Tag Archives: Stalking

Monday, April 23 – 25, 2012…we will never, ever give up Morgan!

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Morgan cooking in the kitchen, wearing her great-grandmother’s apron – she loved to bake.

Monday, April 23, 2012

I received a call back today from Dr. Dobersen, who had been referred to me by Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons (FOHVAMP) to give a second opinion of Morgan’s death, if it turned out that we needed one.

Just to be absolutely clear here, at this point in time I had not sent Dr. Dobersen Morgan’s PER or Toxicology results yet, I was just asking him some general questions earlier in the day.  I still felt very protective about Morgan, and was not at all willing to just start handing out all her information.

Surprisingly Dr. Dobersen had been able to tell me quite a lot with very little information.  He assured me that Dr. Kurtzman (the forensic pathologist that did Morgan’s autopsy) could not put Porphyria down as a cause of death if Morgan had never been diagnosed with it by a medical doctor in her lifetime, it was required, and of course she was had not been diagnosed with it.  After finding out that the cost of genetic testing would easily be over $12,000, the day had been very upsetting up until that very moment.

I have never, to this day, gotten an answer to the question of why Porphyria was a cause of death for Morgan.  Her doctors and referred specialists at UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles were shocked to hear that it was on her PER, because she never had it.  And her doctors here in Colorado also disagreed completely.  Once again it was Kurtzman vs. the medical community of the country, and nobody was agreeing with his opinion.

The next really great news was that if an arrhythmia was suspected, Dr. Kurtzman should have taken a frozen slide of her heart.  The actual simple question of did you, or did you not take histilogical samples has never been answered by Dr. Kurtzman.  I have been told it is a requirement of Colorado Statutes, but can I assume this was done, doubtful.  Anyway there was a research study underway at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester – and they would test Morgan’s histological samples at no charge as part of their ongoing study to improve knowledge.  Dr. Dobersen had offered to handle the transfer of Morgan’s samples to the Mayo Clinic for study in case Dr. Kurtzman was not familiar with the process.

Then Dr. Dobersen told me that based upon what little I had told him, Morgan’s death should have been listed as “ undetermined”, at the very least, until an investigation had determined what had killed Morgan, especially with the ongoing stalking, and terror situation that she was living in.  Believe me, I was pinching myself at the moment to make sure this was not a dream.

Dr. Dobersen was a Board Certified Forensic Pathologist, Coroner/Medical Examiner for Arapahoe County, Colorado, and past president of the Colorado Coroners Association.

He was polite, answered every question, and made sense.  He is well respected within the state of Colorado, and I can tell you from personal experience, he is also well respected across the country.  It was such a great gift that I will never question when I was referred to him for a “few questions.”  Dr. Dobersen has been called the physician for the victim, he has helped tell the story for so many victims that can no longer speak for themselves – he makes sure he gets ALL the facts straight when he does a complete autopsy.

My attitude about Morgan’s investigation or should I say lack of an investigation started to change.  I felt she deserved more than she had gotten, and I believed asking and pointing out deficiencies would be the way to approach it.  I felt that our law and order wanted the best for its citizens, they just needed help.  And I had found a few sources.

Then, out of the blue, I asked Steve why were Morgan’s down comforter sheet, and 2 pillow cases not collected?  Or the knife she had just asked Steve to buy her the night before, when she was so scared (it was lying in bed by her side when I found her) – why wasn’t it taken to be tested for finger prints?  Where are the pajamas Morgan was wearing when Steve said good night to her?  We haven’t found them and nobody cares.  Can the clothes she was found in still be tested for fluids?  What about testing for the dye from the massive dose of Amitriptyline found in her body verses the old pills that she still had in a bottle in our room?  Was this even possible?  Did the sheriff’s find any container or syringe in her room when they went through it? The first responders and the sheriffs told us they did not find anything like that – and we did not either.  There was suddenly hope, there was a scientific path to Morgan’s death, there were questions that could be answered.

And then Steve looked at me and said, “I’m sure the sheriff’s have thought of all these things, and have done them”…unfortunately, right at that second, I believe Steve was wrong.  I believed that he was guilty of that same thing I had been guilty up until that second, believing the authorities 100% and not questioning.  I asked him to think that statement through again, slowly…

Now, today, in 2013 we believe that the sheriff’s, and the coroner’s office did not want to look for anything suspicious, they did not want a homicide, no, no, not in Garfield County – why couldn’t we just believe them and go away like good little parents who have lost their healthy 20-year-old daughter, who was being stalked, and had suddenly died?  Are they serious?  Did they really think we would succumb to our deep, tremendous grief, and become ghosts ourselves?  There is absolutely,  NO WAY!  Our family is not like that, Morgan never gave up, we never give up…it is not in our DNA!  And when I say family I mean family…this has by far been the biggest challenge our family has ever faced, but we face it together.  We may all deal with it differently, but just like our oldest daughter, and our son have both said over and over again, “We trust you and support you Mom & Dad, and don’t ever give up on this, Morgan was far too special.”

Their encouragement, along with Steve’s family, my family, Morgan’s friends, and all of our friends, have kept us going this whole time, even on days that were so hard we could barely get out of bed knowing we had to keep reliving the loss of Morgan over and over again in order to tell her story.  This has become so multi-layered, and so complex now as we have come to find out more, and more things about this case about our daughter being murdered, and its relationship to other cases of parents that have lost their children to murder, and where the investigation was completely dropped.

I don’t care if the excuse is lack of funds, lack of manpower, lack of training, lack of interest, trying to keep the stats low, whatever the excuse is, we are talking about someone that was extremely loved, that has now been taken from this world – there should be no excuse for lack of an investigation.  If any of you were ever killed you would assume that your death would deserve a complete and thorough investigation.  You would expect and deserve the complete opposite of what Morgan was given, every human being is worth it.  Because without that simple expectation being true, law and order is but a farce.  And if there is still a murderer out there, can anyone guarantee you that it will not happen again to someone else, and their family, nobody!

We intend to never stop seeking justice for Morgan through legal channels, in order to show others a road map to follow in the future – we have made so many mistakes in during her stalking, and in our attempts to seek justice, but if we are transparent about our mistakes, I hope it will help others from making the same mistakes, just like any successes we make along the way, if shared, will show others what may work for them.

Wednesday, April 25th

Our good friend and retired Federal Investigator came over today.  Being a former Federal Investigator when he went out on a case, every case was resolved…it was expected.  He met with Detective Rob Glassmire @ 6:30 pm in Glenwood to verbally review all the evidence and discuss what they were doing now, then came back to our house, had dinner, and discussed the case with us.  We stayed up for hours and went through it with him very thoroughly.  He asked us questions as though he were doing a Federal case, including all the questions they would ask if there were any chance it could be a suicide.  He knew Morgan for years, and did not think it could be a suicide, but he said if he didn’t know her, and this was his case that would always be one of the first things he would need to rule out.  Now remember at this the forensic pathologist had determined she died of natural causes, but because he was a top investigator in his time he asked all the questions he would ask in a case where he did not know the victim.  We answered truthfully every question he asked.  Now why were we never asked these questions from our detective?  It was now determined by our friend that she did not commit suicide, that the death scene was bungled, and it was extremely easy to gain access to our home undetected.  We were extremely upset, but not surprised.  He gave us a road map of what he considered we should do to try to find more answers, and move the case along.  And our journey continues…for the love of our daughter and other daughters as well.

 

Friday, April 20, 2012 – A few moments with Morgan’s contracted Forensic Pathologist

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Today (last year) Dr. Kurtzman called me, by now the doctors, and professors at UCLA Medical Center had come to the conclusion that Dr. Kurtzman was not receptive at all to established medical fact.  He started the conversation by stating he cannot reclassify Morgan’s death at this time to anything, but natural causes because unless he knows for sure that she didn’t have Porphyria he can’t rule that out, and it could have killed her, even if I did not want to, “admit that”.  I was never really quite sure what he mean by that statement.

I told Dr. Kurtzman facts that doctors far more qualified to talk about Morgan medically already had.  I told him Morgan was never diagnosed with it, and then he said I was forgetting that she took Amitriptyline for her Porphyria.  I told him that was completely false.  I went on to correct the history of Morgan’s medications, and offered to get pharmacy records, her doctor’s records.  I did not question why he had not requested any of this most basic medical information for Morgan before concluding her autopsy based upon completely missing and erroneous information.  My goal was to perhaps introduce one piece of evidence at a time for him, he was very touchy if questioned about anything he had done.  Dr. Kurtzman again told me that of course she was talking Amitriptyline, it was in her labs.

I openly ask the world at this point a few things.  Sheriff’s reports, hundreds and hundreds of pages, not seventy-five, include multiple medications they say Morgan was taking, that she was not, and were not found in her “labs” either.  The Sheriff’s reports also include the condition she was taking the prescription medications for, which she was not even taking, and she never took medications for the condition they are saying she took them for, she had never been diagnosed with any of those conditions, so:

  1. Why are Sheriffs trying to compile a list of the medications that Morgan was taking, they have no right under state or federal law to access any of her actual records, in fact they are completely barred from accessing her records.  Yet they write reports as to what medications Morgan was taking, and purport to know why.  And I should not have to say this because I believe they are in violation of her HIPAA rights, but they are completely wrong about what prescriptions she took, completely wrong about what conditions she might have had, and obviously not being doctors they do not have the expertise to make these statements in their report…but that didn’t stop them, they did it anyway.
  2. I do not know if their reports were used by the Coroner or his contracted pathologist to arrive at important conclusions.  But I certainly hope that is not the case.  As we all know the Coroner or his contracted pathologist will never answer any of this so what sane way do we have to deal with these people?  Especially when they refuse to treat victims with dignity and respect.  What am I left to do about Morgan’s victims rights?
  3. Why is the contacted pathologist so hung up on a condition she never had?  You would think that if we put him in touch with her doctors, who knows she never had the Condition he is stating caused her to die from natural causes, then we could move on, but no that is not possible.  Can’t let any truth seep in here.
  4. Is there any wonder why the Honorable District Attorney feels the Sheriff’s Department has so thoroughly botched the crime scene investigation that they are not sure what can be done?        

Back to the conversation with Kurtzman, I asked him what it was going to take to move on from this Porphyria endless loop.  He said if we had her blood genetically tested, of course this would have to be at our expense, to prove she did not have Porphyria then he could take that off of his report. He said he cannot take the word of a doctor or doctors in this case anymore, that he would need to get information from another pathologist, preferably from the State of Colorado.  He said unless a pathologist tells him that she could have died from death by fright he can’t put that down on her death certificate.  He said she would need an underlying malady like QT syndrome, and then he gave me the name of a lab to look up that could do the testing, also at our expense.  He said an underlying malady could make her prone to sudden death.

He said her full manner of death is cardiac & pulmonary edema.  I did not mention that he wrote pulmonary edema on the original autopsy report.  He said the cause can’t be changed at this time.  I asked about the Amitriptyline numbers and he started to talk about Post-mortem redistribution and then got vague again.  He said once again that he found no pills or fragments of pills in Morgan’s stomach so he could not say her death was a suicide or accidental overdose.  There is a disturbing trend that whenever I mention during this conversation about Porphyria never being a diagnosis and that it should come off of his, “Natural Causes”, conclusion he brings up Amitriptyline and the specter of the very high numbers, and that he could have looked at suicide or accidental overdose except that they were not pills in her stomach.

He then went into all of the various ways we could use genetic testing to  establish sudden death.  I asked him if he tested for poisons – he said the testing is very expensive, so there are things they do not test for unless instructed to such as cyanide, etc.

Th conversation was ending and I summarized by saying, Dr. Kurtzman, “so my job this week is to get the hospital results from Children’s Hospital to see if Morgan ever had an EKG and to look up on the Internet the Labs you just told me about to see what the costs are for the testing and discuss with my husband and decide if we can afford to have her remaining blood sample tested for these genetic things that we just discussed to rule in or out and then get back to you by the end of this week.”  Dr. Kurtzman said yes please call me to let me know.

I called and left a message for Dr. Michael Dobersen to call back when he returned to his office on Monday.  A very helpful person in Denver had recommended him in case I needed a second opinion and it seemed as if we did at this point.

Am I an accuser or just stating facts?

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Am I telling of facts, or am I an accuser, there is a difference, isn’t there?  While the tag of “accuser”  has been hurled at me as if it is the most egregious transgression one can make, I know it is not true at all.  If my statements were false they may slander, they may even endanger, and I want to address this idea, and I also want to share a quote from the publisher who started the Aspen Daily News many years ago – “if you don’t want it printed, don’t let it happen” The City of Aspen, Colorado lived under this statement for decades, and still does today.

But stepping back a little, first a crime is committed, a woman is raped, beaten, and she sees her rapist, perhaps even picks him from a lineup, law enforcement is really on it.  She knows who did it.  But there has not been a trial yet.  And this woman who was raped, beaten, and saw her rapist names him.  Yes, she tells one person, or tells a thousand that she knows who did it and she knows his name.  Does she slander him? No, he raped and beat her, and all she does is say the name of the man she knows to have done this atrocity to her.

In this world of justice would you rather a man capable of such a crime to be named to warn others, or is it PC to stick with a vague description, but no name?  The criminal has rights, yes indeed.  The criminal’s rights begin to end right when he commits a crime. The right to be free before he is tried is not even guaranteed.  He will be incarcerated unless he is granted bail, as he awaits trial.  Sometimes he is allowed bail, sometimes he isn’t.  His name is put in the news before trial, people tell other people about him before he goes to trial, his name is everywhere before he is determined to be guilty, or not guilty, and this is fact.

Morgan saw her stalker (not just his car, but also his face), while she was being stalked, at an intersection, at least four times. She saw him, and reported him by name (this is while there was a felony stalking case open to help her, and catch the suspect).  And just so you know it was not just any meeting, he managed to be exactly in the middle of the intersection turning left to go down valley at the exact same time she was turning left to go up valley.  Try it sometime…pick out a random car at a busy intersection and attempt to make a left turn at exactly the same time so you can come eye to eye with the driver of that random car as you pass in the middle of the intersection.  I couldn’t do it.  There are cars in front of you that mess with your timing, if they don’t turn you can’t either.  The random car you are trying to meet up with has cars in front of it.  Some drivers are more aggressive than others. I never came close.  The driver would have had to pull over (and there is a perfect spot for it) and wait until he saw your car coming down the hill, across the highway, and then he could have timed it perfectly.

Keenan did this as part of Morgan’s stalking consecutively, and he would then engage in a cold threatening stare that Morgan said severely frightened her, causing extreme stress which would not pass in seconds, or minutes.  Morgan would still be shaking when she got home, angry and scared, and I would hold her for the longest time.  And these weren’t the only times she actually saw him and reported it.

Trying to calm a person that has been scared very badly is never easy, when it is your daughter there is another hurt that permeates, the wish to thrash out, the mothering instinct that says you have to protect your child.

Morgan named him based upon a positive identification, with certainty, to classmates, instructors, friends, her parents, Deputies, and Detectives.

Why do you think Keenan Van Ginkel was named so many times in the Sheriff’s reports? That is in the ‘REAL’ Sheriffs reports, and even they are far from correct, and complete.  But that too will come another day.

And is this why she was killed? Was Morgan murdered days before she was to give video testimony before the Detectives?  Is the state of law in Garfield County really such that if you murder your victim days before they give their testimony on camera about you, then there was no crime?  Seems to be exactly what happened in this case.  Wouldn’t you be furious?  Wouldn’t you want to give a voice to your murdered child who can no longer speak out?

And just to keep a perfect record, kind of like our murder rate here in Garfield County, do you know that none of these friends, instructors, classmates were ever interviewed during Morgan’s Stalking?  Not even a phone call.  They have spoken to me and can not understand why the Detective would not have taken their statement.  Why?  And after her death none of them including us, Steve and I, her parents were ever interviewed about actual eyewitness sightings of her stalker.  “We follow the facts and see where they lead us”.  Which part of that got left out of the investigation of Morgan’s Stalking and death?  Sometimes I feel like all of it did.

F.Y.I. – MARK YOUR CALENDAR FOR A MILESTONE CELEBRATION – NOTICE FROM COVA

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Mark Your Calendar and
Join us for a Milestone Celebration!
Please join us during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week as we honor Colorado’s Victims and Victim Advocates in a unique and historic event celebrating the 20th anniversary of

Colorado’s Victims’ Rights Act

Celebration will include honoring victim advocates and the work that they do everyday as well as a special presentation recognizing the Aurora Police Department’s Victim Services Unit for they work they did with the victims of the Century Theater tragedy.

Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

11:30 am-1:00 pm

Wellington Webb Building

201 West Colfax, Denver, 80202

Light refreshments will be served

Fairness, Respect, Dignity …20 Years of Victims’ Rights

1993-2013

Honoring the Past, Appreciating the Present,

Looking Towards the Future

A community event sponsored by: Colorado Division of Criminal Justice: Office for Victims Programs, COVA, Denver District Attorney’s Office, Denver City Attorney’s Office, Denver Police Department: Victim Assistance Unit, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Voices of Victims, Parents of Murdered Children

A year ago this week was a busy time.

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Tuesday, April 10, 2012 – I went down to the Glenwood Springs Police Station to ask for a copy of Keenan’s arrest warrant for 12/23/2012.  I ended up standing at the counter for the longest time and finally they could not find the report in the system, which they said was odd, and had no explanation for, so they gave me paperwork to fill out and sent me to the District Attorney’s office.

Oddly again the DA’s office could not find the paperwork, so I gave them the abbreviated version of Morgan’s story and asked them to have the arresting officer call me.  I also asked them to call me when they find the report so I can pick up a copy of the report.  I asked them if this meant that if an officer called in to find out if Keenan had been arrested on that day there would be nothing, he would show up as “clean”.  The person from the DA’s office just stared at me and said they did not know, it was just a simple clerical error.  I thought it was important, and it seemed to me as if criminals here in Colorado were being treated very loosely.

I want to point out that very recently here in Colorado an inmate was released about four years early on a clerical error.  He was then implicated in the murder of a pizza delivery person and soon after that, ironically dressed in the pizza persons delivery clothes, implicated in the murder of the Colorado Prison Chief.  So sad, such a horrible double murder, but there is an answer to this and I do not believe it involves shrugging your shoulders,

Wednesday, April 11, 2012 – A former FBI agent who was very involved in the successful prosecution of the Oklahoma Bombing tragedy called and said he will call the two possible referrals he had and have them call me.  He said either one would be the kind of investigator who digs deep for the answer.  His opinion was that so far we had only had surface scratchers, and that was not going to get the job done.

Today was the day Steve stopped by the old neighborhood to do a favor for our next door neighbor there, and noticed that all the grass on the berm behind all of the houses had been mowed down to the dirt, for the first time in over 6 years that we knew of – they never even mowed it the years following the big fire.  Steve said, “Gee, I wonder who’s idea it was to go through all that trouble, mowing down the wildflowers, all the wild grasses and everything?”  Who?  He also for some reason reviewed the pictures from the original wildlife camera and saw that the perp had tried to knock down the camera – now at least we knew it was broken.  A criminal lawyer who saw the sequence of pictures many months later looked at that one photo and said, “that one image right there takes the, oh I was just there on accident, completely out of the excuse”.

Thursday, April 12, 2012 – I called the Glenwood Springs DA’s office – now the story on Keenan’s arrest reports is that if there is any public record on Keenan’s arrest, I will need to get a copy at the courthouse room 104, then I spoke with the DA’s investigator Ed Picalo, and told him my story, and he said he would forward the information to Detective Rob Glassmire, I told him Rob already knew about the missing jewelry.  Oh well.

Friday, April 13, 2012 – Steve spoke with friends of his that have a cash for gold shop, and they told him the state requires them to take a picture of the person selling the gold to them, along with a picture of the gold jewelry, they put pictures on jump drives.  So they thought we should be able to check every place he could have gone with Morgan’s jewelry to see if we can identify any of the missing pieces.  There are pictures on their computers.  It sounded very encouraging at the time, but as you know it turned into another instance of people not following the laws.

I spoke with a Neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston who had written articles on excitement-induced deaths.  He was quoted in an ABC News article on the subject a few years ago.

A few acquaintances of Brooke had heard about the incident that occurred with the LR3 Morgan had parked in Carbondale, when she went in to one of her college classes and the word “Bitch” was keyed in large letters on the driver’s door, and then scraped down to the metal all along one side.  The Carbondale police officer that took pictures of the car and wrote up the report said when a car is keyed down to the metal like that it takes a lot of anger or someone on drugs.  They had heard Brooke say about Morgan “that bitch is going to get it” behind her back just before that, and believed Brooke definitely could be the one that keyed the car.  Detective Rob Glassmire said that Keenan had told him the same thing about Brooke.

Saturday, April 14, 2013 – I spoke with records at Children’s Hospital in Denver to get some important old records of Morgan’s.  An earlier fax had been aborted and they said would try again.

Sunday, April 15, 2012 – Detective Rob Glassmire said he will call today to discuss in-depth what is going on.  He called and spoke with Steve and told him that he had spoken in person with the registered owner of a truck we had noticed in the neighborhood many times before Morgan’s murder.  The answers did not jive with what had happened and Steve wondered where we go from here.  Rob was going to think it over first before doing anything else.

Out of more frustration Rob told Steve the address of the Cash for Gold place in Glenwood and wondered if we could try to find out anything.  Rob asked Steve if he could find out from them the requirements that they have, Rob wasn’t sure if he was allowed to talk to them.  Steve got the revised statutes from his friend and sent them on to Rob.  I had verbally told Rob a couple of times about the most specific pieces that had disappeared out of Morgan’s room.  Steve asked Rob if it was OK if we just went by there as parents to see what we could find out.

Monday, April 16, 2012 – We went to the Glenwood Springs Cash for Gold with a recent picture of Keenan.  I know all too well how Keenan’s family and friends try to spin this one meeting into anything but the truth, so this only tells me there is something here they would really rather had not happened.  The woman there immediately recognized Keenan as a regular customer – A REGULAR CUSTOMER – at the – CASH FOR GOLD SHOP – all Morgan’s valuable jewelry is missing on the night she was killed – can Keenan, or I, make it any more obvious?  Pictures of any specific pieces were not available at the time.  What if he jewelry was brought in at another time other than the time referred to in Keenan’s arrest report?

At this particular cash for gold shop Keenan’s partner in crime admits to stealing the goods, then giving them to Keenan to sell.  This one time!!!  And they do not have an inventory or pictures so we don’t really know what he sold – do we?  And then what about all of the other times – he is a REGULAR CUSTOMER.  I have received very accusatory emails from individuals claiming to know Keenan, claiming to be family members, etc., etc. and claiming to know that Morgan’s jewelry was not in the “batch” (their word not mine) he sold that time.  I would like to know how it is that they know this, with such certainty, under oath preferably.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012 – tonight right as I turned off the bedroom lights to go to sleep what sounds like a rock hits the master bedroom window.  I tell Detectives Glassmire and Alstatt about it, along with a lot of information from a day of meetings with people and walking around.  The term “flatfoot” to describe investigators really makes sense now because my feet feel like they have been mildly steamrolled from all the days events.

Wednesday, April 18, 2012 – at 2:18 pm Detective Megan Alstatt responded back about my text from yesterday and said, “I did get this, and I spoke to Rob just FYI. Take care”  I texted back, “great appreciate it”.

Just after lunch Steve and I met with two investigators that would love to work Morgan’s case.  They know a lot of the “players” already.

In the early evening a very good friend who works in counter terrorism called and had a game plan for me.  In a suggestion that sounded almost innocent at the time he said I should really think about doing a website and a blog about Morgan.  Even though he warned me about many frustrating times to come I decided to take his advice on every point and he was ever so right about the advice he gave me that evening.  A few parts of it are yet to play out, and I’m anxious to see if he is going to be as right about those suggestions too.

Oh, and one more thing – he did not tell me anything about all the wonderful, supportive people I would meet along the way.  Just as life for Steve and I has been changed forever I also feel strongly that Morgan’s story, her memory, has forever changed other’s lives as well.