To us everything looked wrong, horribly wrong. Were Steve and I fighting a realization from the very first instant? Did we see and know more than we could process? I believe so, a year and a half later strange as it sounds I can think back on that day, and remember details that I could not at all in the first few weeks. At the beginning Steve and I were in some internal turmoil to come to grips with the fact that our daughter was dead, and we focused immediately on her, not things around her, then came shock. But we did register the facts, far more that we would have ever realized. I don’t know how it is for others faced with this kind of situation, but that is how it has been for Steve and me.
After that meeting with Morgan’s doctor in Los Angeles, and homicide became a certainty in her opinion, a lot of different questions started coming up. First was the obvious, was someone in her room? And then questions centered on Wylah, Morgan’s puppy, a little over 6 months old that morning. Why didn’t Wylah sound the alarm the night before if someone was in her room? How could she have never made a sound, never barked? It seemed to rule out an intruder actually in her room that night. I’m reading a book on crime scene investigation, and this is a common mistake. As in MISTAKE! We did not have an answer for months until Steve was talking with an investigator (not a Garfield County Sheriffs Department investigator), and their conversation was very slow and relaxed, detail by detail, and Steve remembered Wylah, sitting on the bed in the morning, looking dazed, and motionless as the activity by first responders was frenetic. They rushed in and backed out of the room as Wylah looked on in silence, he pictured it perfectly. He remembers asking a first responder if he should get Morgan’s pets out of the room for them. He glanced at Wylah just sitting there on the bed and said no.
While that alone does not prove someone was in Morgan’s room it’s an example of how using the dog’s lack of barking to rule out an intruder was so short-sighted, and displayed poor investigative skills on our part. Now I’ll give you another example.
A Garfield County Detective Sergeant noted in his report from the death scene some, “blanching on her chest area, and left arm as she had been reportedly found lying on her stomach.” Morgan was found on her side, not her stomach. Position of the body at the time of discovery – completely wrong. Does it matter? YES! I have been told that bodies on their side do different things and present differently than bodies on their stomach. As more and more facts come my way it seems as if every tiny detail has significance in a thorough investigation.
I was the one that found her and Steve was there right after, and we are both absolutely sure of the position Morgan was in. When I saw the first PER I noted the wrong body position being put in the report, among many other mistakes, and wrote around a six page letter correcting every one.
What kind of investigation can be expected when the position of the body, when first discovered, can not be ascertained from the first person who saw her, and then correctly shared with the other investigators? Perhaps that’s just another reason the Honorable DA decided that the Sheriff’s Department had completely botched the crime scene. Or maybe he was told the correct position, and he just forgot. But since Morgan only had about a paragraph or two of his time he should have at least gotten the facts right.
Then came the statement that I don’t know how to respond to. To an untrained eye such as Steve and I must possess we see signs there was a struggle in Morgan’s room, it did not look as it had the day before, or the night before. Panic button torn from the nightstand, thrown aside with her clothes piled on top of it, jewelry boxes emptied of valuable jewelry, why were piles of freshly laundered, and folded clothes the night before all knocked over, on and on. But to the trained eye of a Garfield County Sheriff Detective he sees one thing – “Her bedroom was in disarray, slovenly in fact. There were numerous items on the floor.”
SO – My daughter had been stalked for four months, the Tuesday before her death, only two days, our detective had proclaimed 100% certainty that Keenan VanGinkel was her stalker. He had stated the stalking was going to escalate on that same day. Officers on stepped up patrols were searching exclusively up on the roof with their search light the night of her murder. According to official reports, our Detective notes that he divulged the date of Morgan’s interview with the Sheriffs department to James Harris, AKA Jim Harris approximately a week before she was killed. This has been identified as a huge rookie mistake, endangering the victim. James certainly talks to his daughter Brooke Harris, and she would pass this bit along to the prime suspect Keenan VanGinkel. It is not too far of a stretch to think Keenan also knew that the interview of Morgan had the potential to sink him. Was that more motivation to murder our daughter?
Through the ordeal that was her stalking, Morgan had lost interest in her room, remember she spent large periods of time sleeping in our closet – because she didn’t feel safe in her room – because she was suffering serious emotional distress. The General Assembly of Colorado recognizes that stalking involves highly inappropriate intensity, persistence, and possessiveness, it entails great unpredictability and creates great stress, and fear for the victim. Also that stalking involves severe intrusions on the victim’s personal privacy and autonomy, with an immediate and long-lasting impact on quality of life. And remember one of Morgan’s routines was to clean her room on Fridays?
Morgan’s life has been turned completely upside down. Victims rights promises that she will be treated with fairness, respect, and dignity. All this and an honest to God sworn to protect us Garfield Sheriff’s Detective looks at Morgan’s room, her dead body lying on the floor and takes notes, he knows, or should have known all of the facts presented here and he produces a report that claims to provide his knowledge and insight. He sees Morgan’s room as “in disarray,” with “numerous items on the floor.” A struggle? No he sees or notes no sign of one of those. If Morgan was ever in a do or die, brief struggle for her life she might well have ended up with blood in her mouth, a thumb sized bruise on her forehead, abrasions on her hand, torn nails, and yes her room might have even gotten a little disarray, with items on the floor, whole piles of laundry knocked over onto the floor.
And not many people except the Garfield Sheriffs detectives and Kennan’s family and friends can process all this information, and find nothing wrong – no need to even open an investigation – absolutely nothing to follow up on. And the stalker & peeping tom that for four months that terrorized Morgan and our family? No need to catch him either, he will never do it again, the residents of the county, all the other young women who live in Garfield are safe. And of course the stalker could not be the murderer – right? As stalking and sexual crimes expert, Mark Wynn would say, “that is just tombstone mentality.”
But really I believe the solution lies in actions and answers before her death. Morgan needed her victims rights before she died. A more inclusive, more thorough investigation of her stalking. It will be a huge goal, and measure of success for the Morgan Ingram Foundation.
