Author Archives: Toni Ingram

Hello to Fall 2014 – Tonight is the Autumn Equinox

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fallmorgantessiAt 10:29 pm EDT tonight the Earth will have equal amounts of light and darkness – day and night are balanced to nearly 12 hours each all over the world, tonight is called the beginning of Fall and the Autumn Equinox.  Meteorologically speaking, Autumn began on Sept. 1st, but the Autumnal Equinox marks the astronomical start to the Fall season.

In some places like Colorado the leaves are starting to change, there is a briskness in the air, and I must admit this always was my favorite time of the year, and I know Morgan loved it as well.  Now nightfall will come sooner – in 2011 that was not a good thing for us.

Today is a day of reflection for me.  I have been thinking back to the Fall of 2011 when Morgan’s stalking had been ongoing since August 2nd, but that Fall we had no idea that her stalking would end her life in just a few short months.  I remember at that time Morgan was determined not to let the actions of her stalker keep her from the things she loved.  She was frightened, and cautious, but determined not to allow anyone to take her love of life away.  She was enjoying school, ballet, photography and being with her friends.  At that time her stalking terror was confined to our house – she felt much safer away from home.  With nightfall coming earlier her bright days of feeling safe were now being cut shorter with the Fall Equinox.

My days of beating myself up for not being able to protect my daughter are over.  They were very painful days, but I now realize that it was something that I needed to go through in order to finally come to the realization that it wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t her father’s fault, or her siblings fault, or her friends fault that we couldn’t protect her – it was the fault of the person that took her life.  We all wanted to protect her – we all loved Morgan so much.

I now realize that we all make choices in our lives, and when someone chooses to do evil things to another, that is their choice and they are the ones, the only ones, that should carry that burden.  The night Morgan was murdered it was the perfect storm…everything went wrong for Morgan.  She didn’t want to sleep at home, she was scared.  She tried to sleep at a friends house, and when that didn’t work she tried to have another friend sleep over, and when that didn’t work she came home alone.

Steve and I were so exhausted we both made huge mistakes. Earlier in the evening we were all gone out of the house between 6:00 – 8:00 pm.  I shut the dogs up in the laundry room, so it was possible that a person could have come into our home while we were away, and hid out until all were asleep (we didn’t leave the dogs loose like we usually did, because Morgan’s puppy had just ripped up a stuffed animal), and when we returned home Steve turned off the driveway motion alarm, because every time the sheriff’s cruisers drove by it would go off and scare everyone awake in the middle of the night.

After Morgan went to sleep that night we closed the door to our room instead of leaving it open – we always left it open so our dog could guard the whole house (even though she wasn’t much of a guard dog, at least we hoped she could alert us if anything happened.)  Steve and I both took sleeping pills to insure a good nights sleep – normally we took turns, so one of us could be on alert.  Steve was always moving around the location of various motion detectors, and that day he had taken the detector from the back patio to the garage in order to paint it, so it would be more concealed…unfortunately this left the back of our house more accessible that night. And that night Morgan hadn’t managed to get a friend to sleep over, so she was now sleeping in her room alone, on the the other end of our house, approximately 55 feet away from us…much too far away, with both doors closed we couldn’t hear anything.  We thought because she had a panic/alarm button on her nightstand, as well as her cell phone in bed with her, that she could alert us if anything was wrong – she had used both many times.  This was not a good plan because obviously if she were asleep and someone came in her room they could have easily overpowered her in her before she could send a text from her phone of push her panic button…and that night someone tore her panic button off it’s mount and tossed it on the floor away from her bed, and as for her cell phone it was found the next morning under her bathroom door…I now wish we had had cameras inside our home, along with motion alarms inside our home, among so many other regrets.  I just really want others to know what went wrong for us – it may help them somewhere down the line to be more aware than we were of what could possibly happen.  A stalker is always watching – that’s what they do, and they can always wait for that one perfect moment to strike, while you on the other hand have to be hyper-vigilent 24/7.

fallredleavesSo again I will repeat that Fall is a beautiful time of the year, and nature has absolutely nothing to do with Morgan’s murder – only the person that made the choice to kill her, and steal her from this world.  I believe someday there will be justice for Morgan, and her murderer will receive his punishment, along with anyone who assisted or covered for him…just like Morgan’s murderer made a choice, anyone that knows what he did, and doesn’t come forward is just as responsible, and that is a choice that they are making.  It’s not too late for people that have information to come forward…it’s just too late for the one responsible for taking Morgan’s life.

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it 

Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

 

 

Is there Danger in the Roaring Fork Valley?

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peoniasThere is beauty everywhere you look in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado.  Nature is all around, but nature is not the cause of the danger.  The danger is caused by the lack of communication between victims and law enforcement.  Danger because things are not shared with the community.  Danger because of the lack of proper stalking protocol, danger to innocent people because stalking is not being taken seriously.  I would think after what happened to our 20 year old daughter Morgan, that the Garfield County Sheriff would rethink his policies and protocol, but it doesn’t seem like that has happened.  Nothing has changed, we are no longer living there, but I am still being contacted by people that do live there, are currently being stalked, and their cases are being treated the same way as Morgan’s case was treated.

Your elected officials need to know that you’re expecting them to protect, and defend your families and homes, they are supposed to work for you.  They need to know that their job is more than having their officers hand out tickets and fines.  When there is serious crime they need to have officers on their force that have been trained to deal with these situations, situations like kidnapping, rape, sexual assaults against children, stalking, and murder.  And yes, these things do happen in Garfield County, but people usually just don’t get to hear about them.  These are serious situations that happen there, and if there isn’t enough trained officers then they need to bring in another agency to assist, but DO NOT ignore serious crime, DO NOT sweep it under the rug and pretend it is not happening, DO NOT tell the victims and co-victims that there is not enough evidence – have trained law enforcement agents that know how to do an interview, know how to look for evidence, DO NOT just collect salaries to protect and serve and then just do the very least possible, leaving the citizens of your town or county to fend for themselves…there is a reason this is no longer the wild west, there is a reason we have law enforcement – law enforcement is supposed to serve and protect.

Morgan’s felony stalking detective came over for about an hour, once a week, most weeks, and would discuss tactics going forward that he wanted to implement in order to catch her stalker and make an arrest, but then those tactics were never employed – why?  Over and over again he would tell us he could not get approval for any additional hours, so instead of bringing in the dogs to track the stalker in the middle of the night as discussed, instead of doing a stake-out for more than an hour and a half on only one night in 4 months, instead of having batteries in their cameras that actually worked, instead of finding out where their suspect really lived and going there to interview him, instead of putting the suspect under surveillance (and I could go on and on, but won’t), why are they able to afford to put an officer less than a 1/2 mile from our house for 6 hours straight to catch speeders, but could not allocate time for a felony stalking that ultimately ended in a death…someone please tell me how this is even remotely sane, or logical?  Stalking protocol in places like Garfield County need to change, and they need to change now for everyone’s sake!

Right at this very moment there is a victim of stalking in the Roaring Fork Valley (yes, right where Morgan was stalked and killed).  She is scared for her life, and the life of her child.  Her stalker has done this before, he has stalked and kidnapped a former girlfriend, he did jail time for that, and has now been bonded out on this current stalking charge. These are repeat offenders.  They do not stop – the most they do is move on to another target.  At least this victim has a protection order, and if he is caught he should go back to jail.  But the key here is the word “caught” in order to be “caught” there needs to be something in place that will work, and currently there is nothing.

We need law enforcement to have early and effective risk identification, assessment and management to keep victims safe, and hold perpetrators accountable.  Take stalking seriously, speak with the victims, help implement protection orders, and inform the victims of their rights.

Change can, and will be made, and it will come about through the efforts of everyday people who love their families, want them to live a safe life, these are the people that will make this a better world, they will be the ones to change everything…everyday people like you and I.

Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For indeed, that’s all who ever have – Margaret Mead

 

 

Morgan skating with her brother – remembering fun birthdays…

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MorganskatingwithRyan copy

2 years ago a college student writes to raise awareness

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AspentreesfallToday I was organizing my notes and I came across the following submission. I received it 2 years ago on September 9, 2012.  It was from a college student that had read the blog and wanted to submit a paper about Morgan’s stalking and blog to her Speech Communications class, but wanted to run it by me first.

I was very touched back when I first read it, and this time around I was just as touched…my heart swelled with happiness when I thought of all the young people over the last few years that have contacted me to let me know how they feel about what happened to Morgan.  These submissions have made me believe that awareness has been raised, and will continue to be raised by all those that have come in contact with this case.  To date this website has now had over 5 million visitors from over 115 countries.

Morgan will receive justice one of these days, and my hope is when that justice comes, and light overcomes the darkness, the illumination from Morgan’s story will have a far-reaching effect on this world.

To this young writer I say thank you again for sharing Morgan’s story!

Morgan Ingram

You’ve probably never heard of the name above.  I recently just came to know of the 20 year old woman, Morgan Ingram from Colorado.  I don’t know Morgan or her family personally, but I’ve just started reading about her.  I know of her dog named Wylah, I know she always had a camera in her hand, I know she was an amazing painter, I know she loved hanging out with her friends, I know she had a wonderful relationship with her family, I know she was enrolled in classes at a Colorado college. I also know she was stalked and terrorized for four months, and I also know she is no longer with us on this Earth.

Morgan’s stalking and terrorizing started on August 2, 2011.  At first, just hearing noises. Noises that sounded like a tree branch rubbing against a window, a bird flying into a window, or even just the sounds of a house settling at the end of the night.  However, for the Ingram family, this was simply not the case.  From August 2, 2011 until December 2, 2011 Morgan was a victim of stalking.  It started out slow and then slowly began to escalate.  From throwing pebbles at the window to banging on their frosted bathroom window when she was showering.  Morgan started sleeping in her parents walk-in closet in the master bedroom.  When she wasn’t at home, she was with friends.  Because of this stalker, Morgans life, her families life, and everyone else around her life was affected.

Yes, I know what you’re thinking.  ”Didn’t the Ingram’s call the police?”  Of course they did.  Many times.  Unfortunately, it took many months for this case to move from only a misdemeanor trespassing case to a felony stalking case.  There was plenty of evidence that proved they in fact had a stalker targeting Morgan; footprints outside of her window, someone trying to enter their home by pushing the buttons to their keyless entry door and even a distinct trail visible on Google maps of a trail from the woods into their backyard.  The signs were all there, unfortunately, due to their interpretation of Colorado law, the police would only treat this as a trespassing case as mentioned above.

On December 2, 2011, Morgan Ingram left this world.  She was found by her parents in her room unresponsive.  The official cause of death was ruled “natural causes” (of a 20 year old, really?!) and then 9 months later was changed to “suicide.”  Now, as stated before, I don’t know Morgan or her family, but I do know, just by the accounts her mom, Toni, has told the world in her blog, that Morgan would not commit suicide.  She loved life and everything good life had to offer.  Yes, she was stalked and terrorized almost every day for four months, but this girl was strong.  Stronger than anything life could hand her, and in my heart I believe, as do many others ( Morgan’s Blog averages 250,000 views a week) that she was in fact killed, and did not take her own life.

Morgan’s mom, Toni, and dad Steve, have started a blog.  A blog dedicated to finding justice for Morgan and raising awareness about stalking.  Everyday during the four months Morgan was terrorized, Toni kept a journal.   Toni detailed every incident that happened, every text message sent, every photo taken, and every phone call made.  They now type those journal entries into their blog on the day they happened exactly one year ago.   They are showing the world what they went through, what Morgan went through and what millions of others are going through.  They are raising awareness of the murder of her daughter, and more importantly, using every resource they can, to find the person responsible for Morgan’s death and bring that person to justice.

Please visit Morgan’s blog.  The more people aware of what happened to Morgan, the closer the Ingram’s are to bringing her killer to justice.  https://morgansstalking.com/

The Ingram’s also have a Facebook page that you can visit and are encouraged to “like.” https://www.facebook.com/morgansstalking

Should victims of stalking in Colorado be in fear for their lives?

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I will continue to post on this blog about things Morgan like to cook, things she loved to do, and activities that she enjoyed…all in an effort to continue to keep her alive in the minds and hearts of everyone she touched before a stalker took everything from Morgan.  I will not allow her memory to be stolen from us like her physical body was.

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.

That being said, on this blog I would like to say something again about her stalking/murder, and subsequent misrepresentation of the facts of her case by not only law enforcement, but people out on the Internet, people that have no idea about the truth in this case.  What I would like them all to know is:

If the truth doesn’t come out in Morgan’s case then a predatory stalker/murderer (who in my opinion is a sexual sadist) will still be out there on the loose, and will most likely do this again.  We have pictures of the suspect at our house, Morgan identified him many times during the stalking, and the sheriffs knew exactly who the suspect was, and no the suspect was never “cleared”, in fact the following week after Morgan’s murder the “suspect’s” work hours were being collected to be compared to my timeline of the stalking events, Morgan was going to be giving her “official on tape” interview, and the felony stalking detective assured me that he was getting close to making an arrest.  Morgan was frightened, stressed, and exhausted from the stalking, and ultimately lost her life due to her stalker. I know the state of Colorado does not want this to happen to it’s citizens, but if they can not stop a law enforcement agency from lying about, and destroying evidence in a case so there can never be a case, then how can there ever be justice?  What does this say to other victims of stalking in Colorado – that they should be in fear for their lives?  Because so many who have reached out to me for help tell exactly that story – they fear for their lives.  A Garfield County Sheriffs Detective said, “There is no more Morgan, there is no more stalker,”, on the day she died.  Isn’t this sending a message to stalkers that if they kill their victim they won’t get arrested?  In the past Steve and I trusted law enforcement, but now we are far more skeptical.  And as for Garfield County, I have seen them at their worst, and it is not a pretty picture.  Many others have shared their personal experiences as well, and believe me it is not anything any “law abiding” department would be proud of.  And we truly hope when we are finally done with achieving the justice our daughter Morgan deserves, that all those involved in covering up this case will be held accountable.