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!
I read this quote by this medical examiner about how this doctor’s cause of death was “highly suspicious”. I wonder if you can find out what their protocol is for testing in the case of a “highly suspicious death”. I know you would liked to have heard these same words from the medical examiner who examined Morgan and you should have heard these words! The FBI is getting involved in this doctor’s suspicious death investigation. Are they getting involved in Morgan’s? If not, why?
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/03/us/pennsylvania-doctor-suspicious-death
The person that did the autopsy on Morgan was a contracted Forensic Pathologist from Mesa County, Dr. Kurtzman, not a Medical Examiner, and even though he wrote on her first PER, “Due to an active stalking investigation at the time of this report, and the potential influence of stress, the manner of death may be reclassified if additional pertinent information becomes available.”
Steve and I have what we think is information that will get the FBI involved, but if you have any ideas email me through the contact button on the website – thanks Catherine.
Hi Toni and Steve, please excuse my ignorance, but why wasn’t a Medical Examiner used? What is the difference between a contracted Forensic Pathologist and a Medical Examiner? Was he contracted by the Sheriff’s department? Doesn’t every county have a Medical Examiner? Or do some counties contract out because they don’t have a great need for a Medical Examiner? (The picture of Morgan by the window is haunting. I am so sorry for your loss). I pray for justice for Morgan.
Not every County in Colorado has their own Forensic Pathologist, or Medical Examiner…our County of Garfield is one of the Counties in Colorado that does not have one so they contract out to a forensic pathologist. And there is a difference between a forensic pathologist, and a Medical Examiner. A Medical Examiner has the governmental authority combined with medical expertise, whereas unfortunately for us Morgan’s autopsy was performed by a forensic pathologist who is a DO not an MD, which would be insignificant if he was willing to take input from other more qualified professionals, but he was not.
For example Morgan’s doctor from UCLA Medical Center is a very esteemed doctor, and professor, and being at UCLA she has access to all of the immense resources of UCLA – she told the pathologist that Morgan never had Porphyria, and he proceeded to argue with her, which was embarrassing at best, and ludicrous at worse. And sadly enough if the pathologist makes a decision, and the Coroner (who has no medical training) goes along with that decision, then the truth doesn’t really seem to matter only that one decision is what matters. To make this even more confusing for some, in Colorado Coroners get elected to that position, but are not required to have any medical training – which is the case here for the Coroner here in Garfield County, Trey Holt.
Thanks Catherine for all your prayers – hugs.