What does it mean when the suspects don’t like what the victims of a crime have to say? Really? Because there are two choices for victims, go away and keep quiet, or tell what you really know, and see just where the proverbial chips fall.
Now of course the “alleged“ stalkers of Morgan, and the “alleged” killer of Morgan would like nothing more than for us to go away and keep quiet. They have not yet been charged with any crime, and they want to get back to their life. And does getting back to their life mean a new target, a new victim? Or is there a cooling off period, as the FBI believes a serial killer will have between kills? I believe it is some of both.
Morgan’s stalking was so much more than just stalking, when I type the words now, I can’t help but feel that “stalking” completely minimizes the crime(s). Not only was there stalking, a stranger stalker, bent on remaining unseen at all costs, most times he presented himself in the yard and he was wearing a mask that completely covered his face. Height and weight are hard to disguise, and he was all too constant with that part of the description. But then he was unique at times, in that once behind the wheel of his car he must have thought he was invisible, or that his windshield was a one way glass. And Morgan ID’d him every time, but one.
In addition to stalking then he should also be considered a peeping tom, standing at a bathroom window, and then knocking after some period of just watching. Some believe that the knocking was meant to startle, because he needed to see that expression of startle and fear too, in order to fulfill his fantasy, as if his existence is in some other realm. In Colorado it is called “Invasion of Privacy for Sexual Gratification” and that he did, right along with his stalking.
And of course he was eavesdropping, and anyone, “assisting,” him at any time did the same. How could they not have? If you are inches from a partially open window and watching, you will hear the talking, it’s hard to miss. Of all the Colorado Revised Statutes I have read and reread recently, trying to understand it as best I can, this is the simplest, most straight forward statute. They eavesdropped – all of them.
There was harassment too, and the Sheriffs favorite, trespassing. I mean he’s standing at her bathroom window, leaving footprints in the soil we’ve been instructed to keep watered, “for better prints,” he’s looking in the window at her, and when Morgan senses this and goes to close the window he bangs on it. I’m not a criminal law scholar, but does that sound like trespassing to you? And one last comment on the Sheriff’s, when you show up a half hour later, and he’s not standing right in those footprints at the window, as if he is magically glued to the ground…are you really surprised? Did you really think, all those times, that if you circle the house with a flashlight you are going to find him?
Steve and I were reacting, assessing, trying to make the world stop spinning after Morgan was killed. First a mystery, then natural causes, then sitting with the very first person not from Garfield County, not just medically brilliant in her own right, but instant access to all the medical brilliance she needs, just in case. And for her there is no doubt – Morgan’s death is anything but natural causes, it is a homicide!!! Try sitting through a meeting like that three months after your daughter’s death, and not being shocked to the core of your existence.
As if we needed it, agreement from those in the medical profession came as fast and furious as we wanted, or could handle. Then as we shared this with Garfield County, it then had to be a certain type of doctor, because the rest of them can’t testify we were told, when this is such a lie, doctors testify on death all the time, especially on appeal, when it really matters the most. I have read from court case after court case where the doctors testify, cardiologists about heart conditions, psychologists about behavior, oncologists about the behavior of cancers, neurologists about anomalies of the brain.
And right there, front and center, you’ve all seen it in a movie, or TV show, or even real life, the court reporter taking down every single word, and I have read those words, from doctors, which is why I say it was such a lie what we were told by Garfield County. But the forensic pathologist that did Morgan’s autopsy wanted a specific medical professional that was also from the state of Colorado to boot. As if there is different medical knowledge taught in other states, as if it’s not all the same. Did he want to exclude the uber experts from the world-renowned, top flight universities?
In the end it didn’t matter, because we have some really excellent forensic pathologists right here in Colorado. In a fortuitous turn of fate, his request was answered. And it was not just a difference of opinion between two doctors that quickly followed. It was a number that simply can not be that high, and ignored. It was about supposed genetic testing we had to pay 10’s of thousands of dollars for, or else – that on second opinion was not needed at all! It was about a medical condition that she was absolutely, never diagnosed with, that had found its way on to her Postmortem Examination Report as a cause of death, when it absolutely, positively can not be, and there was no forensic evidence that it was. It was about a study that was currently being conducted at the Mayo Clinic, another top flight research facility, and medical center that has helped to redefine medical diagnoses and care, also getting right to the bottom of things, and how Morgan’s tissue samples could be sent there for analysis at no cost, there would be answers, ones that you can take to court, but the forensic pathologist that did Morgan’s original autopsy did not send any samples to them.
Unfortunately, none of this ever happened! Because the contracted Forensic Pathologist the Garfield County hires would never get on the phone with the very person he insisted that we get, or else he would not talk to them. Confused? Believe me, so were we, and when it’s all about the murder of your youngest daughter, to call it mere confusion is also completely minimizing the feelings Steve and I were literally flooded with.
A search for the truth being conducted? In a suspicious, and unattended death? Hardly! I would call it Prima Fascia evidence of the complete opposite!
Right about this time, in the world that Steve and I were trying to desperately make sense out of, a real expert on National and International Terrorism had a talk with me. He had insights into what we were going through, and even compared some aspects to the fight against terrorism, that he has dedicated his life to. And of all the things that came out of that conversation, he ended it with a simple idea for me – start a blog.
Go away, and keep quiet would have been an option if her death had truly been, natural causes, but as the veritable “can of worms” handed to us by Garfield County opened further and further, it was not an option. By now the threats to revisit her death, if we did not give up, had started. And when every other doctor is shaking their head at Morgan’s death being natural causes, and the forensic pathologist is threatening you, there is no such thing as middle ground, so along with every other thing connected with her stalking, and death that was happening at the time, the option to go away was simply off the table – completely.
For two adults that are not even sure what a blog is, and having had a daughter that would always tell us that everything is done through social media nowadays, we just had to figure out what a blog was. It took us a long time, and how exactly it came to be, “launched,” on Father’s Day I don’t remember, but it was. As for terms, launched was really generous.
Right there, so clearly, and ever-present in my memory at the time was a poem Morgan had written about me of all people. I shared it with you all back in April and here is the link – A poem from Morgan. I love to talk so expressing myself in this blog was good for me, our family was so deeply wounded by everything that had, and was happening, and I was also just beginning to find out about the true extent, and reach of the true terror that stalking is. And I wanted the truth.
Now I wonder if my friend, the expert on terrorism, knew this all along, but chose not to tell me. The more I told the truth about Morgan’s stalking, and Morgan’s murder, the less the “alleged” staker(s) and the less the “alleged” murderer liked it. Even their parents joined in with the not liking it, at all. They threatened, they lied too, and some day we will perhaps sit in a room, and among all the others there will be that court reporter, taking down every single word along with sounds made by the person on the witness stand that are not even words at all, but sometimes the muffled shrieks tell far more than mere words. Maybe the “alleged” accomplice will have weeks to tell her side of the story, as has recently happened. And at the end there will be a judgment – one can only wish… My Nana talked to me about judgment day, I remember it well, I take it very seriously. And thank you Nana – I love you.
SO THERE – I have written an entire blog, almost, and not named one name, except for Nana, and poor Steve, but he always gets named. And seriously, has it changed anything? Has one single fact of Morgan’s stalking, and Morgan’s murder changed? Has it suddenly changed the fact that the Sheriff’s Detectives were finally 100% certain of the identity of her stalker, just days before she was killed?
Nothing in the facts has changed, not one single bit, because the truth never changes. There is still the incident when Morgan got out of her car, against all warnings, to see him face to face, just so she could be 100% certain for the Sheriff’s Department, who would accept nothing less. There are still all the incidents where Morgan saw him, face to face, and knew his name – first, last, and middle – and told the Sheriffs. There is still the altercation in the subdivision, witnessed and reported. There is still a crack, top to bottom, in the gutter, centered directly above where Morgan’s bedroom window was. There are still the figures caught on wildlife cams images, and on video. There is the person I myself saw on the porch, and at another time running across the driveway, and heard pressing of the buttons on our electronic front door lock. There is still the person who chose to terrorize Morgan as she let her puppy out to go potty in the early morning darkness, and if he was wearing a mask, and dressed all in black, was he really just trespassing? There is still the person who stood at her bathroom windows, watching Morgan bathe, and was he really still just trespassing? There are, without doubt, the twenty pieces of evidence present at her death scene, none of it collected, which is very unfortunate, only eclipsed by the fact that they existed, right there for all to see. And finally there is the forensic testing of Morgan’s samples, which, interpreted by an expert who does nothing but testify about what drugs do to a person and how they react after that person is dead, the story is all there. It is a brutal, and very cruel story of how Morgan was killed, and that will never change… and Steve and I can never bring her back – that too, will never change.
Morgan I’m quite certain would want to help others, in her life it was quite a passion of hers, so tightly woven into her planning of her future. So, still picking up the pieces and looking forward – it is just before 8:00 am in the morning in Colorado, and 117 people so far have entered some term about stalkers, and stalking into a search engine that has pulled up Morgan’s Stalking for them. And so much more than writing a blog this morning, I wish I could somehow end their stalking, along with all the fear and terror that goes with it, forever, but that is not something I can do… it is something we are all going to have to do together.
Stalking victims need to accept the help that comes, and to also to find help where they need it most, and to never ever forget this –
You did nothing to deserve being stalked!!! It is your stalker that is breaking the law, and they are the ones that need to be stopped.
that was some damn good advice your friend gave you; to start a blog. it has turned out to be such a great thing. not only for other victims, but, for you, too, im sure. you write so well, and your ideas and thoughts flow so nicely. I know you will get justice one day for Morgan. I pray that it is soon… keep up the hard work, Toni!! nothing worthwhile comes without a lot of hard work…i just wish it werent quite soooo hard for you, though…..Misty
Misty thank you so much! You are absolutely correct about anything worthwhile comes with a lot of hard work. One on the last series of pictures that Morgan took of herself was holding some ribbon that she had written on it said, “Fate, the illusion that you get the things you want without working for them”
I will try to add it to the post above so you can see it.
To the stalker and accomplice (who surely stalks this blog): There is NO Statute of Limitation on MURDER. May you live everyday AND night with the feeling YOU are being WATCHED until the time that you sit before the judge and jury because time for you IS running out. Each day that passes is one day closer to the day you are caught and handcuffed and led to face judgment and face Justice for Morgan.
Toni,
I hope your comment “the aleged accomplice will have weeks to tell her side” means what I think it does.
It seems to be happening more, and more these days, that women have a peripheral involvement in crimes that were more of a male gender only type of crime before, and when the time to go to trial comes, they end up on the stand. To compare directly to Morgan’s case, in the aftermath of the Dr. Phil show airing, while I am sure Brooke thought she was very convincing on camera, I received hundreds, and hundred of comments, and emails about her demeanor, body language, eyes, and everything she did, and they all said they basically the same thing – that it pointed to overall involvement & guilt.
And the closest thing to a jury of her peers, in Morgan’s case, to date the opinion was very unanimous that people thought Brooke was lying, had knowledge of the crime, and had no feeling, or compassion at all. So it will be interesting to see.
I watched the episode of Dr Phil, after years of being a fan, have not watched a day since. I was saying the same thing to my husband, Brooks body language, her eyes and catch me if you can attitude. Being a parents of kids her age she didn’t pull the wool over my eyes.
S – You are not the only one – I can’t even count how many people have verbalized the same thing you just said, and you said it so well. Thank you.
🙂
Thank you, thank you, thank you Susieanne!
I wish that could be my rally cry to every stalker out there, “May you live everyday AND night with the feeling YOU are being WATCHED until the time that you sit before the judge and jury, because time for you IS running out!” For every stalker that is not successfully prosecuted for the crimes he has committed there will be another victim, who should not have been a victim…it’s that simple!
You and I, and so many others know what it’s like to be a stalking victim, it is relentless, and justice has to be had, so this does not go on and on for others as well.
Law enforcement needs to know how to step in correctly, and to make a difference. They need all the right tools, which they do not have now. Fortunately most of it is knowledge, which can to be taught quickly, and inexpensively to an entire law enforcement agency. Once those at the top make the correct decision to take stalking seriously we will all see the change we are fighting for. Take care!