In the morning, I sent our neighbor Elliott a text, “Last night was great – nothing happened.  I hope tonight is quiet as well.  The officers are still patrolling a few different times at night.”  Elliott sent me back a text with all his contact information and reminded me if anything happens, and Morgan gets scared she can always call him, or come over to their house, where he had showed me where they hide the front door key.  I don’t know why, but I was getting that really strange gut feeling that this somehow sounded wrong.  Seems silly I know – he was just trying to be helpful and kind. But my mother lion instinct had me questioning everyone and everything.

 

Morgan went off to visit friends and Steve and I raked and watered every patch of dirt around the house to catch any shoeprints.  On one hand, no one cared about the prints, so why bother?  On the other hand, Steve was fixated on determining how this stalker was coming and going so easily right under our noses.  We had to face the fact that the stalker was really good at hiding, and concealing himself.

 

Steve spent the afternoon following the few trails on the berm out back.  He found a well worn trail behind Brooke’s house and he thought it was significant.  He also thought it could be someone’s trail to Highway 82, which was right behind Brookes‘s dad’s house.  It bothered me that Steve was always looking for an innocent explanation.  The sheriff deputies were much quicker than us to fixate on a person.  They were not interested in our suspect list.  They just wanted to know who we thought it was.  A couple of suspicious actions, and they had their man.  For Morgan neither way was working, the sheriffs were never close to catching him, and we were never close to catching him – there has to be something better.

 

Approximately 10:00 pm Morgan called to confirm she was going to spend the night at a friend’s house.  I was in my office, in the very front of the house, it overlooks the driveway. The window was open a few inches for fresh air, as it was very hot while I was in my office, and the paddle fan was spreading the cool air coming from the window, throughout the room. The instant I told Morgan I would see her in the morning (I had her on speaker phone), and to sleep tight, a large rock or something struck my window.  It was unexpected, and really loud!  I jumped, expecting shattered glass, which did not happen, and called out for Steve.  Our dog Tessi had been lying on the floor right next to where I was standing and when the “BANG” hit the window she didn’t bark but she JUMPED too!

 

I ran out front, pepper spray in hand, in my robe, ready for a confrontation.  I wanted to call out into the darkness and challenge him, dare him to show his face.  Steve was by my side, and as I started to explain he wanted to go inside first.  He wanted me to call dispatch, and then go to a quiet room with the windows closed, and at least try not to have this stalker hear everything we were saying. 

 

A few minutes later one of the deputy called back , and Steve talked to him.  They said they were going to try to bring a tracking dog, and wanted us to stay inside until they got there so as not to contaminate the scene with our scent.

 

I think that after spending most of the day in the yard our scent is everywhere already, but I am happy they are at last giving the dog a chance.  It seemed like forever, and I kept hearing noises outside, hard to explain, but they were like taunting noises. The motion detector alarms kept going off, and I knew he was right out there. It was driving me crazy.  Steve and I were soon fighting about running outside to chase him down, or waiting for the dog.

 

Finally I just absolutely could not take it any longer.  Having a rock smash into the window as I sat at my desk, allowed me feel first hand what this was like for Morgan, it was horrible, and I wanted this guy now.  I told Steve I was going out to catch him, and if he didn’t want to, he could just wait inside.  Steve tried to talk me out of it, and when he saw there was no chance of that happening, he said he would go outside, do one sweep around the house, and then stand up on the berm – but only if I agreed to stay inside and manned the phones. I said OK and he was gone.  It didn’t take long to discover I had made a huge mistake.

 

The sheriff’s deputies were not bringing a dog, that was only an excuse to keep us inside.  Deputies had parked far away and were closing on the house from all angles – this was a really good protocol to catch the stalker.  Poor Steve saw someone trying to hide on the side yard, and thinking he finally had the B… he charged, pepper spray in his hand.  Big mistake! He came perilously close to almost actually pepper spraying a deputy right in the face…Steve was shaking.  I watched the driveway out my office window as Steve and the deputy shook their heads and talked, then another joined in, then another.  Soon there were four of them with Steve, and I could see at least two more out in the street. 

 

They were suddenly on the move and Steve had unfortunately stopped them, then he ran back to the house and stuck his head in the door, “We just blew that plan, you stay in the house, they are going to interview Keenan.”      

 

The group was marching quickly down the street, and my cell phone was ringing. It was Rhonda next door, she was out in her yard, and she said, “there are cops everywhere!”

She wondered if I knew what the H… was going on?  I explained, and she wanted me to join her in the front, but I told her I told that I promised Steve I  would stay inside, it wasn’t easy, but I did.

 

From the end of her driveway she could see Brooke ‘s house.  We stayed on the phone and she gave me constant updates, she could see Steve out in the street.  The sheriffs were banging on the Brooke’s front door.  Nobody was answering.  Deputies were circling the house, there were flashlights everywhere, this whole thing was creeping her out.  I felt so bad for Rhonda, she was caught in the middle of this stalking, and was always the last to know.

 

The deputies persisted on knocking on Brooke‘s door.  I called Steve to see what he knew.  They wanted to talk with Keenan, but nobody was answering. He had seen movement in the front room, but didn’t know who, or how many there were inside.  I told him to come home, I was scared he would get in their way, he agreed.  I truly believe these officers were amazing – they really wanted to catch the stalker, and in my opinion this was the closest they ever came to doing just that.

 

After Steve left, someone did finally answer the door, it was Brooke, Rhonda heard her out on the porch talking to the deputies and called me.  We found out a little later that she refused to let them in without a warrant.  She had said that Keenan was home, sleeping and she could not wake him up.  The deputies indicated they did not believe her. Nor do we, but there was nothing more they could do.

 

One by one they left and within five minutes of the last deputy leaving there were rocks on our back window.  All I could think of was, “Thank God Morgan wasn’t home for any of this.”  Steve was running out the back door, and I called dispatch. They were going to patrol off and on all night, but they would not come to the door so we would not see them, but they said please stay out of the yard.  I called Steve in, and we stood in the kitchen. Then I called Rhonda, and filled her in on what had happened.  She said they were talking to Brooke for a long time.  Keenan’s car was there, but she never saw him.  I told her Brooke said he was sleeping, and she couldn’t wake him.  Rhonda said, “Yeah, right!”  I agreed, we wanted to not jump and accuse the wrong person, but it was certainly getting hard.  As far as Steve could tell the two other people on top of our suspect list were not even home.  Even Elliott was gone.  A motion detector alarm beeped punctuating the futility we were feeling right now. Steve said, “If this is how he gets his rocks off, then he is having a wonderful evening.” I nodded and again I was so glad Morgan was not home for this.

 

 

Click here to read about the 34th & 35th days of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=978