Am I an accuser or just stating facts?

 

Morganbrokenup

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.

How about the start of real change in the fight against stalkers?

– FRIENDS –

Awareness is becoming a word I will repeat more, and more and I can not thank Sarah Afshar and Yahoo voice enough for helping that cause.  Sarah interviewed me over many days, and was tireless in sharing so many thoughts, and possibilities with me.  Her first article article went live this morning and she had to call me at 2:50 am to tell me, but I did not mind one bit.  Somehow even Wylah knew something good had just happened, because she did one of her, I’m really happy smiles, then she went right back to sleep.  So here is the link – please read it when you get a chance, and also notice the links button that has just been added to the top of the blog, the important links will always be there too.

http://www.sarahafshar.com/2014/04/morgan-ingram-exclusive-interview-with.html

 

 

 

December 1, 2011 AM – Day 122 of Morgan’s stalking – What is up?

From just after midnight the motion light on the corner of the garage (by Morgan’s windows) is almost constantly on.  Once it is triggered it stays on for one minute and then goes off unless it is triggered again.  Heat and motion in combination are the triggers.  It is re-triggered every minute and blinking off for just an instant.  Steve thinks it is malfunctioning at first when he watches the replay of the morning.  Except at 12:47 AM a deputy in his truck is patrolling, not our neighborhood, not even really our house, but specifically Morgan’s side of the house. He drives up the street and stops right between our house and our neighbor Rhonda’s house.  There he uses a searchlight to comb the side yard right outside Morgan’s window.

The truck drives on and a minute later returns from the end of the street toward Brooke Harris’ father and Brooke’s mother’s houses and returns to our house, then stops again. The searchlight is on again and it is quite clearly not aimed at the house or the ground as usual, but it is aimed higher, at the roof – why?  Steve assumes that the light has about a 20’ spread after it covers the distance from the Deputies truck to the house and the lower edge of the light is just hitting the wood trim above Morgan’s window.  From that point to the roof is about 4’ and as the roof climbs from the edge Steve assumes that the center of the light is trained about two feet above the roof.  It does not travel up or down from this elevation, but goes from side to side.  It is immediately obvious to Steve that whoever is aiming that light is looking for something on the roof, and once he points out what he is observing to me I am certain he is correct.  We roll back days watching for anything like this and find nothing similar.  What is going on this particular night that we are not privy to?

The neighborhood is quiet until 1:41 AM when another Deputies truck follows almost the same pattern with one big difference, there is no searchlight turned on this time.  Once the truck passes our driveway on the way out of our street it speeds up.

At 2:31 AM it is almost the exact pattern of the Deputy at 12:47 AM right down to the searchlight.  On replay of the tapes starting with the first deputy, and continuing until a while after this patrol, the motion light on the corner of the garage, which was being triggered constantly had now remained off.

Mark, also our next door neighbor came home at 4:21 AM, he was keeping a close eye on our house whenever he left or came home, and we were very thankful for that.  Our transformer had gone out one night in the middle of all this and was quite a cause for concern.  Mark stopped as he saw something going on just to make sure all was well – friends looking out for other friends is quite priceless at times like this.  Mark left this morning shortly after he came home.

Morning was lighting up as a neighbor left at 7:12 AM and a small flow of neighborhood cars came and went as sunlight took away the last traces of darkness.  Morgan sent a text to Calder at 8:11 AM wondering if he was in school yet.  She ran out to the car in her big fluffy pink robe to grab her ballet things from the back seat and brought them in for a load of wash I was starting.

Morgan and Nathan left at 8:56 AM and she made a deposit at the bank in Carbondale for Steve at 9:08 AM.  She texted her friend with an excuse that she would not be at ballet as she sat in line at the bank.  Steve was beginning to pack everything for the move and Morgan somehow thought it was her fault and insisted on helping him.  I told her she could not think like that and he would have lots of help packing up, but she was after all a Leo and very stubborn.  And it meant a lot to her to help Steve get the move under way.  She had walked out looking like she was ready for a job in the coal mines. but then had a great time talking with her brother at the shop.

Nathan was there to help and was catching up with his friends on Morgan’s phone at the same time.  It’s hard to believe we used to turn the big dial with our fingers on phones that were screwed to the wall growing up, but I had given up long ago trying to explain what that was like to Morgan and her friends.

At 10:36 AM I sent Detective Glassmire a text explaining that, “Calder told Morgan in the morning that he is not comfortable giving her Gracie’s number until he speaks with Gracie tomorrow.”  I made a few calls to find Gracie myself, after all Carbondale is not that big, and for some reason Detective Glassmire also jumped right into this issue of Keenan and a mystery girlfriend named Morgan.

By noon I had a call back from Gracie’s mom and told Morgan.  She was headed home for lunch with Nathan and Steve and seemed very happy to be able to send a text to her friend Calder that problem was solved and he shouldn’t worry about it another second.  They were all home at 12:18 PM and Morgan made lunch for us all.

Click here to read the continuation of December 1, 2011 the 122nd day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2497

Today it is December 1, 2012 – That day, 12.1.2011, was just like every other in so many ways.  I found Gracie’s mom and when I called Morgan to tell her that I looked in the phone book, found her and called and spoke with Gracie’s mom and got the number for Gracie, I can still hear Morgan telling me that, ” You rock.” and I can still remember how excited Morgan was that I had gotten a hold of Gracie’s Mom.  That is how Morgan was, always, so happy and so excited over the simplest things.  This day a year ago ‘I rocked’ because I found a name in a phone book, and she spent hours helping her father, because she thought she was inconveniencing us, because we were moving, due to her stalking.  Knowing Morgan as I did makes what happened to her all the more painful.  Not that anyone should ever deserve what has been done to her, and her memory, but of all the people in the world . . .not Morgan.

November 30, 2011 (continued) Day 121 of Morgan’s Stalking (PM) – Was something planned by the stalker(s) for this evening?

As Morgan, Steve, and I are driving to Grand Junction for our annual doctor’s appointments, Morgan received a text from Lorraine at 1:48 PM wondering if she could babysit this afternoon.  Steve dropped Morgan and I off at our doctor’s office at 2:15 PM and went on to his appointment.  Once we were in the waiting area, Morgan answered Lorraine, and said she was sorry, but she was in Grand Junction for the afternoon.

I sat talking with Morgan until 2:50 PM when I then went in for my appointment.  We were there for our annual check ups and it was such a long drive (almost 2 hours) that we always combined our appointments and drove together.  Morgan had been texting her friends, and when I came out after my appt. Morgan had already gone in to see the doctor, so I waited for her to come out.  I had talked to her doctor (who was also my doctor) about the stalking before she saw Morgan, and wanted to be sure she knew about what was going on.

Morgan came out just before 4:00 PM, and I asked about her appointment.  Morgan told me she had a conversation with her doctor about the stalking and how she felt.  Her doctor had wondered if she felt like she needed sleep aids or anti-stress pills, because it sounded like a bad situation.  Morgan told me she had told her doctor that she would rather not take pills, and she was getting through it.

We both sat by the front door and waited for Steve to come back after his appointment.  Morgan texted her friend Calder, and at exactly 4:00 PM Nathan called Morgan, using Calder’s phone, with some news that upset Morgan.  Earlier that day a friend of Calder’s had met Keenan, and heard he was going to Grand Junction and wanted to go with him.  He had told her that he was going with his girlfriend Morgan, and she didn’t want anyone else to go along.  Morgan was visibly shaken, wondering if her stalker had followed us to Grand Junction. We all wondered what was going on, and I called Detective Glassmire to fill him in on this story.

Detective Glassmire wanted Calder’s friend’s number so he could check out the story.  Morgan set about trying to get the number.  Steve picked us up and had a few errands to run before we went to the mall.   Morgan was texting with friends and suddenly asked Steve if it would be OK if she had a knife to keep under her pillow – just in case.  Steve wondered if anything had happened, and we told him about the call from Nathan telling Morgan about Keenan having a girlfriend named Morgan.  Then Morgan heard that Morgan was his girlfriend for the last four years, only he was living with Brooke all summer, and many were insisting they were still together, even though they announced their breakup on Facebook in October. Something was not adding up, and Morgan did not like it at all.

At Steve’s first stop Morgan and I waited in the truck, while Steve went inside.  As part of his purchases he bought a folding knife and drew a happy face on the box and gave it too Morgan when he came back to the truck.  I watched her open the box and smile.  She told her Daddy how he was the best, he told her to be careful with it, and we stopped to have dinner together. Here is a picture Morgan took tonight of the box the knife was in – this is the happy face Steve drew on the box…we found the box, with the knife still in it in her bed the morning we found her body…she never had a chance to take it out of the box in time to protect herself…

At 5:01 PM Morgan texted Calder that Detective Glassmire wanted to talk with his friend, and could he get her the number.

Back at the house at 6:12 PM a car came up our street and turned into Elliott’s driveway.

After dinner we decided to skip the mall, and Christmas shopping, because everyone was so tired, so we headed home instead.

Morgan wrote an answer to her friend on Facebook, “I love life.”

We did not know the following until a year later in 2012 – At  6:40 PM on Facebook, Hannah Hurlocker (Brooke’s friend who is staying at her house now) posts on her wall.  Brooke “I CAN”T STOP THINKING…I JUST CAN”T DO IT”

I sent Detective Glassmire a text to tell him we have not gotten the phone number yet, but there is another person you can talk to that knows all of the parties involved.  He does not call.

We arrived home from Grand Junction at 7:49 PM, unload all of our stuff from the day and at 8:06 PM Steve walks Morgan and Wylah out to the car, and they leave.  Morgan visits, texts, and calls her friends.

We did not know the following until 2012 – At 11:39 PM Brooke answers Hannah on facebook – “me either girl”

And at 11:49 PM Nathan and Morgan drive up.  She has a beautiful new French manicure to show me.  Nathan walks around to her window and checks that side of the house, then grabs his backpack from inside the car and goes inside.  We had a large U shape couch in front of the TV.  Nathan was going to go to sleep on the couch in the office, but instead they watch a movie out on the couch.

Here are the “suspects” hours on the 30th – he was free this evening to stalk…his job was less than a 5 minute drive from our house and he was not working this evening…many years later he still tells people he was always working and on camera when any incidents of stalking occurred…just one of his many lies.

Today it is November 30, 2012 – After Morgan’s death I spoke with her doctor at length about that day and anything she might have said during her appointment that would be helpful.  Her doctor remembered the visit well.  She thought Morgan was “very positive” and “upbeat” and shared with her that the detectives thought they were close to an arrest of her stalker and she was very excited about that.  Morgan did tell her that it was stressful and she did feel tired more often now because of the stalking.  Her doctor agreed with her self assessment and found her to be in excellent health.  I asked the forensic pathologist if he wanted to speak with one of her doctors that had seen her last and just a day and a half before her death.  He said yes, but then never called her.  Morgan’s doctor called him herself, long after the first Postmortem Examination Report was released. They did not agree on a lot of things, but that is how it has been. Morgan’s doctor wrote us a letter explaining that Morgan’s examination was completely normal and they also had a talk and Morgan showed no sign of suicidal ideation. No doctor we have ever spoken with has agreed with the pathologist, Dr. Kurtzman’s conclusions, no other Medical Examiner, and no other Forensic Pathologist – no one, except the sheriffs.

But there is much more to tell about the next two days of Morgan’s life and her death that will shed light on that.   I admit it has been much harder than I imagined it would be to write these last few days, and I have had to walk away many times.

Click here to read about the 122nd day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2458

Tessi tired after a long trip to GJ and Wylah as if to say, “It’s OK big girl”

November 30, 2011 – Day 121 of Morgan’s stalking – Tuesday night turns into a busy Wednesday early morning, after midnight


 Morgan is alone tonight – her friend does not sleep over. Steve & I are there, but we are in our room on the other end of the house. Morgan’s phone is busy just past midnight this morning. Not the first time in her life, she is a twenty-year-old, young woman, but this is out of character considering the past few months.  At 2 seconds past 12 a person she does not know texts her, it turns out to be quite innocent.  Her friend Nathan, who is just back from Australia, does not have a phone yet, and asked Morgan if he could give another friend her number until he got his own phone, and this friend might be texting, it was just that neither Nathan nor Morgan thought it would be at midnight!

Morgan calls him back and tries to put him in touch with Nathan, but gives up and goes back to sleep.  Another friend of Morgan’s texts at 12:14 AM and teases her about not lending him her sweater earlier.  Morgan answers him and he keeps going on with his texting, but she stops conversing and goes back to sleep.  Unfortunately the stalker must have been outside, and because it seemed he had seen her light on and heard conversation he is now angry.  Morgan thinks this because there is very loud banging at random intervals.  Once it starts up Morgan covers her head with a pillow, and hopes he stops.

As we will find out next year, at 12:25 AM status updates are happening on facebook accounts.  Hannah Hurlocker (?’s friend) happens to be staying with ? just up the street and her wall updates with “ugh I already called you and told you member?”  a minute later Stephen says, “Oh yeah my bad sorry”  Hannah answers, “its osay”  Stephen expands on his answer “Oh yeah my bad sorry But u didn’t tell me what was going on u just asked me to Drop everything and come get you that’s it”  at 12:27 AM Hannah tells him, “enough said”

Also at 12:27 Morgan’s phone rings she answers and hangs up from under her pillow.  It was yet another friend “drunk dialing” her.  He will call to apologize later in the day.

Morgan gives up on sleep, and she gives up on her stalker outside giving up for the night – she knows he won’t stop, so in a very strange move for Morgan, she gathers up clothes and comes into our bathroom with her puppy to dress.  I hear her and come in to see what is wrong.  Morgan can’t explain it, but feels like something is really wrong.  Her crazy stalker has been banging some wretched beat on her window and she is afraid he will be at it all night, so she slipped out of the room and came into our bathroom to change.  And now she wants to go to her friend’s grandmother’s house for the rest of the night.  She has had a standing invitation, and has only used it a few times, but Morgan knows she is home and her couch is not only warm and safe, but most importantly quiet.  A place to dream happy dreams.

For some reason I think she is making the right choice and I tell her I think it is a good idea.  I walk out onto the porch and watch her and her puppy drive off at 12:47 AM.  I wake up Steve and tell him what has happened – he wants to get up and make sure she makes it OK.  I tell him I have been watching cars in driveways for the last five minutes and nothing has moved, and she promised to text me as soon as she is safely locked up in her friend’s grandmother’s house.

It’s 12:52 AM when I call dispatch.  I tell them what has happened.  She has done this a few times when the stalker is being extra persistent, so this might be a good night to nab him, but before I can explain all that, dispatch tells me the officers just left the neighborhood one hour before because they were investigating our next door neighbor Ken’s house where a robbery occurred early in the evening, but they will come back.  Might not even be an hour.

You would think with a sheriff’s presence constantly coming and going from our house that nobody in the right mind would be breaking in to our neighbor’s house – but I don’t think we have been dealing with people that are in their right mind.

The next morning Steve is watching the cameras and can see the deputy walk up to Morgan’s window, get down on his knees and inspect something on the ground.  He wonders what he found and wants me to make a note to ask Detective Rob next time I talk with him.  Steve also see’s him on the other side of the house and comments to me that he never even went in the backyard!

At 8:00 AM another of Morgan’s friends had a text message conversation with her about Bluegrass, he can’t believe she won’t go to a performance with him and tattoos, which he believes you have to have before you can express certain opinions.  It is all good natured and fun loving.

Steve meets his crew in the driveway at 8:55 AM and lines out the day for them.  He invites them in the house for coffee, and tells them about the night before.  They are incensed and just want to go take care of this.  Steve tells them that we heard from the detective that it will be over soon.  None too soon for our liking.

Morgan comes home at 10:07 AM and looks well rested. Steve leaves at 10:10 AM in his truck to run an errand. 10:27 AM her “drunk dial” friend from this morning texts to tell Morgan he is sorry.  Morgan does not answer him, and works on her room before we all leave to go to our doctor’s appointments this afternoon in Grand Junction.

There was a mini van that pulled up the driveway at 10:55 AM and a man came to the front door with a sheet of paper looking for someone in the neighborhood that I had never heard of before.  He seemed to expect that and left, not circling the neighborhood or asking anyone else, just left…strange.

Right after he left Morgan got a text she found uproariously funny.  She is getting very frustrated trying to get her point across to her long ago ex-boyfriend, that she does not want to date him again, she just wants to be friends.  She changed her facebook profile as a joke to say she was in a relationship with a girlfriend of hers at school.  Her girlfriend had just been approached by an instructor who thought it was about time.  It was so funny to Morgan that she was going to leave it for a few more days before changing it back.

Steve loaded the truck with the dogs and our stuff and at 12:19 PM and Morgan was now in one of her all time favorite places, crashed out in the back seat of the truck, and off on a road trip.  A short one, but a road trip all the same. Below you can see a Facebook Post she responded to today.

Today is November 26, 2012 – That day last year seemed so normal.  I mean as normal as having a stalker that hasn’t been caught yet can be.  I have to admit the day this past September when our Garfield County Sheriff went on TV and announced he would NEVER reopen this investigation I was devastated.  And I believed then that Morgan, who had been nothing but a kind giving soul her entire life, was being so unfairly treated.  I am not alone, in private emails, from others in law enforcement, it is a constant question – how could he have said that?  I have replayed the clip many times and there can be no doubt as to what was said and since repeated.  How in the world can you say that?  What if you were presented with an airtight case, with all kinds of evidence to show there was murder…would you still have to say NEVER?

But if he is the Sheriff and he is entitled to make that call – then he has made it.  This just compels us to go up higher to a different law enforcement agency to open this case – we won’t give up,

Now for other victims of stalking, and others who may become victims there is this other unbelievable interpretation.  We were out to your house X times and never saw a stalker, so there isn’t one?  Are you kidding?  Do you think a stalker is just going to sit and wait for you to get there and see him?  I kind of doubt it.  And what about footprints, pictures, videos, eye witness accounts…do they not count for anything?

November 30, 2011 is a perfect example of how that just can not fly.  Morgan gave up on sleeping in her own bed during the early moments of that day.  Terrorized from her room.  The same Sheriff’s department that now claims there was never a stalker, dispatched an Officer that had left an hour ago, and returned 34 minutes later.  Morgan was gone for 39 minutes.  By now we know the stalker most likely was on the roof 45 minutes ago, but where do you think he is now? Honestly?  The deputy searched the ground for five minutes on Morgan’s side of the house, then the other side of he house, never circled the house – if the stalker had wanted to sit on out back porch, the Officer would never have seen him.  No problem, won’t even have to duck.  The Officer then sat in his truck for six minutes before leaving.  End of story – no stalker.

Make no mistake, I am not blaming that officer at all.  I am pointing out how this is not working.  How this is the plan they have to stop the stalker, and it is not working.  Over 3,500,000 views of Morgan’s Stalking have taken place.  One person – one page – one view.  Do any of those 3.5 million views think that today’s performance almost nabbed the perp, stopped the stalker – I don’t.  Lots of times now, I cry for Morgan, Steve too.  But we have both talked about this so many times, and we cry just as much for other victims of stalking that will call this same Sheriffs department and will get exactly the same as Morgan got – and we wonder, Steve and I, how can anyone involved in Morgan’s stalking not sit back and wonder – is this the best we can do?

Click here to read about the continuation of November 30, 2011 the 121st day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2446