Today’s post is not about a day in the history of Morgan’s investigation, it is just about a plain old day right from the start as I just left a store and witnessed something that is just not fair – to all the victims of peeping toms and stalkers, and whatever other individual names there are for, “offenses against the person”.
This incident I saw is off the record, so I won’t name names or even the store I was at, but it went like this…a single police officer arrives, the officer goes to a back office, there is a person waiting that is put in handcuffs. This is the first thing the officer does! And after a brief conversation, the officer takes the person to the squad car, actually it’s Colorado, so it’s an SUV, but this person is taken away to jail, bye-bye.
I honestly did not know what was going on, so I found out. And while this may be obvious to some, it turns out that this person was observed shoplifting, and was detained while the police were called, and came to arrest the person. It is not a common occurrence, but this is how it is handled when it does happen.
On my drive home, I became emotional about this simple observation of mine. Because Morgan, one evening, went against everything she had been told to do, and stopped her car, while being followed by her stalker, to get out and be able to positively identify him, as this had been a sticking point up until then. Morgan wanted it over, and she wanted to be sure that it was him.
But when we called the Garfield Sheriff’s Department, they did not arrest him, did not even go search him out and talk to him or question him, Morgan got the big “nothing.” Of course he would have denied it. I mean do they ever really admit it? The person in the store was in cuffs as they were advised of their rights, before they spoke a word.
Morgan encountered her stalker at an intersection numerous times on her way home from a class, which always ended at differing times, but within 10 or 15 minutes either way of the intended end time. These incidents were reported to Detective Glassmire sometimes one at a time, or sometimes more than one at a time. The detective said there was a trailer park somewhere back in the direction the suspect was coming from, and “surmised” K.V.G. “might” live there. So the detective said it was probably always just a chance meeting. My grandmother would have said, “bologna!”
I have to ask, have you ever made left turns at an intersection at random times, and found yourself saying – hey, there’s so and so again, making a left turn at the same time as me, we are going to meet right in the middle, and darn if he isn’t staring me down again, what a coincidence! Sorry, not possible…I have made that left turn easily over a hundred times, and never have seen him there once, let alone making a turn on the same light cycle as me, and even more remotely meeting in the middle of the intersection. Morgan makes the left turn seven times, and it happens six and that’s mere coincidence, I don’t think so. I have been assured that the statistical probability of this happening just by coincidence is off the charts. To think that this would not have taken surveillance, and precise timing to achieve, is pure fantasy.
Those encounters, just at the intersection alone, were not by chance, and as a part of Morgan’s stalking case meet the elements of stalking, where the state of Colorado, by legislative decree;
Recognizes the seriousness posed by stalking, and adopts the provisions of this part 6 with the goal of encouraging, and authorizing effective intervention before stalking can escalate into behavior that has even more serious consequences.
In case you want to read all about it – here is the link at the end of the paragraph. If you or someone you know, even thinks they are being stalked or has ever wanted to know what the State of Colorado believes should happen when stalking is suspected, it is very informative, and illuminating, and I can guarantee you the Sheriff’s Department never really discussed any of this with us, and oh how I wish they had – Colorado Stalking law .
So this person at the store is cuffed, and led away on a phone call, for a misdemeanor offense, but when the Sheriff’s are called about Morgan’s stalker, which is a felony case, and told that this happened, here he is, and, nothing… here he is again, and nothing… here he is again, and nothing again. Now she’s dead, the eyewitness is gone. It is not fair for the victims of stalking. And yes, I made the calls, because Morgan was, a) shaking like a leaf, b) crying, or, c) both, and yes, she did tell the officers in her own words when they arrived at our house. But the real question is the time when Morgan stopped the car, unlocked the door, and got out of the car, in order to positively identify K.V.G., when she knew she was being followed home one time, did she set off the events that led to her death? Was she now the only eyewitness, the one thing he can not have? I have never thought about this before, but now I have to really wonder.
So many of the stalking victims I talk to are so upset because, a) they feel as if they are not believed, b) the police won’t do anything to stop it or, c) both. If the legislative branch goes to all the trouble to draft and pass a law against stalking, and even calls it an, “extraordinary risk crime”, where does law enforcement get off reducing it to a nothing where the suspect isn’t even interviewed when identified, and then when I ask the detective 5 months after Morgan’s murder if he had ever been to the suspects new house, it actually turns out they never even knew where he lived after he moved out of our neighborhood.
How on earth can the Sheriffs report that they enforced that part of the statue that reads, “a peace officer shall have a duty to respond as soon as reasonably possible to a report of stalking, and to cooperate with the alleged victim in investigating the report”? This is a mystery to me.
But on the heels of that mental exercise, while I was driving home came really good news, and on a Sunday good news of this magnitude is unusual. A very big piece of Morgan’s case came together today, in what began as an innocent long shot idea for Steve almost a year ago.
To explain I have to share that when Morgan’s case goes to court I have been forewarned that the admissible part will be a most excruciating exercise in hair-splitting. I really don’t completely understand it all, but I do understand excruciating, in fact I talked about it yesterday.
The good news is there is a narrow stream that will undoubtedly survive all challenges and anything within that stream has become very exciting to me. My excitement stems from something I can’t tell you all just yet, but trust me, just knowing it exists has Morgan smiling, I’m sure. It is laboratory evidence, and it connects quite a few dots in a way that I really could not have foreseen. So a big quiet thanks to those out there who spent their time and made this happen, and you know who you are!
And I apologize for getting so excited over something I can’t tell anyone, but I just could not help myself. And I keep smiling, even in what seems to be the darkest hour, because if Morgan could do it, than I certainly can too…and we know there is light at the end of this really long tunnel we have been in.
