Tag Archives: morgan murdered by stalkers

Was #Forced #Entry Ever Really Visited by the #Sheriffs?

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Morganinknithat

It seems so subjective to me.  On one hand sometimes it’s so obvious that it’s hard to deny, like your door jamb is in splinters, then its safe to say someone may have broken in.  Otherwise, without a really obvious sign, then does that mean it didn’t happen?  What about a lock pick, stolen key, what about the fact that nobody, and I mean nobody from the Sheriff’s department ever asked us if we double checked, and are certain that every door was locked last night or to check for any missing keys.  Well, what about other signs, other clues, and yes, let’s even include those escalations of a crime already going on for four months.  What do they all mean when it comes to forced entry.

That Tuesday (2 days before Morgan was murdered) Detective Glassmire said that, “if anything it was going to escalate.”  He was talking about the stalking of Morgan by Keenan Vanginkel, or at least he was 100% certain now that it was Keenan Vanginkel.  I told him I was 99% sure that it was only Keenan, but I still waited to erase that last bit of doubt that there may not have been someone else involved.  That would come soon enough, just in the most horrific way.

The word escalate was really on my mind that week after the Detective left, it was on everyone’s mind, how could you ignore a warning like that?  I thought it was going to come while Morgan was alone somewhere in the car.  He had already been escalating in his stalking while Morgan was out in the car, even revealing himself to Morgan many times, and I feared it was not going to be only worse after hearing the Detectives words.

It’s a really tough thing when you are in a stalking situation and the Detective drops a warning that it’s going to escalate.  Steve and I were talking about it this morning and he remembered that at the time Morgan only had a few classes left before she was off for the holidays, that we had talked about sending her away to visit, anywhere but here, at her home, over the holidays.

It was painful to remember that little talk,  how we tried to find sanity in the insane actions around us.  I had not remembered the incident before, and added it to my timeline.  Which is destined to be a work in progress perpetually, until the day he is caught.  There was talk after her death, based on some inside knowledge Brooke had, that Morgan was redressed because she was not supposed to be in the house the next day.  She was supposed to disappear after she died.  Just another of the so many rumors that come and go.  It certainly would have been worse for us, if she had just been gone, and we had no idea what had happened.

The Sheriff’s would undoubtedly have called her a runaway – which would have been ridiculous.  An investigative reporter told me that the Roaring Fork Valley and Garfield County is off the charts on that kind of thing happening.  And we would never know what had happened, I get shivers thinking about it.  I feel so terribly sorry for all the other parents in this valley that it has happened to, it must be doubly devastating.

But right there, in remembering our plans for the upcoming holidays something else came back to Steve.  He was up and looking for the old door lock, soon he had it in his hands and was showing me.  We moved right after Morgan’s death, and then we moved again, it was amazing he could go right to it and in an instant I knew what is was.

When our front door lock broke, actually two door locks broke a week apart and many wrote in to express how strange that was, and how the odds must be very high against something like that happening.  Sort of like the “coincidence” of Morgan and Keenan passing right in the middle of the intersection, “by chance” during the rush of college classes at Morgan’s school emptying out, so Keenan could stare at her, over and over again.  Never ignore certified long shots happening if you are ever stalked, they probably are not long shots at all, but careful planning instead.  Placing under surveillance,  is a definition of stalking behavior.

The front door lock Steve now held was the front door lock that had suddenly broke after the stalking started. Steve replaced it with a heavy-duty key pad lock, which I will now hate forever, he put all of the pieces of the old lock in a zip lock bag, and put the bag up on the top shelf of my bakers rack by the kitchen.  First he meant to show the detectives, which he did, and then it sort of stayed there.  He also had put two keys in the bag with the lock, now the keys are no longer there.  Steve looked at me and said those same keys would have opened the garage door to the house too, which we never ever used them for.  Never even thought of until just that moment…and they were missing out of the bag he had put them in.

I wonder if it always works like this.  Bits and pieces coming up always, even years later. I guess your mind is always trying to protect itself from horrible thoughts, and our minds were probably working overtime not wanting to believe Morgan was actually dead or that some human predator could have done this to her…it was all too much at that moment. They aren’t evidence anymore I suppose, as this bag with the broken lock was not collected during their two-hour investigation of Morgan’s death under suspicious circumstances.  So they are just knowledge.  Keys that would have opened the garage door to the house went missing.  During Morgan’s stalking I used to lock that door so it’s the only time they would have been useful.

So if the stalker was able to gain entry into the garage then he could easily have had a key to get into the house without leaving a sign.  Which is just another reason it was so ridiculous for the detective to even say, “no sign of forced entry,” so no break in, no intruder?  There was a post called, No Sign Of Forced Entry? Really? That post outlined six ways to get into the house without a sign.  James Harris really took exception to one of the six, I even called it a real small possibility.  But James acted like I had accused him of the crime, animated and angry, or well rehearsed, either way I always take it as a sign that there might be more to that one,  sort of “must have hit pretty close to home moment.”

Then, here, a year and a half later, another way to get in without a sign of forced entry.  Oh and in the time between there have been two more.  These keys missing even reinforce one of those, so there are nine and counting.  Seven you know all about and two that are going to be filmed before I show them to you.

And it will be filmed just because the detectives stated an extremely frustrating thing, “That can’t be done,” it still rings in my ears.  If you are a detective or just someone who victims are counting on, please be absolutely sure before you say something like that.  Morgan was still alive when he did say it at that time, and it was in reference to getting on the roof by just climbing a tree.  He was absolutely, positively, certain that it could not be done, unless Steve left his ladder out and they used it, which Steve never did.  And that is where it was dropped.

Until months after her death when we were reviewing the cameras one time and saw the Patrol Deputies unmistakably searching the roof top the last two days of Morgan’s life.  And of course there was the suggestion made to Steve and I on a trip to visit his family that we should check up on the roof, for possible evidence, long after her death.  And Steve did check and boy was he upset, he said it was practically an elevator the first time Nathan climbed up the tree that was right up against the back of our house.  Our step-grandson was even faster, and more silent. It went from, “can’t be done,” to, “easily done,” in three months time and the knowledge could have, and should have been used to save Morgan’s life, instead of, “can’t be done.”  It’s our fault for listening, not questioning, please learn from our mistakes.

Every time the Sheriff’s thought something was not possible it turned out to be absolutely possible.  Just like the forced entry issue.  If you are ever in this situation I suggest you assume there are twenty ways to get in without leaving a mark, and if you find those twenty, then assume there are twenty more.  It would have been a far better approach than Steve and I used, trust me.

 

 

A Lack of Expertise or Something More Sinister?

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Bug on flowers

Morgan would sit an wait for hours, to capture the image. Investigators owed her the same respect.

In some cases a simple lacking of knowledge would be better than none at all.  But just what do I mean by that?  I’m focusing on only one thing – the training of the Garfield Sheriffs to carry out a specific task.  A task I wasn’t aware they took on in its entirety.  It is very specialized and training intensive.  Months ago, a typical scenario for another law enforcement agency was explained to Steve and I, so we could identify similarities and alas, there were none.

I am talking about the proper processing of a death scene.  The single most important element to an eventual arrest and conviction of the criminal.  There is undoubtedly no one best way to do it, but then there would certainly be a minimum, a bare minimum.  I researched once into the Deputy Coroner of the Garfield County, Where our daughter Morgan was killed, and then her death scene investigation was conducted.

Before it was so upsetting to discover the fact that just a little to the west, in the next county over, in Mesa County, there is a different coroner naturally.  But this coroner is himself a medical doctor and requires every deputy coroner to complete two different certifications (not so in the county where Morgan was murdered):

1. Investigator to be a member in the Colorado Coroner’s Association (CCA). The CCA sets standards for minimum training to become a member and requires continuing education to maintain membership.

2. The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) ® is a voluntary national, not-for-profit, independent professional certification board that has been established to promote the highest standards of practice for medicolegal death investigators.

This is the minimum in the adjoining Colorado county.  The Garfield County Coroner is not a doctor, which is not required, he was an owner of the funeral home and legally only needed a High School diploma, and the Deputy Coroner at Morgan’s death scene was the funeral home manager at Farnum-Holt Funeral Home and had none of the training required by Mesa County – none. The Deputy Coroner does not need to meet any requirements, not even a High School diploma, but he is responsible for certain filings, etc., which …this is who showed up at Morgan’s crime scene to determine if there was any foul play.  Thomas Walton, the then Garfield County Deputy Coroner – after all our due diligence, collecting all the state documents, we now know he had no training, and did none of the paperwork required for this position, making him legally not a deputy coroner.  He was the one who took the crime scene photos we have, never took a body temp, and said he got all his “facts” from the sheriffs, he never interviewed us.  He later said he could not make any changes on Morgan’s PER unless instructed by Detective Glassmire, because that is where he got all his information. The law clearly shows this is not what should be done.

But I was not there when he wrote up his “Autopsy Request” in which his “facts” were all wrong, and now as  read the unattended death report for Morgan, I find that Thomas Walton – Chief Deputy Coroner of Garfield County – didn’t really do anything, the sheriffs by their recounting, were the ones involved.  But they have no certification in death scenes either!  Is this a search for the truth?  Is this how you would want a suspicious death investigated?  Colorado law clearly states this is not how you do it – but that didn’t stop them in Morgan’s case.

In fact, in the neighboring county, that I refer to, they actually have standards, and the law enforcement officers are not to touch the body, maybe because they are not trained!  There were observations made the Garfield County Sheriffs investigators that are completely wrong and contradict each other, maybe, once again, because they have no training in death scene investigating.  And before the crime scene photos were even taken (maybe before the deputy corner even arrived) someone had illegally tried to close Morgan’s eye, wiped blood off her face, covered her up with a towel, and many other things that they are NEVER supposed to do in a suspicious death investigation.  Incompetence, inadequate investigation, “bumbling” like the DA said, or something more sinister?

So as I look at this more globally, it is a sad state of affairs.  For any death in Garfield County at that time, it was likely going to be presided over by a funeral home manager from Farnum-Holt Funeral Home, with no real training in death scene investigation.  He does not even belong there!  And then doing the actual hands on investigating will be sheriff’s officers with no certification in death scene investigation.  Did the honorable District Attorney even know this when she said that the Garfield County Sheriff’s Department completely botched the investigation?

In Mesa County, Colorado, deputy coroners have two forms of certification in death scene investigation, ongoing education, and law enforcement – look but don’t touch, you are not trained.  In Garfield County, none of the above.  Does apprehending and convicting the criminals mean anything here?  Is it just an after thought?  Not really a serious consideration?  Or is it just women they do this to?

Morgan’s death scene investigation was no investigation at all as far as I can see.  The observations made are contradicted by the contracted forensic pathologist whom none of the experts that have looked over Morgan’s case agree with so I’m left to conclude they are most likely both incorrect.  Is this how my daughter’s investigation should have been conducted?  Untrained, no trained, little training, and please don’t give me an excuse about on-the-job-training.  Experience by doing it with no training a few times, learn from your mistakes.  It is unbelievable to me!  Morgan deserved far more than that.

We can’t bring Morgan back, and we can’t have a do over on her investigation.  What I really want to know is what do we tell he next family and their girl.  I truly and very deeply worry for them now.

A Cry for Help – #stalkingvictims

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sadmorgan

Morgan fought to the end – If She was Disappointed, She had Every Right to Be.

We know that Morgan was killed.  The doctors, the specialists, and the professors who’s pleas to Garfield County that fell on deaf ears have assured us of that fact.

We know the history the Ingram family now has with the contracted forensic pathologist hired by the Garfield County Coroner.

  1. He found Morgan’s manner of death from a disease she was never, ever diagnosed with.
  2. In his contracted capacity as the forensic pathologist, he is required by statute to manage the death scene, which he did not.
  3. He threatened me, more than once, I reported this to the Detective, and to the Coroner, and neither one ever answered me.  Say something they don’t like to hear, even if true, and they ignore you.
  4. Doctors helping us wanted to run tests on Morgan’s remaining samples, to help prove other possible manners of death.  The contracted pathologist knew this, but still ordered tests on samples in secrecy, violating our victims rights, and completely exhausting the samples remaining.  Why would he do this?
  5. Based on results that only further proved foul play, the pathologist found her death a suicide based on the theoretical ingesting of a quantity of pills that would not even be a fraction of a lethal dose.

Every day brings us closer to protracted litigation at a staggering cost as our only alternative to giving up.

On the first episode of Dr. Phil, the death scene evidence establishing the presence of someone in her room was not mentioned due to ongoing investigation on our part, as the Sheriff’s Department had given up the morning she was found dead.  This included –

  1. Morgan’s room was, for many reasons, very noticeably and completely disheveled from previous afternoon, and evening.
  2. Her panic button, which rang a chime in our room, was torn off its mount on her nightstand, and found later on the floor under clothes.
  3. Morgan was dressed in street clothes, and she never slept in street clothes.  These clothes she was found in were not the same clothes that she wore home the night before.
  4. Morgan’s PJ’s she was wearing that night when going to sleep were gone.
  5. A suspicious spray was detected on Morgan’s chest under blacklight, the most primitive means of examining for this, yet the contracted forensic pathologist found nothing on her chest.  A spray of dots does not disappear.
  6. Morgan had wounds on her right hand not seen the night before, and consistent with defensive wounds.
  7. She had a small red spot on her forehead, the size of a thumb that was not seen the night before by her father.
  8. She had a small quantity of blood at edge of her lips.
  9. There was a burn on the inside of her wrist.  There are two quite sinister reasons for this, but a Medical Examiner has not had a chance to comment on what he believes it means.  I do know that it was new and it was not seen the night before.
  10. Her eyes were wide open and sold black, consistent with bleeding before she died and then the blood turning black over the course of the night.
  11. The nails on her right hand were damaged when we saw her body again at the viewing and this is when they were first noticed by us.  The contracted pathologist said he did not touch her nails, the detectives say they looked fine to them.  The Coroner refuses to give us copies of the pictures taken at her death scene to really know when the damage occured – wouldn’t that be a huge question as it would show that she fought someone off?  A big question mark for the time being.
  12. Morgan was found on the opposite side of bed from where she always slept, facing the opposite direction from where she usually faced.
  13. I felt her body looked posed when I first saw it, I told the detectives that the same morning, there was no mention of this exact fact.
  14. Every report and opinion says the indications are simply that she was lying on her stomach, yet I found her on her side, and until Steve moved her to her back, that is how she was lying.  She was never on her stomach that morning, not even for an instant.
  15. Morgan’s lights in her bathroom, attached to her bedroom, went on sometime after midnight, Morgan never slept with lights on.  If she were still alive then, she could have turned them on, but she would have turned them off again.  The person who observed the lights wanted to explain this, and other things he had observed, but was never questioned by the Sheriff’s department.
  16. All of Morgan’s jewelry of value went missing from her room sometime that night and was never found again.  Keenan had a warrant issued for his arrest (and was arrested just weeks after her murder) for selling jewelry, in person, at a, “cash for gold store.”  The Detective insisted I produce a photograph of every piece of Morgan’s jewelry first, and refused to give me even a list of what the stolen pawned jewelry contained.  Further the proprietors of the cash for gold store instantly recognized Keenan from a Facebook picture as a regular customer.
  17. A knife Steve had just purchased for Morgan was in her bed, in an odd place, still in the box, with a happy face drawn on it by Steve.
  18. A very recent and important gift to Morgan was taken from its box, the box left and the gift never found.
  19. Morgan’s camera was taken into evidence and returned by the Sheriff’s.  When it was returned from evidence, it was missing the memory chip from the camera.  The Sheriff’s department has not been able to locate that memory chip or a copy that they would have made if there was a memory chip in it.
  20. Morgan’s driver’s license was missing from her purse.  Her instruction permit which she normally kept in her purse right behind her license was still there, but her current drivers license was missing and has never been located.
  21. Other doctors helping with Morgan’s case found that she died from a massive overkill, one time dose of Amitriptyline early on in their examination of her toxicology results.  The contracted forensic pathologist finally backed off his stance that she died from a disease she was never diagnosed with, and backed off to partially agree with this same conclusion after eight months.  He really had no choice as he was clinging to a non-defensible position.  A container or any syringe to hold, and administer this very lethal dose was never found in her room, or anywhere in her possessions.

At least three other pieces of evidence exist that point to an intruder in her room that night, but are being withheld at this time.  One of these is something taken from the house that was not discovered until just weeks ago.  Following every lead to the end will mean taking the video surveillance recorder back out and reviewing all six cameras for another day.  So as you can see the investigation never really stops, and useful evidence is constantly refined, our knowledge of what really happened that night will never be 100%, but it is always improving.  The real question is, if it was not Keenan in Morgan’s room that night, then who was it?

Now for those of you who do not know her, Morgan was a fighter, ask any of her friends and they will tell you that Morgan would not have gone down without a fight.  However, backing up for moment first, and imagining Steve and I when Morgan was first found, then at that moment in time when her cause of death was being called Natural Causes.  We did not think anyone was in her room initially and did not thoroughly search for indications.  We researched her manner of death to safeguard our grandchildren from some unknown malady. As far as I can tell the Garfield Sheriff’s Department never did any search for an intruder.  And as it became more and more obvious someone had to have been in her room, we fought the idea, I believe because it was just too painful to believe.  It was quite some time before we could fully accept it.

The first question then became her puppy, Wylah, why would she not have barked?  It was a quandary.  Then came a possible solution, Steve was being questioned by an investigator, recreating the moment when the first responders were there, at least three big men, all strangers to Wylah.  Steve remembers clearly that she just sat on the bed and did not make a sound.  That was a good enough solution for the investigator, but I still wonder if there wasn’t some other way that she was subdued, some way that would carry over to subduing Morgan also.

Some have conjectured that she could have been threatened, assured she was not going to be killed, and threatened that one peep and Morgan’s puppy dies, or her cat, or even Morgan’s parents.  I could see this happening.  Morgan would have been compelled to go along.

Then think of drugs, there were five date rape drugs found in her stomach, none of them ever absorbed into her body, and a massive dose of amitriptyline in her bloodstream, one of he highest doses ever seen at the national crime lab her samples were tested at.  Then, what about one more drug to sedate her.  The only Tox screens that were run were very basic, and many drugs that would easily have knocked her out would not be detected at all.  And not to be mysterious, but there is now a third possibility being checked out that will not be on the blog real soon, but it will find its way here as soon as it’s thoroughly checked out.

And that cry for help, it was real and it was meaningful, if only we had fully understood its importance….

 

The difference of a few words – #felony stalking then #murder

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Morgan in simpler times. The happiness of not being a victim of crime

Morgan in simpler times. The happiness of not being a victim of crime

So many things happen in this world and you never know, never even hear about it.  The bliss of not knowing makes you question that some things could even happen, and then one day, finding yourself right in the middle, takes all of that questioning completely away.

Victim’s Rights are such an event in life. Right now the states each have laws, similar but all a little different, just like in stalking, an extra sentence here, a few words there, and the teeth of the law can grow considerably.  Naturally the victims being harassed by the suspect or the accused want to see a minimum of loopholes in any Victims Rights law because they know exactly where the suspect or accused goes when the moment of truth comes – straight for the nearest loophole.

But with Victims Rights there is a glaring loophole problem that can’t really be fixed without federal intervention, and it goes like this.  First you are the victim of a crime, and then the suspect or the accused talks about you, spreads rumors & lies, orchestrates a little damage to your car, trashes innocent people (including victims and their supporters), and gets others to join in and help with all of this.

It’s a simple idea and effective because trashed people who have died by any reason are far less dangerous to the criminal – this is why I believe they try to dehumanize their prey.  The suspects had no concern for anyone’s rights during the crime, and they are certainly not going to find any compassion after the crime.  Getting away with it becomes their only concern.

This is where it gets technical, and a few words make all the difference.  States have limited options to cross state lines to protect victims.  So if you are a suspect or the accused where better to have the person leading the smear campaign against you, the victim, and your dearly departed, another victim, than by someone living in another state.

There are a lot of things Steve and I should not have to do.  Starting with living through the death of our daughter, but we did.  Morgan, and the light she shined in her 20 years on earth, should never have to be defended against a Forensic Pathologist threatening to change her manner of death unless I, her mother backed off, from the truth of all things!  What kind of Forensic Pathologist does that?  All this while Steve and I press for criminal charges against the perpetrator(s) of all the crimes.

The Sheriff’s detectives knew who this predator was, most everyone in the neighborhood knew who it was, and now I find out others that are trying to protect him, know just who he was.  I guess that should not come as much of a surprise, criminals protecting criminals and all.

This is where the Federal Amendment to the Constitution promises to end all that because the different state limitation is removed, completely.  That person “hiding out” or based in another state, and hard at work trashing the dearly departed is now smack dab in the cross hairs too, right on day one, some of them just don’t know it yet.

It has been nothing less than a learning experience for Steve and I.  One day our family was not the victim of a stalking, the next day we were.  One day we were not a family of a murdered child, and horrifically the next day we were the parents of a daughter who they said had died of natural causes, which made us even more worried, because what if she had something that we did not know about and there was a chance now that our grandchildren were in danger?  Then her doctors joined in to tell us is was all wrong,  She did not die of natural causes, and she was in fact a homicide.  That was even more shocking.  When she was changed to suicide, we were deeply hurt, we couldn’t believe that after 8 months of being told they could not change her to a suicide, because there was no evidence of a suicide, they actually did just that.  So many doctors and specialists say it is not true, she definitely was not a suicide (there is scientific proof, but that weighs little here in Garfield County), but still, it hurts very deeply.

Now we have our Victim’s Rights, and Morgan’s Victim’s Rights under assault. It is such a massive issue in this country, a Constitutional Amendment weaves its way through the federal legislature.  Think about it, there have been only 27 amendments to the Constitution since the forming of this country.  That the next one should have to deal with Victims Rights and criminals, the accused, trying to defile the innocent victims as some cheap defense ploy is really huge for victims.  Ever hear about the dark days of rape when the victim was blamed for her own rape by her dress or words, so utterly disgusting!  So to have to amend the Constitution to correct it is a very big deal, and a testament to the gravity of the situation that exists right now for victims of crime.

In the end it is on one hand just another fight for Steve and I, but after all of the fights we have been forced to go through in the stalking and murder of our daughter, and the complete disrespect she has been treated with we should not have to fight against the family, and friends of the murderer making up any fact that paints Morgan as someone she was not.  Facts that seek to ignore she was stalked and murdered.. what kind of human could adopt such an agenda as her doctor questioned loudly when we told him of just some of the tactics being used against Morgan.

The only possible benefit for Steve and I is that in all this chaos being created, if you look closely, to their reactions, and their changing positions, and the soft spots they howl over,  a few facts seem to slip out, things we would not have known to more fully investigate otherwise.  In Morgan’s case so many facts that need further investigation by others have been slipped out this way, and some have already proven to be very fruitful. So I continue to be patient, and continually think, “Is this a good thing or a bad thing” and honestly only time will tell, but so far I have a feeling that the people who are trying to create all this chaos, around this case, might actually be doing us a favor in the long run.

The Path Less Traveled

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Happy Morgan

Hard to remember a time she wasn’t smiling!

In reality this is even more of a seldom traveled path.  On one fork of the trail is that which you know, solid concrete facts and feelings, the comfort that comes from the familiar and knowing where it is going, and what will be at the end.  The other fork is unknown, ever evolving, constantly changing, shocking realizations and the wish for it to come to an end, which, as I am reminded every day, will happen not on my timetable, but rather on its own.  That fork is where I find my life going now – between my job, which I love, and the time I carve out for my family, which I love even more – is this mythical path meant to gain closure for an event in life that should never have even happened.

Such is Morgan’s stalking.  We know she had a stalker, more than one – no doubt.  He was on our porch, in our driveway, left footprints in the planters surrounding the house, he was up on the roof, leaning out and bending steel gutters until one side was torn in two.  He left well traveled trails, worn into the berm 75 feet behind our house, a constant reminder of his presence, even when he was right there, ready to terrorize, and also showing just how often he was actually there.  Seldom seen, but all too often there – waiting for Morgan, waiting for his next chance.

He was not afraid at all, security cameras caught him leaning against Steve’s truck to watch the deputies drive away after yet another fruitless attempt to catch him.  Another deputy, weeks earlier, had demonstrated for me very graphically, that standing in the deep scuff marks he left in the ground outside Morgan’s window, how his face would have been right up against the glass.  His nose just a whisper away as he stared at a defenseless nineteen year old girl at that time.  My back still quivers at the thought.

That was real – far too real.

Along the path less traveled are the actions of the Sheriff.  What do they mean?  If all that was happening to Morgan, and our family, on an almost daily basis and it would be called only misdemeanor trespassing for the first 58 days, doesn’t that mean they don’t take it seriously?  Didn’t their actions scream that they were just waiting for him to give up, and move on – with no meaningful intervention from the Sheriff’s department?  As perhaps this very same tormentor had done to so many other neighbors over the past four years.  Because it certainly seemed like this was the same person that had been spotted peering and tapping on a window of one neighbor, then also spotted in the fenced yard of another, seen staring into a woman’s master bedroom as she changed to go to sleep, and on and on.  Only this time he did not stop, not after a few days, and not after winter came.  One of our Sheriff’s Deputies in the beginning of Morgan’s stalking suggested that he was a “seasonal stalker” and last time he stopped as soon as it became cold or the snow started to fall.  It was as if he knew him personally, a seasonal criminal who will stop soon as it gets cold.  Where does that coexist with meaningful intervention?

A woman tormented by a man of the same description only two weeks before Morgan’s stalking began insisted that the Sheriffs follow-up on her incident, but they did not.  Doesn’t this show they do not care. Never mind it is not a high priority – doesn’t it appear to be a no priority at all?

It also was not reported by the Sheriffs.  A journalist researching Morgan’s stalking and seeking records was first told by the Sheriff’s department that he needed the exact day and address or he could not get any records.  When I got permission to pass that information along and did, he was then told there was no record, ever.  No record of an incident that was reported (Sheriff’s Deputies were at her house) with peeping tom, harassment, and trespassing written all over it.  What does that say about the Sheriff’s department?  About their stand on violence against women?  Because all of these victims before Morgan were women too.

Invasion of privacy for sexual gratification, harassment, eavesdropping, and felony stalking which comes after it’s happened more that once, and it causes you to suffer serious emotional distress.  Serious crimes if you are the victim, the recipient of all this very horrific, uninvited, completely unwanted terror.  Morgan had all of these crimes committed against her during her stalking.  I’m feeling they were also committed against our family as well, and as I read and re-read through the official reports, I have yet to find any of it documented.  Not once!  I was told to document everything, and you can bet that I did.  But then why do the police reports document nothing?  Do they not consider it a crime?

If the paperwork AKA the reports are what convicts the criminal in the end, then what does it mean when there are no reports?  A very helpful FBI Special Agent told me that he could not get involved in Morgan’s investigation, but I had to realize that there was no law against incompetence.  Does that mean he thought the Sheriff’s department was incompetent?  What about when the Honorable DA said that the Sheriff’s Department had so thoroughly botched the investigation that she did not know if there could ever be a prosecution?  What exactly were they doing when the first two independent assessments of their actions as law enforcement professionals are so completely dismal?

When your attempt at intervention is not producing results, and the crime is continuing, escalating, shouldn’t someone step up and say, “this is not working, we have to do better.”  If you care about stopping crime, and protecting victims do you blindly do the same thing day in and day out with no tangible results, and somehow call it a job well done?

Steve and I constantly told each other, “this is not working, we have to do better!”

We bought wildlife cameras, motion detectors, installed more and more motion lights, surveillance video cameras, Steve sat out on the berm behind our house, dressed all in black, for hours at a time.  And none of it was enough for more than a glimpse of him.  The reality, when he lives three houses up the street, is that he can watch and wait and assess, then attack when the “coast is clear.”  He could sit up on our roof in a spot perfectly made to conceal a criminal, such as we had.  Or he could stand and see Sheriffs trucks approaching from far away.  Any thought the Sheriffs ever had concerning any element of surprise working for them was nothing more than a fleeting dream.

Then Morgan, the victim in every sense of the word, of all the continuing crimes, that did nothing but escalate – is murdered, horrifically murdered in her own bedroom, the murder scene complete with so many obvious signs of an intruder being present.  More promises of the how they had collected everything they needed.  There was talk of new detectives, just for her death – once again, all the promises of all the things that would never happen.  Was it because she was a woman?  I have to wonder aloud.  And we kept trusting the Sheriffs – we still believed they were telling us the truth.

While we are constantly reminded by those who have lent their help – Steve and I are not trained investigators, nor are we accomplished hunters, not a legal team, not doctors and not forensic pathologists.  We do understand as it is explained to us, and believe me – understanding what has been, and is being explained to us is not pleasant.

 Unfortunately, all the times we returned to Garfield County with new knowledge to share from a fact-finding trip, we would hear that everything explained to us meant nothing here in Garfield County.  Their mind was made up, no more Morgan, no more stalking.  How can a real Sheriff’s Department ever say that?  Then there was the Coroner, claiming her death is in no way connected to her stalking, it’s natural causes, from a blood disease she never had, and the condition of her lungs indicated strangulation before anything benign.

We wanted natural causes changed because we were told over and over by the best experts we are able to seek out that this is anything but natural causes.  Who wouldn’t?  Those pursuits resulted in threats that her death would be revisited, perhaps changed.  What forensic pathologist does that?  In this country is that even legal?  But the threats registered with us.  We documented them with the Sheriffs and with the Coroner, who was responsible for contracting this forensic pathologist.

I talked extensively with another forensic pathologist that was gracious enough to take time from his busy schedule to intervene and explain the mistakes to our Coroner, he also assured me the manner of death could never be changed to a suicide for many more reasons that I won’t go into right now.  Does this mean he thought the original forensic pathologist would never stoop so low?  Or be absolutely so cavalier with the facts?  Talking about the original forensic pathologist that was a doctor, not an M.D., but some sort of doctor.  It was crippling to me when Morgan was changed to a suicide, such an unbelievable insult for a young woman like Morgan.  The way the system works in Colorado means our legal avenues to have this horrific wrong righted will take many, many years.  Does this sound like justice to you?  When we were threatened, reported the threats, and a man contracted by the County Coroner then followed through on his threats, with never any concern for the truth – shocking!  Absolutely shocking!  Has he been placed in a position that he is completely above the law?  The path Steve and I will travel to right just the wrongs we are aware of now is the less traveled choice.  Morgan was such a bright light in our lives and such a loving daughter I don’t believe any parent put in our position would want to do any less than we shall.  That is our job, to tell the story, and how we believe it could have ended very differently.

I don’t want anyone in this world to ever have to sit where I sit and to ever have to look back on what I am seeing, and being forced to relive everyday.  It is simply impossible to react correctly as such crimes are coming at you, rapid fire, all happening in real-time, completely disrupting your life in an unyielding march to an end that hasn’t quite happened yet, so you have only your hopes, but no real idea what the ending will be, then as swiftly as it began it is over, and it ends up to be so horrifying that it is hard to believe, to process, to pick up the pieces and move again.  That was our reality – now how do we change it? That  is our future path – not just Steve, and I, and all of my loving family, but all of us who inhabit this world…