Morgan sent me a text, “Where are you guys?”  I texted back, “On our way home.”  Right after Steve, and I returned home I texted Morgan, “Coming home soon?”  I didn’t hear from her, so I texted her again, “Morgan PLEASE text me before you come home!”  She mentioned to me that she didn’t think I needed to meet her in the driveway every single night that she came home.  She thought that since she had pepper spray herself, she would be OK, but I insisted. Morgan texted me back, “Sorry!  Yeah, I will.”  I texted back, “Thanks.”  Then she sent me a text, “I can’t find my keys!”  I sent, “Where are you? Call me”  Then she immediately sent me back a text that said “Found them!!!”  Then I wrote, “Great are you coming home now?  I’ll watch for you.”  And Morgan wrote back, “Yeah”  I wrote to her, “Ok I’ll watch for you, see you soon.”  Then she texted me back, “Now”  this meant she was already in the driveway, so I ran outside.

Here is a picture of Morgan’s puppy Wylah (she took it on August 21st last summer).

Today 8.21.2012 as I read back on my timeline, and our conversations via text messages (all those messages, that at the time seemed so urgent to me), thinking that if I could always keep in touch with her, to know where she was, that this would keep her safe, now I see that it was because I was so panicked that something bad would happen to her, and I wouldn’t be there to help her.

I realize now that we were very blessed to have such a caring daughter for the 20 years that she was on this earth. For her to put up with all the chaos that was going on around her was amazing.  I used to get angry that she was trying to act so mellow about this whole thing, but now I know that was just her.  She never wanted anything that was going on in her life to hurt anyone else, she was very sensitive to others feelings, and she just wanted to see beauty in everything.

Every day someone that has been following this blog has sent me a message that gives me hope and the strength to move forward…and I can’t thank you enough!  I have heard so many stories from people that have been stalked or know someone who was stalked, or is being stalked now, and I have heard about a lot of horrific things.  Peoples voices need to be heard…only in silence can this type of evil exist.

A common thread in all of the stories I’m hearing is the lack of response by law enforcement. To show up after the stalker is gone is not the right response, and will never yield a good result.  And a complete lack of any advice about what to do that has worked in the past on other cases, or is working now. From my experience Stalkers can change up what they are doing in an instant. You change, they change.  Our government, and law enforcement agencies need to ask questions as to whether their approach to the problem is yielding tangible results – they can’t keep turning a blind eye to what is going on.  I sympathize so much with the stories I hear, because in our case we never had an answer that would stop Morgan’s stalker from just banging on her window whenever he wanted to terrorize her, as if that was some right of his.

And why can’t people that have information speak out?  Am I missing something here?  Are they afraid?  Do they think by keeping it to themselves they are doing the right thing?  Don’t they have feelings for the person that has been injured, because of this evil?  Do they think their silence will really keep them safe – I don’t think it works like that.  Either you do the right thing and speak up, or you are helping someone that is a sociopath, and really doesn’t care…least of all about you.

Click here to read about the 21st day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=714

At 2:45 pm Morgan sent her dad a text saying, “Just parked we’ll take Rover to the wedding.” We had been driving two separate cars and wanted to drive only one to Redstone.  Morgan is with us all day – we all go back to Avalanche Ranch to Cody & Kendra’s wedding in Redstone.  We have a really good time at the wedding, and so did Morgan.

This evening, after arriving home, Morgan and I watched a movie while Steve went out and adjusted all of the detectors around the house. Steve is calling it our perimeter defense. We are now up to a combination of 14 motion sensors that sound alarms or turn on lights. When he is done he tells us that he arranged every sensor into two levels of protection, first we will be alerted if anything larger than a small dog is approaching, and again as they are within 15 feet of the house. He is confident you can not get within 50 feet of Morgan’s windows without setting off multiple sensors. We go over a plan to go out the front and rear doors if anything should happen, armed with mag lights and pepper spray.  He thinks Morgan should stay in our closet, and we won’t mention that she is in there out loud, then we can manipulate the lights in Morgan’s room to make it seem like she is sleeping in her room. Steve sneaks outside later dressed in black, and approaches all of the houses in the neighborhood one by one, verifying who is home and who is not. He takes pictures of unusual cars on his phone, so we can share the information with the sheriffs patrol officers later if anything happens tonight. We all want this to end, and we won’t mind at all if the stalker just stops, but we all agree that we really want to catch him. We know without anyone saying a word that if we do not catch him he will either continue terrorizing Morgan, or follow her wherever she goes, or just move on to happier hunting grounds – we would all rather end it here and now. We have no desire to just pass our misery on to the next person.

That night the lights scanning far away go off, but none of the sensors close to the house ever go off. We are optimistically thinking we are gaining ground in this bizarre battle we are waging. Morgan’s new semester is starting, and she can’t do a stalker and college at the same time, so we are hopeful. But we are wrong..

Click here to read about the 20th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=694

Colorado
HB 1114, known as “Vonnie’s Law,” amends the stalking statute penalty by fixing the bail for the crime of stalking and mandating that a protection order be issued against the offender. It also requires that when the stalking is committed in connection with a violation of a court order, any sentence imposed shall be served consecutively and not concurrently. If a protection order has been issued, the court must require the defendant to acknowledge the protection order as a condition of any bond for his or her release. Moreover, in stalking cases, the prosecuting attorney must notify the alleged victim, the complainant, and the protected person of the order if they are not present at the time the protection order is issued. The prosecuting attorney may also request a hearing before the court to modify the terms of a protection order. Effective May 22, 2012.

This was updated on the stalking resource page of the National Center for Victims of Crimes www.victimsofcrime.org  The bill is named after a woman who was stalked by her neighbor for years before he killed her outside her Leadville home.  This new law will make stalking as serious a crime as domestic violence. Once the law was signed, a defendant will have to go before a judge before they’re released from jail, and a restraining order will automatically be issued for a victim.

In my opinion I know that protection orders, or what they refer to as restraining orders in most cases do not do a lot for the victim, it is just a piece of paper when you get down to it.  Most stalkers see it as something to get angry about, and they actually can become more violent.  Don’t get me wrong any of the laws that try to give victims some sort of hope are good, but I think we need to get some seriously strong laws against stalkers – take our lives back and stop giving the criminals more rights then the victims.