Morgan Jennifer, deep in thought
Morgan was so upset in the morning. I kept asking her about the car that followed her, if she had any more details that she could remember. She said she remembers the silhouette of a small car, couldn’t tell what color, she remembered the outline of a male driving, and female in the passenger seat. By the time she drove into the CMC parking lot all she wanted to do was see which way they were going so she could take off in the opposite direction. Which is what she did, driving onto Highway 133, the closest thing to a busy street there is in Carbondale. I kept asking her questions and she blew, sarcastically screaming that of course she should have stopped, and snapped a picture with her iPhone, but she didn’t, she just thought about getting away! Morgan had done the right thing, but being followed was very scary for her and rightly so.
Ironically, Elliott from across the street calls me, and wonders how it’s been. I told him immediately about Morgan being followed the night before. Elliott tells me that he just heard from Brooke’s mom that Keenan had been gone hunting, but now he is now back. I pause and shake my head, there is this fear of everything, and anything, whether I like to admit it or not, that had become a part of my life then. Elliott was talking about Keenan, and I was wondering if I could trust Elliott. If I said something, would it go right back to Brooke’s mom, and then to you know who? There is nothing good about feeling like that, but I do not tell Elliott that it had been quiet for days. I wanted to ask him when he left, but he had to get off the phone so I didn’t do that either.
We had been told that Morgan’s case was finally being assigned to a detective, that it would be a few days before we would get a call from him. I made a note in my dayrunner to ask the detective if he could find out what days Keenan had been gone on his trip. I circled it in red. Couldn’t imagine what Morgan had felt like in the car. Everyone had a different idea. Drive home, don’t go home, drive to the police station, no it was night time and they could all be out on patrol. Last night in bed Steve and I had walked through every combination and every single one had a glitch in it. There was never a, “Oh that’s perfect, I’ll tell Morgan that in the morning, she’ll be so relieved.”
That afternoon when Steve came home we went straight to the next order of business. A restraining order. It was being suggested more, and more, and maybe it was just me but I grew up in Los Angeles and had watched restraining orders fail in the most horrific ways. As in gunned down in a parking structure the next day, dead. But Steve was right we had to do more, I just wasn’t comfortable with this solution.
Steve had one prevailing thought. What if we had one long shot chance of catching him, detaining him, or positively identifying him in the yard. With no restraining order, what if he said he was retrieving his tennis ball, and tada! it all became nothing? With a restraining order it is a felony. There is a difference. We wrestled with the pros and cons for quite a while and ended with the decision to defer to the detective. He would be assigned any day and we would get his input, and allow that to tip the scales.
That night Morgan and I went to do a Pathfinders volunteer call. A mother had cancer and it was her birthday and anniversay. She had 2 young boys and needed a babysitter so she could go out with her husband for a few hours to celebrate. Morgan and I played with her children, while she and her husband went to dinner and a movie. I had a wonderful time with Morgan. She loved children, and they always sensed something special in her. We played little games and stayed with them until their parents came home. Then Morgan and I drove home together and talked in the car…only about kids and happy things, not about the stalker.
Just before we got home Morgan said she wished that since it was so late and we were coming home from Aspen that the stalker would have already given up for the night and leave her alone. And this night, her wish was answered. We had a quiet night.
(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working the evening of 9.16.2011)
Click here to read about the 47th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1194