How could the sheriff’s never see the stalker?

Morgan’s stalking started with a clear pattern, the stalker would come, terrorize, and then leave, all unseen. We were never fast enough out the door to catch more than a glimpse, because he was outside hunting Morgan and then watching our response – provoking, then observing and measuring – predatory stalkers do this, it’s well documented. It was almost the same pattern almost every time and it became maddening, exhausting, and extremely upsetting for us all. There was no warning for Morgan that it was coming, then it would just happen.

The Sheriff’s also had a very similar pattern…

The typical Garfield County Sheriff response to a call about the stalker tapping or banging on her windows again.

This night it was a call to the sheriffs about how relentless the stalker was and the call was  made almost an hour earlier, before this was caught on video camera. The deputy parked out front and sat in his truck for a few minutes, very common, then he came over to shine the flashlight under Morgan’s window. They all knew exactly which window because they had been there and seen it so many times before. This time he did not circle the house, he just walked to the corner and then came back to her window. He seemed to see something on the ground and kicked at it with his foot, but he never knelt down the the ground for a closer look, he did not take any pictures, and while Colorado law is very clear that the sheriff’s must:

respond as soon as reasonably possible to a report of stalking and to cooperate with the alleged victim in investigating the report.  Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-3-602(7)

The deputy, or anyone else for that matter, never followed up with Morgan to get all the details, and they never did anything else to investigate her stalking, this was not just common it was every single time. The deputy then went out to sit in his truck for a few minutes before leaving. There was no report by the sheriffs of what actually happened, and obviously absolutely no, “cooperation with the victim in investigating the report.” Well over  a year after Morgan’s murder when we finally saw the sheriff’s reports for the first time, there was a reference to this incident that called it a, “trespass,” and that was it.  It is no wonder that Morgan at times believed the sheriff’s were doing nothing to catch or stop her stalker. Morgan was killed two nights after this incident.

Now… does anyone really think there was any chance this deputy is going to see the stalker? The stalker comes, terrorizes, then he observes from the darkness before leaving.  Steve always swore he could feel him out there in the darkness. Then, much later, long after the stalking incident was over, one or sometimes two deputies came, shined a light, talked, maybe walked around the house, then left. It was not even close to two ships passing in the night, it was two ships in opposite directions avoiding each other. This pattern of response had zero chance of ever seeing, much less catching the stalker. There needs to be education and training in order to help future victims of stalking.

If you are being stalked, you must know this – Most violent crime begins with some form of staking. If there is no investigation, they will never catch, or otherwise confront, the stalker, and until the stalker is confronted there is little chance the stalker will be stopped.

What is wrong with this picture?The man in the middle is a detective on the morning Morgan’s death scene was being investigated. He is taking video of the exterior of the house. He’s the one front and center, standing 50 feet away, the two men behind him are deputies. To the left are Morgan’s bedroom windows, the same windows that the deputy was looking under with his flashlight 2 days earlier.

The problem is where he stands right now is the closest he will come to Morgan’s windows. I will say it again, THAT IS AS CLOSE AS THE INVESTIGATOR WILL GET TO THIS ENTIRE SIDE OF THE HOUSE WHEN TAKING VIDEO ON THE DAY HER BODY WAS DISCOVERED! Even the deputies who responded to a stalking incident would walk right up to the windows and wave their flashlights at the ground. It’s how they saw footprints in the dirt, scuff marks, they touched her windows and wondered aloud how the stalker would make the banging noise that startled Morgan every time. In front of that is right where Detective Glassmire knelt to the ground 4 days earlier and tossed rocks he picked up from the ground and threw them against that window, saying, “there is your stalker!” Right before he told me Morgan’s stalking was expected to escalate.

But four days later, after she was discovered dead, the investigator at her death scene was satisfied to take one quick flash of video from all the way back where he stands.  Possible murder investigation or just going through the motions instead of investigating? Incompetence, or cover-up, call it whatever you want, but it was not an investigation. The back doors where we believe the stalker entered were not filmed either, nor were they fingerprinted, and the drapes were never touched from the inside, yet the sheriff’s can claim to be certain there was no sign of forced entry, when in reality that is just another false statement.

The night of Morgan’s murder everything went wrong…it was the perfect storm.

▪ It was one of the only two nights that week that Morgan wasn’t able to get a friend to sleep over on the couch.  Our bedroom was on the back of the house, and her room was on the front – very far apart. She was scared to sleep alone and could no longer handle sleeping on the floor of my closet for protection as she did for the first month of her stalking. She was very much looking forward to being gone babysitting for the families of military veterans over the weekend.

▪ The sheriffs had increased their patrols and since their large trucks would set off our front door motion detector alarm and wake us up, Steve turned it off that night after Morgan returned home at 9:03 pm so we could all get some sleep. All 3 of us were way beyond exhausted.

▪ We always left our dog loose in the house to watch over things while we slept, except on the nights when Morgan had friends sleep over.  That night we put her up in our bathroom, because earlier in the evening she had positioned herself by the front door to watch out the window, and we thought she would keep us and Morgan awake all night.

▪ We made all these mistakes -plus so many more that night.  We had no idea what was about to happen.  When you have a stalker you think that you have gone through all the motions before you go to sleep at night, but you never remember all of them, and as soon as there is a crack to squeeze through stalkers always manage to find that crack… it makes me physically ill to think about all the mistakes we made, especially since that very night my “intuition” was screaming at me, I was so worried, and yet I did not listen to myself.  So now I always remind everyone to LISTEN TO YOUR INTUITION!

▪ The night before Morgan was murdered she asked her father to buy her a knife, which he did.  She had it in bed with her when we found her body.  This is how scared she really was.

And really:

• Morgan did not take the car without permission…this is such a ridiculous statement, and the sheriffs knew they misstated (or lied) about that. Morgan had an old Rover, which she loved, but it also had over 250,000 miles on it and Steve did not trust for Morgan to be driving it while she was being stalked – we were frightened it would break down on the road and leave her vulnerable. So Morgan and I shared my car, she drove it 75% of the time and I drove it ~ 25% of the time. She never needed “permission” to drive it, we just coordinated or drove together.  The last day before she was murdered she told me she would be gone between 2 – 4 pm approximately, at which time she would return so we could run errands together, one of our favorite mom/daughter things that we did.  At around 4:15 or so I texted her cell phone to see where she was.  I was worried (because she had a STALKER and I couldn’t reach her, not because the car was gone!)  Any parent would have been just as concerned as I was.  Steve came home and sent her a text message around 6 pm and she answered him.  She apologized by text for missing my earlier calls and the sheriff’s saw those texts. So why would they even say that Morgan took the car without permission? It’s incorrect and they know it. So basically she was out of pocket for 2 hours, I was worried, she did speak with us and apologized, she told us she was safe, and where she was, we told her that we would let her know when we get home so she could come home, that was our stalking protocol…she did not want to come home to an empty house because she was SCARED of her stalker.  I hope that clears that up.
• Morgan was not out partying with friends that night – she got home at 9:03 pm and did not leave again.This is a picture of Morgan arriving home after trying to sleep at a friend’s Aunt’s house on their couch, and when that didn’t work out she went to ask another friend if he would sleep over our house, but that didn’t pan out either so she came home alone.  She wasn’t trying to stay away from home because of her parents – that is one of the stupidest thing so far that I have heard…she had a predatory stalker and she was afraid to sleep alone and she had every reason to be afraid. The Colorado statutes spell out the terror of stalking, and Morgan was living it. Everyone failed her, and the sheriff’s would rather blame the victim then man up and admit they made a mistake. How brave they are.  If people can’t understand why a victim of stalking would be afraid then I suggest they read the Colorado Legislative Decree on stalking, they understood it and they summed it up well. Morgan had every reason to be afraid that night, the stalker’s pattern had changed again – and then she was murdered.
• The backpack that was reported found in the car with alcohol in it was not Morgan’s and the alcohol was not hers. WE have the video of her ex-byfriend putting it in the front of the car. His driver’s license was in it, that’s how the sheriffs were able to investigate and know who’s backpack it was and give it back to him. SO – why would they associate the backpack with Morgan? It was my car and his backpack, they figured it out and returned it to him. Just another “blame the victim” rather than man-up??? Again, how very brave of them or was there another reason to try to mislead people with their reports?
• The pipe found in her room was not hers, but it did belong to her friend, the friend that had just slept over the night before her murder, and it was also given back to him.  These are all provable FACTS. And just in case there is still a question, just as I, or any of Morgan’s friends would have expected, Morgan had no alcohol or illegal drugs on her toxicology reports. False reporting is not investigating, so why all the false reporting?  More lies in order to muddy the waters and keep people from knowing the truth – she was a victim of stalking and she was murdered by her stalker(s).  Remember justice delayed is justice denied.