Just in case you missed the Dr. Phil show at the end of last November here it is again…airing tomorrow on Wednesday, 7/10/2013 one of our supporters sent us this to let us know. It was really edited down so we were not able to say a lot but it is interesting to watch. Let me know what you think.
Attention supporters, @morgansstalking will be appearing on @DrPhil tomorrow, 7/10/13. Sneak peak -> http://www.drphil.com/shows/show/1918
Murphy with a sign of support!
Morgan your dragonfly candle still burns bright thanks to your Aunt Carol
It was once such a cold and distant term, Manner of Death. When it became a part of my daughters stalking, life for Steve and I changed forever. Our grief counselor did not share one very saddening statistic with us until over a year after Morgan’s death. It is that over 80% of couples who go through this do not make it, as couples. The death of a child proves to be too much.
I can’t even begin to explain what it means and feels like that Morgan’s death is not a part of her Felony Stalking Case, was in fact never considered to be, not for one second. As I come to the end of corrections to all of her Sheriff’s reports – that one fact just screams at me as if it is the single most unbelievable fact a person could ever have to face in their lifetime.
How is this even possible? And if the Sheriff has his way, based on a, “thoroughly botched investigation,” Morgan’s death has not, and will not be investigated for one second. How is that even possible? I was right there when the words, “the Sheriff’s Department so thoroughly botched this investigation,” were spoken – and I obviously will never, ever forget them. They have rung in my ears every time I have picked up my, “Sheriff’s Reports,” file and tried to complete them.
I’ve been told that It becomes less harsh the more you say it, it hasn’t worked for me yet, but now, on with Manner of Death. It’s part of an autopsy, which explains how the death arose. The underlying, “cause of death,” is far more complex and not for this post. Manner of death is expressed as a select group of are terms you’ve probably heard, such as, accidental, homicide, natural, suicide and undetermined.
Yes, it’s absolutely OK to be uncertain and classify the death as undetermined, rather noble I think. It’s actually common, and desirable in some areas of the country, especially when more investigation, say, into evidence collected at the death scene is needed to answer some important questions. Of course no usable evidence was collected at Morgan’s death scene – and it was not because there wasn’t any.
Morgan’s manner of death was found to be Natural Causes – from Marked Pulmonary Edema and AIP or Acute Intermittent Porphyria. Along the journey we traveled people opened up books, and read passages to us to help explain their understanding of manner of death. Such as, “Natural Causes is the natural progression of a disease,” or even more precisely, “due solely or nearly totally to disease and/or the aging process.” Doctors, and other experts did not agree with Natural causes in Morgan’s case, quite the opposite. So we voiced their concerns. They voiced their concerns.
A 20-year-old woman, in excellent health, with no diagnosed disease, is dead, under suspicious circumstances, a felony stalking case that the lead detective voiced that he thought was “going to escalate” only two days before her murder. Steve and I did not know what to think, so we asked. Once the definition had been read to us, “due solely or nearly totally to disease and/or the aging process.” We knew something was wrong. Morgan was so far from having a diagnosed disease to claim she did is probably malpractice.
During her lifetime I am very confident we sought out answers for any disease that was even a remote possibility. There is a totality of medical testing in Morgan’s past to rule out the slightest possibility. That testing is not even known here, because nobody ever asked. Why?
She would have been seen by a specialist if need be for any disease she might have been thought to have. The bottom line is she did not have any diagnosed disease. Now why is this so important to the pathologist here that she does? He acted as if his life depended on Morgan having a disease. On one hand I had Dr. Kurtzman (the contracted Forensic Pathologist for Garfield County), explaining to me that he was seeking the truth. And every other doctor looked at me and asked, “what is the problem here – why is he doing this?”
I had no answers. Enough trauma already, four months of stalking, a sudden death under suspicious circumstances, and then Morgan suddenly died from a disease she never had? Why is this man who is not even a medical doctor so intent on claiming Morgan had a disease? Is this to cover up for a rape kit never administered? Is this to cover up for a series of histological samples that should have been collected from Morgan, to help answer questions that are front and center now? I am at a loss for answers as to why requirements were so ignored.
I will never grow tired of simply explaining that if during Morgan’s life, if she needed a medical test done, she had it. If she needed to see a specialist, she did. What tests and which specialists really are Morgan’s private records. I am confident that the compendium of medical records for Morgan all lain out to answer a specific question will leave no doubt as to what she did or did not suffer from. Even what medications she was, and was not taking.
So once it became oh so painfully obvious to us that Morgan did not die from “Natural Causes,” we moved on to the – what did she die from? What was her manner of death, really? When another test was run which, by all those I have spoken with, points directly and unmistakably to foul play, but then it was called a suicide, sure it was gut wrenching, but once our world stopped spinning enough, we did the same thing we did as when her manner of death was called Natural Causes, we searched out a second opinion, then a third, then another. It’s done all the time. Once again only far more carefully, and once again the collective voice said, absolutely not suicide.
So many have written and pointed out that once Morgan was “reclassified” as a suicide then manslaughter at the very least was a valid charge. And they are right. It has been suggested to me more than once that I should just go with the suicide manner of death and demand an investigation into manslaughter due to the stalking. And of course if the stalking led to her suicide then those who were active participants to help Keenan stalk Morgan will be in the same place they would be if she was found to be a homicide.
In short, if all I cared about was some sort of prosecution then this is a route that I might be all too willing to jump at. But it is not the truth – as I have extensively sought out the answers, and as I understand it to be. Morgan did not commit suicide, her life was taken as the result of a very specific, and verifiable set of circumstances. Morgan was taken from us under very heinous circumstances. Either Morgan’s case stands on it merits or it fails, and how much is due to complete bungling and malpractice?
But hope – well we have tons of that and right about now I can tell you this has been a horribly painful journey, but one we had to take and I can’t explain why right now, but every essence of my being is telling me to keep on hoping because good news is right around the corner. Please don’t ever ignore your intuition (little voices as I used to joke) they are a really important part of everyone’s lives – some listen and some don’t. Please listen to your gut and I think you will understand what I am talking about when I say good news is right around the corner. 🙂
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.