October 4, 2011 – Day 64 of Morgan’s Stalking

Morgan's favorite little things

Morgan’s shelves by her bed with some of her favorite things

Morgan texts Steve and I in the morning from school, “Don’t forget to track your calories!!!”  She has instituted serious food changes in the house and in what amounts to Morgan’s ‘boot camp’ she has installed calorie counters on both our phones and is going to slowly bring us around to a much better diet.  We welcome the help because with all of the distractions and stress we are certainly not in the best shape of our lives.

I answered her at 4 pm, “Did it.”  I also said there is a big storm forecast to blow in so I wanted her to reschedule a trip to Denver with two dance partners for new toe shoes.  I also asked her if it was raining where she was and Morgan answered, “Oh yeah.”  I told her “Here too – not fit for man nor beast out there.”  Morgan sent me back the image of a heart.  I sent her back six horses running and she said “Haha horses?”  I told her “You got – horses running from the storm.”  Morgan finished “Hahahahaha I didn’t get that.”

She was out for a while still, so Steve and I went shopping.  I texted Morgan at 7:30 pm as we were getting in the car,  “Got you beautiful Adidas yoga pants xs and warm blue sweat pants xs” Morgan of course said, “You’re the best.” I told her no doubt, and that we would let her know when we got home.  Morgan wanted to spend the night at a friend’s house. I told her it was fine and wondered what time she would be home in the morning.  She was thinking early, so now we could hope for a quiet evening.  Steve was wishing there was some way we could fool him into thinking Morgan had come home, we had tried having our daughter-in-law try to wear Morgan’s coat and drive out, come back and see what happened.  Just the thought of it was too much for her, she was too frightened, and that plan was dead.

The night was quiet without Morgan coming home.  No Morgan, no stalker this time.

Today it is October 2, 2012 – And it is the same – no Morgan no stalker – or is that really true?  It is not true – the stalker(s) focused on us after we moved – the sheriffs knew where our new house was located and not long after so did the stalker(s).  But that still won’t stop us.

We work on Morgan’s case and try to make plans that mean something to us.  We have plans to take a trip to see our children and grandchildren soon.  That will be very nice – can’t wait for all those cuddles!  Through our daily pain we really try to think positive and loving thoughts…it’s not easy, but we put on a smile for everyone around us.

Click here to read about the 65th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1561

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

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 2, 2011 – Day 62 of Morgan’s Stalking


This morning at 6:15 Morgan is awoken by loud stones against her window, the loudest it has ever been (look at the suspects hours below – he was on his break, only minutes from our house at this time!) She presses the panic button immediately and Steve is at her room seconds later, and then he is out the front door.  I rush to her room and Morgan is beside herself.  She thinks that it is a wonder he did not break the window and we both look at all of her windows very carefully for cracks.  We don’t see any, and Steve comes back in to report that he did not see anything, and Keenan’s car is not at Brooke’s dad’s house.  He is going for a drive to record the rest of the neighborhood, and wants both of us to stay inside while he is gone.

We are all far too keyed up for sleep and wind up in the kitchen for a family talk.  I have no notes about what we did talk about that morning, but I can safely guess that it revolved around stalkers and stalking.

After breakfast we go outside and find two questionable footprints on Morgan’s side of the house.  I see them, but Steve does not.  Again, I would like to mention that we had 6 cameras up around our house, but they could not cover every area of the house – it was impossible…so there were holes in the coverage.  We spent some time looking at the live video and Steve positioning on that side of the house, and realized the spot where the prints were is in a “hole” between the two cameras.  Steve aims both cameras at Morgan’s windows and we thoroughly water the side and rake it smooth.  We had been lax in this step since the video cameras went in and we agree to be more attentive to every detail.  Now that we have a detective, if we get a really good print he will cast it.  I am very angry with myself for not keeping up with this “chore”.

Later that morning, right around 10:35 am, a neighbor calls and tells us that Keenan drove up at 10:30 am and, after watching him get out of his car and go in the house, he did not have the “range bag” this time.

Morgan goes out with her puppy and texts me later at 9:51 pm “On my way”.  I have been trying to find an app for my phone that Morgan wanted me to get and I text her back, “Is the app called happy trees?”  She answers, “Hills.” And I tell her, “Ok thanks and I’ll watch for you.”  She tells me “K” and is pulling in the driveway a short while later.

We had all been up since early morning and were tired and went to bed.  At 10:31 pm one of the back motion lights went off, this had been such a pattern, which was followed by something on Morgan’s windows that I went right out into the yard with a flashlight, leaving the bedroom door open.  As soon as I was out in the yard I heard the motion alarm for the driveway going off in the room.  I thought whoever was in the back had gone straight to the front and across our driveway.  Most every time we had seen someone in the driveway they were always going from my office side of the house to the garage side of the house and I went back through the house to see what was out front.  There was nothing and I went back in to discuss with Steve some counter measure for this pattern, it had happened too many times.

Today is September 30, 2012 – A thought about cameras.  If ours had been mounted away from our house looking at our house from some distance they would have proven far more useful.  From a practical standpoint it sounds difficult, but mounting cameras on neighboring houses and the back of the back yard, all aimed at the house seems like a good start.  Our cameras were mounted under the eves of the house which put them about 3’ from the outside wall and as our house had really high ceilings they were about 14’ from the ground.  And reviewing all the cameras we had, in case I have not talked about this, pretty much impossible to see it all.  The video was always on, so it was six cameras times 24 hrs each, every day.  Unless we wanted to focus on a specific place in a certain time range it was difficult.  There was a motion detecting feature that we have found was less than perfect in catching our stalker, but it was very helpful in ruling out wind or animals as a cause for an alarm on one of the motion detectors.  We now know the cameras were not catching any images because the stalker was on our ROOF!  He was coming from above and the cameras were not pointed up there.

Click here to read about the 63rd day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1540

Stories of stalking…what if stories of the victims helped heal and empower others?

Morgan's photo of rings of a tree

Just like the rings of a tree, every year we grow, always building on what has come before.

Every day I sit in front of a computer and relive a day that led up to my daughter’s death.  I was truly uncertain as to how she had died at first, and Steve and I sought out a second opinion.  We were shocked, in denial, exercising avoidance, you name a psychological name that protects you from the brutal truth, and there is a good chance it was humming full speed in us at that time.

Along this path to recovery we had a third opinion, a fourth, a fifth, so many we have lost track.  All wonderful caring professionals I will never be able to thank enough for the time they took, and the compassion with which they treated our family.  Completely diametrically opposed to the way we were treated by the Coroner Trey Holt and the subcontractor who does his autopsies Dr. Robert Kurtzman.  At one point I remember Steve pointing out that if the score was being kept it was 12 -1, Twelve professionals certain that the one, Dr. Robert Kutzman was wrong.  As you can imagine that did not go over well with Dr. Robert Kurtzman,  obviously not used to being questioned or having to answer tough questions he became frustrated and dismissed it all as “none of these other doctors can testify, only I can testify in court, and he was so wrong about that too.   But he and Trey Holt had their own agenda, and I really am at a loss to explain what that might have been.  The well being of our family as we dealt with this nightmare, and the pursuit of justice for Morgan Jennifer Ingram did not exist for those two.

Even Thomas Walton, of whom I spoke yesterday, he may have really been trying to do a good job, but if his requirements were zero, and his training was zero, and if part of his job description was to make sure his boss got the job of handling the funeral to come, well if that was the case, he did as good as he could have been expected to.  They are completely separate entities you know, or at least they are supposed to be. The Coroner’s office – ultimate authority for the cause of death, none higher – then the funeral home is what comes after, and only after the County Coroner has completed his job and released the body.  That they are the same person is problematic to be sure, but that is sort of the law here in Colorado.

I have found it really important to share what happened, and along the path to recovery the most amazing thing has happened.  Sharing the story has become the rock around which Steve and I rebuild… our family, the search for truth, and justice for Morgan, and even ourselves.

It has been on my mind for a long time and I believe today is the day.  So many have shared with me their stories of stalking, as you know there have even been a few arrests across the country,  arrests I am told would not have happened were it not for Morgan’s story being shared.  People have realized by reading her story that they have a stalker and need to report it and not just keep it to themselves.

So I want to do something, I want to ask all of you who have been victims of stalking to try something.  Share your story with Morgan, don’t use your real name, maybe initials.  But tell what happened, and how it made you feel, and what you did about it, and the State it happened in, short or long as you want.  This is all in the hopes that it will help to heal and, my fingers are crossed here,  rip the cover off this crime called stalking for all the country, and the world to see.   So keep that in mind as you write.  Then send it to me as an  anonymous tip.  I think it would be a good thing to have a group of stories of stalking.  People are so absolutely amazed by the story of Morgan’s stalking, and certain it has to be told.  Maybe your story will touch a chord too, and maybe that is the real story here.

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

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