the Honorable DA decided that the Sheriff’s Department had completely botched the crime scene.  Or maybe he was told the correct position, and he just forgot.  But since Morgan only had about a paragraph or two of his time he should have at least gotten the facts right.

Then came the statement that I don’t know how to respond to.  To an untrained eye such as Steve and I must possess we see signs there was a struggle in Morgan’s room, it did not look as it had the day before, or the night before.  Panic button torn from the nightstand, thrown aside with her clothes piled on top of it, jewelry boxes emptied of valuable jewelry, why were piles of freshly laundered, and folded clothes the night before all knocked over, on and on.   But to the trained eye of a Garfield County Sheriff Detective he sees one thing – “Her bedroom was in disarray, slovenly in fact. There were numerous items on the floor.”

SO – My daughter had been stalked for four months, the Tuesday before her death, only two days, our detective had proclaimed 100% certainty that Keenan VanGinkel was her stalker. He had stated the stalking was going to escalate on that same day. Officers on stepped up patrols were searching exclusively up on the roof with their search light the night of her murder. According to official reports, our Detective notes that he divulged the date of Morgan’s interview with the Sheriffs department to James Harris, AKA Jim Harris approximately a week before she was killed. This has been identified as a huge rookie mistake, endangering the victim.  James certainly talks to his daughter Brooke Harris, and she would pass this bit along to the prime suspect Keenan VanGinkel.  It is not too far of a stretch to think Keenan also knew that the interview of Morgan had the potential to sink him.  Was that more motivation to murder our daughter?

Through the ordeal that was her stalking, Morgan had lost interest in her room, remember she spent large periods of time sleeping in our closet – because she didn’t feel safe in her room – because she was suffering serious emotional distress.  The General Assembly of Colorado recognizes that stalking involves highly inappropriate intensity, persistence, and possessiveness, it entails great unpredictability and creates great stress, and fear for the victim.  Also that stalking involves severe intrusions on the victim’s personal privacy and autonomy, with an immediate and long-lasting impact on quality of life.  And remember one of Morgan’s routines was to clean her room on Fridays?

Morgan’s life has been turned completely upside down.  Victims rights promises that she will be treated with fairness, respect, and dignity.  All this and an honest to God sworn to protect us Garfield Sheriff’s Detective looks at Morgan’s room, her dead body lying on the floor and takes notes, he knows, or should have known all of the facts presented here and he produces a report that claims to provide his knowledge and insight.  He sees Morgan’s room as “in disarray,” with “numerous items on the floor.”  A struggle?   No he sees or notes no sign of one of those.  If Morgan was ever in a do or die, brief struggle for her life she might well have ended up with blood in her mouth, a thumb sized bruise on her forehead, abrasions on her hand, torn nails, and yes her room might have even gotten a little disarray, with items on the floor, whole piles of laundry knocked over onto the floor.

And not many people except the Garfield Sheriffs detectives and Kennan’s family and friends can process all this information, and find nothing wrong – no need to even open an investigation – absolutely nothing to follow up on.  And the stalker & peeping tom that for four months that terrorized Morgan and our family?  No need to catch him either, he will never do it again, the residents of the county, all the other young women who live in Garfield are safe.  And of course the stalker could not be the murderer – right?  As stalking and sexual crimes expert, Mark Wynn would say, “that is just tombstone mentality.”

But really I believe the solution lies in actions and answers before her death. Morgan needed her victims rights before she died.  A more inclusive, more thorough investigation of her stalking.  It will be a huge goal, and measure of success for the Morgan Ingram Foundation.

More on the true impacts of stalking…

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Morgan and her big sister at her sister's wedding

Morgan and her big sister at her sister’s wedding

Last week a convicted murderer entered the sentencing phase.  As a part of that sentencing family members are allowed to speak.  In fact victims of a crime are given a large latitude on their statements to the Judge and jury about how the crime has impacted them personally.

Travis Alexander is not as well known a name as Jodi Arias, he was the man that she stands convicted of killing.  Even less known is that Travis has a brother who did speak about how this tragedy has affected him.  Steven Alexander described for the judge and jury about the emotional and physical toll that he has suffered since the loss of his brother Travis when Travis was murdered back in 2008.  It has been almost five years, and to hear him talk it was just yesterday – except a lot has happened over the years.  He described ulcers, his separation from his wife, and how he has repeated nightmares that he dearly wishes he could stop.

Steven Alexander is a victim, and to hear his words helps to put a face on all the victims of crime, and the need for stronger victims rights in this country.  If existing state laws are placed under a federal umbrella they become stronger.  And they well need to be.  The federal version will come as a constitutional amendment – the first in over 20 years if successful.  It will be a momentous occasion to be sure.

To have heard about Steven and his sad ordeal since his brother’s murder helps to better understand a similar situation within Morgan’s death.  Not yet ruled a murder, because as of yet there has not been a charge filed, but even so the curse that is the life of a victim of crime lives on,  Morgan’s brother has been suffering through his own ordeal, which is very much like the brother of Travis Alexander.

He left his almost life long home here in the Roaring Fork Valley, because he could not bear to live in the place his sister had been killed.  Emotional and physical issues that do not usually belong to a healthy, and active young man in his early thirties have become all too real a part of his life.  He loved his younger sister very much, as did Morgan’s older sister.  Beside Morgan’s brother and sister, Morgan also had a cousin who was more like a sister to her, because she lived with us off and on while growing up.  She was older than Morgan’s brother and younger than Morgan’s sister.  All three girls called Steve daddy, even when they were older, the two older now in their 30’s, Morgan’s brother on the other hand called him dad – much more of a male thing I guess.  I was always called mom, and in my nieces case, she called me Aunt Toni – she called Steve daddy all these years because she never really knew her dad, he left her when she was a baby and Steve treated her as though she was his daughter, she needed a dad for the projects you make in school on father’s day, etc. and Steve very gladly volunteered, and she loved him for that.  We are a very close family, we  love each other very much, and it is very disturbing (even though it shouldn’t matter) when I hear other people say things about us when they don’t even know us.  Do they think to ask Morgan’s close friends (not people that say they were her friends, but her real friends), do they think to ask other kids that we took in to our home over the years, and actually lived with us, and interacted with us?

No they never did, because if they had they would all know that for Morgan to use the words, “I love you, and good night daddy” whenever she said good night to him (like she did the last night of her life) was totally normal – it was what she said every night of her life when she was home, even if she had friends over (it never embarrassed her).  But do these people actually question?  No – they just think they know it all – they think what they hear from strangers is the truth…just like the Sheriff’s Department, did they ever interview Morgan’s close friends, or teachers, or classmates, or the woman she worked part time for?  The answer is no.  If they had they would have known that she had told people that were close to her about her stalker, who he was, and what was going on.  The felony stalking detective assigned to her case spoke with her on an almost weekly basis, and knew what was going on, but Morgan had given up on the Sheriff’s helping her.  I was the one that kept trying to tell her they were getting close to making an arrest, I was the one that blindly believed in them, and believed in what they were telling me.  Morgan was much better at seeing through all the false promises.  Morgan did want her brother to intercede (I was the one that asked him not to), Morgan did want her friends from Aspen to come do stake-outs, and teach this stalker a lesson (as they were biting at the bit to do), but I told her that wasn’t the way to deal with this.

I know now I was wrong, and for Morgan my decision was deadly wrong.  Morgan herself was so angry one day, when she arrived home from school, because she had just endured Keenan staring her down at the same intersection, at the same time she was coming down the hill from school – she had told the detective about this many times, and instead of doing something about it the detective made up excuses that maybe Keenan’s father lived there (he admitted to me months after Morgan was killed that he had no real idea where Keenan or his Father lived, so he just lied to us?) or maybe the car just looked like Keenan’s, but really wasn’t – how dare he try to minimize Morgan’s stalking, and how dare we let him!

Morgan saw Keenan in the car, and identified him – what do stalking victims have to do to get help?  That day she could take it no more, Morgan grabbed a baseball bat when she arrived home from school after another stare down at the intersection, and told me she was going to drive around until she found Keenan, but I told her that was too dangerous, she would not take no for an answer so I followed her out to the car and I went with her to try to keep her safe.  Is this what law enforcement wants victims to do?  Because this is exactly what they forced Morgan to do, to feel she had to take the law into her own hands.  Morgan was angry, and frustrated, not depressed.  Morgan was a strong and amazing young woman that never felt like she needed to rely on others, but her stalker caused her serious emotional distress.

The Detectives called Morgan’s case a “textbook felony stalking”, and were 100% certain who her stalker was.  Morgan saw her stalker in stare downs. And Morgan was a take-charge type of person, but trying to do what law enforcement wanted her to do which was pretty much amounted to just keep a log, and tell them when anything happened, so they could come by after-the-fact, a half hour later usually, and search the grounds.  We all know the protocol failed and ended up costing Morgan her life – and that has to change!

There are so many people that have been impacted by Morgan’s death – people that I have never met, across the country and throughout the world.  Stalking extracts an enormous toll.  For example just recently, after all this time, I have spoken with one person in particular who is the Aunt of Morgan’s friend…the friend she was with her last afternoon on earth.  I know Morgan was very intuitive, and probably had a bad feeling about sleeping at home that night, so when her friend’s Aunt came home from work she asked if she could sleep over her house on her couch – I did not know this until just a few months ago.  Her friend’s Aunt told me the story over the phone, while crying and telling me she felt responsible, because she told Morgan that she was exhausted from a trying day and had a bad headache and didn’t want anyone sleeping over that night.

The “feeling” Morgan had was most likely the reason she snapped at me when she came home that night.  I was waiting for her in the driveway as usual with pepper spray in hand and started to lecture her as she got out of the car because between 4 – 6 pm that day I was unable to reach her by phone or text message, and I was really scared that something might have happened to her.  This was so absolutely NOT a fight like other people have tried to portray.  What parent in this situation would not be frightened, and not say anything, and what young adult would not at least snap back a word in response when they are feeling upset, and nervous about their situation?

You see stalking turns all the tensions to high, and the victims are somehow expected to go on as if nothing is happening.  Not so easy.  People are raised differently – they have different life experiences, and no you can not know what someone says or does not say to their parents when they go to bed at night unless you ask…don’t assume you know, because most likely you will be wrong.  Steve told the Detective that Morgan  was “just Morgan” when he saw her for the last time, “completely normal”, but tired.

We were blessed – all our children, nieces and nephews ALWAYS tell us how much they love us whenever they talk to us, and we tell them.  I believe you should tell the ones you love on a daily basis how much they mean to you – what if you never get another chance?  Until Morgan died I never really thought about that – we just all care about each other, and we were all raised to show our love to one another…for this I feel very blessed.

The stalker who terrorized Morgan walks free as if there was never even a stalking.  And Morgan’s killer at present is leading his normal life after the Sheriff proclaimed that he would never open this case.  Just look back in all of the murders in Garfield County for the last five years for another murder where the Sheriff did open the case, you will not find very many.  And please don’t tell me that is because it is a small County and that’s what happens in small Counties…they don’t have the manpower, they don’t have the budget.  We are talking about human life, and criminals here…excuses don’t cut it.  Where there is a challenge, find a solution!

And as life quickly returned to normal for most – Morgan’s brother has fallen to the ills that so many other victims face when a family member is killed.  It is also why victim’s rights laws have been placed in the revised statutes of most every state.  Because the family members were easy targets for the perps family and friends.  A disgusting loophole that the states have individually started to close, and a pending Federal Constitutional Amendment will unify protection, and take the matter a large step further.

Do not allow this problem to be minimized, If it were not such a problem there would not be such effort to close the doors through litigation.  A constitutional amendment to the United States Constitution should speak volumes to the magnitude of the problem.  And believe me, after all of the threats I have received, either naming directly or sometimes traced back to the family, and friends of Keenan and Brooke, it is another of those things I could never have imagined.

A simple search for honesty – is it that hard to find?

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Isn’t that all that it comes down to in most every crime?  Honesty? If the truth were just known, aligning the pieces would be so simple.  Conclusions would quickly follow, and a case would be solved.  I’m thinking of this today because in my loose notes that I have been reviewing for the past week is a statement made by our lead Detective that if people choose to lie to them there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.  I remember the instant he said it, our victim’s rights coordinator was standing right behind his shoulder, glaring, and nodding in approval.  She had become a very upsetting “victims rights coordinator”.  I did not believe this about lies then, and I believe it even less now.

Not every conviction comes wrapped in a confession.  I would guess that very few do, and if every criminal that lies, and never admits the crime, went free, there would not be very many prosecutions or convictions.

In the morning hours of 12/2/2011, the day Morgan’s body was found James Harris made at least one phone call to a client that we know of.  He had to cancel their appointment for the day.  Then about a week later he talked to her again, part of that conversation was to explain that he was “just trying to protect his daughter.”

I assume that would be Brooke, nice sentiment, father protecting daughter, but why would she need protecting?  Morgan was dead.  And why exactly would Brooke need someone to try to protect her, from what?  On her facebook she agreed with her friend Hannah Hurlocker, who didn’t know if she could go through with it, the day before Morgan was killed.  Hannah was staying at Brooke’s house at the time.  On the day Morgan’s body was found Brooke posted a picture of herself wearing an interesting piece of apparatus around her neck.  What was that all about?

Once again the lead Detective, was informed of, and knew all this, but chose to investigate none of it.  That is, at least as far as I know, or have seen in any report.  The only mention is of the fact that I spoke with the witness months later, and made notes about the conversation and passed it all along to our Detective.  But is that how it is supposed to work?  Are the victims of a tragedy, such as the stalking, and murder of their daughter, are those grief stricken victims supposed to be out conducting interviews, because they believe it is important evidence, and might be lost forever?  Well that was how it worked in Morgan’s case.

There was a time when I felt that the more evidence I tried to share with our law enforcement, the less interested they were.  Yet I was always assured that the case just needed more leads, and evidence, that were lacking.  Steve and I are not investigators but we were not going to give up.  If even a little rumor came along we followed up on it… why wouldn’t you?

Honesty, today, right now, every single word gains new importance.  It is absolutely amazing to me how little actual evidence was collected, both physical evidence, and by interview, and how many conclusions were draw from the little they had, so much of it completely wrong.  More like guesswork parading as an investigation.  Or wouldn’t you expect that when nothing is double checked, questions rephrased and asked again to arrive at meaningful conclusions – errors should be expected, right? – not at all a surprise.

One little incident comes to mind, actually for a couple of reasons now.  It was an afternoon where the Detective had finished questioning both Christina and Brooke Harris about the source of the stories about the stalker(s) circulating around the neighborhood.  Sometimes it was simple rumors, but far more disturbingly it was the directed, and timed, false information meant to do nothing but confuse the issue.  A little like what I am told is going on out in the vast reaches of the internet – directed and timed false information meant to confuse and distract.

In gang stalkings this is a well documented method of increasing the terror of the stalking.  False information is regularly spread with the specific intent as to discredit the victim, in an attempt to make them even question themselves as to if the stalking was really happening.  When OF COURSE the stalking was happening, of course they are frightened.  But the goal is to make the victim question everything happening.  I don’t remember right now who said, “in my experience there is no such thing as coincidence.”  But the words ring very true in the context of the misinformation campaign that was being perpetrated.

So Detective Glassmire had just returned from the conclusion of that line of questioning and told me how Brooke had said she got all her information from Christina, her mother, and then Christina said she got all her information from Brooke, her daughter.  The Detectives take was that he thought they could have at least gotten their lies straight.  He used the word lies, and I applaud that because its exactly what it was, and it was exactly what drove the insanity that was Morgan’s life for those four months – an endless string of lies.

And the lies never really stopped.  No sooner had an almost unbelievable string of people tell me that they had heard Brooke, talking about Morgan, saying, “That bitch is going to get it someday,” that I had the chance to confront her.  And Brooke denied ever having said such a thing, in front of a camera.  All those people, independently and at different times, and in different places all recalled almost the same line from Brooke, yet she said she never said it.

It’s really bad when Brooke does things like that, and then has Keenan telling the Detective, “It could be Brooke that is doing the stalking.”  But somehow, I don’t see Brooke staring at Morgan through her bathroom window.

And of course there is the saying that the, “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”  Remember James Harris claiming to not know there was a stalking in the neighborhood, again in front of a camera, actually many cameras.  The same James that evidently approached every person in uniform that neared his house to ask about the stalker and the stalking.  Whom Keenan also happens to claim was a great source of information about the stalking.  The same James Harris that had been interviewed by Detective Glassmire about the stalking while it was ongoing.

Wouldn’t all this be nothing more than lies?  Really bad ones at that and I would think when you contradict yourself completely with your own words.  Just imagine if they had the four of them, Keenan, Brooke, James, and Christina in four separate soundproof rooms, and just went from room to room asking the same question, and taking notes.  It could have been that simple, if they all agreed to it that is.  Maybe Morgan would still be alive.

Morgan just wanted to live her life, never asking for much.  Always thankful and happy with whatever she had.  Spreading love and never shying away from the chance to help someone with a problem.  What I wouldn’t give to have been able to change places, except in reality, I was being stalked and terrorized as well, but then at least she would not have been murdered.

Exactly which laws were broken, wouldn’t that be a place to start?

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The last days of Morgan's bedroom windows with the blinds open...she loved light but didn't want someone peeking in at her.

The last days of Morgan’s bedroom windows with the blinds open…she loved light but didn’t want someone peeking in at her.

Just to backtrack a little first, while we did not know she was being stalked yet, Morgan’s stalker began to make his presence known on August 2nd, 2011 and of course he could have been at her bathroom window before that, Morgan just did not know until then.  It happened twice before the weekend of August 6th, and 7th, 2011.  A knocking, scratching noise that she thought could have been a bird or a tree branch in the wind.  Quite a few trees had grown up very close to the house, and noise from branches rubbing on the house was a common noise we had.

Morgan was worried about the noises, but was holding back until innocent explanations were ruled out.  On the worry side, she had noticed a pattern right away in the few times it had happened, the noises came shortly after she got home.  We did however hope for the best, simplest outcome, and we all went to sleep that Friday evening with the idea that Steve would trim back trees the next morning, and the problem would be solved.

We all had different emotions as we walked around the corner of the house Saturday morning, and looked at her bathroom window.  We all saw clearly that there were no tree branches, no bushes, no perch for a bird – nothing.  I clearly remember to this day the look on her face as she saw this, and how it sunk in for her.  She really did not want to be at the house right then, and left very shortly after that with her puppy.

That was Saturday, the fifth day of her stalking, and it happened again that night right after she came home.  Now she was upset, very upset.  I was going to call the police right then, but Morgan was thinking of all the ways it would be possible that this was not a person outside her bathroom window.  A dog, a cat, still a bird possibly, a coincidental noise happening in the attic, it was a self-defense mode I should have realized at the time, but I did not.  She was busily denying it was happening, most stalking victims deal with some level of denial about their stalking, and its severity.  It is really up to the officials charged with your safety to know this and react properly, but too many times they do not know any more than I did right then, and so they do not react appropriately.

Methodology to swiftly bring a stalking situation to an end is sorely lacking and is going to be a main thrust for the Morgan Ingram Foundation, but first things first.  Right then, Steve, Morgan and I came to an uneasy agreement that she would let us know as soon as it happened again and we hoped for the best, but were quickly beginning to fear the worst.  Sunday was quiet and hopes went up, Monday night she came home and had already made the decision to abandon her bathroom and use the one in my office, across the house.  She was completely creeped out by her own bathroom at that point, and she really never used it much again after that.

Morgan was in the office bathroom when she had a sick feeling someone might be there, right outside.  She had already undressed, and noticed the obscured window was open an inch or two, so she went straight over to it and closed it.  Then came the banging, she was screaming, we were running, and Morgan was in the hall dressed in a towel, and very badly shaken.  Any slightest bit of hope that this was innocent was long over, and it was a person, a very strange person that would stand right outside bathroom windows, and look in, then be brazenly fearless enough to pound on the window if Morgan closed it, and his view was taken away.

I bring all this up again because legally, actually, and for all intents and purposes her stalking was a reality at this point, it became stalking on the second time he knocked on her window.  Not some crazy and arbitrary six weeks before it magically becomes a crime.  I have read the laws now, because that is what you do when the Sheriffs do not, and the Sheriffs were completely wrong when they told me that we had to wait six weeks.  The State of Colorado declares it a crime after two times.  They officially recognize the dangers and trauma it brings.

And I believe that it was far more than “just” stalking, he was always at her bathroom window – peeping tom anyone?  There is a law for perverts and the title is long. Invasion of privacy for sexual gratification.  All the elements were there without doubt, and yes it is a sex crime, and it does not take even twice.  First time it becomes a crime.

The next morning I called the Carbondale Police Department and based on our address they directed me to the Garfield Sheriff’s Department, it was their jurisdiction.  So I called them and was promptly admonished for waiting so long.  Really sort of yelled at, and they were going to send a deputy, who did not even write a report on the incidents up for that day, or if he did, I have not seen them yet, and I am supposed to have every report on the stalking, and death of Morgan.  In fact the first report written, very shockingly is 24 days after the sex crimes and stalking had been going on.

Is that really possible?  For 24 days no report was written.  All that time I thought they were doing something, but it appears not.  One of the three crimes the – SUSPECT: Keenan VanGinkel – was being investigated for is the petty offense of trespassing.  So why, oh why would a Sheriff’s Department assign the least possible crime that he could be committing, pedestrian charges of trespassing, when that is not what it was at all, Morgan was being observed, she did not give consent, and it was a bathroom being used for bathing all four times, after the Deputy came to our doorstep for the first time.

He did explain how this same thing had happened the summer before and there were 4 or 5 incidents that he knew of.  Called in the dogs and chased the perp once, but lost him up by the Mini Storage, he told me.  Through emails to the Morgan’s Stalking Blog I know of more incidents.  Of more requests for follow-up that were ignored and more reports that were never written.  Why?

After reading the laws myself it is a sex crime first, and stalking a distant second,  Is there a law against serial sex crimes against women?  I know each “incident”, the seven or eight that I know about plus however many more there were, each is a crime in its own right, and why was not one of the incidents ever investigated as a sex crime?  Why?

Another big WHY is why did this all get started in the summer of 2007, what changed so residents in a very secluded corner of the county would be victims of sexual assault by voyeurism?  With some investigation I bet there could be answers to that question.

The terrorizing of Morgan began for her on August 2nd, no one would write a report on an incident for 24 days.  No one would call it stalking, and no one would even whisper sex crimes.  Four months later Morgan would be dead and no one would draw a connection between any of it.  The contracted pathologist would threaten me to give up on changing it from natural causes, and despite many assurances that he could not do such a thing as even to change her manner of death to an accidental overdose – he ultimately went far beyond that.  Based on evidence that a Forensic Toxicologist reads completely differently, completely differently.

The first Deputy also told me to document everything, so I did that as best I could.  Detective Glassmire assured me that if I kept even a simple log it would be admissible in court when Morgan’s case went to trial.  Now as I go through gaping holes in the official reports I have been provided with, you can bet that I am filling every single one in with excerpts from the copious notes I kept as incidents happened.

It is now a time for precision and accuracy instead of sloppiness and huge gaps in the official reports.  I have been told that Law Enforcement reports are rarely accurate, but as there is usually an absence of anything else, usually they are all there is to go on – so they should do a good job on getting them correct.  In at least one good note for Morgan there is in this case a far more comprehensive set of notes to compliment the official version as it stands now.  I’m confident that everyone involved wants there to be the most complete, and most accurate set of records.

Morgan deserves at least that, and once again…it’s not too much to ask, is it?

Today is May 15, 2013 – two years ago on May 15, 2011 Morgan was still alive and sent me the following Facebook message…I love you too Morgan!