This supporter captured this picture at the Annual Flower show she attended and it reminder her of Morgan
She wrote this to me, and I wish her husband had been our Detective on Morgan’s case – violence against women is not a joke – it is serious and should ALWAYS be taken seriously:
It is terrible that we live in a society where there is corruption and cover ups and where stalking and abusive against a woman is a hush, hush thing. I know from my husband that domestic violence calls are one of the most frequent calls they go to, and can be the most dangerous ones. I also know that when stalking is happening that the stalker escalates more each time it is done, and ultimately in so many cases they end up killing the person they are stalking. Again being a wife of cop I can not grasp my mind around officers who are not only sworn to protect all citizens but who take that oath and badge lightly and who (especially when it comes to these types of circumstances) take it all with a grain of salt. Such as “she is over reacting”, “she is reading into it”, “it’s not that bad”, “she is making a mountain out of a mole hill”, etc. I know personally when my husband swore that oath over 16 years ago that he meant every word of it, and lives by it while on the job, and off.
Morgan would sit an wait for hours, to capture the image. Investigators owed her the same respect.
In some cases a simple lacking of knowledge would be better than none at all. But just what do I mean by that? I’m focusing on only one thing – the training of the Garfield Sheriffs to carry out a specific task. A task I wasn’t aware they took on in its entirety. It is very specialized and training intensive. Months ago, a typical scenario for another law enforcement agency was explained to Steve and I, so we could identify similarities and alas, there were none.
I am talking about the proper processing of a death scene. The single most important element to an eventual arrest and conviction of the criminal. There is undoubtedly no one best way to do it, but then there would certainly be a minimum, a bare minimum. I researched once into the Deputy Coroner of the Garfield County, Where our daughter Morgan was killed, and then her death scene investigation was conducted.
Before it was so upsetting to discover the fact that just a little to the west, in the next county over, in Mesa County, there is a different coroner naturally. But this coroner is himself a medical doctor and requires every deputy coroner to complete two different certifications (not so in the county where Morgan was murdered):
1. Investigator to be a member in the Colorado Coroner’s Association (CCA). The CCA sets standards for minimum training to become a member and requires continuing education to maintain membership.
2. The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) ® is a voluntary national, not-for-profit, independent professional certification board that has been established to promote the highest standards of practice for medicolegal death investigators.
This is the minimum in the adjoining Colorado county. The Garfield County Coroner is not a doctor, which is not required, he was an owner of the funeral home and legally only needed a High School diploma, and the Deputy Coroner at Morgan’s death scene was the funeral home manager at Farnum-Holt Funeral Home and had none of the training required by Mesa County – none. The Deputy Coroner does not need to meet any requirements, not even a High School diploma, but he is responsible for certain filings, etc., which …this is who showed up at Morgan’s crime scene to determine if there was any foul play. Thomas Walton, the then Garfield County Deputy Coroner – after all our due diligence, collecting all the state documents, we now know he had no training, and did none of the paperwork required for this position, making him legally not a deputy coroner. He was the one who took the crime scene photos we have, never took a body temp, and said he got all his “facts” from the sheriffs, he never interviewed us. He later said he could not make any changes on Morgan’s PER unless instructed by Detective Glassmire, because that is where he got all his information. The law clearly shows this is not what should be done.
But I was not there when he wrote up his “Autopsy Request” in which his “facts” were all wrong, and now as read the unattended death report for Morgan, I find that Thomas Walton – Chief Deputy Coroner of Garfield County – didn’t really do anything, the sheriffs by their recounting, were the ones involved. But they have no certification in death scenes either! Is this a search for the truth? Is this how you would want a suspicious death investigated? Colorado law clearly states this is not how you do it – but that didn’t stop them in Morgan’s case.
In fact, in the neighboring county, that I refer to, they actually have standards, and the law enforcement officers are not to touch the body, maybe because they are not trained! There were observations made the Garfield County Sheriffs investigators that are completely wrong and contradict each other, maybe, once again, because they have no training in death scene investigating. And before the crime scene photos were even taken (maybe before the deputy corner even arrived) someone had illegally tried to close Morgan’s eye, wiped blood off her face, covered her up with a towel, and many other things that they are NEVER supposed to do in a suspicious death investigation. Incompetence, inadequate investigation, “bumbling” like the DA said, or something more sinister?
So as I look at this more globally, it is a sad state of affairs. For any death in Garfield County at that time, it was likely going to be presided over by a funeral home manager from Farnum-Holt Funeral Home, with no real training in death scene investigation. He does not even belong there! And then doing the actual hands on investigating will be sheriff’s officers with no certification in death scene investigation. Did the honorable District Attorney even know this when she said that the Garfield County Sheriff’s Department completely botched the investigation?
In Mesa County, Colorado, deputy coroners have two forms of certification in death scene investigation, ongoing education, and law enforcement – look but don’t touch, you are not trained. In Garfield County, none of the above. Does apprehending and convicting the criminals mean anything here? Is it just an after thought? Not really a serious consideration? Or is it just women they do this to?
Morgan’s death scene investigation was no investigation at all as far as I can see. The observations made are contradicted by the contracted forensic pathologist whom none of the experts that have looked over Morgan’s case agree with so I’m left to conclude they are most likely both incorrect. Is this how my daughter’s investigation should have been conducted? Untrained, no trained, little training, and please don’t give me an excuse about on-the-job-training. Experience by doing it with no training a few times, learn from your mistakes. It is unbelievable to me! Morgan deserved far more than that.
We can’t bring Morgan back, and we can’t have a do over on her investigation. What I really want to know is what do we tell he next family and their girl. I truly and very deeply worry for them now.
An anonymous woman needs our help – any ideas for her please put in the comment section:
Hello, I wondered if you could post this anonymously for me, so that I might get some advice from others? Please?
I mean no disrespect as this is a page for Morgan, if you can’t post this, I understand entirely. Not sure if you do that, but would sure appreciate others insight and advice on this matter.
Once, a long time ago, I woke up early, went to the blog and started answering a question, but before I knew it, it was time to get ready for work and I had written more of a blog entry then the answer to a question. Was it the question, my mood, I’ll never know but this is the second time that has happened. If you want to read the question, it was asked in response to – Was it Arrogance or Something Worse? Carolina on
Carolina,
I completely agree with you that the, “investigators,” should have checked for fingerprints, DNA, hairs, etc. However, that was not done, none of it, and it is far, far too late now. The only investigation that morning was into Morgan, her cell phone, computer, camera, a three-year old journal, and even her ipod. Those were the items taken into evidence to solve this crime. Nothing that pointed to an intruder, at all. And trust me the evidence was there, it was everywhere. Only Steve and I are not investigators, we are not accredited death scene investigators, and we were in shock. We wish that nobody is ever put through what we went through, and Morgan is the very first on that list. We believed her stalker was always going to stay outside, satisfied to frighten, startle and shock. We were dealing with him as best we could, but we were too short-sighted. Count on your stalker to always break and enter at some point, think of it as the natural progression of stalking, at first timid, then more bold, and ever more bold, and then at some point, perhaps violent, lethal, as Morgan’s stalker was.
As parents, on the morning Morgan was found dead, we were politely asked if we had somewhere to go, we had to all leave until they were finished, “processing,” the scene, so we had no idea what was or was not done and a yellow crime scene tape was placed across her closed door when they did all leave. Her room off-limits and that day her death was declared a mystery for the time being.
A book Steve is reading on forensic crime scene techniques starts off with, “every death scene must be processed as a homicide until proven otherwise.” Morgan’s was absolutely not, and it was weeks later before her manner of death was found to be, natural causes, from a disease she was never diagnosed with. There was no excuse to attempt only to rule out suicide first, which they did – “no signs of suicide they assured us,” except they must have forgotten to tell Dr. Kurtzman, the contracted forensic pathologist who did her autopsy, that there was no signs of suicide. After many threats to me to give up on my concerted effort at having her manner of death changed from Natural, to Homicide, or Undetermined, and then an investigation being launched, as every consulting Doctor was telling us would be the only correct way to handle this. After eight months, Dr. K did in fact change her manner of death to suicide. Which leaves it up to us to take him to court to restore some truth to the memory of our daughter Morgan.
You are also right about revealing the medications that were a part of her death. We did, then the Coroner and pathologist went way beyond that, far into Morgan’s right to privacy. We had, as the Sheriff’s department well knows, one old, old bottle of a very low dose Amitriptyline in our room, not in Morgan’s room. This bottle started with 30 pills at some time long in the past and had ~ 12 left in it. The bottle was with other bottles waiting for proper disposal at a hospital collection day, usually held twice a year back then. Flushing down the toilet is not advised on small, rural, septic / sewer systems.
The reason Morgan ever had those pills was not for depression, not even close to that, that would be known by looking at the mg, but you see even that brief statement should not have to be made. I find myself saying many things about Morgan that have nothing to do with her stalking and murder, to defend her against, call them what you want, but they are simply lies. So Dr. K does the math, 30 pills when purchased, ~ 12 left in the bottle now, so she took eighteen – #1) Not a lethal dose, not even close to a lethal dose. #2) They were not even in her room and not accessible to her at that time, same pills that were left in the same bottle from a long time ago. #3) An estimate that no one can make, according to experts that testify about drugs in trials, such as a criminal or civil trial about what this would require. #4) Unknown to all because as part of the investigation nobody ever asked, but years prior to her death, Morgan made a decision that she did not want to take prescription medications, except as really needed, so she went to a doctor for help with this goal – once again her privacy being broken by me to tell this, and correct any falsehoods – and used a combination of hyperbaric chamber treatments, a strict diet, an exercise routine, stress management principles, yoga, and more. She was successful and was still not taking any prescription medications the day she was killed, no matter what anyone says, even the investigators at the house, they are wrong and they have to know it. Her tox screen proves this, as the range of detection varies from at least two days for some medications on out to 30 days for other drugs. And she had none of the drugs she was reportedly taking on the day she was killed detected in her, hello people! – except for the seven that were a part of her death, none of those seven were in her room, a container for any of them was not found in her room, a syringe for any was not found in her room. Are you beginning to see the problem? She did not have a prescription for any of the drugs related to her death and never did in all cases except one, and that one had not been for a long time. Due to hard work and commitment from Morgan to live life the way she wanted to. It only gets more obvious there is a big problem the deeper you go.
Then forensic experts, not a part of her original, “investigation,” have weighed in on the combination of drugs found, the locations, the absorption rates, the ratios, and other technical things, and contained in all these facts, they have determined that Morgan had help that night, and not in the good sense. The why we may never know, but there were ample signs of not only an intruder by physical evidence in the room, but evidence of an intruder intertwined in all the different drugs, and their reactions before you even get to Amitriptyline in a very, very large quantity. The crime lab that processed Morgan’s evidence even commented that it was a, “massive,” dose, along with the comment that they have rarely, if ever, seen a level that high. Many have also said to keep in mind that it is inconceivable that she could ingest even a fraction of the total found in her blood without vomiting.
Of course the PJ’s she wore to bed are gone and this might be the answer as to why. The suspicious spray of bodily fluids seen on her chest at the death scene could possibly have been remnants of vomit too, but as with the maddening reality of evidence in his case, it was only seen at the death scene and not by the contracted forensic pathologist at his, “hospital,” with far better equipment to detect it. So it was not swabbed, otherwise collected, and certainly not tested. And if, as one of the detectives opined at the scene, the spray could be an artifact of resuscitation attempts by the first responders, then I said fine, why didn’t you rule that out, because as I found out quickly, they use a gel, not a spray.
No one even went up to Steve that day, the person who administered CPR for his daughter for quite some time and said something really investigative, like, “Could you have sneezed on your daughters chest while you were performing CPR?” As for the vomit theory, we have been told this is a, “least likely scenario,” but that it is remotely possible. And the sneezing possibility, absolutely no, besides she was wearing a t-shirt at the time.
As for Brooke, Keenan lived at her house from the beginning of the stalking, she talked about it on Facebook and obviously knew, her father James also knew. The Sheriff’s Deputies, at least four, came to her house one night to question Keenan during a stalking situation, and she refused them access to Keenan, claimed he was asleep, yet the deputy heard noises inside the house when Keenan was the only living thing inside the house besides her. But Brooke denied the noise heard was anything?
The night Morgan was killed we have identified two figures outside the house on video, not sharp enough to identify, but sharp enough to know they are people and Jame’s friend who is also a criminal lawyer called me and wanted to know if we could tell if the figures seen outside our house on the fateful night were male or female, kind of a curious and revealing question wouldn’t you say?
If Brooke was in the room that night or not – that remains to be proven in court, beyond a reasonable doubt, the same goes for her complicity in the stalking, the burglary, the invasion of privacy for sexual gratification, the harassment, the eavesdropping and – the personal favorite of the Sheriff’s Department – misdemeanor trespassing, that all remains to be established in court.
The Detectives, by the way, were very torn establishing Brooke’s actual involvement in the crimes, their opinion seemed to change weekly, both how deep was she into the cascade of crimes and even if she was in fact, the leader. The question of if she was involved at all was never even questioned, from almost the very beginning of the Detectives involvement.
And, as yet another avenue in the crimes against Morgan, consider this. Brooke spent, judging from my experiences, a lot of time in rehab. I say this because first, I don’t know anyone who has needed rehab for more than a week or two, then, quite unexpectedly, people who were at Brooke’s rehab center in some capacity have contacted me after discovering about Brooke and the situation that happened, anonymously at first, and then more freely, and they then unabashedly paint a picture of Brooke as being very capable of committing all of these crimes. Following the first Dr. Phil episode airing, remarkably, a person who recalled Brooke using the exact phrase, “Where’s the proof.” in response to something she was accused of before Morgan’s death, which I found to be particularly eerie at the time i heard it. I have verified that she actually did stay at rehab for extended periods from her, “friends,” locally, and of course Brooke talks about it on her Facebook.
Meanwhile the absolute right exists for us to believe, based on the facts that we have and know to exist, regardless if we choose to share those facts or are advised not to. And we do have very strong beliefs based on what has transpired to date in Morgan’s case.
Lastly, as for Morgan’s ex-boyfriend, it is interesting how many tips have concerned him and Brooke as suspects, but that is for yet another blog, as this has now become. And don’t jump to any conclusions yet, because Steve and him are very close, and have spoken candidly about Morgan very often since Morgan’s death, we never had any reason to suspect him of anything, nor did Morgan.
Morgan fought to the end – If She was Disappointed, She had Every Right to Be.
We know that Morgan was killed. The doctors, the specialists, and the professors who’s pleas to Garfield County that fell on deaf ears have assured us of that fact.
We know the history the Ingram family now has with the contracted forensic pathologist hired by the Garfield County Coroner.
He found Morgan’s manner of death from a disease she was never, ever diagnosed with.
In his contracted capacity as the forensic pathologist, he is required by statute to manage the death scene, which he did not.
He threatened me, more than once, I reported this to the Detective, and to the Coroner, and neither one ever answered me. Say something they don’t like to hear, even if true, and they ignore you.
Doctors helping us wanted to run tests on Morgan’s remaining samples, to help prove other possible manners of death. The contracted pathologist knew this, but still ordered tests on samples in secrecy, violating our victims rights, and completely exhausting the samples remaining. Why would he do this?
Based on results that only further proved foul play, the pathologist found her death a suicide based on the theoretical ingesting of a quantity of pills that would not even be a fraction of a lethal dose.
Every day brings us closer to protracted litigation at a staggering cost as our only alternative to giving up.
On the first episode of Dr. Phil, the death scene evidence establishing the presence of someone in her room was not mentioned due to ongoing investigation on our part, as the Sheriff’s Department had given up the morning she was found dead. This included –
Morgan’s room was, for many reasons, very noticeably and completely disheveled from previous afternoon, and evening.
Her panic button, which rang a chime in our room, was torn off its mount on her nightstand, and found later on the floor under clothes.
Morgan was dressed in street clothes, and she never slept in street clothes. These clothes she was found in were not the same clothes that she wore home the night before.
Morgan’s PJ’s she was wearing that night when going to sleep were gone.
A suspicious spray was detected on Morgan’s chest under blacklight, the most primitive means of examining for this, yet the contracted forensic pathologist found nothing on her chest. A spray of dots does not disappear.
Morgan had wounds on her right hand not seen the night before, and consistent with defensive wounds.
She had a small red spot on her forehead, the size of a thumb that was not seen the night before by her father.
She had a small quantity of blood at edge of her lips.
There was a burn on the inside of her wrist. There are two quite sinister reasons for this, but a Medical Examiner has not had a chance to comment on what he believes it means. I do know that it was new and it was not seen the night before.
Her eyes were wide open and sold black, consistent with bleeding before she died and then the blood turning black over the course of the night.
The nails on her right hand were damaged when we saw her body again at the viewing and this is when they were first noticed by us. The contracted pathologist said he did not touch her nails, the detectives say they looked fine to them. The Coroner refuses to give us copies of the pictures taken at her death scene to really know when the damage occured – wouldn’t that be a huge question as it would show that she fought someone off? A big question mark for the time being.
Morgan was found on the opposite side of bed from where she always slept, facing the opposite direction from where she usually faced.
I felt her body looked posed when I first saw it, I told the detectives that the same morning, there was no mention of this exact fact.
Every report and opinion says the indications are simply that she was lying on her stomach, yet I found her on her side, and until Steve moved her to her back, that is how she was lying. She was never on her stomach that morning, not even for an instant.
Morgan’s lights in her bathroom, attached to her bedroom, went on sometime after midnight, Morgan never slept with lights on. If she were still alive then, she could have turned them on, but she would have turned them off again. The person who observed the lights wanted to explain this, and other things he had observed, but was never questioned by the Sheriff’s department.
All of Morgan’s jewelry of value went missing from her room sometime that night and was never found again. Keenan had a warrant issued for his arrest (and was arrested just weeks after her murder) for selling jewelry, in person, at a, “cash for gold store.” The Detective insisted I produce a photograph of every piece of Morgan’s jewelry first, and refused to give me even a list of what the stolen pawned jewelry contained. Further the proprietors of the cash for gold store instantly recognized Keenan from a Facebook picture as a regular customer.
A knife Steve had just purchased for Morgan was in her bed, in an odd place, still in the box, with a happy face drawn on it by Steve.
A very recent and important gift to Morgan was taken from its box, the box left and the gift never found.
Morgan’s camera was taken into evidence and returned by the Sheriff’s. When it was returned from evidence, it was missing the memory chip from the camera. The Sheriff’s department has not been able to locate that memory chip or a copy that they would have made if there was a memory chip in it.
Morgan’s driver’s license was missing from her purse. Her instruction permit which she normally kept in her purse right behind her license was still there, but her current drivers license was missing and has never been located.
Other doctors helping with Morgan’s case found that she died from a massive overkill, one time dose of Amitriptyline early on in their examination of her toxicology results. The contracted forensic pathologist finally backed off his stance that she died from a disease she was never diagnosed with, and backed off to partially agree with this same conclusion after eight months. He really had no choice as he was clinging to a non-defensible position. A container or any syringe to hold, and administer this very lethal dose was never found in her room, or anywhere in her possessions.
At least three other pieces of evidence exist that point to an intruder in her room that night, but are being withheld at this time. One of these is something taken from the house that was not discovered until just weeks ago. Following every lead to the end will mean taking the video surveillance recorder back out and reviewing all six cameras for another day. So as you can see the investigation never really stops, and useful evidence is constantly refined, our knowledge of what really happened that night will never be 100%, but it is always improving. The real question is, if it was not Keenan in Morgan’s room that night, then who was it?
Now for those of you who do not know her, Morgan was a fighter, ask any of her friends and they will tell you that Morgan would not have gone down without a fight. However, backing up for moment first, and imagining Steve and I when Morgan was first found, then at that moment in time when her cause of death was being called Natural Causes. We did not think anyone was in her room initially and did not thoroughly search for indications. We researched her manner of death to safeguard our grandchildren from some unknown malady. As far as I can tell the Garfield Sheriff’s Department never did any search for an intruder. And as it became more and more obvious someone had to have been in her room, we fought the idea, I believe because it was just too painful to believe. It was quite some time before we could fully accept it.
The first question then became her puppy, Wylah, why would she not have barked? It was a quandary. Then came a possible solution, Steve was being questioned by an investigator, recreating the moment when the first responders were there, at least three big men, all strangers to Wylah. Steve remembers clearly that she just sat on the bed and did not make a sound. That was a good enough solution for the investigator, but I still wonder if there wasn’t some other way that she was subdued, some way that would carry over to subduing Morgan also.
Some have conjectured that she could have been threatened, assured she was not going to be killed, and threatened that one peep and Morgan’s puppy dies, or her cat, or even Morgan’s parents. I could see this happening. Morgan would have been compelled to go along.
Then think of drugs, there were five date rape drugs found in her stomach, none of them ever absorbed into her body, and a massive dose of amitriptyline in her bloodstream, one of he highest doses ever seen at the national crime lab her samples were tested at. Then, what about one more drug to sedate her. The only Tox screens that were run were very basic, and many drugs that would easily have knocked her out would not be detected at all. And not to be mysterious, but there is now a third possibility being checked out that will not be on the blog real soon, but it will find its way here as soon as it’s thoroughly checked out.
And that cry for help, it was real and it was meaningful, if only we had fully understood its importance….
