Morgan wasn’t a public figure, although she was very special to most of the people that knew her, but her stalker did live and work right by our house, so I have copied a piece of the study that discusses Type II category stalkers, which includes the Type 1 offenders. Unbeknownst to me Morgan’s stalker worked at City Market in El Jebel, where we would send Morgan by herself to pick up groceries when she had just gotten her license and was a new driver. The little five minute drive included parking in a lot and two stoplights. Or she could take the frontage roads and have an eight minute drive with no lights. Great practice for a new driver venturing out on her own for the first times.
We know the obsession with Morgan started long before we knew there was a problem, and we believe it was at that grocery store that he first saw Morgan, and began his deadly obsession. We also know, since many readers of the blog have come forward over the last year and shared their stories that the same M.O. has been happening in the subdivisions right across from ours. In our very limited way we have established that for at least 4 years before Morgan’s stalking this has been going on. There are reported incidents the summer before, and one even 2 weeks before, while Morgan was out of town. All of these more recent incidents were called in to the Garfield County Sheriff’s office. With that knowledge, the Sheriff’s office should have had a protocol that would have enabled them to assess Morgan’s situation. In view of a continued pattern in the immediate neighborhood they should have dealt with it in a completely different way than they did. This is just one thing that HAS to change or others will keep falling to the same fate as Morgan in this County. Meanwhile all I can tell you is there is an undeniable effort on the Counties part to try and cover it all up, pretend it is not happening or never happened. This blind eye approach can’t last forever. The word is out – and more people who spread the word, will raise awareness and they will make all the difference in the world, more victims will be protected, and they will demand that their law enforcement agencies do what is right.
Along these lines I would like to share a little bit of knowledge I have gleaned from a paper that was written about that typology…
Behavioral Sciences and the Law Behav. Sci. Law (2011) Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/bsl.975
Predictors of Recidivism by Stalkers: A Nine-year Follow-up of Police Contacts
Angela W. Eke, Ph.D.*, N. Zoe Hilton, Ph.D.y, J. Reid Meloy, Ph.D.z, Kris Mohandie, Ph.D.x and Jennette Williams, R.Dipl.$
To summarize the paper reports that in a study done on 78 offenders, 77% reoffended within an average follow-up of 106 months (8.8 years). Over half were charged for new stalking related offenses and 33% for violent recidivism. The existing literature predicted this violent reoffending, including sexual offenses, because of the known risk factors: first conviction at a younger age, prior release failures, and criminal history.
With Morgan’s stalker we now know that all of these things fit his profile.
Quoted from the Paper: Type II categories include Public Figure (targeting a victim whom they identified from their public or media appearances) and Private Stranger (pursuing a victim not previously known to ‘‘the stalker’’ but who lives or works within the stalker’s environment) stalkers who had no prior relationship with their targets. Overall, Type I offenders committed more threats and violence and, proportionally, included more males stalking females.
My hope is in the future a public outcry to law enforcement to change the “small town mentality” and stop using it as an excuse will bring about change. There is a suggested national protocol for law enforcement agencies that they can use and learn from to stop untold emotional trauma to stalking victims and also save lives. The figures vary widely but victims of violent stalkers lose their lives 9% to 18% of the time. If going to the grocery store netted you a 9-18% chance of being killed I bet you’d just go out to dinner.
But I want to question those number severely. Morgan was stalked and murdered. A forensic toxicologist is quite certain from all of her labs. A forensic Psychologist sees lethal danger every step of the way, and we really don’t have to wonder if he is right because Morgan is dead. The Sheriff announces he will never investigate, and the contracted pathologist for Garfield County (that did Morgan’s autopsy) calculates what all the numbers mean for Morgan and his math has a PhD of biological engineering from MIT shaking her head in disbelief. And then the pathologist points at the non investigation into her stalker as good rational that the stalker was not involved in her death.
There are some extremely good stalking laws that are also on the books, but are not being enforced – WHY NOT? The protection of our families from criminals should be a top priority – more so then writing speeding tickets or staking out bars. More laws are needed for victims, but I feel like the first thing we have to do is demand that the laws we already have in our state are upheld – and trust me they are not being upheld! Morgan’s murder was premeditated by a person with a criminal history that is a con man and a sociopath so there are people that try to protect him, do alibis for him, that are too afraid of him to come forward and give up the information that they have on him…but don’t worry because some people have been brave enough to come forward, and I feel like there are more that will be coming forward very soon now. The truth will not stay covered up for long.
Toni, this blog post so resonates with me. I have often wondered in the wake of my cyberstalking if he had become fixated on me even before I had the unfortunate moment of actually meeting him. Did he research and stalk me in private — unbeknownst to me — before I had the run-in through work on 2/14/07? I know it only took an hour or so for him to e-mail me after he met me and obviously, in the public eye (both him — through his media job and I — through the airing of my writing) would have known my name prior to the day he met me. I may never know the answer, beyond the knowledge of where it all led: from an e-mail that screamed “weird” but that I assumed was my over-reaction to years of sexual overtones, suggestions, etc. and in the end, a sociopathic and narcissistic manner of abuse, victim blaming, and what not that to this day has left me unable to sleep well, an emotional wreck, and feeling very hurt knowing he works and earns a paycheck, waltzing around like a saint, while I sit here in physical aches and pains, exhaustion, etc., always wondering in the back of my mind what else about me he is making up, researching or spreading in falseness. The knowledge that anything he says is lies is one thing; the fact he could — and did — convince others he did nothing wrong and I am entirely at fault leaves me feeling like there is no escape and that he can systematically destroy anything I try to do, because his lies are that convincing — even up against concrete evidence in his handwriting.
Like sweet Morgan, my creep has been a chronic drug abuser (arrested and paraded in handcuffs on Houston TV even — and still kept his job), he brags about how he is fortunate to work where he does because “while he never does anything wrong, he could get away with it if he did” and he thinks he is above the law — something that, thus far, has been proven accurate. He has convinced everyone around him that he’s a hardworker and good person and the reality is, he leads two lives. The life that he uses as a cover and the life that I knew — and still struggle to recover from now. And with every day that passes, I continue trying to be strong, trying to have faith that justice in the end will prevail, but finding myself in more and more physical pain and coming unglued more and more every day.
Thank you for sharing this. I can only hope and pray that the truth will not remain covered up for long in BOTH our cases. There is not a day that passes now that I don’t think of you and Morgan. I never knew her, but in my own way — through the murdering of my self-esteem — I feel where you are. I’m seeing the light and my strength fade away and I hate it, even if I fight it, because I want my carefree life back.
Thank you so much for writing in and what you say in your story is so similar to so many stories I have heard from people that write in to me. I am very sorry this has happened to you – these criminals are sick predators, and we need to have our law enforcement and judicial system wake up and do something about it to protect people like you and Morgan! Please let me know if there is anything I can do. All I can suggest is that you have to stay strong, take a self defense class if you need to. Tell everyone around you what is happening, keep a detailed log of events, put up some hidden cameras, and try to catch a good picture that you can use against him. And please, please be careful.
My hope in the future is to develop some kind of safe house situation all over that will not only take in and protect stalking victims but also their pets, even if it’s horses, lamas, or any kind of animal. Just like Morgan there are stalking victims that can’t, or won’t leave their pets, and they know the stalker will most likely kill the animals if they can.
Please never give up hope – there are so many people that are willing to help if we reach out. Take care!