Author Archives: Toni

How Come I Did Not See this Sooner?

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Morgan always like rocks - not one was alike...kind of like Morgan...no one was like her.

Morgan always like rocks – not one was alike…kind of like Morgan…no one was like her.

Since none of you have ever seen my timeline, I want to just share a few things.  First it has many personal thoughts in it, open questions to myself, long-held beliefs, even private thoughts about my Nana, and what she would do.  It always made it a challenge to send an update to the Detectives, it was hours of reading every word to take out the very personal stuff, and give them the facts I felt they needed.

Another big thing is question marks, lots and lots of question marks.  That was a far easier search and replace operation to remove question marks to myself.  Every question mark was information I had to fill in, like a phone number, or a time, or a full name, an address, sometimes even behind the scenes connections.  I wanted the Detectives to always be able to reach anyone important in Morgan’s Felony Stalking case.  As I remove the last of the remaining question marks now I am constantly reminded of one fact – the Felony Stalking Detectives never knew where Keenan lived.  Detective Glassmire admitted that to me long after Morgan’s death.  At one point in the case Detective Glassmire told me that he knew where Keenan’s father used to live, his father was not even a suspect, and it was a “used to live” answer.

But how in the world can that be?  How can they ask me for every address and phone number and never even know where their prime suspect lived?  What if an exigent situation presented itself?  Like Morgan missing, or signs pointing to an escalation that would possibly be quelled by a face to face at his home,  or what if she turned up dead? After they became certain Keenan was the stalker, and put Brooke behind him one notch on the probable guilt scale it would seem to me that to not even know where he lived at that point is inexcusable.  Was it because he was a man?  Really, because as I relive for the umpteenth time, with fresh eyes, I see instance after instance that with a man – instantly credible, even if criminal, and Morgan, woman – second class citizen, or worse.

I’m afraid I am still being way too generous as I reread my last sentence.  If Morgan was found dead of suspicious circumstances – three days after her stalking was, “if anything it’s going to escalate,” according to the lead Detective, and her body discovered on the morning after deputies patrolled the neighborhood numerous times, shining their searchlight up on our roof top, in a radical departure from previous patrols.  When a shocking array of facts would come to light long after the Sheriff’s investigating her death would complete their, “investigation,” of her death scene in a few hours, hop in their cars and ride away, after collecting nothing except her personal electronics, and an old journal.

Was she even treated as a second class citizen, or wasn’t the obvious, “elephant standing in the room,” called possible murder, being ignored completely?  Why would that happen?  There are really few reasons to ignore what is a possible murder, and because she was a woman has to top that very short list.

And as I remove those question marks, and replace the spot with facts I am revisiting there was another, all too obvious maneuver, that took place twice during Morgan’s stalking investigation:

First there was a Deputy that really investigated, showed Morgan, and Steve and I, a photo line up of suspects, this happened exactly once in the investigation.  It was as if he came from a different Law Enforcement Department.  It was before the case became a Felony Stalking case and he was not a Detective.  He easily came the closest to nabbing the stalker in the act, had flushed him out for all intents, and right after he almost nabbed the criminal, next time it was going to be for all the marbles, and suddenly, he was, “reassigned,” and we never saw him again.

Second, another officer, also above and beyond all others, her eyes spoke of her commitment in volumes – and in what I now can see as the darkest hours, before she was killed, Morgan told me that this officer was the only one she trusted or had any faith in anymore.  She was, “reassigned,” too.

Coincidence that the two officers most committed to Morgan’s case were both sent elsewhere, or was it part and parcel of the GarCo, “no foul play here,” two-step?

So now as I work on removing every last question mark, I relive the little details and feel like I have such a different perception.  My focus is getting much sharper.  I was told many times in many ways by so many great people who the first year or two certain things would be very hard to do, to be careful not to push so hard.  Steve and I had an almost tag team mentality of pushing until we crashed, then picking each other up to push some more.  At times their was not much really happening, but I can’t imagine any other way to deal with what happened to Morgan.

There is a Constitution for this country and a Constitution for this state.  Steve is researching those documents now, and keeps me updated on the transgressions he finds.  Which launches another round of research to really answer the question he has just raised, the bottom line is that Morgan’s Constitutional Rights were lost in her stalking and death.  They are there for a reason and the next victim will need her full complement of Constitutional Rights enforced diligently to have a different outcome.  I am certain of that.

The Morgan Ingram Foundation is very close to the beginning of that daunting task.  If it is within the capability of Steve and I, and with invaluable help from Morgan’s brother and sister, and the large dedicated band that stands with us in this cause, we will succeed in changing outcomes.  There is the cliché that if we only save one young woman we are a success, but I aim higher than that.  There is a gap that needs closing.  A gap between what so desperately needs to be available to victims of stalking, and what is currently available to victims.  That will be the focus and we will measure our collective success in the closing of that gap.

We obviously really wish we could have realized things sooner, but in Morgan’s honor to take our mistakes and turn them into something positive is what is left for us to do now.  That is the single best thing that can come from this, closing the gap.  And because I mentioned her, I’m going to thank my Nana, for always being there, and thank all of you, and I mean all of you for your kind thoughts, and sincere wishes.  To express how much that has meant to Steve and I is not possible…not even close.

To think now how the world can be a better place is so exciting for me, when there was a time not too long ago that excitement was a foreign thought, it is such a good feeling…

Is it Too Much to Ask to Err on the Safe Side?

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Morganatschool

Morgan deserves answers, not denial – Is that too much for her to ask???

Counting the days,

We have hopes, Steve and I, and realistic expectations.  The Blog is quiet, but we are working hard, and the United States Postal Service, and FedEx deliver letters, with plenty of documents for us.  We want Morgan’s case opened, we want the truth to come out, and we want justice for Morgan.

Morgan is, and will always be on our mind, along with the next young woman whom we so fervently work to prevent a repeat of what happened to Morgan, and as it turns out this week – another young woman who disappeared, under suspicious circumstances, in Garfield County, only to have her family receive a quick, “no foul play here,” from our Garfield County Sheriffs department.

Sound Familiar?

Her remains were discovered close to where she initially went missing and, thanks to the CBI, oh what I would not give for their presence at Morgan’s death scene, the remains were identified, and our most heartfelt condolences goes out to her family.  It is a day even I can only imagine what it is like as they were wishing it were not true.

Her story of the moment is here, Young woman’s remains found near where she went missing have been identified.  And with two young children left at the wayside, and wondering, I can only pray that the long overdue justice for a missing young woman, that was both a mother, and a daughter, comes swiftly and atoning for the callous undeserved treatment of the past.

Garfield County again displays its indifference to Crimes Against Women and what a total lack of regard for Constitutional rights goes on, unless it involves a gun, portending nothing encouraging for all the women, young and old, who live here.

On the morning Morgan was found, dead, to err on the side of too much, instead of too little, should have come with no question.  Instead it did not come at all for Morgan, and how long it takes for grieving parents to fully realize that is just amazing.  I have recently taken delivery of the “FBI handbook of crime scene forensics,” and once again get to read about all of the essential actions that did not take place at Morgan’s crime scene, so far they are innumerable.

They, being the Garfield County Sheriffs Department, could have made one phone call,  to the CBI, the agency that Pitkin County, a Garfield neighbor that takes crime seriously, would call without question, in fact it is not only without question, it is protocol, the rules.  For a microscopic evaluation of a suspicious death scene that Morgan deserved after four months of stalking, and a worry on the mind of her felony stalking Detective who warned us, “if anything her stalking will escalate,” and three days later, Morgan is found dead.

Months later I deal with the threats of the contracted forensic pathologist to change her cause of death to suicide, but he couldn’t find any pills or residue of pills in her stomach, threats which are ignored when I report this to the Coroner who hired this man, and the Sheriffs who, actually I don’t really know what they do, except to stand up for your right to bear arms.  Even write essays about it.

But you know what?  When your daughter is murdered and the Sheriffs and Coroner ignore the threats you are reporting; but detectives run, two at a time, to record the report of your gnome gone from your porch, but still refuse, yes blatantly refuse, to report the burglary of Morgan’s jewelry on the night she was killed – something is not right.  When that is your reality – the right to bear arms becomes but soft whisper in the far distance.

It did not take a gun to protect Morgan, as her stalking was expected to escalate.  It took something that Garfield County did not have, and does not have today, it took simply the knowledge of how to effectively deal with stalkers, especially the kind that was stalking Morgan, one of the most dangerous typologies.

I have recently read protocols that explain what to do if the first attempt to catch the stalker failed, how attempts could be completely changed for the next stalking incident.  Morgan’s protocol was based on the lie that some unwritten law in the State of Colorado required seven weeks, 49 days, before it could be considered a stalking case.

As if that lie was not bad enough, in the non-attempt to protect Morgan, it was actually 68 days before I received a phone call from the Detective that was finally assigned to the case.  Even with their total misconception of the laws they are sworn to uphold, they thought somehow 49 days being the requirement, it became over 70+ days before we even had a case number, and so then the fact that Morgan was a stalking victim was not a complete shock to the new Deputy arriving to answer a call of yet another stalking incident.  A call not to 911, as this was not necessary, they answered a call from the Sheriff’s dispatch number.

If my math is correct that was three weeks longer than their incorrect knowledge of Colorado Law, the ones they were sworn to uphold. Ten weeks of stalking, ten weeks of oh, we are not allowed to collect evidence until a Detective is assigned to the case.  Ten weeks of complete terror for Morgan.  Then at the end, three days before she was killed it was, “if anything it was going to escalate.”  And Morgan was dead, of natural causes, until her doctors told me it was all wrong, and I told the contracted forensic pathologist, “Excuse me, due to this fact, and that fact, a few very prominent doctors in the country think you might have made a mistake here?”

A Mesa County Investigator shook his head and told me, “Oh Dr. Kurtzman does not like to be wrong.”  And I say, what about Morgan?  What about my 20-year-old daughter that was killed – according to what every other single person reviewing her autopsy is telling me.  I say that is not denial!!!  Not a mother who can’t accept!  It is simply the truth, and it never changes.  Her Amitriptyline blood level of 7,909 will not change.  It will always be very, very astronomical.  Morgan weighed 115 pounds.  So in another report a woman who weighed 171 pounds was the highest yet recorded, would Morgan’s blood level (if you took into account her weight and the fact that her blood was drawn approximately 12 hours after her death) not be the equivalent of 11,863+?  Absolutely one of the highest levels ever recorded at a top lab in the country.  But it was being called insignificant according to the contracted forensic pathologist who did her autopsy.  A fact that the officials in Garfield County chose to ignore. Then let’s add in the five date rape drugs found in her gastric fluid, seven months later, and those numbers or detectability of the drugs present will not change.  The astounding malpractice of the contacted forensic pathologist to jump into this evidentiary quagmire that exhausted her sample, when the truth is supposed to be somewhere within his scope, or sphere of influence, just has everyone asking why?

And, why oh why, does a contracted forensic pathologist suddenly take it upon himself to run more tests on a, “closed case.”  After threats to me that he could do just that, and another prominent forensic pathologist assured me that he can not.  But out of fear, and worry I reported to the Sheriffs department, and the Coroner his threats, then he carries through on his threats.  Is there justice for Morgan somewhere in all that?  Because if there is I must have missed it…completely.

And last week another set of bones was discovered (see the link above), a young woman labeled as, “no sign of foul play.”  And NOW there is an investigation, eight years after her death.  Why don’t they just amend the Garfield County sign on the highway to include the warning that if you are a woman, you might want to keep driving, because you are not very safe here?

If you are missing you will be called a runaway (even if you have never run away before, even if you are a straight A student – doesn’t matter they won’t look in to it), unless you are 22 with 2 children, then it will simply be called no sign of foul play, so no investigation, basically the same thing.  If that is not blatant discrimination against women, then what would it take?  Really, what would it take to correctly label what is going on here?

Was #Forced #Entry Ever Really Visited by the #Sheriffs?

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Morganinknithat

It seems so subjective to me.  On one hand sometimes it’s so obvious that it’s hard to deny, like your door jamb is in splinters, then its safe to say someone may have broken in.  Otherwise, without a really obvious sign, then does that mean it didn’t happen?  What about a lock pick, stolen key, what about the fact that nobody, and I mean nobody from the Sheriff’s department ever asked us if we double checked, and are certain that every door was locked last night or to check for any missing keys.  Well, what about other signs, other clues, and yes, let’s even include those escalations of a crime already going on for four months.  What do they all mean when it comes to forced entry.

That Tuesday (2 days before Morgan was murdered) Detective Glassmire said that, “if anything it was going to escalate.”  He was talking about the stalking of Morgan by Keenan Vanginkel, or at least he was 100% certain now that it was Keenan Vanginkel.  I told him I was 99% sure that it was only Keenan, but I still waited to erase that last bit of doubt that there may not have been someone else involved.  That would come soon enough, just in the most horrific way.

The word escalate was really on my mind that week after the Detective left, it was on everyone’s mind, how could you ignore a warning like that?  I thought it was going to come while Morgan was alone somewhere in the car.  He had already been escalating in his stalking while Morgan was out in the car, even revealing himself to Morgan many times, and I feared it was not going to be only worse after hearing the Detectives words.

It’s a really tough thing when you are in a stalking situation and the Detective drops a warning that it’s going to escalate.  Steve and I were talking about it this morning and he remembered that at the time Morgan only had a few classes left before she was off for the holidays, that we had talked about sending her away to visit, anywhere but here, at her home, over the holidays.

It was painful to remember that little talk,  how we tried to find sanity in the insane actions around us.  I had not remembered the incident before, and added it to my timeline.  Which is destined to be a work in progress perpetually, until the day he is caught.  There was talk after her death, based on some inside knowledge Brooke had, that Morgan was redressed because she was not supposed to be in the house the next day.  She was supposed to disappear after she died.  Just another of the so many rumors that come and go.  It certainly would have been worse for us, if she had just been gone, and we had no idea what had happened.

The Sheriff’s would undoubtedly have called her a runaway – which would have been ridiculous.  An investigative reporter told me that the Roaring Fork Valley and Garfield County is off the charts on that kind of thing happening.  And we would never know what had happened, I get shivers thinking about it.  I feel so terribly sorry for all the other parents in this valley that it has happened to, it must be doubly devastating.

But right there, in remembering our plans for the upcoming holidays something else came back to Steve.  He was up and looking for the old door lock, soon he had it in his hands and was showing me.  We moved right after Morgan’s death, and then we moved again, it was amazing he could go right to it and in an instant I knew what is was.

When our front door lock broke, actually two door locks broke a week apart and many wrote in to express how strange that was, and how the odds must be very high against something like that happening.  Sort of like the “coincidence” of Morgan and Keenan passing right in the middle of the intersection, “by chance” during the rush of college classes at Morgan’s school emptying out, so Keenan could stare at her, over and over again.  Never ignore certified long shots happening if you are ever stalked, they probably are not long shots at all, but careful planning instead.  Placing under surveillance,  is a definition of stalking behavior.

The front door lock Steve now held was the front door lock that had suddenly broke after the stalking started. Steve replaced it with a heavy-duty key pad lock, which I will now hate forever, he put all of the pieces of the old lock in a zip lock bag, and put the bag up on the top shelf of my bakers rack by the kitchen.  First he meant to show the detectives, which he did, and then it sort of stayed there.  He also had put two keys in the bag with the lock, now the keys are no longer there.  Steve looked at me and said those same keys would have opened the garage door to the house too, which we never ever used them for.  Never even thought of until just that moment…and they were missing out of the bag he had put them in.

I wonder if it always works like this.  Bits and pieces coming up always, even years later. I guess your mind is always trying to protect itself from horrible thoughts, and our minds were probably working overtime not wanting to believe Morgan was actually dead or that some human predator could have done this to her…it was all too much at that moment. They aren’t evidence anymore I suppose, as this bag with the broken lock was not collected during their two-hour investigation of Morgan’s death under suspicious circumstances.  So they are just knowledge.  Keys that would have opened the garage door to the house went missing.  During Morgan’s stalking I used to lock that door so it’s the only time they would have been useful.

So if the stalker was able to gain entry into the garage then he could easily have had a key to get into the house without leaving a sign.  Which is just another reason it was so ridiculous for the detective to even say, “no sign of forced entry,” so no break in, no intruder?  There was a post called, No Sign Of Forced Entry? Really? That post outlined six ways to get into the house without a sign.  James Harris really took exception to one of the six, I even called it a real small possibility.  But James acted like I had accused him of the crime, animated and angry, or well rehearsed, either way I always take it as a sign that there might be more to that one,  sort of “must have hit pretty close to home moment.”

Then, here, a year and a half later, another way to get in without a sign of forced entry.  Oh and in the time between there have been two more.  These keys missing even reinforce one of those, so there are nine and counting.  Seven you know all about and two that are going to be filmed before I show them to you.

And it will be filmed just because the detectives stated an extremely frustrating thing, “That can’t be done,” it still rings in my ears.  If you are a detective or just someone who victims are counting on, please be absolutely sure before you say something like that.  Morgan was still alive when he did say it at that time, and it was in reference to getting on the roof by just climbing a tree.  He was absolutely, positively, certain that it could not be done, unless Steve left his ladder out and they used it, which Steve never did.  And that is where it was dropped.

Until months after her death when we were reviewing the cameras one time and saw the Patrol Deputies unmistakably searching the roof top the last two days of Morgan’s life.  And of course there was the suggestion made to Steve and I on a trip to visit his family that we should check up on the roof, for possible evidence, long after her death.  And Steve did check and boy was he upset, he said it was practically an elevator the first time Nathan climbed up the tree that was right up against the back of our house.  Our step-grandson was even faster, and more silent. It went from, “can’t be done,” to, “easily done,” in three months time and the knowledge could have, and should have been used to save Morgan’s life, instead of, “can’t be done.”  It’s our fault for listening, not questioning, please learn from our mistakes.

Every time the Sheriff’s thought something was not possible it turned out to be absolutely possible.  Just like the forced entry issue.  If you are ever in this situation I suggest you assume there are twenty ways to get in without leaving a mark, and if you find those twenty, then assume there are twenty more.  It would have been a far better approach than Steve and I used, trust me.

 

 

A Lack of Expertise or Something More Sinister?

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Bug on flowers

Morgan would sit an wait for hours, to capture the image. Investigators owed her the same respect.

In some cases a simple lacking of knowledge would be better than none at all.  But just what do I mean by that?  I’m focusing on only one thing – the training of the Garfield Sheriffs to carry out a specific task.  A task I wasn’t aware they took on in its entirety.  It is very specialized and training intensive.  Months ago, a typical scenario for another law enforcement agency was explained to Steve and I, so we could identify similarities and alas, there were none.

I am talking about the proper processing of a death scene.  The single most important element to an eventual arrest and conviction of the criminal.  There is undoubtedly no one best way to do it, but then there would certainly be a minimum, a bare minimum.  I researched once into the Deputy Coroner of the Garfield County, Where our daughter Morgan was killed, and then her death scene investigation was conducted.

Before it was so upsetting to discover the fact that just a little to the west, in the next county over, in Mesa County, there is a different coroner naturally.  But this coroner is himself a medical doctor and requires every deputy coroner to complete two different certifications (not so in the county where Morgan was murdered):

1. Investigator to be a member in the Colorado Coroner’s Association (CCA). The CCA sets standards for minimum training to become a member and requires continuing education to maintain membership.

2. The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) ® is a voluntary national, not-for-profit, independent professional certification board that has been established to promote the highest standards of practice for medicolegal death investigators.

This is the minimum in the adjoining Colorado county.  The Garfield County Coroner is not a doctor, which is not required, he was an owner of the funeral home and legally only needed a High School diploma, and the Deputy Coroner at Morgan’s death scene was the funeral home manager at Farnum-Holt Funeral Home and had none of the training required by Mesa County – none. The Deputy Coroner does not need to meet any requirements, not even a High School diploma, but he is responsible for certain filings, etc., which …this is who showed up at Morgan’s crime scene to determine if there was any foul play.  Thomas Walton, the then Garfield County Deputy Coroner – after all our due diligence, collecting all the state documents, we now know he had no training, and did none of the paperwork required for this position, making him legally not a deputy coroner.  He was the one who took the crime scene photos we have, never took a body temp, and said he got all his “facts” from the sheriffs, he never interviewed us.  He later said he could not make any changes on Morgan’s PER unless instructed by Detective Glassmire, because that is where he got all his information. The law clearly shows this is not what should be done.

But I was not there when he wrote up his “Autopsy Request” in which his “facts” were all wrong, and now as  read the unattended death report for Morgan, I find that Thomas Walton – Chief Deputy Coroner of Garfield County – didn’t really do anything, the sheriffs by their recounting, were the ones involved.  But they have no certification in death scenes either!  Is this a search for the truth?  Is this how you would want a suspicious death investigated?  Colorado law clearly states this is not how you do it – but that didn’t stop them in Morgan’s case.

In fact, in the neighboring county, that I refer to, they actually have standards, and the law enforcement officers are not to touch the body, maybe because they are not trained!  There were observations made the Garfield County Sheriffs investigators that are completely wrong and contradict each other, maybe, once again, because they have no training in death scene investigating.  And before the crime scene photos were even taken (maybe before the deputy corner even arrived) someone had illegally tried to close Morgan’s eye, wiped blood off her face, covered her up with a towel, and many other things that they are NEVER supposed to do in a suspicious death investigation.  Incompetence, inadequate investigation, “bumbling” like the DA said, or something more sinister?

So as I look at this more globally, it is a sad state of affairs.  For any death in Garfield County at that time, it was likely going to be presided over by a funeral home manager from Farnum-Holt Funeral Home, with no real training in death scene investigation.  He does not even belong there!  And then doing the actual hands on investigating will be sheriff’s officers with no certification in death scene investigation.  Did the honorable District Attorney even know this when she said that the Garfield County Sheriff’s Department completely botched the investigation?

In Mesa County, Colorado, deputy coroners have two forms of certification in death scene investigation, ongoing education, and law enforcement – look but don’t touch, you are not trained.  In Garfield County, none of the above.  Does apprehending and convicting the criminals mean anything here?  Is it just an after thought?  Not really a serious consideration?  Or is it just women they do this to?

Morgan’s death scene investigation was no investigation at all as far as I can see.  The observations made are contradicted by the contracted forensic pathologist whom none of the experts that have looked over Morgan’s case agree with so I’m left to conclude they are most likely both incorrect.  Is this how my daughter’s investigation should have been conducted?  Untrained, no trained, little training, and please don’t give me an excuse about on-the-job-training.  Experience by doing it with no training a few times, learn from your mistakes.  It is unbelievable to me!  Morgan deserved far more than that.

We can’t bring Morgan back, and we can’t have a do over on her investigation.  What I really want to know is what do we tell he next family and their girl.  I truly and very deeply worry for them now.

An anonymous woman needs our help

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An anonymous woman needs our help – any ideas for her please put in the comment section:

Hello, I wondered if you could post this anonymously for me, so that I might get some advice from others? Please?
I mean no disrespect as this is a page for Morgan, if you can’t post this, I understand entirely. Not sure if you do that, but would sure appreciate others insight and advice on this matter.

Click here – Morgan’s Stalking