Tag Archives: Morgan Ingram Stalking

November 7, 2011 – Day 98 of Morgan’s stalking – a very dark day for all of us…

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Wylah looking at the front door

Today started out OK – last night was quiet.  The grandchildren slept over and Dave, Steve’s friend, still never answered his phone.  Steve decided to drive into Aspen extra early, and go straight to Dave’s house.  He wanted to check up on him, and deliver the food, since we were unable to last night.  We felt terrible, because we knew Dave never wanted to accept help, but he had just returned from the hospital, and couldn’t really do much of anything for himself.  We were still in disbelief in regards to everything that was happening with the stalker, the sheriff’s dead batteries, and just about everything else.   Morgan was losing hope in the sheriff’s department, and so were we.  We were trying to come up with ideas – then everything turned black.

Steve got to town, and went straight to his friend Dave’s place.  He knocked and knocked…yelled Dave’s name – nothing.  He called their other friend to tell him what was happening – his other friend told him where the key was hidden, and said he was on his way.  Steve opened the door, went inside and found Dave on the couch – he was not moving (Dave had already been dead for quite awhile, but Steve had no way of knowing), Steve called 911 and started CPR.  By the time his other friend arrived, and the EMT’s had gotten there to take over, it seemed like a lifetime to Steve.  He was devastated.  He called me to tell me what had happened, and was so shaken up he couldn’t drive his truck home for hours.  This was our first dark, dark day – we never realized that the darkness would be returning again on December 2nd.

I didn’t read my emails until later in the day – there were 2 emails from Detective Glassmire.  They were both from yesterday, after they left our house.  He said when they stopped at Starbucks in Rifle they saw a Green Ford Fiesta with a female driver.  They jotted down the license (don’t ask me why since it was in Rifle, not Glenwood or Carbondale, and it had a female driver), and it wasn’t registered to Keenan so what was the point?  He mentions they are all doing this to follow up on any sightings of a vehicle they think might be Keenan’s and to let us know this could be the vehicle witnesses have seen near Thunder River Market.  Are you kidding me?  Morgan said whenever she saw his car at the Thunder River intersection she saw Keenan in it, and now I feel like this email is trying to make it sound like it’s not him that she is seeing in the car.  The next email he sends me says an off duty deputy saw one at the Rifle Walmart registered to a couple somewhere else, and mentions these cars are a little more popular than we thought.  I am now thinking, OK – this is a little ridiculous at this point, do you know how far away Rifle is from the Thunder River Intersection?  Am I supposed to feel like they are actually watching out for this car and Keenan, or just trying to make excuses?  At this point I still trust them, but it’s starting to wear a little thin.

Morgan gets a text message from her sister that says, “I wish you could come here soooooo bad!!!  I need help with my shows & I miss you!!”  (She really just wants to get Morgan out of Colorado) Morgan answers, “I miss you!  I just can’t ditch out on Wylah and ballet. :(”  Her sister texts back, “When is ballet over?  Maybe Mom can watch the dog…I need my Morgana!” Morgan writes back, “In December.  I can’t leave Wylah though.  I’d be so sad.”  Her sister writes back, “:( you could Skype with her.”  Morgan says, “Haha I don’t think that would do it unfortunately.” Her sister says, “Fine!”  Morgan says, “I love you!!!”  And her sister says, “I love you!!!”  When I read these texts now I remember Morgan’s older sister calling me on the phone later, and chastising me for not forcing Morgan to go stay with her to get her away from the stalker.  She was starting to panic, she had a really bad feeling (she was very intuitive and always had been), and she was getting upset with me, because she wasn’t getting anywhere trying to convince Morgan to leave.  I explained to her that Morgan was 20 years old, she was a Leo, and very stubborn, and I couldn’t make her do anything.  I explained that I wanted her to leave too – I pleaded with her to go back to visit her Godparents in Hawaii for a while (that was pretty far away), and I would take care of her puppy, but she wouldn’t do it  – she didn’t want the stalker to force her to leave and she was also concerned that if she left, and he followed her then what would she do?

At 8:46 pm Morgan sent me a text to say, “On my way.”  I watched for her to drive up so I could meet her in the driveway as usual.  Morgan spent some time watching TV and knitting.  She was making homemade Christmas presents as usual…here is a picture of the gloves she was making at the time (she looks so worn out, but still her happy self).  She almost finished the present before she was killed.

Morgan’s last knitting project just before she was killed

Click here to read about the 99th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2011

October 15, 2011 – Day 75 of Morgan’s Stalking – More Eyes Watching

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pumplin carving 2011

We went to the pumpkin patch early, all of us, along with our two grandchildren.  Morgan loved the picture taking opportunity, and for Morgan to spend time with her little niece, Joni, was special for Morgan, they were getting closer all the time.  Her nephew Odin was still a little too young, but Morgan thought Odin was going to be just like her when he grew up – even his little feet were like hers and they had the same color hair…she adored him.

Back at home I we had plans to meet Detective Glassmire after twelve, and we zeroed in on after 3:00 pm.  When he came to the house at 3:30 with more interesting news.  He had spoken with Brooke about the rumors we were hearing in the neighborhood concerning Morgan and the stalker, and what things she had spoken to others about.  He said that Brooke told him that she gets all of her information from her mom.  Then he went and talked with Brooke’s mom, asking her the same question.  Brooke’s mom in turn said the exact opposite – that she gets all of her information from Brooke – so who’s zooming who?

I expressed to the detective that obviously one of them, if not both were not being truthful, and I was curious as to what he was going to do next.  He said he had decided to let it go for now and revisit it later – why?  He was concerned that Brooke was under eighteen, and he needed to have her father right there to question her, and it had to be done just so.  I didn’t really understand, but I dropped it as well.

Then we discussed the conversation I had had with Elliott and all of the ways that it could be taken.  I thought it would be very positive for Detective Glassmire to question Elliott, particularly about the “they” part of the conversation, as in “they were freaked out,” it had a feeling of guilt to me, and the detective agreed.  But then he did not want to tip off Keenan, or the Harris’ about exactly what we are thinking, better to keep them in the dark.  I told him I really thought Keenan already knew that they were watching him, and that they were trying to talk to him.  And now that he had moved out it might become more difficult.

They had never actually been able to talk with him while he was living in Brooke’s dad’s house with Brooke, and I asked Detective Glassmire if they knew where he had moved to.  The detective said they didn’t, but that they would start checking into it.

That night we all went to a birthday party for a friend of mine.  Steve and myself, with Morgan and Danny.  It was great fun to be out of the house, and at first Morgan had been concerned about how late we were going to stay, as she thought it might be not her cup of tea – Morgan usually did not go birthday parties for my friends with us.  But Danny said he would like to go and after a while she was having a great time, and kept saying how she didn’t think she was going to like a “Grown up party,” (I guess she meant with older people), but was finding fascinating people, and having some really intense conversations.

Steve and I talked about how much she had grown, and watched her mingle.  When we were getting tired, and looking to go, it was Morgan who wanted to stay, we had to promise to bring her with us to the next party before she would leave.  Morgan loved intellectual conversations, and she said this was the first time in a long time she felt she was really satisfying that.

At 8:32 pm, while we were gone, the video surveillance recorded the rear light going on twice.  We reviewed the cameras and did not see anyone.

We now had an extra set of eyes in the neighborhood.  A couple was staying next door for a few days, and their hours were completely different from ours.  They liked to sleep more during the day, and then stay up all night.  They could not patrol much, but they were trying to keep a look out for anything that happened outside or around our house all night.  They had Steve’s cell number, and would call him if they spotted anything outside.  It just figures that they were here to possibly spot something from next door when one of the suspects had just moved out.

Click here to read about the 76th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1684

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working on 10.15.2011)

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

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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

October 1, 2011 – Day 61 of Morgan’s stalking

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In the morning we try to sleep in, but Morgan’s motion alarm goes off at 7:18 am. It is still dark out, and I get out of bed to give Steve a break. I go out and drive the neighborhood. At about 7:30 am I drive by Keenan’s house, and his car is there. The light in the front room is out. I circle the rest of the block, Steve had a list of the “normal” state of houses, cars, porch lights, and everything is as his list says to expect it.

Morgan was going to leave at 3:00 pm for her babysitting job in Aspen. She is picking up a coworker on the way, and they will go in together. Before she leaves she tells me about an incident the day before. It was around 7:30 and she was on the back deck watching her puppy play in the grass. Then she heard a noise around the side yard, like a rustling noise, on Ken’s side of the house (this is also right where the Aspen tree is located that we find out that the stalker has been climbing – but we didn’t find that out until after Morgan was already dead.) She said she stepped over the fence and went to see what it was. She stood, and waited and watched and never saw anything.  It was daylight out and she felt she was safe to be there.

First I told her to never do that again. Just to go in the house and let us know. Then I went to tell Steve to tell her the same thing, he had this way of communicating with Morgan when I couldn’t. And then I reviewed the video cameras. There was nothing, and she left to go to work. This was making me so nervous – all it would take is just a few minutes and someone could grab her…

Morgan came home at about 11 pm and I met her in the drive as usual. She came in and went straight to her room. Rhonda’s dog started barking at 11:05 and she called to tell us about the barking, and the motion lights above Morgan’s windows being on. She was such a great neighbor, always on the look out, and always calling when she saw something out of the ordinary.

We were pretty much again getting to the point where part of us wanted to ignore everything, and part of us wanted to never stop with the hot pursuit. This time we were all so tired and worn out and we tried ignore and went to sleep.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 10.1.2011 he worked from 1:00 am – 6:00 am & then from 6:32 am – 9:34 am… so he was free this evening to continue his torment)

Today it is September 29, 2012 – And there is a lesson we learned but did not know back then. When Rhonda’s dog would bark I believe now it was for the absolute best reason. He was small and short , and if we had bothered to get down to his perspective we would have seen he was looking across at our house, and seeing up on the roof. But we did not. And Rhonda somehow knew when his barking was different, and more meaningful – which we also did not fully appreciate at the time.

It is not uncommon for stalking cases to go on for months and even years. Have “quiet times” and “active times”. We were told to document everything as best we could. I kept a stalking timeline that morphed into different versions. We also had a DVR which had six cameras worth of data from our yard for the last 20 days at all times – then it would “write” over itself. I kept a dayrunner for our “normal things” and we have been able to download all the texts from all of our phones from that time. It is an enormous amount of data. More than we could ever fully go through. I can recreate days, but I can’t recreate Morgan, and that part is specifically what Steve and I hope to do in the future. Turn all that data into the ‘Ah ha’ that stops a bad situation from turning worse. Because if you are in a bad stalking situation the chances of it turning worse are real, and that needs to be stopped.

Click here to read about the 62nd day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1518 

September 28, 2011 – Day 58 of Morgan’s Stalking – Just Sit Tight…

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Spring wild flowerMorgan had jazz dance class early today, and she was not feeling well.  After class she Skyped with her big sister, and lounged around the house.  She was reading and resting.   Steve and I needed to go get something in Glenwood Springs and pick up some dinner, of course Morgan didn’t want to go, so instead she just went and picked up a friend, she came back to the house with her friend before we left, so she wouldn’t be alone in the house.  For a 20-year-old who is used to having so much freedom to come and go, or just be by herself if she wanted, this was making me feel really sad for her. She always had to be with someone…I was praying that this would end soon, and everyone’s lives could go back to normal…especially Morgan’s.

I texted Morgan at 7:43 pm, “What yarn from Walmart?” Morgan answered. “Caron simply soft grey heather, will you grab two just in case?”  I told her “Will do.” And Morgan said, “Thanks!!  At 8:08 pm I told Morgan, ”we got three just to be safe, and we are on our way home now.” And Morgan said ,  “You guys are the (image of love bomb) !”  And I said, “Too cute love the bomb!”

After dinner the detective answered my questions and we had a case number, case #11-20197, this was now the 58th day of the stalking.  The detective had lots of input about getting a restraining order against Keenan Vanginkel, and I sketched them all out on a piece of paper.  He felt that on one hand it could keep him from entering our yard, which is not necessarily a bad outcome.  But then it would also limit our ability to get any additional evidence to charge him.  With stalkers you never know, it might make him do it more frequently.  And of course it would interfere with surveillance, something the detective wanted to do at least twice in the 9:00 pm to 1:00 am time slot as soon as possible.  He said things had come up, and there would be no surveillance this week, so he was hoping we could hold off for a couple of weeks before we did get a restraining order against Keenan.  We would hear from the detective next week, and he would update us as to plans for the week.

I was actually relieved to not be seeking a restraining order right away.  I knew Steve would not be happy about this decision, nor would Morgan, but I thought, okay it was just for a few weeks, and if we caught him in that time it would be so much better.  Let me share the reason I was relieved we didn’t go for a restraining order yet…I know this sounds strange to you but I felt that I had a good reason.  In July of 2010 Vonnie Flores was killed by her next door neighbor in Leadville, CO.  She knew the man that was stalking her for 5 years, as he was her next door neighbor.  She had filed a restraining order against him one week before she was killed. He had been arrested in June of 2010 and was out on bail, this was in July of 2011 – the summer before Morgan’s stalking started.  https://www.denverpost.com/2010/07/08/sheriff-says-leadville-woman-killed-by-stalker-out-on-bail/  He shot her in her own driveway – so needless to say I was a little concerned about getting a restraining order.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working on 9.28.2011)

Today is September 26, 2012, and it is time to answer the question about all those rocks!

Imagine yourself in a room, even the room you are in will do.  Take a moment to imagine – it’s quiet, you are alone, it is dark, and then there is a noise, or is there a noise? A tap? A scratch?  What is it?  You are not sure, and you strain to hear, to know, then BANG, loud reverberating, rattling.  You jump, startled by the sound, you are not alone, and not in a good way!  Your heart is beating more rapidly, fight or flight kicks in, uncertainty, call out, stay silent, you are not sure of what to do.  Try it sometime, see how easily you could be frightened, by just two noises.  Welcome to a fraction of Morgan’s life at that time, because this and more happed on a regular basis.  And it is was not just Morgan, it is the same fear, the same uncertainty for every single person who is a victim of stalking!  And whenever it wasn’t happening, I knew from being with Morgan, as well as when it happened to me, that she was on guard for the next time, she knew would come, never really feeling safe.  Does a longer time period between startles make the next one worse than the last?  Some experts believe that is absolutely the case.  What if is a shorter interval?  Yes, of course, bam, bam, bam, – make it stop!

Steve and I were privileged to be put in contact with individuals who really do understand that you can be scared to death – and could explain it in terms that we could understand…almost.  But, as always, I encourage you to research for yourself, just google – “homicide by fright” – or if you feel that is too narrow of a subsection, broaden out to – “scared to death” – and wade right in.  Bottom line is that it happens, and we spent a good deal of time researching this cause of death because doctors and professors heard:

  • 20-year-old, and very healthy
  • Four months of stalking
  • Terrorized
  • No real obvious cause of death (which we now know was not true – the pathologist just ignored the scientific evidence he had, either through gross negligence or as part of a cover-up

This was of course before the tox report was revisited, and the pathologist, Dr. Kurtzman’s explanation of “Pay no attention to these results, they are insignificant”, and stapled to the top, was peeled back and the actual results were scrutinized by other forensic experts.  Then it was established that Morgan actually had been killed by a massive dose of the sexual assault drug Amitriptyline.  That of course was before the latest coroner twist, which produced a report with six other date rape drugs in her gastric system – drugs that never even made it into her blood stream as she was already dead when they were put in her stomach.  And of course he forgot to mention that in the suicide finding.  Am I sounding paranoid or just stating the obvious?

So what does all that have to do with rocks, you ask?  You can be scared to death by your stalker and it is important for every person being frightened by their stalker to know this.  In Morgan’s case, after her death, there was a period where we thought it was homicide by fright.  But it has been clarified into an massive overload of one drug that was injected into her, enough for a 1,200 lb horse, then many other drugs, a date rape cocktail of drugs put into her stomach after she was already dead, all that is left is to determine who gave them to her and how, or maybe there was more than one person involved.  That is was not Morgan by herself is with out doubt, and besides how does she steal all of her own jewelry at the same time, assault herself and then move her own body after she is already dead?

The lesson I wish to share is that if you are being startled don’t take it lightly, protect yourself from fright.  I’ve even read that in the overtime of a soccer game heart attacks will spike.  Think about it , soccer game, goes into overtime, heart attacks spike.  I remember the pathologist, Dr. Kurtzman, telling Steve it was impossible for Morgan to have died from mere fright, “mere fright,” that’s what he called it.  When so many doctors, professors and specialists have told me that is pure nonsense, of course you can die from fright and if the correct things are tested in the tox screen you will have proof as well, what is a normal person supposed to do?  I guess this is what they mean by fighting City Hall…

Now back to rocks.  Steve was obsessed with the noise on the windows, he wanted to know how did the stalker do it?  How was there never any evidence of how it was being done.  He would stand in the yard, stare at the house, it just came to him.  We had a planter around the house with rocks in it, but that did not seem like how it was being done.  The detectives theorized ice chunks and we would go out right after a noise and search for ice, nothing.  Steve thought he had figured it out once with the bb gun theory, so he bought bb guns.  Laser sights, long range, plastic bbs, and he could make noise on the windows from a great distance, way out of range of the cameras, without breaking the glass.  And when we did it we could not find the bbs either.  But the next deputies out to the house had lots of experience with bb guns said over time the ground would be covered with bbs, so that was not it.  In shear desperation Steve wanted to smear a film of Vaseline over the windows so we could read the streaks left after noises.  Morgan was freaked out by that idea, so instead we mowed the grass extra short in front of Morgan’s windows, raked the ground thoroughly right there too, picked it all up and added it to the grass clippings.  Then took the bags of mixture and spread them out, one by one, over plywood and examined it piece by piece.  And found nothing out of the ordinary.

Steve was tearing his hair out.  Then we met with an Intuitive who, among a lot of other things, said to look on the roof, there is evidence on the roof.  And bingo, two detectives, half dozen deputies, and Steve gave it their all, but didn’t look on the roof until now.  The first time Steve was up on the roof after this meeting he called me and said, “I know how he did it.”  Why couldn’t we figure this out sooner?

With a fixed length piece of metal or wood, a broom handle, or countless other things that could have even been left up there, it was a simple matter to lean over he edge of the roof and tap or bang on any of the upper windows.  Our roof is quite high and from the ground it seemed way too far up there, but it was not.  Most of our windows went all the way up o almost under the eaves.  With a telescoping rod, like say collapsing hiking poles or trekking sticks, it would be even easier, collapse and take with you, nothing to leave behind – Morgan was right when she covered up her clearstory windows with thick sheets.

We had the grounds around the house well covered.  We watered and raked the dirt, preparing it to get some good footprints, so many times.  And all we had to do was look up.  He owned the roof, and we did not figure this out until months after her death.  And really – when there is noise on the glass, no footprints in the freshly watered and raked soil, and nothing caught on camera.  He had to be somewhere, and we missed it completely.  There was a “seam” between two cameras that was utilized to get to the house and then once on the roof every system in palace to catch him was rendered ineffective.

Don’t let this happen to you!  Not just look up on the roof, look everywhere, your stalker will have some other plan every time.  If something unexplained is going on take the time to explain it, no matter how long it takes.  A little piece of information like that could prove to be more important than you would ever know.

Click here to read about the 59th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1462