October 6, 2011 – Day 66 of Morgan’s Stalking – Dancing Through the Storm

icy leaves

At 9:00 am Morgan was home and received a text from her dance partner, “China said she can’t come on Saturday.”  Morgan answered, “I think we should reschedule. There’s a huge storm warning all weekend. 🙁 .”  Her friend answered, “Okay. I might not be able to go any other time.  I have to go pick up Ian, regardless, so that kinda drains my money for pointe shoes.”  Morgan felt bad, “Shit. 🙁 .”  And her friend told her, “Yeah. I mean, if you don’t feel comfortable with driving, I totally understand. This is not an attempted guilt trip, pinky promise.”

The weather is bad, a storm arriving as scheduled.  Morgan leaves for her classes, and gets a text message from her dance teacher, “I am running late from Aspen.  Weather, and roads.  Can u plz let everyone know!  Thank u!  XoXo  can you have everyone start warming up…ask Emily Bennet to see if Abbie will let you in the room.”

I see my therapist for the first time today, and she is great.  We talk and work on a plan to de-stress.  I explain about the stalker, tell her that I feel he is hiding in the bushes in front of the house by the garage, under the window (I had seen shoe prints behind the bush under the window), hiding in the shadows where the cameras can’t see him.  I explain how after all the cameras went in we sat back and looked at the front of the garage, which has no coverage, and the rear yard, which has a few blind spots.  We had put the wildlife camera out front, but it stopped working completely and was now retired.

Together we work on a plan to take away the front of the garage as a possible hiding spot.  It was a simple plan that only required moving half of the stuff in the garage so I could look out the garage window to observe, and although I thought he would be really grumpy at best Steve did not complain at all and after a major reshuffle of the contents the garage was ready for plan “B”.  I was excited. I would wear dark clothes, turn off all of the lights and stand near the back window.  From there I could see most of the front yard, and all along the front side yard to Rhonda’s house.  Camera’s had the side yard covered, and I had a big mag light to shine out the window in case I saw anything.  It was kind of warm, and safe and I could come and go as I pleased, undetected from outside.

I spent two long stints in the garage patiently watching the yard, scanning from side to side.  I thought about the sheriffs and their stakeouts here.  It was not so bad at first, but it would get cold, and boring out there in the elements.  The wind was bursting outside and snow started and stopped, enough to keep a good cover on the ground.  The stalker would certainly avoid conditions like this, he would leave tracks, and be easy to follow.

The snow became heavier and I decided to stop for tonight.  The set up was a good idea and was working well, I did not expect to catch him the first time.  In fact I had to coordinate a plan with Steve for how I should alert him when I did see something on a future stakeout, and how he should react.  Based on our stalker so far we should not expect more than one chance, so we had to make it a good one.  I thought about the detectives too, they hadn’t had a chance to do one of their stake outs yet, things kept coming up.  I feared they had better hurry because winter was coming, and before long it would be very unpleasant out there.  But then that might mean the stalker would be closing up for the winter, wouldn’t that be nice!!!

Click here to read about the 67th & 68th days of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1609

October 5, 2011 – Day 65 of Morgan’s Stalking – Faces in the Sky

Faces in the Clouds

Cool rock formations from Hawaii and More

Morgan took this picture in Hawaii and I said, “What a cool rock formation,” and Morgan said, “Mom! – Look at all the faces in the clouds!!!”

In the wee hours of the morning, at 22 past midnight Morgan texts me “You aren’t still up, are you?” I was, and I feel like she caught me, I answer “Yes, why?” Morgan says, “Nevermind.” Now she’s really caught me and I ask her “Why are you still up?” Which is a silly question of course, 20-year-old girls stay up late. Before she had a stalker she would be up working on some project or watching movies or talking on her phone till way late all the time. Now she was tired and interested in a good nights sleep, as much as we were. Morgan does not answer, and I let it go at that.

At 1:12 am the motion light outside the back of our room goes on. I reach over for Steve, but he is already awake and grabs my arm before I can tap him. That startles me deeply, everything seems to startle me now. There is a crash noise right outside and Steve doesn’t bother with lights or clothes and just hops up and runs out our back door. I get up and lift the blinds. I don’t see anything, not even Steve. Which is a concern, but then I see him coming over the berm. He sees me and shakes his head.

When he’s back inside he tells me that he thought he saw something, maybe a man, hard to be sure. He went as far as over the berm and then he saw nothing, he just stood there and froze and waited for something to move, but the cold eventually convinced him to come back in. There is always a next time and we go to sleep.

Morgan calls me in the morning and wants to go see her doctor. She is in pain, her back has been hurting more and more. I think it was sleeping on the closet floor all that time, and Morgan thinks it is just stress. I told her, of course go see the doctor – she doesn’t miss class very often, so once is not going to be that big of a deal.

Morgan sends her teacher a text message, “I am going to run to the doctor this morning so I’m going to miss class. I’ll see you tomorrow!!” Her teacher texted back, “OK.”

She goes to see her doctor and he helps by realigning her back, tells her she has strained her hip and needs to be careful on it for a week or so until it really feels better. Dr. Jensen is a great holistic doctor and Morgan really trusts him.  She is so much happier when she gets home. I tell her that her deal with her dad to not wake me is off and I promise I won’t talk or call, but just to send me a blank text whenever there is a noise against her window that wakes her.  She is a tough sell, but finally agrees.

That night as we are going to bed I tell Steve the new plan with Morgan and he says I will never be able to do it. I tell him something like, just watch me. Then at 1 minute before 11:00 pm she sends me one bubble on my phone. I didn’t realize how hard it would be. I lie there having to know if it was a little noise or a big noise, or if she was sleeping soundly or lightly.  I want to know something, but a deal’s a deal, and I let her sleep. And then I lay there wide awake.

Today is October 3, 2012 – I miss Morgan a lot today, I move throughout my day for my job, but otherwise I feel like I am not doing enough for Morgan. I asked her friends to write something about Morgan when they get a chance, and her best friend wrote the most beautiful thing. I read it to Steve and he said, “True friends, so hard to find, and even harder to have taken away.” We know it’s hard for her friends to sit down and write something – they are still dealing with the loss, just like us. This past Saturday night we met with two of her friends and one of them said to us that it was the first time he could face us to talk about Morgan, because it hurt so much. We both miss her a little more right now.  I’m not sure why. The pain never goes away.  So many people are working hard to help her, and us – to get the truth out.  And I really want to tell them all thank you again, Morgan and Steve and I appreciate what you are doing so very much. We could not do what we are doing without all of your help, it means the world to us while we still continue to fight an uphill battle to try to get justice for Morgan.  It seems like there are also people out there that don’t care about the truth, they only want to be right, and for them I feel sorry, because the truth is there, and won’t change.

Click here to read about the 66th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1576

October 4, 2011 – Day 64 of Morgan’s Stalking

Morgan's favorite little things

Morgan’s shelves by her bed with some of her favorite things

Morgan texts Steve and I in the morning from school, “Don’t forget to track your calories!!!”  She has instituted serious food changes in the house and in what amounts to Morgan’s ‘boot camp’ she has installed calorie counters on both our phones and is going to slowly bring us around to a much better diet.  We welcome the help because with all of the distractions and stress we are certainly not in the best shape of our lives.

I answered her at 4 pm, “Did it.”  I also said there is a big storm forecast to blow in so I wanted her to reschedule a trip to Denver with two dance partners for new toe shoes.  I also asked her if it was raining where she was and Morgan answered, “Oh yeah.”  I told her “Here too – not fit for man nor beast out there.”  Morgan sent me back the image of a heart.  I sent her back six horses running and she said “Haha horses?”  I told her “You got – horses running from the storm.”  Morgan finished “Hahahahaha I didn’t get that.”

She was out for a while still, so Steve and I went shopping.  I texted Morgan at 7:30 pm as we were getting in the car,  “Got you beautiful Adidas yoga pants xs and warm blue sweat pants xs” Morgan of course said, “You’re the best.” I told her no doubt, and that we would let her know when we got home.  Morgan wanted to spend the night at a friend’s house. I told her it was fine and wondered what time she would be home in the morning.  She was thinking early, so now we could hope for a quiet evening.  Steve was wishing there was some way we could fool him into thinking Morgan had come home, we had tried having our daughter-in-law try to wear Morgan’s coat and drive out, come back and see what happened.  Just the thought of it was too much for her, she was too frightened, and that plan was dead.

The night was quiet without Morgan coming home.  No Morgan, no stalker this time.

Today it is October 2, 2012 – And it is the same – no Morgan no stalker – or is that really true?  It is not true – the stalker(s) focused on us after we moved – the sheriffs knew where our new house was located and not long after so did the stalker(s).  But that still won’t stop us.

We work on Morgan’s case and try to make plans that mean something to us.  We have plans to take a trip to see our children and grandchildren soon.  That will be very nice – can’t wait for all those cuddles!  Through our daily pain we really try to think positive and loving thoughts…it’s not easy, but we put on a smile for everyone around us.

Click here to read about the 65th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1561

October 3, 2011 – Day 63 of Morgan’s Stalking – Morgan always loved making us laugh

Morgan getting into her character for a party

I came to the decision last night that the stress of all this was getting to be too much to handle. I had never been in a situation remotely like this before and I really wanted to be making good decisions, but I was so stressed out now on a daily basis that I decided, for the first time in my life, that I would go see a therapist. So I called someone that was highly recommended, and I made an appointment. Right away, just knowing there was going to be someone else I could talk it all over with was so very reassuring.

At 8:54 pm I texted Morgan, she wanted me to text her early, because she wanted to switch up on times. “On your way?,” and she answered “Ya”, I told her “OK” Morgan pointed out that all of our efforts had not yet to stopped him. She went through a range of emotions including wanting to confront him with a baseball bat. We had a good laugh over that, but I also knew she was serious – she was getting so angry about this situation and really wanted to get this guy to stop. I was worried she was serious about also wanting to minimize what was going on – she didn’t want us to lose anymore sleep, or worry over her.  I had Steve talk to her and he and Morgan made a deal that she would alert him when something happened, and he would try not to wake me, and they would see how that worked.

I am a light sleeper so Steve and Morgan’s plan did not last long. At 9:46 pm the backyard motion detector went off and I was up before Steve. A light tapping on her windows followed.  Steve wanted so badly to just go down the block and confront them all and tell them those nice little things you tell people when your anger bottle bubbles over.  But we knew if we took the law into our own hands this would all go from bad to worse in one fell swoop.  I recorded what had happened, and we all went back to sleep.

Today is October 1, 2012, and as I wrote this, I just kept thinking of some advice from a video on stalking I have since seen. There is a desire to try to minimize the stalking as it progresses.  And that is exactly what we were doing back then. Trying to minimize it. As if we could just cut that one minute out of our lives and then life would almost be normal.  And you really want your life to be normal. But the advice goes on to explain that as you go to minimization, the stalker usually goes to maximization, and that creates a very dangerous situation.  It is very good advice.

Click here to read about the 64th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1550

A part of the world that was Morgan Jennifer Ingram

Morgan’s picture of herself dancing

This morning I received an email, a heads up about Morgan. It led me to visit a few of the web communities that Morgan had joined and become a part of. When memories of Morgan are far too mired in legal briefs, criminal intent, and Morgan’s right to due process – it was so wonderful to spend some time with what Morgan really was – an artist, a dancer, a photographer, a pianist, a writer, and a beautiful loving daughter, her only crime was to love the world … and life, a little more than some could handle.

I grabbed Steve and sat him down with me and we managed to find 11 web communities that Morgan had joined, unabashedly sharing some of herself with the world. Some we had already seen, and others we were seeing for the first time. It was hard to not miss her a whole bunch, and we did.

Steve is going to post them all to the MJ page of MorganIngram.com soon as he has a chance and I’ll let all of you know when that is, because I wish all of you had had the chance to meet Morgan. I know it sounds strange, but so many people have come to know Morgan after her death, and somehow come to feel like they really knew her. I assure you that is how Morgan was, over and over again since her death people have come to Steve and I to share with us how Morgan would absolutely light up a room with her presence, that she was different.

We aim to see this through, and make sure that every right so far denied to Morgan will finally be there for her. Oh, and as you visit that which Morgan left behind feel free to look, she would not have minded that at all, but please don’t copy, it is all the property of Morgan and along with all her other rights we will be protecting vigorously is Morgan’s copyrights.

Morgan Jennifer taking her picture again