Tag Archives: blog about stalkers

An article from the Journal of Criminal Justice – how would you react if your daughter was stalked & murdered?

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Let’s say for a moment (and I pray this will never be true in your case) that your daughter has a stalker – you want to keep your daughter safe so you call law enforcement, but at the same time you don’t just sit back and hope they protect her (you realize they can’t be everywhere all the time), you also do everything you can think of to keep her safe, while at the same time trusting in law enforcement to do their job.  You have no experience when it comes to stalking situations, you have only heard about celebrity stalkers, and you have no idea what to do or not to do.

Everyone you confide in has different suggestions – you decide to do as many as possible. Motion alarms, motions lights, cameras, pepper spray, mace with a staining solution that glows in the dark, water and rake the ground in order to get better footprints, observe what lights are on in neighboring houses or what cars are in driveways in the middle of the night when the stalker was just at your house, do your own stake-out, keep a timeline, borrow a watch dog, (we did that for a week, we love our dog, but just as a few of our readers have said that have the same breed as our dog, our dog is not a watch dog, never barked when the code on the front door was pushed, never barked when tapping happened on the windows), she only barks when she hears the doorbell ring (Morgan’s stalker did not ring the doorbell), or when she hears a loud knocking on the front door (Morgan’s stalker did not do that either), or if she sees someone through a window that she does not trust (that happened once when the stalker came up our driveway at night and she saw him through the front door window, read about that one here, October 18, 2011), but she did bark 3 times because of the stalker that I remember during that 4 month period, once which I mentioned above, once when I was in my office in the very front of the house, I had not gone to bed yet – I was waiting up to meet Morgan in the driveway, and Morgan called to say she would not be home until morning because she was sleeping at a friend’s house – she was exhausted and wanted to get a full nights sleep.  As soon as I hung up the phone something hard, and loud hit my window – I was startled and jumped, as did our dog, who was lying on the floor next to where I was standing, and she started to bark.  That was my first time to feel the absolute skin crawling fright that Morgan had been experiencing almost every day – and that was the first, and one of the 3 times our dog barked because of the stalker.  Suggestions like a bear trap, fish hooks on invisible fishing line hanging from the trees, things like that I couldn’t do – I love animals just like Morgan did, and injuring or killing an animal while trying to catch or stop a stalker did not sound like the right thing to do at the time.

Then your daughter’s stalking case becomes a FELONY STALKING case, and a detective is assigned to the case. You breathe a sigh of relief (because you trust law enforcement, you, like me, have seen some amazing heroes over the years), but you still keep trying to come up with ways to catch the stalker, as well as ways to protect your daughter, because you are a parent, and that is what parents are supposed to do…protect your child. With all the things we had tried we were still trying to add more things – wouldn’t you?  I told Morgan I would purchase a taser gun for her, she said she wouldn’t be able to use it.  Why?  She said, “Mom picture this, I am walking from the car to the house, holding car keys in one hand, along with pepper spray and my puppies leash in the other hand, how am I supposed to hold a taser and use it?”  So much for that idea…so I kept meeting her every time she drove home, in the driveway with pepper spray in my hand as well.  She would always send me a text to tell me she was on her way home, and I would wait for her and meet her outside – no matter what the weather was like, I’m sure you would do the same to protect your daughter.  Were her text messages being monitored?  I asked the detective, but he said he didn’t know of any software that could do that. Relatives said to carry a gun – we had one – and if we had to use it in the house we would have, but we lived in a neighborhood with houses fairly close together so if we saw the stalker running outside of our house and shot at him and missed the bullet could have gone right into a neighbor’s house and wounded, or even worse, killed an innocent person – that to me was not a valid option either.

Then after four months of being terrorized, the unthinkable happens…you find your daughter’s lifeless body.  You call 911 – you do CPR until the EMT’s rush into your home to take over, with so much hope and determination in their eyes, definitely heroes trying to save our 20-year-old with so much life still ahead of her, only to bow their heads in defeat. Your mind swirls thinking you must be having a nightmare.  This can’t be happening!  Please take me not her…then your mind starts up with all the questions – what happened, how did this happen, how could this happen to her?

This is now the worst pain you have ever felt in your entire life and it doesn’t end there.  That same morning you are told there are no signs of forced entry, no signs of a sexual assault, no signs of a struggle, no signs of suicide, and at this time law enforcement tells you her death is a mystery.  Your mind screams – mystery?  She is a healthy 20-year-old that has a felony stalker that has been terrorizing her for 4 months, and you were just told by the lead detective (only 2 days earlier) that in his opinion the stalker would not stop, if anything he would escalate – you start to ask question after question, hoping for some answers that make sense, but don’t get any, and all you can do now is still trust that law enforcement is really investigating, and will give you some answers.  Unfortunately you are wrong… it has now been one year, and nine months and you still have not received the information that you have requested, and deserve to have.

What would you think?  Would you think this is a cover-up?  Would you think this is just CYA because of mistakes law enforcement made, mistakes they can’t afford to admit now that your daughter is dead?  Would you think that maybe your law enforcement department was just lazy?  Would you think this is just because you live in a small town and small towns don’t have enough resources like big cities, so this is what happens – they just close the investigation?

For me none of the above reasons work, because EVERY human life is precious and deserves respect, dignity and honesty.  Families deserve answers.  Morgan’s felony stalking case was closed after she was murdered – 2 days before her murder I was told by the lead detective he was close to making an arrest then after she was gone no more follow-up, case closed.  This is after bringing the sheriff’s information, evidence to follow-up on and so much more, but only to see that they would not follow-up on anything or spend anymore time on her investigation.  What would you do when the suspects family tells you he was either working or not in state when Morgan’s stalking incidents occurred?  Number one how would they know when those incidents actually occurred considering the sheriff’s reports did not show all the reports?  And even more important than that is the fact that the sheriff’s did receive the work schedule for the suspect after Morgan’s murder and if they had actually looked at it and compared it to my timeline, like they were planning on doing before her murder, they would have seen what I saw…yes he was in the state (except when there was an intentional alibi being made or when there were no stalking incidents on my timeline).  I was shocked when I started looking over his hours – of course I was infuriated, wouldn’t you be?  And this is why the article mentioned below is so important…law enforcement doesn’t have to be super heroes they just need to be honest and do their job, most do, but not all and that is where change needs to be made.  Someone shouldn’t get away with murder, because it gets swept under the rug, or because a contracted forensic pathologist is allowed to say its natural causes for 8 months while being told that it can’t be by so many experts, and then he changes it to suicide when that is not true either and there is conclusive proof to the contrary.  When that is allowed to happen then other families will lose loved ones over and over, (because someone got away with murder), and the next time it can be anyone’s daughter.

I know that law enforcement can’t be everywhere at all times, I know law enforcement officers are just human like the rest of us and make mistakes too, but I also know that in my job (probably in yours too) I have to be honest, and accountable for the mistakes I make, correct them and do my best to make sure it does not happen again.  The only person responsible for Morgan’s murder is Morgan’s murderer, along with anyone that tried to cover up the crime – there are others who might be tried as an “accomplice” or an “accessory”, and remember there is no statute of limitations on murder.

This article (see link below) from the Journal of Criminal Justice explains very succinctly why there needs to be transparency, and honesty when law enforcement, and the judicial system deals with the family of victims of crime.

Journal of Criminal Justice 38 (2010) 880–888 click here http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2012a/commsumm.nsf/b4a3962433b52fa787256e5f00670a71/4edad3b79d32555b872579ac007e1eba/$FILE/SenJud0222AttachG.pdf to read the full publication.  I am so happy there are so many scholarly people in this world that can explain things that I think and have come to know, but can not properly articulate to others.

Stranger Stalker – What does that mean?

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Morgan’s stalker has over, and over again been called a stranger stalker.  I know all too well how he did his best to conceal his identity but not his presence, especially at our home.  When stalking on the streets he had a different approach, but at the house, to let Morgan know he was right there was almost a particular turn-on for him.  The Deputies who first saw the wildlife camera photo of him, leaning against Steve’s truck, and watching them drive away, spooked and angered them.  The said they had never seen anything like it.

Stranger stalkers are thought to have a greater affect on their victims because the stalker is unknown to them, hence the stalking takes on a much more frightening feeling.  Because the stalker is unknown to the victim, the victim has no idea who to be on the lookout for, who to be careful of or around, and who to speak to, and who to avoid.  Although the level of danger connected with stranger stalkers may not in actuality be higher, the stress level most certainly is without doubt.  Most experts will tell you that stranger stalking can be one of the most terrifying of all stalking situations, as even the experts themselves don’t know how to deal with it.

In a twist that is especially telling in Morgan’s case a stranger stalker very often suffers from erotomania; a mental disorder that causes the stalker to believe another person is in love with him or her.  Due to this disorder, a stranger stalker may fantasize either that they have had an intimate relationship with their victim, or that their victim truly loves them and wants to have an intimate relationship with them.  “Erotomania is directed at both men and women, but more men act on the delusion,” according to an expert on the subject.

This helps explain why Morgan’s stalker was almost exclusively at one of the windows of a bathroom she was using.  From the beginning until it ended with her death there was always an undeniable voyeur, or peeping tom aspect in Keenan’s approaches to her.

Occasionally, victims of stranger stalking may eventually find out who their stalkers are.  Morgan had no idea for a month or so, and then after finding out from a neighbor that Keenan had moved into the neighborhood the pieces started falling together.  In fact it was the neighbors that we were not supposed to tell anything about the stalking to (that is what the Sheriff’s said in the beginning, because they felt the stalker was in our neighborhood, and didn’t want to tip him off) that were the most helpful with clues about things they had seen, not the Sheriffs.  The Detectives were very careful, and took their time to arrive at the decision that Keenan was the prime suspect, which is good thing I think.

The large number of other stalking incidents in the area over many years all matching his description with a very similar MO had me calling him a serial stalker.  Just recently I have found out that this is not that uncommon at all.

Experts feel that over half of the stalkers in America have been involved in prior stalking incidents.  Even psychiatrists cannot accurately predict when the stalking behavior will end or happen the next time, but they know that about two-thirds of those showing obsessive stalking behavior have had prior episodes.  Law enforcement largely agrees with this theory, as research into the case files for Detectives shows that if a complete background investigation is made into a stalkers past, there are often other cases of prior stalkings.

Morgan’s stalker was a stranger stalker, and most likely a serial stalker as well.  That there were people in the neighborhood willing to cover for him undoubtedly made the task more difficult for the Sheriffs.  It seems that everyone who was interviewed or questioned, for example with Brooke or Christina Harris, the Sheriffs noted that they detected deception in their answers.  A really frustrating part for me is to see a complete lack of follow up on that deception.

As I search for answers for others I know that this is something that has to be more effectively addressed in the future.  There are very few reasons for deception in a person’s answers to a Sheriff or Detective asking about a particular individual who is the prime suspect in a stalking.  Following up on that deception thoroughly has to be part of the investigation, otherwise it does not seem that there really is much of an investigation going on – don’t you think?

Working in one degree of separation…

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MorganarmsupA play was written by John Guare, based on a theory by Frigyes Karinthy that there are six degrees of separation, an idea that everyone is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world.  Strange as it sounds at first, on average, it really holds up, so that a chain of “friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.

In other words you meet someone, and they know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, and six people later, viola, that person knows you!  And why is this important you ask?  Well once you get this idea there is another one to ponder.

We live in a small, very contained valley, so small that Steve has a theory that we live with one degree of separation.  Maybe he’s right, and at times it sure seems like everyone you meet knows at least one friend of yours.   And this cuts so many ways in Morgan’s Stalking.

For example:

  1. James Harris confesses to a client (the same morning we find Morgan’s body) that he knows who the stalker is, and that person he confessed to turns out to be friends with a very good friend of mine.  But then the detectives never investigate, never question this witness.
  2. The detectives interview Keenan’s boss at work (since Keenan was the prime suspect), Keenan gets a glowing review, hard working clean nosed young man, our detectives get the idea at that time that maybe he is not the stalker, and they are wrong about him.  Except the detective does not know that the manager is Keenan’s Uncle, by marriage.  Nor does he know that at least three other relatives of Keenan work at the same store.  The truth was being hidden to confuse this poor detective?  Certainly possible.  As we all know it was just weeks later that Keenan was arrested on a warrant for theft by receiving, I am told Keenan is the one who walked into the cash for gold store, and fenced the goods, and I believe it.  During the stop his car was taken to the station, and a stash of drugs prepackaged for sale were found inside – so much for the clean nosed young man, wouldn’t you say?
  3. James Harris claims to have not known there was a stalker when questioned on the Dr. Phil show, and said he wishes we would have told him so he could have taken appropriate measures. This was on a TV show where he came with the intention of defending himself with the truth, one might assume.  And over the past weekend another connection just jumped out.  During Morgan’s stalking the President of the HOA (not James) wanted to do something to stop this situation, and decided one of our next door neighbors had let his yard get quite overgrown (a good place for the stalker to hide) and his plan was to organize a work party of board members to trim it all down.  Hopefully give the stalker fewer places to hide, as the stalker was doing so successfully up till then.  Don’t we all remember the stalker wandering out and leaning on Steve’s truck to watch the Sheriffs drive away?  Guess who was a part of that work party to reduce hiding places for the stalker?  You guessed it, James Harris spent a good part of his weekend trimming, and raking and cleaning our neighbor’s yard, because of the stalker we had in our neighborhood – but I guess he must have forgotten all about that.  Then, just months later James claims, with a straight face, and actually feigning surprise, that he knew nothing about a stalker.  This just gets deeper and deeper, doesn’t it?  This latest memory lapse that he had is in addition to all his conversations with the Detectives and the Deputies that came to his house, or that he approached in the street during the 4 months of stalking to ask about the stalker, and James also chooses to completely forget he was interviewed, as well as his daughter Brooke, a face-to-face interview he was at! – a fact he must have forgotten all about as well.  Part of this amazing changing memory was posted on April 4, 2013 – “Definition of Accuse.” Click on it if you want to read it again.
  4. In the months following Morgan’s death many individuals independently came up to me and shared something they had heard Brooke Harris say before Morgan died that troubled them.  At different times, and worded slightly different, they all reported hearing her say either, “That bitch is going to get it someday”, or just, “That bitch is going to get it.”.  Of course when confronted on stage in TV land she denied ever saying that, and not stopping there she claimed to be a friend of Morgan’s and why would she ever say that?  She exclaimed.  Just a last tidbit on this, when Keenan was asked if he knew about the “keying” of Morgan’s car, the word ‘Bitch’ scraped into the driver’s door, right down to the metal, Keenan said he did not know about it, but told the detective he either thought “Brooke could have done it,” or “that’s her style, so it is very possible that she did it.”  I wasn’t there during his interview with the Detective so I am not sure of the exact wording, but basically that is what I was told that he said to the Detective.
  5. Everyone wanted me to talk to the ranch next door, and I mean everyone, one by one, they told me about things at the ranch.  So thanks I guess to the one degree of separation theory he’s a few more disclosures.  The ranch had most, but probably not all, of the seven drugs found in Morgan’s system, and responsible for her death.  Keenan’s sister worked her community service at the ranch.  Brooke’s mother worked at the ranch.  Brooke visited the ranch for reasons unknown to me.  Keenan was at the ranch at times.  Elliott’s two daughters took riding lessons at the ranch, under the watchful eye of Elliott.  At this point all that needs to happen is for James to stop by to pick up one of his daughters or drop something off for his ex and do you realize that every player from the neighborhood in this mystery was at the ranch in the room where the drugs are stored at one time or another?  And yes, this connection has also never been investigated by the Sheriff’s department.
  6. Oh, and as to the seven drugs – as I have not mentioned that in a while, because that part of the investigation is pretty much closed from where I sit.  Let me, however, say this; Morgan’s labs confirm the existence of seven drugs of importance, some of these seven drugs can be a synthesis of others, but they can also exist, and can be administered independently, that is a very important detail.  As it has been explained to me, EVERY one of those seven drugs has to be analyzed, and evaluated both independently, and then together to approach the true story of what happen to Morgan that night.  Focusing on one or two, and dismissing the rest is a sure path to introducing erroneous conclusions.  So you can rest assured that the conclusion arrived at by the contracted pathologist is indeed erroneous, of that I have been assured.

Quite fascinating, these varying degrees of separation, especially when you attempt to harness them in order to solve a crime.  When the truth never changes, and you have a statute of limitations of forever when it comes to murder, only your tenacity to stay the course becomes the limiting factor in a search for justice.  For whom the bell tolls, or the clock ticks in this case, we shall see in the end.  Human nature is hard to overcome for most, impossible for others.

In Morgan’s memory Steve and I want to help others, it is the most satisfying task for us now.  Research has led us to believe that there are laws to prevent such tragedies as Morgan and our family suffered, they have already been written, and are part of our State law.  Now we just need to find out what happened to that memo.  I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile look for these laws to be posted in their entirety at the State of Colorado to help stalking victims understand the laws at their disposal to protect them…we were not given any of this information during Morgan’s stalking, and I dearly wish we had been given it.  It breaks my heart to continually hear from victims that are not being protected due to lack of enforcement of laws that are already in place to protect them.  When I travel to Denver I want to be sure to address this very question with as many people in office as I can.

January 17 – 31, 2011, Day 36 – 60 of Morgan’s investigation – a lot of strange occurances

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The evolution of the fairy Morgan was creating – she had multiple projects going at all times

Tuesday, January 17th

I am still trying to figure out what the #10 is that I keep hearing Morgan say in my dreams.  JH, and BH have the number 10 in their address, the address of the house they are renting 3 houses down from us.  Tonight our friend brought homemade soup over for us – we haven’t really felt like eating much since Morgan died.  My brain still can not put all the pieces together in order to figure out how she could possibly be gone.  We want her to walk through the front door and say, “Hi guys”, and then look at Tessi and say, “Hello beautiful”, just like she always has before, and trying to realize that we won’t ever see her walk through the door again is just killing us both.  We miss her, we want her back, we want a re-do so we can send her far, far away before December 2nd 2011 happens.  We know we can’t turn back the clock, but we want to so badly!

Wednesday, January 18th 

Around 3:00 pm, I am looking out my office window and BH walks from her house towards Equestrian Way, she glances at our house, but not much of anything else.

Thursday, January 19th

Steve drives to City Market in El Jebel in the early evening to pick up prescriptions, and something for dinner – I still can’t bring myself to go to the store.  I know it sound silly, but when I shop for food I keep seeing Morgan’s favorites, like pomegranates, greek yogurt, blackberries, and on and on, and I start to cry and I just don’t want to shop anymore, so Steve goes for me.  He sees KVG working at a register.  Scopes him out again, and tells me later that he is the exact body structure of all our pictures of the stalker – KVG looks uncertain when he first looks at Steve, and then a little “cocky” in Steve’s estimation.  When I share this story with the Detectives they don’t think they could have refrained from rushing him right there at his check out stand, they were really pissed.

Up until the day we found Morgan’s body on December 2, 2011 we were not 100% sure it was KVG, even though Morgan had seen him and said it was him, and the pictures of the stalker looked like him, and Detective Glassmire had said it was him, Steve and I were only 90% sure (we knew he was involved, but Steve and I always wanted to be 100% sure, if it was some kind of gang stalking, we thought he could have been one of many) and then when I found out that JH had told his client the morning Morgan was found dead, that the police now know it is KVG, and not him (which is weird, because I never heard the Sheriff’s say they thought it was JH).  Now on that day (12.2.2011) my belief went from 90% all the way to 100%. During Morgan’s stalking – after Morgan’s stalking, and all the way up to today, we have found out more and more things.  I am telling this story truthfully from the beginning until whenever I decide to stop blogging about it, but it will always change a little, because every day new evidence comes in so please bear with me – Steve and I are not investigators, but we have been blessed with so many experts, as well as people in this valley coming forward with information.

Friday, January 20th

I have had 2 separate dreams again where Morgan came to me, and said the number 10.

Saturday, January 21st

We are packing up the last of the moving van today.  Steve sees the Postal Delivery person putting mail in the back of the cluster mail boxes for the subdivision – he stops and looks in the back of the boxes and sees #10 is CH & JH & BH’s mailbox (on the house they own that CH is living in 3 houses down from the rental house that JH & BH are now living in) with the JH crossed off.  They are going through a separation or a supposed divorce at the time.  But KVG lived with JH & BH during the beginning of the stalking from August 2011 – till October 2011 (October is when KVG moved out of the house JH was renting).  When Steve gets home he tells me, “Maybe that is what the number 10 means”

Sunday, January 22nd

We are moving out of the house today to the new house.  We slept in the new house for the first time tonight. Our friends helped us all day today.  I have such a hollow feeling without Morgan’s happy demeanor around the house, but I do feel her spirit with me and it always has a calming effect.

Monday, January 23rd 

Our son’s partner calls me, she says she thought she saw KVG drive by her house in his green car, she is worried because she knows that stalker’s sometimes watch the families of the deceased victim so she goes on Facebook, his privacy settings are now down, she sees a reference to being arrested, and goes online to the Post Independent newspaper to see if she can find something.  She finds the following article.

Theft by receiving: Officers received a report on Dec. 23 of theft from a home. At 5 p.m. that day in the 1400 block of Grand Avenue, officers stopped a car driven by Keenan James Vanginkel, 19, of Carbondale and arrested him on a $1,000 warrant for theft by receiving. He was also found to be in possession of less than 6 ounces of marijuana, and was charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia and intent to sell marijuana. Felony distributing

I emailed Detective Alstatt – Detective Glassmire is out of town and Detective Alstatt says they have not heard about this.  (this is kind of unbelievable to me!)  In the year of 2011 how can law enforcement agencies not have a database that will pull up and flag a name if it pops up in a different jurisdiction? – but they don’t!!!  Detective Glassmire says he told the Glenwood Police (Glenwood is only a 20 minute drive from our house and right where the stalking suspect supposedly lives) about the name, and description of our suspect, and they should have informed him.  Now we can all see why these criminals can work a certain area without ever getting caught…all they have to do is go between the different city and county law agency areas, even if they are all within a half hour driving radius and (wallah!) you probably will never get caught for the same crime.  Detective Glassmire emails me back later to let me know what he has found out about KVG’s court date.  It is February 16th.  Detective Glassmire says he will meet us with our camera on February 5th.

We slept in the new house tonight- so happy to be out of that neighborhood.

Tuesday, January 24th – 28th not much happened we just unpacked

Sunday, January 29th

This morning we got out of the house, Steve and I and had breakfast at the Village Smithy, and went shopping with our granddaughter.  We talked about what to do next.  How were the detectives going to catch this stalker – they didn’t even know he had been arrested.  I had told the detectives about the missing jewelry, I had told them about our son’s partner being worried, even her brother said he saw the car drive be a few times.

Monday, January 30th 

Our son’s partner tells me that J got kicked off BH’s Facebook, she found out he is related to us, and yells at him that we are spreading lies about her – what lies?  We have not said anything to anyone about BH.  Steve looks at the scratches on hood of LR3, it had been parked in front of our son’s house while we were out of town for a few days and our son and his family had been gone as well at that time.

Tuesday, January 31st

Spoke with Pat (assistant registrar at CMC) and asked for Morgan’s list of classes she took over the years (either completed or dropped), and she asked me to fax her a letter stating I am the executor of her estate and that I need this information faxed back to me.  I signed it and put her CMC # on it and fax it back to her.

So in conclusion, even though the biggest thing during this time was finding out about KVG being arrested and the detectives not knowing about it; I keep wondering about the dreams I keep having where I see Morgan’s face and very clearly she says to me 10, and in my mind I question 10? – and then I hear her say (in a little more excited voice) one, zero, the number 10.  What does this mean I keep asking myself – just because Steve saw the number 10 on the back of the inside of the H’s mailbox doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what the 10 stands for.  This is so strange, because this is the only time Morgan has come to me in a dream, and I feel so inadequate to not be able to know for sure what it means.

Can we just correct a few errors in the memory of Morgan Jennifer?

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Morgan deserves justice

Morgan deserves justice

Morgan was such a happy young woman, full of conviction, articulate, a very avid reader and very accomplished photographer, all before age twenty.  And in the year plus since her death could Morgan possibly be any more of a victim in this?  She was stalked and then murdered, never had her day in court for either crime,  as she rests, is it in peace?  She is judged every minute of every day. Judged by people that didn’t even know her, as to how she died, what kind of person she was, and all of her medical history that has been leaked or irresponsibly released by many of the same people who failed to protect her or process her crime scene with the slightest bit of professionalism, all in violation of her rights, and to top it off her medical information being tossed around over the Internet is wrong.   And Morgan is not even here to defend herself.

A small group has taken up the task, very gladly.  Some have children of their own, and want see an end to this insanity that is called stalking.  Others have been stalked or are being stalked themselves at this very time.  And still others have such a sense of justice burning within them that must cause them to follow their beliefs and try to help right the obvious wrongs Morgan has suffered.

Let us not forget a few facts – there actually was an investigation, it was only into Morgan’s stalking, not of her death.  And after less than two months, two Garfield County Detectives were convinced 100% who was the person that was the stalker, and the person(s) who were supporting his actions.  Aiding and abetting I believe it is called.

Morgan also knew who her stalker was, and identified him many times to many people.  She discussed him with her friends and fellow students, instructors, doctors, even Detectives and Deputies.  She sent emails about him, and wrote short letters confirming what she had seen.  She was killed 5 days before her official interview about him.  Don’t we have a law against killing a witness in this state?  If we don’t, I think there should be one.

The Detectives sent to me, and received from me numerous emails, videos, pictures, text messages, copies of logs and phone calls in addition to face to face discussions about the top two perps.  They were well known and discussed often.  How often?  Just writing this makes me want to go back through every scrap and see how many times it actually was and see if the number of times he was referred to as the stalker exceeds the estimate of fifty times out at the house looking for him, after he left.  Have I ever told you that from the hiding spot on the roof you can see at least five miles in every direction.  As in, oh look, here comes a Sheriff’s pick-up truck, plenty of time to retreat and avoid detection, wouldn’t you think?

The connection from stalker to murderer was never pursued, and remains, an open end in a closed case that never ended in an arrest.  This is the investigation we push to become a reality.  I firmly believe it is a Really Big Stretch to think that right in the midst of her stalking, right when the detectives thought it would start to escalate, and patrols were ramped up, that right in the middle of all this, someone else just happened by and killed Morgan.  It’s Garfield County remember, no murders here!  Not one in the five years before Morgan’s death.

I also firmly believe that all of the many opinions of experts as to what happened to our daughter that night have to be fully explored.  She deserves the truth and if we continue to ignore the overwhelming consensus that she does not have the truth now, is that really fair to Morgan?  Why don’t we do this?  If the misguided and misinformed conclusions can be aired and if the Code of Ethics says you have to do it, then why not do it?  Is Morgan not worthy of justice?  I would certainly hope that is not the case.

Since her death many more pieces of that night have come to light.  Depending on the expertise of the person interpreting test results, far more facts about her death can be established.  The Coroner’s code of ethics promises, “I will readily seek consultation and use the talents and knowledge of others.”  The talents and knowledge of others are readily available here, they were given most graciously, and the door was slammed in their face.

Why this is I do not know, an answer to Steve or I of any question that we have continually asked of the Coroner has never been forthcoming with an answer, as in not at all, whether we sent our letters certified, return receipt or whether we called, it didn’t matter, we were completely ignored.  Morgan deserves better than that.  Everyone living in this county deserves better than that.

So to say now that I am accusing without basis is untrue.  Very few of you were here to see the Detectives dismiss where all the other Deputies had gotten on this case to, when it became a felony stalking case, as far as suspects, the detectives like starting from scratch and seeing where the evidence leads them, and it led them to 100% sure as to who the stalker was.  Between this and the admissions J.H. made the day Morgan’s body was found, I too reached the same 100% certainty, and nothing has happened to dampen that.  In fact only things that increased my conviction.  I believe my statements are well founded in fact.  Facts I have shared, and those I have not.

I just wish to remember Morgan for the young woman she was, see that she has her day in court to air evidence against her perpetrators, and let the decision stand.  I want the chance to help others and improve the shortcomings of a system that failed her so badly, which is why I point them out with as much detail as I can, so we can all seek better ways to fight this heinous crime.  That is not too much for a mother to ask.

I wish I could see Morgan in the kitchen now making her favorite shortbread cookies – here is a picture of her last batch.

Shortbread cookies

Shortbread cookies