Morgan’s Sunrise

Our neighbor Mark pulled in next door a few minutes after midnight. He looks at our house, and sees Morgan’s lights are off. One of my nieces can’t sleep without the TV on. For others it may be a bedside light, or even just the soft glow of a nightlight. But Morgan liked no lights on at all, so what Mark saw was the norm.

Another deputy patrol of the neighborhood happened at 1:21 AM. This was the drive right through patrol, it took 35 seconds to loop the end of the street, and drive back by – no stopping, no shining their spot light. The second patrol of the early morning came by at 2:44 am. This time there was a complete stop between our house and our next door neighbor Rhonda’s,  a searchlight flooding our roof, this patrol took closer to one minute to make the loop, and do a visual of the roof. Why did they think to check the roof with their light? We never knew about the roof until months after Morgan’s death.

For almost exactly an hour it all looked quiet, then the motion detector light on the corner of the garage goes on. For the one and only time during the lifetime of the video surveillance of our house a young deer, a fawn walks, and then trots by Morgan’s window.

Mark came out to warm up his car just before 4:30 AM and he notices something, Morgan’s bathroom light is on. This was out of character, Morgan was not an early riser. Mark drives off at 4:36 AM.

Steve remembers getting out of bed after 5:30 AM. He has been awake for a while and decides to make it official. He makes coffee and sits at the kitchen table reading over some floor plans. His current project is at the state where no mistakes comes with an explanation mark, and he reviews the details. I lie awake before 6:00 AM but the smell of Steve’s coffee is too much, I get up, pull on a fuzzy, warm robe and join him in the kitchen for just a second, I then had a thought pass through my mind, why hasn’t Morgan woken me up yet to take out her puppy?

Across the valley, Scott, a very good family friend woke up much earlier than usual. He looked outside, and found something extra special in this mornings sunrise. So he grabbed a camera that was on the table behind him, and went outside to capture it. He presented us with the photo of the sunrise coming up from Aspen as it came up over the mountains clearly showing here comes the snow – months later, safely mounted in a very special frame he made he gave it to us – it was the sunrise on the morning that we found Morgan dead.

Steve is engrossed in his plans, and as Morgan has not called me yet to take Wylah out, I just go to take her out. When I enter Morgan’s room I notice her bathroom light is on and the puppy and cat are both in the bathroom looking bewildered, a something is not right sensation comes over me, and I see what I think has caused it. Wylah has had an accident on the floor. I immediately called her, and took her out to the backyard, as I had every single morning since Morgan was shocked into retreat by her stalker after he showed up in our yard only 10 feet from Morgan. I thought of how fearful she felt that morning, as I scanned the yard for anything that looked out of place, while Wylah did her morning potty thing out in the back yard. So many times I had wanted him to be here, I wanted him to challenge me, and I wanted to take him down.

Wylah seemed apprehensive this morning, and took extra time to find the perfect spot to complete her business, and then she was quick to get back inside. She would usually sleep after she went potty until Morgan woke up, and now I brought her back to Morgan’s room. Wylah hopped on her mom’s bed, and looked at me. The oddness was growing, Morgan would have thanked me for taking her out, but she had not. And now I was expecting to hear words from our daughter before I went to join Steve for some coffee and some breakfast. There were no words.

So I asked her, “Aren’t you going to say thanks for cleaning Wylah’s accident, and taking her out Morgan?”

There was still no response. I looked again and it was all very odd. Morgan was over here, when she always slept over there. Her position didn’t even look right, The blankets, her nightstand, the floor, as it all began to grasp me, but I shook it off. Touching her on the shoulder she felt warm, even though her shoulder had not been covered up. Morgan was usually a burrow under the covers sleeper, and there was not a hint of burrow here. I shook her shoulder gently so as not to startle her, and said her name in a question.

Again she made no noise and right then I needed Steve. Like those times when daddy makes the crying stop, right now daddy was going to wake her up – he had to. I left her bedroom door open and quickly went toward the kitchen and yelled for Steve. He sensed it immediately and was up and walking quickly towards me as I turned the corner.

“Something’s wrong, Morgan won’t wake up. I told him, and he did not accompany me back to the room, he ran past me and was kneeling on her bed at her side by the time I got there. He was shaking, then shaking more. Then his words were “Oh no, Oh no, in a tone of disbelief.

“Call 911, NOW.” – those are words I will never forget. I was frozen in place and had not moved when Steve rolled Morgan onto her back, and her eyes, oh her beautiful eyes, Morgan’s soft pools of blue that held such happiness, and wonder for twenty years seemed to be grotesquely stretched in irregular shapes up her face, and turned to a shiny dark color. As if she had just become possessed – they were wide open, and a bolt of goodness was needed to be shot into her to return Morgan to Morgan.

Steve had started CPR and was counting out loud, he repeated the NOW of my instructions. The room could have spun, but seemed to be only starting to spin and then stopping. I was across the hall in my office dialing the numbers and I could hear Steve’s counting, over and over again. Then I heard him scream, “Morgan take my breath, breathe!”

I was connected to 911 emergency, but the nature of my emergency was unimaginable to try to explain. We needed help, fast… they were coming. I told Steve they were on the way, but he could not hear me. He was screaming for Morgan. I could hear his words, but I would not let myself understand his words.

The 911 operator told me that we needed to get her onto something firm, the floor, so I ran back into Morgan’s room and helped Steve move her. I saw my daughter’s face and in a quick flash it looked blue, I could not bear to look at her eyes so I looked down to the floor at her feet, and grasped her ankles to feel her warmth. Steve continued CPR – he wanted to help her breathe, and I heard him say “oh no” again. I looked at him and he looked back at me, he wanted to say something, instead he shook his head and told me to move my car, to get it out of the driveway so the ambulance could pull right up to the door.

It was dead quiet as I ran outside. There was no one on the street, and I raced back down the driveway and swung the car in front of the garage and out into the street. As I ran back to the front door I saw them – men searching, waving flashlights, dressed in thick overalls, and carrying all kinds of devices. My arms were crossing over my head as I waved and yelled for them to all come this direction.

The recognition and movement was instant, it seemed like a small army coming from every direction, descending on our front door. “She’s in here”, I kept repeating and they did not pause to acknowledge, just rushed by me. They already knew what to do and were in her room in an instant. Steve was leaving Morgan’s room as I came in and Wylah sat on her bed, never making a sound just staring quietly as the men came in Morgan’s room.

Steve and I clutched at each other in the foyer, as we backed toward my office door. I wanted a do over, I wanted to do this all over. I said to myself, “This is all a bad dream, I will wake up any time now and this won’t be happening.” This was not supposed to be how it ended, not by a long-shot  I can’t remember if I said it out loud or only thought it. I wanted a do-over so I could take her far, far away from all this horrible stuff.

The first responders are were asking about Carbon Monoxide. It was so cruel to flash on memories of the exposure she suffered through years ago, how much it had hobbled her, and how she had completely recovered.

Morgan lay lifeless on her bedroom floor now, the thoughts of how and why would come later, only that she no longer with us was what mattered to us. Sometime ago Steve and I had come to realize that our baby girl was no longer with us. The responders brought new hope with their urgency, but they were now slowing to the reality that there was nothing they could do, whispering to each other in very hushed tones. Bringing all of the devices back out to their trucks.

We were both in shock – we didn’t know what to do – Steve started making calls, just the ones he had to tell straight away (how do you tell her brother and sister who loved her more than anything that she was dead?), then he went to the living room and sat on the couch just staring at the wall. The rest could wait until later. I would make some calls myself, but it would not be until much later – I wanted to be alone with my thoughts for awhile.

Mothers have connections with their children, and share bonds not easily understood. Mothers were not meant to say goodbye like this to their children. Yet I stood in the entry of our house and I stared at what was only her body now. I knew that Morgan was gone, and that in itself was a comfort to me, no one could hurt her. Later I would wonder what she had really been through and how much she had been made to suffer. And I knew that for today it would be a matter of making the magnitude of this singular event have the meaning it deserved. At this time I trusted those moving about and carrying out their tasks. We were asked to leave our house and we did.

Her stalker was somewhere else. Chatter about the death of Morgan Ingram was the morning news, and I am sure that those involved leaned in to be sure nobody was talking about them. That would come over the course of time, following the realization, and deduction of many, many experts. Law enforcement that were involved in her death scene assured us that there was no sign of forced entry, no sign of a struggle, no sign of suicide, no sign of sexual assault…and we believed them. They never took fingerprints, they didn’t collect any evidence, only items that belonged to Morgan. They said we now had to wait for the autopsy – when that was completed and the forensic pathologist could find nothing wrong with her that would cause her death, he said we had to wait for the toxicology results. They came back about 4 weeks later with no sign of alcohol, no sign of any illegal drugs and her manner of death was now called “natural.”  We asked how could that be?  Morgan was a healthy 20 year old.

Whatever Steve and I thought at that moment on that morning, it was all about to change. In the most irrevocable and illuminating way. . .

Today is December 13, 2012 – We moved from that house within a month, we were in shock, the both of us not properly processing what had, and what was happening.

Over the next nine months, what was declared a mystery that day, would only become more mysterious:

• We would discovered all of her expensive jewelry was missing – gone.
• We would discover the PJ’s she was wearing when Steve said good night to her were also missing – gone.
• We would discover her panic button had been torn from its secure mounting spot on her nightstand, and was hidden on the floor under some clothes.
• We would discover she died not from natural causes, with an insignificant amount of amitriptyline as the forensic pathologist Dr. Kurtzman had told us, but from a massive dose of amitriptyline. An amount that she could not have possibly ingested herself because a person her size would have died from only on tenth that amount.
• We would discover that there were other drugs not shown on the first tox screen in her stomach, 5 total.  The amitriptyline on the first tox was a lethal concentration – the rest were not in amounts that would have been lethal, but every one of them were listed on the lab’s Sexual Assault Panel.  So at the time of Morgan’s murder she had an active felony stalking case being investigated by the Garfield County sheriffs and the only things found in her body were all date rape drugs found on the Sexual Assault panel at the lab…and yet we were being told she wasn’t a homicide.
• We would discover she had wounds consistent with defensive wounds on her body, and the coroner and pathologist would refuse to release the photographs for study by others.
• We would discover that many, many aspects of her room were consistent with a struggle having taken place.
• We would discover the hour that she most likely died, and why that was so important for an investigation.
• We would discover that the container needed to hold the date rape cocktail has never been recovered, in her room, or elsewhere.
• We would discover her body was dressed in a third set of clothing, not what she wore home that night, and not the PJ’s she wore when she went to sleep.
• We would discover that a journal of hers was missing from her room, gone.  And it was not the journal listed in evidence.
• We would discover her upper chest was covered in a fine spray of bodily fluids, consistent with Morgan attempting to spit or sneeze out a date rape cocktail she had been forced to ingest, or the remnants of a sexual assault, as these “spots” showed up under the UV light and were bodily fluids .
• We discovered Morgan had a red spot on her right temple (consistent with a thumb restraining her head while a hand was over her mouth), and something red (blood?), as was on her swollen lip.
• We would discover the knife Morgan asked her dad to buy for her protection the night before, was lying in her bed right next to her body, in the original box it had been purchased in.
• We would discover that even though it was a “mystery” and a majority of stalking victims in these circumstances would be raped, and when found her pants were unzipped & unbuttoned, there was no rape kit administered at her autopsy. That the only way to know if she had been raped as a part of her ordeal is forever lost.
• We would discover that the steel gutter directly over her window was torn into two pieces, consistent with her stalker lying on the roof and leaning over to see inside her room through her upper window, and it would never be officially photographed or otherwise examined forensically.
• We would discover that the observant neighbor who reported her light being off and on at strange times indicating suspicious behavior was never interviewed as a part of the investigation.
• We discovered no potential evidence from the death scene, save the clothes she was wearing, were ever collected.
• And then we learned from a long time local investigator that years earlier the pathologist that did Morgan’s autopsy had once examined a body pulled from the Roaring Fork River and declared the person died from an accidental drowning…later on the body was exhumed and a bullet was documented to have been lodged in the skull – how could he have missed that?

Morgan’s stalking ended with her death. The interviews and collection of evidence planned for her that very next week were cancelled in view of her death.

The most important part of a mysterious unnatural death is the investigation that follows. The dignity and honor of the deceased rest with how thorough and complete that investigation into the death is.  Morgan deserves for her death to have an investigation, and it most certainly did not, as the blog shall shift from the stalker to the investigation of her death, and the answer of just who or how many were in her room that night. Because it is obvious that Morgan alone could not possibly have done what is documented to have happened on the 123rd and last day of her stalking.

Morgan’s 8th grade rock project

Morgan had a project as a freshman at Aspen High School.  Find a sample from ten specific types of rock formations found in our valley.  Morgan and her dad spent many wonderful outings searching, they even brought me along and in the end we only found nine and she spent the messiest weekend you could ever imagine crafting her finds into Fraggle Rock.  Not quite a Renoir, but a moment I had to share…

And now – as each turn the wrong way has becoming increasingly harsh I want to share a step in the other direction with everyone.  Through your generosity in donations to Justice for Morgan, and the help cutting through some last minute red tape by Dr. Dean Havlick the Coroner and Forensic Pathologist for Mesa County – Morgan’s remaining samples (some have been exhausted, but some still remain) have been preserved for another year!!!  It was wearing on me, and I am so happy that it is now taken care of.  Thank you Dean and thank all of you who pressed that button, and shared with Morgan, it will all make a difference for victims of stalking I promise you.  And also trust this, the victims need our help, and appreciate it more than I could ever express.  Change will come…I promise you.

Morgan and her brightness

Morgan goes to the bank to make a deposit this morning for Steve.  I text her to let her know that I was able to speak with the mother of a witness the detective wanted to talk to – Morgan sends me a text back, “You rock!”  She then goes to her dad’s shop to help pack up his office.  When Steve and Nathan go back to the shop after lunch, Morgan goes to take a shower.  She has invites for the afternoon, but instead she has decided to help a friend find a job.  If he does not find job he will have to go back to Denver, and Morgan knows that will be bad for him.  He has worked hard to get where he is right now, and slipping back into old surroundings could create a great pressure on him to not maintain what he has accomplished.

She gets out of the shower and goes to her room.  She has the music playing, while she puts on make-up, does her hair, and dresses at her leisure.  I take a break from work and go into her room to chat while she is getting ready.  We talk about the Etsy dragonfly ID tag she found online, and wants to purchase for Wylah – I told her I could just order it when I sit back down to work at my computer.  Morgan said she didn’t have enough money yet, and would have to wait until after her babysitting job over the weekend.  I asked her how much it was, and told her I would just order it, and she could pay me back.  It was really nice to see her so bubbly, and actually putting on make-up and curling her hair, which she normally only did if she was going out somewhere special in the evening.  At 1:41 pm she walks out to the car with a freshly laundered shirt for her friend’s job interviews and hangs it up in the back of the car.  She goes and picks him up.  He is worried about his interviews, and Morgan calls him (on his cell) to encourage him at all their stops, while she waits in the car.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say she walked him in, but it was really important to her that he had a job or a really good prospect all lined up today.

After Morgan’s murder in 2012 we find out that on Facebook at 12:20 am on 12.1, early this morning, Hannah Hurlocker (Brooke Harris’ friend) updated her wall, “sowyy it sucks.” Then 37 minutes later she adds, “guess ima go then night”  Her friend ? Likes this. At 1:04 am still confused by the urgency of the requests to drop everything and come get her Stephen Campbell says ”Well u seemed pissed when we talked Wats up??”

Brooke is not happy he has not figured this out yet, and at 3:43 pm today she posts to Stephen Campbell, “why would you ask her that on facebook? On her wall, on a post that had nothing to do with that at all? You know how to get a hold of her.”  It remains questionable what was really happening until certain parties involved are asked to give their input, then it is very upsetting, and obvious to me.

I had an arrangement with Morgan that she would be home by 4:00 pm or call me within two hours after she left, so I could run some errands with her.  Nothing super important, but it always seems like if I don’t get through my list for the day I end up wishing the next day that I had, and since we were sharing a car we had to coordinate.

At 4:00 pm I still have not heard from Morgan, but I had just gone out to the garage to organize and drag out empty bins for the move.  By 4:30 pm it has been almost three hours and Morgan is a 1/2 hour late contacting me.  I text her to call me, she is still calling her friend regularly, probably still giving encouragement with each new interview.

Our neighborhood Lhasa’s are getting their evening walk up the street toward Brooke’s house at 4:29:30 pm and they look very happy.  By 4:48 pm I am getting anxious, in reality she is still helping her friend find the all important job, but I do not know this, only that she is not contacting me back, at least to tell me all is well.  I am worried & upset – I keep remembering that the detective said he thought the stalking was going to escalate.  Especially with all of the new unknowns that have been thrust into her stalking this week.  Detective Glassmire told me 2 days ago that he thinks her stalking is going to escalate, there will be increased patrols, searching in new places.  And we didn’t even know about the very disturbing chatter going on on Facebook at that time.

Morgan gets a text from Nathan from Steve’s phone, “Hey it’s Nathan. Just leaving Aspen just so ya know. I’m gonna get dropped off in c’dale.”  She does not answer, and her friend Calder tries three times to contact her before 6:00 pm.  Also, without an answer.

Steve is home and tells me we should go get something for dinner – I am incredulous for an instant, then I calm down – he feels like Mexican food, and a little grocery shopping after for some of Morgan’s favorites, like pomegranates.  During Morgan’s mystery sickness, years ago, which turned out to be chronic carbon monoxide exposure, Steve had this mental list of all the foods that would cheer her up.   And it would always work.  He thought she was looking just a little too tired and run down right now, and he wanted to get some of her favorites.  I went with him to the grocery store after dinner for that reason only.  Before we leave for dinner, and the grocery store, I lock the dogs up, which I normally do not do, but Morgan’s puppy Wylah had just chewed up a stuffed animal, and I had to clean up all the stuffing that she dispensed throughout the house – that was a BIG mistake to make, locking the dogs up in the laundry room, but I just wasn’t thinking clearly.

On the way to the restaurant Steve texted Morgan, “Hi Morgan we are going out to dinner in Carbondale are you interested in joking us?” He really meant, joining, but you know these “smart” phones.  Just as I was telling him that he knew that Morgan had not answered me for hours, and I was really getting worried, his phone did that incoming text sound.  He glanced at the screen, smiled, and then handed it to me.  I said, “oh sure she answers you”, and I didn’t know if I should feel relieved or frustrated.  His message from Morgan was, “Gah! I’m sorry. My phone’s little button got switched so my ringer was off. I’m just hanging out with Danny, but I’ll see you guys after?”

Just like that it was no big deal.  Steve wondered if we could just have a nice dinner now, and I told him sure.  Morgan started answering her other friends that she was just hanging out right now.  Steve told her, “Ok we will text you when we get home and then meet you there.” And she answered him, “K.”  I was officially relieved.  We talked about our move and of all the other things going on in the world  Steve wanted to set up Christmas in the new place so it would be there as we moved in, he thought it would be different, a little extra bit of happy in the midst of carrying, and unloading, and stressing and straining.  I told him I would think about it.

After dinner we shopped for a few things at the grocery store, and went home.  Rhonda, our next door neighbor, had just driven up, before Steve and I did.  We unloaded, and were deciding which room to pack first.  Morgan was still with her friend, watching a movie.

7:32:17 PM Morgan’s friend Nicole sent Morgan an important text – “Lady! We need to talk about breckenridge and get it all figured out!”  They were leaving before noon tomorrow to babysit for our returning military and allowing them to have a retreat with their spouses.  There is a group of children that loved Morgan, and two-year-olds were asking for her by name.  She either does not see this text or decides to wait to answer Nicole, because it is not immediate.

A person who will remain secret for some time, arrives home.  Morgan asks if she could spend the night at their house.  This person thinks for a moment about inviting Morgan, but then decides that day has been too tough, she has a headache and decides to have her sleep over some other night.  I have spoken with this person after Morgan’s murder, and she has felt horribly guilty about that one decision to send Morgan home for the night, sent her to her ultimate death.  No matter how much I try to convince her this is not true, I have not yet succeeded.  Morgan was scared to go home alone – yes, we were there in the house, but sleeping on the very other end of our big house…Morgan had been either having a friend sleep over at our house or she would sleep over a friends house for the past 2 weeks – that is how frightened she was.  I believe her intuition was screaming at her not to sleep at home, but Morgan was always concerned with others feelings and she said it was fine and she left.

I suddenly realize that I was supposed to text Morgan when we were headed home and I had completely forgotten.  I sent her a text at 7:48:57 pm that we are done shopping and heading home.  I go into her room and turn on her bedroom light and let Wylah into her room, she jumps on the bed and lies down, and it’s exactly 8:09 pm.

Right after I turn Morgan’s bedroom light off there is a bang on her window.  Reviewing cameras later we can see the big motion lights goes on at the same time.  Nothing obvious is seen on video, but then whatever whacked the glass, and set off the motion detector was out there.  At that time we didn’t know we should have been looking up instead of on the ground, where the cameras were pointed.

At 8:30 pm Morgan is in the car alone, driving home. She has made plans to go back out with her friend in the morning to go out to breakfast and return applications that will be filled out by then.  Morgan is confident a job can be had before her friend will have to return to Denver.

Morgan pulls off into the Catherine’s store parking lot at 8:36:38 pm and answers her text from Nicole about babysitting on the weekend, “F… I know. I haven’t talked to Amy. I have no idea what’s going on.”

She then drives over to her friend Calder’s house & talks to him and her other friend Cooper. She then drives Calder & herself over to a house where her friends Nathan, Kara & Kashandra hanging out. She visits with everyone, expecting Nathan to drive home with her as previously planned.  Morgan’s friend Kara later told me Morgan seemed very happy when they spoke, as did Kashandra & Calder. Morgan was hoping to get Nathan to come home with her to sleep over again, but he tells her no.  She goes outside to talk to Calder, who is outside smoking, and Nathan borrows her phone to contact someone.  Nathan reads the texts, and then sends a text to Joey, “Sorry man. Haven’t been near the phone for awhile. And whatever works for you man. I don’t care either way. The fact that you remembered this long is enough. You can forget about it. Just make sure you come chill soon. :)” We know all this later from reading and saving everything on Morgan’s phone.

Morgan leaves, and her two friend’s (Nathan & Calder’s) recollection of Morgan during that short time is completely opposite from each other.  Calder always seems enamored with Morgan and always loved to spend time with her, although now we now know he was a part of her terrorization – probably not thinking she could end up dead.  I also found out that Morgan was upset with Calder, because he had refused to give her the phone number of his friend who had told him about Keenan and his supposed girlfriend Morgan…our Morgan felt really betrayed by Calder, but in typical Morgan form she never stayed angry for long with anyone.  Nathan is concerned more about who she was with today and what is going on, because he still cares about her and would like to be together again- he is jealous.  She does not want to talk about it and this causes an awkwardness.  I found out later from Nathan that Morgan had asked him to come home with her and sleep over again so she would feel safer, but this night he said no.  Now, it’s just a little before 9:00 pm and Morgan hops in the car and heads for home.  Once again I am starting to get worried about Morgan and ask Steve to see if she is on her way home yet.  He texts her at 8:54:47 pm and asks if everything is OK?

Morgan does not answer, because she is driving and can not text.  She drives up into the driveway 9 minutes later. She goes through her normal routine in the car, and I am waiting for her on the porch, pepper spray in hand and her puppy on the leash, after I hear the driveway alarm go off.  As she opens the car door I begin to tell her how upset I am that earlier she did not answer calls or texts – I was so worried about her.  I remind her about her stalker, and how much I worry about her.  She does not answer, looks down and mumbles an unsavory comment as she walks by me and takes her puppies leash out of my hand.  Our eyes meet for a second, and I decide she is tired and OK.  (Now years later I wonder if that comment was even aimed at me or was she referring to Brooke because she was so upset over what she believed Brooke was doing to her?)  I stand in the foyer and watch her go into her room.  I then go to her bedroom door and knock, she says, “Go away I’m tired.”  So, I head down the hall to my bedroom on the other end of the house.

Tessi (our Newfoundland) was lying in the entryway close to Morgan’s door, just staring at the front door, as if just waiting and guarding.  She looks over at me, and I tell her let’s go to bed.  We usually left Tessi loose during the stalking, so she could wander the house all night in order to warn us if someone ever got in the house.  Steve did not want her loose that night because he thought she might bark and wake everyone up, because of the increased patrols. This is just one of the many things we did wrong this night that added up to the perfect storm. We were all so exhausted from lack of sleep. She paddles down the hall behind me and when I get into our room I ask Steve if he will talk to Morgan.  He asks if she is upset, and I say she might be.  Steve says he will wait ten minutes just in case.  No matter how mad we may make Morgan, it never lasts more than ten minutes.  I already know that in the morning she will apologize for what she said and explain what happened tonight, it will all make perfect sense, and it will be behind us.  It has happened like that on so many mornings, it is safe for me to say it has never failed.  I used to always tell Morgan, “You don’t have to apologize – heck your brother and sister never did when they got mad at me,” but Morgan was different and if she snapped at someone and didn’t think it was justified she would always apologize – she said everyone should always speak how they feel, and then they never have to feel bad later, so apologies were good.

I turned off the light and got into bed.  Two minutes later the video camera records motion coming over the berm toward the house.  We will not see it for some time – not until months after Morgan’s murder.

Steve has counted his imaginary time for Morgan to be happy, and he gets out of bed.  Morgie can get upset, but she never stays upset.  A good Zen Buddhist would never let their anger control them – and that was Morgan’s personality.

Steve walks to Morgan’s room and knocks, she answers.  Tessi has followed him back out of our room again and stations herself by the front door – smart and intuitive dog – too bad Steve and I did not listen to our dog.  Steve asks Morgan if he can come in, and she says, “Of course.”  He sees that she is on her phone texting, and he offers to come back later.  Morgan presses send for the last time on her phone, and announces, “Nope, all done for the night.”  She was lying across the bed in her jammies, on her stomach, and propped up on her elbows.  Her legs were folded at the knees and her ankles are crossed, gently moving back and forth.  She is smiling. And asks Steve what’s up?  They both know why he is there, because she had a moment of anger, and he wants to ask her about it.  This is something Steve and Morgan have done since she was a little girl.  She’s twenty now, and if you ask her she will admit it is something they have always done, but she will also never call her daddy to come in to cheer her up, he just always has good timing.  Tonight she does not need any cheering up.  Steve and her talk about developments in her life, how some friends of hers are doing better, and some just need a little more time.

Morgie helping Daddy

Steve talks to her about oil painting.  He has been so busy at work he has not had much time, but he wants to go in for another painting class, because he just got an email and the classes have started up again.  Morgan says she would really like that.  They talk about how her older sister really wants to make jewelry, and Morgan reminds him they are supposed to get a metal clay kiln for Christmas, and they can all use it.

Morgan is concerned about babysitting the next day because she is afraid she is contagious (she has been coughing a little), and she does not want to get all of the children sick, but she does not know if they can get a replacement for her on such short notice.

Steve tells her that she should wait until morning, she is getting to sleep early, and maybe she will feel much better in the morning.  He remarks that she already looks much better since Monday morning, and if she had not he would have never let her come to the shop and pack bins for him.

Steve confessed that he wished he could run faster and he could catch this guy, and it could be over.  He is choked up, because defending his family is a huge thing for Steve.  Morgan tells him it’s OK, and I love you daddy.  He tells her how much he loves her and says goodnight.  This was the last time he would ever speak with her – he just didn’t know it at the time.  Now I can go over things in my mind, and realize there were signs that something might be wrong…Tessi didn’t want to stay in our bedroom, she wanted to stay in the entry staring at the front door, and Steve had to drag her to our room, and close the door.  I always left the bedroom door open, just in case, so Tessi could patrol the house if she needed to, but we were all so tired Steve put her in our room, and closed the door.  Next mistake we made, part of the “Perfect Storm” that night was that Steve thought we should both have a good nights sleep so we both took sleeping pills that night – I usually did not, because I never wanted to miss any unusual sounds, or Morgan trying to send me a text, or if she had to push her panic button (although that sound was loud enough to wake us up), but this night I agreed and I did take a whole sleeping pill.

At 9:52 pm our neighbor Matt, from across the street comes home, and right behind him is a car, and I think I know the occupants, but am not sure, so I won’t say.  And a few minutes later Brooke’s friend, Hannah Hurlocker, is on her Facebook wall again, this time adding, “Some people are like slinkys. Pointless but amusing to watch when you kick them down the stairs. ?”

At 11:56 pm the 1^st of December is just about over and the Great Room video camera catches something moving behind our next-door neighbor Rhonda’s pine tree.  But we are all fast asleep by now and don’t know what evil is approaching.

Then after midnight – now December 2nd, Police reports later show the “suspect” did not go to work on 12.2.2011 until after midnight – Morgan was already dead by the time he clocked in at work @ 2:00 am, so when he says he was at work, and on camera at the time she died, he is lying – he has no alibi for the time she was murdered, and his job was less than a 5 minute drive from our house – he clocked in to work at 2:00 am and worked till 6:37 am & then from 7:07 am – 10:30 am… so he was free this evening to plausibly be Morgan’s murderer and he has NO alibi!

Click here to read about the 123rd day of Morgan’s stalking and the first day of the investigation into her suspicious death https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2688