Monday, November 14th – Day 105 of Morgan’s Stalking – He’s hiding in the tall grass – and why are the sheriff’s batteries always dead?

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Toni Ingram

Morgan’s favorite lunch – peanut butter, honey and bananas

Morgan has been feeling sick, and she ignores a text from her friend in Savannah, just past midnight at ~ 12:44 am, “When is your Dad’s bday?” What a way to start November 14 – it is now Steve’s birthday!

We have a lot of activity in the morning from the stalker, and for some reason Steve is up, and ready. Like he knew it was coming. For the first time in a week he has the thermal imaging scope out, and is dressed all in black, when I see him go out the back door at 4:48 am, right after Morgan alerts us to rocks on her window.

I ask him if I should call the sheriffs, as he goes out he says no. He has a black aluminum baseball bat in his free hand, and I hope he finds something worthy of a swing. Steve was quite a home run hitter in his younger days.

I try to watch him from the back windows, and I have lost all sight of him, as I go around the house trying to pick out where he is. Normally the outside motion detectors would be announcing his actions around the house, but this time there is nothing they are picking up on. Whatever he has decided to do this morning, he is under cover.

He calls me at 5:45 am, it is still pitch black outside, and I ask him what is up. He has picked up two trails in the grass, and has located an area on the berm where he can clearly see the heat signature of where a body that was lying in the tall grass. He has been watching deer as they come through, and is very familiar with how they present on the thermal imaging and he is convinced this was a person. He is still close by so he whispers to me. Call the deputies and tell them I have heat signatures across the yard. Tell them to come in from the north side, our side of the street.

This is a different Steve, he has never had me direct the officers before. My chest is racing I think he must see something to have said that. One of the officers on the way calls and he has a thermal imaging scope also. Probably much better than ours and he will circle back in from the end of the street. I tell him Steve is on the berm and has located two spots where a body was hiding. The deputy is excited and shortly after our phone call I hear a truck race by the front of our house.

This seems too good to be true, we are working together and putting technology to work in order to catch the stalker. Steve calls me and says he see their flashlights coming, he wonders why they always use their flashlights, you can see them so easily. My Steve and Officer Steve P. from the sheriff’s department meet up out on the berm between our neighbor Rhonda’s house and ours. I can see them standing there and talking, pointing at the ground.

They split up and Steve comes straight for the back door. I unlock it and let him in, this is pathetic, were his first words. He is very angry. Something was moving down at his end and he could not see it. Because his batteries were dead. Of course he can’t take batteries from us because, what, we might catch the guy? He won’t take my thermal scope, because that is against policy. Steve says he told him, maybe we should rent the Unicorn hot air balloon for the day, but he didn’t understand, or wanted to choose to ignore him. He was coming right at them Steve tells me, right at them. I thought they had night vision, could have spotted him easily. This is a nightmare times two!

Morgan is wandering down the hall and wondering what is up. She tells Steve, it’s just rocks against my window daddy, it’s OK I can take it. He offers to make her French toast, and she perks up quite a bit. “But it is your birthday.” Morgan tells him. “Yes, it is and I want to make you breakfast.” Which he does, for us all.

Detective P. and Detective M. knock at the front door apologizing about the dead scope, and promising that they will have it working next time. I was extremely disappointed, but I don’t tell him the same thing happened to the detectives last time they were here, and then I say good bye.

We have a wonderful breakfast and Morgan goes about getting ready for school. Steve tells me this is just not fair. Morgan is giving this all she has, more than anyone ever should, and it has just become one screw up after the next. He tells me we have to hold them more accountable. To actually have live batteries is not that big of a request he feels. I know they think this stalker is harmless, but you never know Steve tells me. First the car was keyed before the stalking started, with the word BITCH on it (down to the metal and the Carbondale police officer (not the Garfield County Sheriffs) said that it is usually a sign of someone with deep seated problems or on drugs), with lots of anger and who knows what they do next. I don’t like this at all.

I agree with Steve, they don’t seem to be very serious at all, just going through the motions, and it is having a big affect on Morgan’s life.

Steve leaves for a project he is working on in Aspen, and Morgan comes back out at 10:27 am to announce a text she just received from her instructor, “No class today. Had to pick up daughter from school. Homework due Wed. Classical vs Neoclassical.” Then she answers her friend in Savannah who was wondering about Steve’s birthday. At 10:48 am, she tells him, “Today. HaHa.”

Morgan is worried about her Dad, he seemed extra stressed this morning, and I tell her it is wearing on us all and he wants it over. Morgan assures me that she is fine. She feels safe as long as she is in the house. That actually for her the worst part is driving up the street, once she is in the front door she feels like everything is OK.

Today is October 28, 2012 – Another weekend has been spent with lists, timelines and more evidence – more then I ever thought we would have about Morgan’s death. The order to bring it all out, and through which communication medium, was a big decision today. Last year after our meetings in Los Angeles we had a very ambitious plan that has now been scaled back. Raising awareness is still our biggest goal, and our most successful to date. Justice for Morgan is still very problematic. We know what happened to her, that she never really stood a chance in her last 24 hrs of life, but presenting what we know and preserving the possibility of eventual prosecution is not at all so easy, as I would have thought. I miss my little girl so much and I want to do what is right, so waiting for a few more decisions this week will be something I can do. Steve and I have had so many offers for help that we are humbled by the love and understanding that Morgan’s story was able to spread in the world. We pray for the strength to do justice to what she had already accomplished in her lifetime.

The chatter on our tipline about stalkers being cornered, and stopped by the lessons we learned and that are being shared with us is very satisfying. Morgan’s stalker was a very talented individual, in a sick sort of way, and reading about what happened to Morgan has actually helped many other individuals. It has been more than satisfying for Steve and I, that methods we employed that were useless for us, have been very successful for others. And have so changed the perceptions of how to correctly confront your stalker for so many others. It is not the end I had hoped for when Morgan was still alive, but now I gladly take it, in the memory of Morgan and for all of those it is helping. But this doesn’t mean we are giving up – NEVER! And I am still very confident that a law enforcement agency will step up to the plate and take over this investigation. Thank you all for so many signatures to our petition to the Governor of Colorado – we will continue to take signatures (only 300 left to go) and then we will be presenting it to him.

Click here to read about the 106th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2071

Morgan learned to fight for herself regardless of what she was told she couldn’t do – she was a LEO!

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Toni Ingram

I just ran across a short draft of a speech Morgan was asked to give at the GED/High School graduation on June 16, 2010 for Colorado Mountain College. Morgan was mentioned in the Colorado Mountain College eNews publication about GED’s and High School Diplomas, dated October 11, 2010. Morgan had had missed a lot of school when she was attending Aspen High School because of her exposure to Carbon Monoxide. Being held back was not a choice for her as she was too scholastically advanced for that so instead she enrolled in CMC and took College classes, and then received her GED and went on to receive her Associates of Arts degree in 2011. Below is the draft she wrote for the GED speech – I just wanted to share it with you so you could see another glimpse into who Morgan was – she never gave up on anything.

When normal kids are enjoying their preteen years, they are learning to flirt coyly with the idea of relationships with each other, homework becomes a common part of life, and drama huns high. Unfortunately, i never got a chance to indulge in many of these occurrences, because I was busy spending my junior high experience dying.

For three years, instead of growing into a young adult, I was in my bed ridden with an ever growing myriad of symptoms that doctors could not rationalize and could not even begin to fix. They did not know a flue on my house was installed incorrectly and that Carbon Monoxide was being pumped into me daily. In the end it was a simple detector that named my killer.

Devastation hit again when i tried to join high school, and discovered that the poison had left in its wake, long-term side effects. More vicious symptoms appeared, and once more my days were being taken from me. By the time I was starting to regain my health, my high school had decided to hold me back, I had missed too many days being sick. Shortly after, I was attending Community College and had gotten my GED. Never regretting a second of it, this experience taught me to fight for myself regardless of what I’m being told and shaped me into who I am today.

Because of the wonderful experience Morgan received through Colorado Mountain College, Steve and I set up a scholarship fund in Morgan’s name through the Theatre Department. This past Spring the first student received the first award of the Morgan Ingram Scholarship. Morgan would be so very happy – she was always trying to get her friends to go to College.

November 8 – 11, 2011 Days 99 – 102 of Morgan’s Stalking – A few quiet days before the storm…

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Toni Ingram

Morgan on a cold night

Steve is dropped by some illness, and I take him to see his doctor. I’m not feeling so well either, and I am afraid I will go down also, but I know we can’t both afford to be sick. Morgan seems perky, she has always had this great way of bouncing back from anything and she is happily coming, and going on her own schedule.

Two of the four days she texts me in the morning, because Wylah is up before 6:00 am, so I get up a little early to take her puppy out, the little yard is cold, but quiet now. I always take the opportunity to venture outside the fenced part of the yard to look for anything that resembles a stalker. It’s starting to look as if that one morning was the only time the stalker will make a visit to Wylah’s morning potty stop to terrorize Morgan.

Morgan had the following post on her computer on November 10, 2011 – she was strong and ALWAYS had a great attitude about life, even in the midst of this horrendous stalking…that is just who Morgan was.

I was writing just single words in my dayrunner during this time. Words like afraid, and chicken, and scared. Not to describe Morgan, but rather to describe him, the stalker. Because I was reflecting a lot over these quiet few days, even more so, because Steve was laid up with a horrible chest infection. He was on antibiotics, and bed rest, and that left me with more time to just think – much more than I usually have.

And I thought about Morgan’s stalker, how he had acted and behaved. His real M.O. He would do anything to avoid being caught, taking great pains to hide how he was managing to make the loud cracking noise against Morgan’s windows at night. Taunting the sheriff’s, as he had done at the beginning, didn’t even seem to concern him any longer. I guess the brutal truth is that if you choose to show up fifteen minutes after the crime, your deterrence effect is greatly reduced.

We had installed another wildlife camera (of our own) by Morgan’s window and it was meant just to answer the question of what was causing the noise against her windows. So far we had caught streaks coming through the air at the time of the noises. No person, not even an arm, just a streak through the air, and Steve was convinced now that it was not a projectile, but these streaks were attached to something as he could see the streaks, “retract, or withdraw” after every impact noise.

Steve was now guessing it was like the cracking of a whip from some distance. Just another theory until we could catch him in the act, and that, sad to say was proving to be next to impossible so far. We were searching for an answer with all the we had, we had not found it yet, and what we really had going for us is that we would never give up.

On 11/11/11

Morgan sends her teacher a text that she has to miss her jazz dance class today because she has a doctor’s appt., but will see her teacher right afterwards. Morgan posted a picture today on her FB. She is getting ready to go out at ~8:00 pm, she doesn’t hear anything, but later camera shows motion detector goes on at this time. She leaves to drive to Carbondale, I saw a small dark car, with blackout windows speed down the street after Morgan, so I yell for Steve. Steve jumps in his truck to follow the car – I immediately call dispatch, dispatch says it’s one of theirs going off a “tip” so I thank them and call Steve’s cell phone…I then realize he left it behind and it is ringing in the kitchen. I later find out that Steve raced until he caught up with the car following Morgan and then got waved down at the Carbondale Mini Storage by a sheriff who tells him it’s okay, it’s one of ours. The car continues to follow Morgan – Sheriffs staged a follow of Morgan as she drives out of the subdivision – why? We call and tell Detective Glassmire about this incident and replies, “I have no idea what or who that was!” There was no follow-up. No answers – end of story. Why did he lie? What was the “tip” they were going off of?

Today is October 25, 2012 – And little rays of sunshine have begun to peak out in Morgan’s case. Steve always reminds our other children that stress is not caused by too many problems, it is caused by a lack of solutions.

Today is no different than a little less than a year ago was. We had a horrific situation unfolding, and just to emphasize the point, I received a comment today from a woman who was stalked right here in Garfield County about 25 years ago, when she was the same age as Morgan, she was also 20 years old. She recounts a story, not too unlike what happened to Morgan, but gladly, and thankfully she was not killed by her stalker. The real point I would like to make is that nothing has changed. Twenty-five years later and it is the same story. I have met with and spoken with so many people who agree that this situation must change. The United States Department of Justice developed a protocol for stalking over ten years ago. It has proven successful, very successful, but there is a catch – you have to implement it. But guess what? The main player here, the person or even people who’s job it is to make that change don’t seem to be interested in change. Our District Attorney Martin Beeson and our Sheriff Lou Vallario don’t want anything to change…don’t they have children, wives, or sisters that they care about? Or is the big blue wall and their egos more important to them? I know only too well about that big blue wall – I grew up in Los Angeles before that big blue wall came tumbling down – so I know exactly what that looks like.

So what exactly is that telling us? Is it that two or three murders a year are somehow acceptable, as long as you don’t call them murders? That if a few of Garfield County’s residents meet with a grizzly end then that is OK? Because I don’t think so, and a think a simple truth has emerged, a solution to the problem.

The solution is a realization that the answer does not lie within Garfield County. Garfield County is comprised of a lot of great people with a problem that was evidently here twenty five years ago, and still exists here today. I wonder what has been here for those twenty five years that has allowed this to exist? If there was one thing, the solution might just be that simple. I’m not sure, but I can assure you that tomorrow when I pull out Morgan’s boxes of evidence, I am going to look at them in a whole new way. I am going to look for a new solution in there. A solution to how my daughter Morgan, could be stalked for four months, and then murdered, because I believe 100% without a doubt in my mind she was murdered. And sorry, but I have to say it again. I believe this 100% not because I woke up one morning and decided it all on my own. Quite the opposite. First there was a doctor who saw Morgan less than two days before she died, and talked to me over the phone, and wanted to be sure they were looking into her stalker, because Morgan was in perfect health, just tired and stressed – about her stalker. Then came another specialist, and another. Then Morgan was found to have died of natural causes. I wasn’t questioning it, no it was everyone else that Steve, and I spoke with about this that were questioning how Morgan could have died of natural causes, the stalker had to have played some part in her death – if not being completely responsible for what happened to Morgan. Steve and I were still in shock and were really just going through the motions, some days strong, other days not so strong. Always helping each other to move forward.

Then I know you have all heard this before, but we traveled to Los Angeles, and asked the person we thought most qualified to answer what happened to Morgan, what her opinion was after reviewing all the records, and it was her opinion, she was 100% sure that it was not natural causes. This was a homicide!

I truely, truely hope that none of you ever have to go through anything like this, I really do. But after that meeting in Los Angeles there were more opinions, and every one of them were in agreement. Morgan had met with foul play. And we will prove that that is what happened, one step at a time.

And then I’m going to find a solution for how, as citizens of this country, Steve and I are left to prove the entire crime ourselves, so that the next set of parents, who find themselves in our situation won’t have to, because it is a nightmare no person should ever have to live through. People have been lying, and Garfield County really doesn’t seem to care as long as they never have to have a murder on the books in their County.

Click here to read about the 103rd day of Morgan’s stalking. I can’t believe it has already been over 100 days and her stalking still remains out there to harass, intimidate, frighten and control Morgan, Steve & myself 🙁 https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2022

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

Posted on October 24, 2012 by Toni Ingram

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.