Tag Archives: detective

September 27, 2011 – Day 57 of Morgan’s Stalking – The Question of Restraining Orders

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Morgan smiling

All three of us (Morgan, Steve & myself) had a discussion about the stalker at breakfast, as well as Steve’s feelings about a restraining order.  A while back, we had decided to let the detective weigh in when he came on board, and today I was going to do just that. Steve and I wanted Morgan’s opinion now, and we discussed the dangers of restraining orders.  We didn’t really know what the best course was, and we once again we grappled for the answer.  Morgan wanted a restraining order, but agreed with us that we should wait to see what the detective thought…this ultimately was a BIG mistake! Morgan was convinced it was Keenan, and wanted to know why the sheriffs did not just confront him?  We did not have an answer for that, not an acceptable one anyway.

Morgan was pressed for time, and had to leave for school, so I did sent an email to the detective during my lunch break, telling Rob it was very nice to meet him, and about the incident that has happened last night in what has become the stalker’s most popular time.  The detective had talked about stakeouts, and Steve and I are hoping he would read the email I sent him, and just come by tonight at around that time.  But, as we found out, that was not how it works.

In the email I reminded him to please remember to give us the case number, and asked him for his ideas or concerns about a restraining order.  We realized that you can’t get a restraining order against your stalker or stalkers, a restraining order has to be directed at a person, a specific person.  I didn’t share with him Morgan’s certainty, but I did name Keenan as the person we would be seeking a retraining order against.  I also added that we were not 100% positive yet that is was him, but Morgan was.

I had asked those two questions and clicked send.  We would wait for the answer and I already felt apprehension.  Restraining orders are meant to protect, but they also come with some danger, depending on the typology of your stalker.

Morgan came home from school, and went to see Dr. Jensen, a wonderful homeopathic doctor, because her back hurt again.  He adjusted her, and she was feeling much better when she came back.  She went out to visit with friends, and came home at 9:30 pm – before I would have felt the need to text her.  We had a very quiet night, which was great, as well as disturbing.  Anytime anything changed it would be quiet for at least a day or two.  Once again we had the detective’s truck parked in our driveway for a long time, while we went over the case, but that even seemed to have been enough to make this stalker pause again.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 9.27.2011 he worked from 1:03 am – 6:07 am & then from 6:40 am – 10:20 am)

Click here to read about the 58th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1421

September 26, 2011 – Day 56 of Morgan’s stalking – we meet our detective

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snow on Mount Sopris

After her classes, Morgan came home and just hung out and rested.  I worked and waited to meet our detective at 4:00 pm.  Steve came home early from work, and we laid out our array of papers for the meeting.

The detective called and he was running late, I told him we were all home and ready anytime, so that was fine.  Just before 5:00 pm we met, it was 56 days into Morgan’s stalking, and now it was officially a felony stalking case.  We hadn’t called the sheriffs on day one of the stalking, so it was actually more like around 52 days since the first call to the Garfield sheriffs, but they knew when it had first started.  The detective didn’t have the case number with him, but said he would get that to us once he got back to his office and looked it up.

We went over our records, showed him the cameras and the systems in place to protect Morgan.  He told us that not many people went to such lengths, and we could certainly file a claim, a compensation claim with the victim’s rights coordinator, and get reimbursed for at least part of what we were spending on all of our stuff.  That was nice to hear as it was a considerable expense so far, but we never did.  We were more hopeful about putting an end to all of this, and there had not been one in sight up until now, we all discussed exactly where this case was at this moment in time.

The detective had obviously talked with some of the deputies who had become our “regulars” on the case so far. He said Garfield County had a protocol of shifting the officers around to different areas of the county on a regular basis, and we did not have a group of the same two or three deputies, over time, I wouldn’t be surprised if we had met all of the patrol deputies eventually in the entire department.  He knew that the deputies so far had zeroed in on one person, but he said he was going to be revisiting everything and would, “go where the evidence led him.”  It was too late to cast any of the footprints or fingerprints, and at that time none of our pictures were clear enough to identify one exact person, so it could take a while.

Morgan explained the usual events, and how she had been followed, and was not certain when it had really began, but knew that since August 2 it had been pretty constant.  The detective asked her for suspects, and Morgan had one name for him, Keenan Vanginkel, we added a few more to the list, but those names we thought might be helping the stalker, and not actually the stalker.  She was downplaying her fear, and how upset she would get, so I felt I had to encourage her to tell the detective how she really felt as this was happening – that helped.  Morgan had built up a wall to what was going on, and when she let that down she instantly started to tear up, and almost cry, as she explained how she felt about what had been happening.  Morgan never liked to be thought of as weak, and it was uncomfortable to watch her struggle, but it had to come out.  I wondered if the detective was seeing the same thing I was.

After he left, Morgan could not get out of the house fast enough.  She was upset that she had shown a little weakness, and was now going to see her friends in Carbondale, where she could pretend everything was normal.  Steve and I talked about the meeting, and were not sure what to make of it, it was not what I had expected, but then I had nothing to compare it with either.

Steve texted Morgan at 7:35 pm, “Just left for dinner. Text me when you gonna come home cuz mom left her phone at home.”  Morgan answered, “Will do. :). “ Later, at 8:40 pm Steve texted again “We are home.”  Morgan came home at 10:00 pm and went to bed.  She didn’t say anything about the detective or her stalker.

In a replay of the last few nights, the motion detector went off at 10:43 pm, and I waited for another rock on Morgan’s window.  That did not happen, but I had heard noise outside our room, when Steve went to look, he didn’t find anything out of the ordinary, and we went to sleep.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 9.26.2011 he worked from 8:30 am – 12:59 pm & then from 1:30 pm – 5:27 pm)

Almost 2 years after Morgan’s murder we finally received the police reports (see this one supplemental below) – his date is incorrect – he called us on Sunday the 25th, but he did not meet with us until Monday the 26th:

Supplement Report #5 2011-20197

Print Date/Time: 10/01/2012 11:29 October 3, 2011

Garfield County Sheriff’s Office
ORI Number: CO0230000

A few weeks ago, I was advised of this case. It was further requested that I contact the victim family and consider putting up sheriff’s office issued wildlife cameras in an attempt to capture photos of the suspect(s).

On September 25, 2011, I met with the Ingrams at their home located at 62 Corral Dr. Carbondale, CO. We went over the case history. The Ingrams explained to me that the suspect(s) began to harass them in the first part of August 2011. Since then they have had a continuance presence by the suspect(s).

Activity will include small rocks being thrown at the house, scratching of the windows, and a known presence in their yard. The Ingrams have installed motion sensor lighting and wildlife cameras of their own.

On a regular basis, motion detectors will go off and the lights will turn on. Further evidence of suspect(s) activity will include shoe prints in a dirt area along the house. In one instance, outlined in Deputy Locklear’s previously submitted supplemental report, the Ingrams captured a photo of the suspect using one of their wildlife cameras. Deputy Locklear obtained the photo and submitted it into evidence. The photo depicts a male person but is not clear enough to show identity.

I requested that the Ingrams document every suspicious activity so that a log could be generated. Furthermore, I advised that the documentation would support a subsequent criminal prosecution.

I then took a tour of the home so I could learn the floor plan of the home. I also walked the exterior of the home. I then installed two wildlife cameras on the north side of the home. This area between the Ingram’s and the neighbor’s house is near where a lot of the activity is occurring. It is also the location of Morgan Ingram’s bedroom.

Click here to read about the 57th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1401

September 25, 2011 – Day 55 of Morgan’s Stalking – We have a detective and a case number…almost!

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We make plans to all go to Glenwood Springs, and do some good old fashioned shopping.  Morgan has a list of things she needs, and it promises to be a great little get away.  Steve goes out to clean my car, and finds all kinds of Morgan’s friend’s stuff piled up in the back.  He comes in to tell Morgan, and this prompts her to send a text to her friend Calder,  “Dude… You’ve got to stop leaving your **** everywhere.”  Problem solved!  If only everything were so simple.

After a successful day of shopping we come home, and I get a call from our new detective that has been assigned to Morgan’s felony stalking case, Garfield County Sheriff Detective Rob Glassmire, he introduces himself and we make plans for him to stop by the house the following evening, he said he works Sunday – Wednesday, and times will vary because of his work load, so he will usually be in the later part of the day.  We’ll go over the case in detail when he comes and he wants me to get together what we have so far.  Then we can go over it all while he’s at the house.

I hang up and relish the feeling for a moment, a detective, for our case.  We’ve never had a detective before, because we have never needed one.  I instantly thought that my information so far was lacking, that I had to spend the rest of the evening updating and organizing.  Steve tries to assure me that what we have will completely overwhelm the detective.  I don’t agree, and sit myself down to the task.

Before we go to sleep Morgan explains that she was way too on edge the other night when she rang the bell, and we both came running that she could not go back to sleep for hours, waiting for a repeat that never happened.  She wants to avoid that.  We compromise on her agreeing to send me a text when it happens and only use the alarm button in an emergency.  I will hear the text come through and then see the text, and we will have a record that is time and date stamped to give the detective.  It will all work out.

At 10:45 pm the motion alarm in the back goes off.  We think it could be anything (dog, deer, rabbit), and we wait to see.  Two minutes later I got a phone text from Morgan that a rock just hit her window.  Steve curses, and we both get up to review the cameras again.  And again there is nothing caught on camera.  The review takes us about an hour and we go back to sleep at midnight.

There was a clear pattern developing – it seemed like a quick hit and run.  I could almost picture him coming over the berm, setting of the motion detector, and minutes later being at Morgan’s window.  But he was not invisible, and how this was happening without anything showing up on cameras had to be answered. Much later when we find out how he was doing it things became clear – the motion alarm in the back of the house was the tip off…

At that time we thought the detective would know what was going on – he had to know…again, we were wrong.

Click here to read about the 56th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1346

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 9.25.2011 he worked from 12:58 am – 6:04 am & then from 6:32 am – 10:24 am)

Of course Morgan really had a stalker…what purpose is served to pretend that there was not?

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Morgan reaching for hope

Morgan, reaching out

I must admit I am incredulous as I write this, but there is a question that I have been told I can’t ignore, actually four questions to be exact.  So now I will take the time to answer those four in order.  Starting with number one, “is there really a stalker?”, and is this system that we call justice going to wake up, and be there for Morgan, because the way it is going for Morgan right now, it is woefully upside down.

Was there a stalker? Really? Yes, there REALLY was a stalker (this was a felony stalking case, detectives assigned to it and everything), and did the stalker/stalkers murder Morgan?  Yes, and I have strong, very strong feelings and information about that, but I also think an investigation into many things that were in fact never investigated needs to happen.   Sorry, I’m getting ahead of my self,  First – yes, there really was a stalker.  And the following points might be a little out of order, because that takes a lot longer to go through all my notes:

  • At first the stalker taps on the window, Morgan thought it was trees or bushes, until we walked out to cut them back, and saw there were no bushes or trees near her window.  And no we hadn’t called anyone yet.
  • Taps and knocks continue, I call Garfield Sheriff’s department and I will never forget, I was admonished for waiting so long to report this.  Well, I had now reported it and they came, and yes they saw “scuffs” deeply cut into the ground in front of Morgan’s windows.  The deputy said it was obvious to him that someone had stood here, right up against the glass, for a long time.  The Deputy had suggestions, water the ground thoroughly and rake it smooth, maybe we’ll get lucky and get some prints in the dirt.  So you better believe we did that.
  • A bang on the bathroom window, and the prints we were hoping for are left.  Only now nobody cares about the prints left in the dirt, nice clear prints.  I ask in shock, “only the detectives can do that” I’m told, silly me I thought detectives were coming by later to do that.  But no, no one ever comes by to do anything with the prints.  Keep watering and raking they tell us, and we do.  We did take pictures ourselves.  Oh, and once a Deputy was practically pleading with his supervisor over the phone to be allowed to take a casting, after a while he was trying to get permission to take a picture, that too was a no go.  I guess now that I’ve seen how it works if you want to be able to claim you never saw any sign of a stalker you certainly can’t collect any evidence of a stalker.  I told the Deputy that day to not let it get him down, I’ll have Steve take pictures when he gets home.  A retired Special Agent told us that if we had cast them ourselves a Deputy would have been required to watch and oversee our efforts.  We didn’t know that back then, but want others to know in case this happens to you.  When we had a detective assigned he wasn’t quite sure what the deal was with prints.
  • I saw the stalker on the front porch, positively, twice, once turning to run and once keying in two digits of our front door code.
  • I saw him running between our cars in the driveway in broad daylight.  Now picture, if you can, a male, wearing a loose hoodie with the hood over his head and completely covering the side of his face. Spinning, head down, hands hidden, and then running, two, three strides and he’s ducking off to the side, and I can’t even tell you what kind of pants he was wearing.  Do you think you could “positively” identify him?  I wasn’t sure, Steve thought it was worth a line up to see. The Sheriffs didn’t agree.
  • We have him on video, he was hiding out behind my car and another car drove up the street, he either had to run or risk being spotted behind my car, so he ran. The video just isn’t good enough to positively identify him either.
  • We have him on video again, coming up across the back yard to the aspen tree that doubles as a ladder for him to make the “impossible” climb to the roof, yeah right, Steve is much older and has no problem climbing it.  Once again the picture that was taken in the middle of the night is not clear enough to identify him.
  • Morgan went out with her puppy in the early morning, still dark, she became aware of a male standing just on the other side of our 3’ high fence, all dressed in black.  She was badly shaken, and we never heard her scream.  Steve said he wished she had screamed loud, he wished she had started, and never stopped.
  • The stalker followed her, at least twice, first time we were completely unprepared, and it was up to Morgan to outrun him, race off in the opposite direction.  The second time we were only slightly more prepared, and we were waiting in the street as she drove up.  Only he did not follow her to the house, just to the subdivision.  Then came the plan to call 911, and have her keep driving, which I was never wild about as nothing had really worked before, so I was never very upset that we actually did not have a chance to try that.
  • There was an officer staking out the yard for the stalker, right outside our bedroom, for a half an hour.  We have him beautifully on video, and suggested if they were going to do a stake out again, first don’t wear the uniform jacket with the reflective “SHERIFF” written across the back, oh and don’t text constantly, completely lights up your face, chest and shoulders you know.
  • There is a gutter cracked in half directly over Morgan’s window that Steve assures me did not crack itself.
  • Then there are the trails worn into the berm, none out there this year, went by and looked.  They were never there in the past before the stalking.  Now there is no one  to stalk, no stalker, no stalker trails, funny how that works.
  • Of course there is the famous wildlife cam photo that I have been told someone is claiming is the most pathetic Photoshop job they have ever seen.  I know it isn’t.  I know we handed a copy to the Deputies fresh out of the camera that same night.  Wonder who she was protecting? Meaning the person that posted that it was photoshopped.
  • Then in a weird, weird sequence Steve was giving chase around the house one night and when reviewing the video cameras later, stopped, said some colorful things, and told me,  “I thought I was chasing him!”  “He was following behind me the whole time.”  He could tell by the way the motion detector lights were going off behind him and then back on.

So there were more instances/proof of a stalking, that I have been asked not to release yet.   And then for reasons I can only guess at, certain people conducted alibi appearances at our house.  Not to be too mysterious, but coming up soon in this blog is a, what can you say moment, when someone walks around our house one night practically waving their arms in front of each camera, we look, and can instantly can tell it is not the stalker, even the deputies can instantly tell its not the stalker.  And to top that off the following morning, before the snow melted there were footprints to show exactly  where they “marched” around our house, and then those footprints actually led right to Brook’s dad’s house – imagine that!   “Just a big game to them,” one of the Garfield County Deputies said after seeing the video. Maybe somehow to them, but not when our 20 year old daughter ends up murdered, no way, no how.

There was a stalker, an individual that was suspected by Law Enforcement, there was at least one other person who was a party to this and was, to our knowledge, never even questioned.  Morgan was a victim, Steve and I were victims as well.  We have read Colorado Victims Rights, and I assure you that that memo did not make it to the Garfield Sheriff’s Department.  But make no mistake there is only one thing that burns as the most important thing to me now…the protocol Steve and I had was – not good enough – likewise the Sheriff’s protocol was – not good enough –  so to watch our Sheriff stand on camera, and not promise us that he will improve, when he chose to say they were at our house at least 50 times and never saw a sign of a stalker, that was heart wrenchingly disappointing.  If you’ve seen the wildlife cam photos just tell our Sheriff to tell his Deputies to look behind them – then maybe they’ll see the stalker.  Very disappointing for the safety of other young women in this county, because I have to warn you that if they do the same for you, that they did for Morgan, that is a crime in and of itself.