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Team Morgan it’s time – you are all needed, please lend her your help!

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“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.” – Jane Howard

And we have one, many actually… and you are all part of it!  When our family needed that extra strength and hope, so many wonderful people offered to help us in our quest for justice for Morgan.  Some of you have called yourselves, “Team Morgan,” and in my own mind I have always thought of you as earth angels!   I have been so grateful for every single offer of help and support.  We have been so fortunate to have assistance in so many differing areas of expertise.  Exposing the truth would never have come this far without all of it.  And now as Morgan’s case takes another step forward I invite everyone to join in.

I am extremely happy to announce that Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers, along with help from Families of Homicide and Missing Persons (FOHVAMP) is now circulating a reward poster for any information leading to the arrest of the person(s) involved in the unsolved homicide of our 20 year old daughter Morgan Ingram on December 2, 2011.

If every single one of you could please share this post with anyone, and everyone you know, I would greatly appreciate it.

reward.poster copyjpegI know there are people that know what happened to Morgan, and those people also know who is responsible.  We want those people to come forward to help solve this crime.  This is their chance to do the right thing, and to no longer hide in the shadows.  Sometimes people think that what they know will not make a difference, but rest assured every single small piece of information will help to tell the whole story.  Finding the piece that will finally tip the scale for Morgan is something I will never stop fighting for.  I have heard many stories of the threats made against, “snitches,” so far, and if you feel unable or fearful to speak your truth, then please know I have been assured you can remain absolutely anonymous.  Personally I feel that if you are forced to swallow the truth and keep it inside, then it eats at you.  It’s nature’s law.  I would like people to know that when you let the truth out the feeling you get is awesome and liberating!

I myself have wanted to desperately get out all the details, facts, and evidence that we have gathered over the past years, but I have had to hold back (from this blog) on a lot of information in the hopes that it can be used in a criminal case someday.  At times I admit I have let my anger get the best of me.  I could say, “What parent wouldn’t be angry?” but instead I would like to say because of Steve I have been blessed – he has held me back and shown me that sharing all the brutal ugliness we have uncovered is just not always helpful, and not always necessary, not yet anyway.  Things happen for a reason and they happen when they are suppose to happen…not just when I want them to happen.  What I have learned over the years is that justice is not going to come through anger or ego, only through facts, so I do the best I can to keep mine in check.  Facts come out at the correct time, not when I want them to, but when they should be released.

I can never stress enough, both to myself and to everyone whom I have contact with that my efforts are not only about the loss of our precious daughter, but about all the wrongs being perpetrated on other innocent victims every day, and what needs to change to prevent this from happening again.  Unfortunately, and horribly there are so many stories of many other people who are suffering, or have suffered great personal loss themselves.  What happened to Morgan is not an isolated case, while I pray the cover-up that has followed is an isolated case.  For the good of all, this has to stop somewhere.

The simple yet overwhelming truth is that for Morgan to have justice someday, unpleasant truths will eventually have to have to come out, and visit the light of day.  It should not be much of a stretch to see that this will be unpleasant for some, and for others it is something that they will want to avoid at all costs.  To those I say that for Morgan to have been victimized, then murdered, only to be victimized again, was horrific for her, and all those who knew and loved her so much.

The knowledge that pursuing justice for Morgan will lead to a very needed change in the way victims and co-victims are treated in the future is extremely important to me, and I know it would have been so important to Morgan as well.  I know that this fight for justice is not only being waged by Morgan’s family and friends, but also by complete strangers that want to help make changes for the better in this world  – I will probably never be able to explain it except to say there are forces at work that have been making the impossible possible in this fight.

So please I am asking you all now to share this blog, and this poster in any way you can.  This is a very powerful way you can help find justice for Morgan.

You can even print the poster and hang it anywhere you think it may be seen by people that may know something.  Especially in Newcastle, Glenwood Springs, Carbondale, Basalt, and Aspen, CO.  Coffee shops, sports shops, churches, grocery stores, colleges, anywhere that they will allow you to post this.  Thank you all so very much – with much love from the bottom of my heart!  

 Please help – Justice for Morgan!

***Criminals do “trip up” – they can’t help themselves…just found out that on 3/16/2014 Keenan was arrested again, it was in the local newspaper listed under recent crimes, posted by the Glenwood Springs Police (not the sheriffs).  His criminal record keeps growing, but for some reason he seems to be “protected” and nothing ever really happens to him – this is a question I continually ask myself.

Should victims of stalking in Colorado be in fear for their lives?

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I will continue to post on this blog about things Morgan like to cook, things she loved to do, and activities that she enjoyed…all in an effort to continue to keep her alive in the minds and hearts of everyone she touched before a stalker took everything from Morgan.  I will not allow her memory to be stolen from us like her physical body was.

The last days of Morgan's bedroom windows with the blinds open...she loved light but didn't want someone peeking in at her.

The last days of Morgan’s bedroom windows with the blinds open…she loved light but didn’t want someone peeking in at her.

That being said, on this blog I would like to say something again about her stalking/murder, and subsequent misrepresentation of the facts of her case by not only law enforcement, but people out on the Internet, people that have no idea about the truth in this case.  What I would like them all to know is:

If the truth doesn’t come out in Morgan’s case then a predatory stalker/murderer (who in my opinion is a sexual sadist) will still be out there on the loose, and will most likely do this again.  We have pictures of the suspect at our house, Morgan identified him many times during the stalking, and the sheriffs knew exactly who the suspect was, and no the suspect was never “cleared”, in fact the following week after Morgan’s murder the “suspect’s” work hours were being collected to be compared to my timeline of the stalking events, Morgan was going to be giving her “official on tape” interview, and the felony stalking detective assured me that he was getting close to making an arrest.  Morgan was frightened, stressed, and exhausted from the stalking, and ultimately lost her life due to her stalker. I know the state of Colorado does not want this to happen to it’s citizens, but if they can not stop a law enforcement agency from lying about, and destroying evidence in a case so there can never be a case, then how can there ever be justice?  What does this say to other victims of stalking in Colorado – that they should be in fear for their lives?  Because so many who have reached out to me for help tell exactly that story – they fear for their lives.  A Garfield County Sheriffs Detective said, “There is no more Morgan, there is no more stalker,”, on the day she died.  Isn’t this sending a message to stalkers that if they kill their victim they won’t get arrested?  In the past Steve and I trusted law enforcement, but now we are far more skeptical.  And as for Garfield County, I have seen them at their worst, and it is not a pretty picture.  Many others have shared their personal experiences as well, and believe me it is not anything any “law abiding” department would be proud of.  And we truly hope when we are finally done with achieving the justice our daughter Morgan deserves, that all those involved in covering up this case will be held accountable.

 

Getting Away With #Murder in Colorado – maybe not for long

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FOHVAMPCREST  I would like everyone to know that there is hope out there. For example FOHVAMP, a non profit out of Denver, CO has made a huge difference in the fight for justice for many families over the years http://unresolvedhomicides.org/

Getting Away With Murder in Colorado

Colorado has a backlog of 1,600 unsolved murders dating back to 1970. The killers of these victims have never been prosecuted for these murders. They walk among us. They live in our neighborhoods. These murderers, who have escaped justice, pose a serious threat to the safety of every Colorado citizen.

Murder is a crime against the state. FOHVAMP maintains that when a case cannot be solved by local law enforcement in a reasonable period of time, the state has an obligation to step in.

For the past five years FOHVAMP has advocated a state-level cold case team to help investigate these unsolved homicides. The state bureaucracy has been unresponsive. In 2007, the legislature created a cold case team at Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) with only enough funding for a single analyst to collect data from law enforcement agencies.

FOHVAMP and the CBI make periodic comparisons to insure the accuracy of that data.

Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons Executive Director Rob Wells, President Mark Reichert, Vice President Tina Terry, and board member Diane Riechert recently spoke at The National Press Club in Washington D.C. to express the need for a National Cold Case Database. To their knowledge, FOHVAMP’s Colorado Cold Case Database is the first cold case database in the nation to have been compiled. Since 1970, in Colorado, there have been approximately 1,600 unsolved murders, which is 38% of all of Colorado’s murders during this time period. The number is lower than the national average, which the FBI estimates to be 42%.  And still 1,600 unsolved murders in Colorado is 1,600 too many.

The FOHVAMP members visiting Washington met with Florida Victim’s Advocate Ryan Backmann, of Compassionate Families, Inc. Ryan’s father was murdered in a robbery. His father’s murder is unsolved. Ryan is in the process of putting together a Florida Cold Case Database. With only one-third of the Florida jurisdictions reporting, there are 4,400 unsolved murders. Jacksonville alone has 1,400, nearly the amount for the entire state of Colorado.

FOHVAMP will keep you posted on the progress of The National Cold Case Database through their website and on their Facebook page www.facebook.com/FOHVAMP.

Families of Homicide Victims and Missing Persons, Inc. (FOHVAMP) is a nonprofit organization working in Colorado to find, support and empower families suffering from a loved one’s unresolved murder or long-time suspicious disappearance. They provide peer support, assistance with victim compensation, referrals and coordination with other organizations for services and assistance. They serve as a liaison with law enforcement agencies, provide criminal justice support and advocacy. They work with Universities on special studies, many of which have been published. They seek out victim’s families (co-victims) to assist. Every October, they host an Annual Meeting with guest speakers to bring together victim’s families and law enforcement.

This year‘s Annual Meeting is going to be held at the Brittany Hill Event Center in Thornton, Colorado on October 4th, 2014. Please go to their website to register for this event.  The price to attend is only $45 per person.  I would suggest getting your tickets now before they sell out.  The purpose of this meeting is to bring co-victims into a neutral area where they will be able to brush up on their knowledge of the current techniques being used in the investigation process as well as meeting with their detectives on a neutral platform. Their hope is that the Annual Meeting will be able to educate their co-victims and promote the proper tools and coping mechanisms to assist them in their daily lives, as well as with the progress in their cases. Often, it is only at this meeting that the co-victims have the opportunity to touch base with their Detectives annually. Through the Colorado Cold Case Task Force, FOHVAMP is trying to assist in making it a mandate that all coroners in the state need to attend a base line training and certification on how to successfully deal with a cold case as well as the basics of their role in that position. The hope is that this would need to be completed within one year of the coroner taking office.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION TIME! 
Here’s FOHVAMP’s registration form for the Saturday October 4 annual conference at the Brittany Hill events center, Thornton, CO.
More info to follow, but speakers will include Silvia Pettem, Jerry Brown, Paul Meshanko, Kathy Sasak, and Ron Sloan — at Brittany Hill.
FOHVAMPANNUALMTG8.29.2014

If you know anyone that has had an unresolved homicide in their family or have a missing loved one please refer them to FOHVAMP – they will listen, and they do help…please take my word on this, I know because they have helped us with Morgan’s homicide.

If you can help connect them with a family of a victim of an unresolved homicide or long-time missing person that has a Colorado connection, please call Rob Wells at 202-497-4580, Kelly Fernandez-Kroyer at 720-937-8905, or send an email to[email protected].

These families need to know about FOHVAMP. They can help them.  They need and want your help. Their priority is to encourage law enforcement to effectively address old, unsolved murders.

Thanks so much!

 

Is there something very wrong in #Garfield County, or is it just me?

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garfieldcountyLong ago, right after the blog of Morgan’s stalking was just getting going I was contacted by a local author writing a piece about the great disparity between suicides, and homicides in Garfield County.  What was shared with me was fascinating, and troubling all at the same time.  But back then we were being told by Garfield County that Morgan’s death was from natural causes, while at the same time Morgan’s doctor believed her death was a homicide, and another forensic pathologist was telling me she did not die from natural causes, it was a suspicious death and should have been listed at the very least as undetermined until a full investigation had been done.  Along with all of this I was being threatened by the contracted forensic pathologist for Garfield County.  He said that Morgan’s manner of death could be revisited, and could possibly be changed from natural causes to an accidental overdose or suicide if I didn’t back off…I believe the grief, shock and stress I was feeling at the time was paralyzing me in so many ways, and I heard what I was being told by all these different parties, but at the same time my mind couldn’t properly grasp it all.  Writing on this blog about the things that happened to Morgan during her stalking helped keep me going, but looking back on it now I only thought I was pushing hard, truth be told I was only a fraction of myself.  Oh the things you learn as you come out of your grief bubble…
 I  honestly do not think Morgan’s case is the only one like this in Garfield County.  I have talked to other families and friends of missing, and dead loved ones, and I hear the same run-around that we received given to others, along with all the same non answers that we got.  These other families speak of the same unanswered phone calls, emails and letters.  They speak of evidence that the Sheriffs department or Coroner’s office had that has now gone “missing” or was “accidentally destroyed”, I even received a call from a mom that had spent her whole retirement account hiring a ballistic expert, private investigator, etc. and had solid evidence that her son did not shoot himself, but was shot with a completely different gun then the gun the police took into evidence (the gun that had been collected from the scene had never been shot and it was a different caliber than the gun that shot the bullet into her son’s body), and they still would not open that case or change his manner of death from suicide.  
In an article written by John Colson for the Post Independent newspaper about Morgan’s manner of death being changed from natural causes to suicide (and yes, this was after I was threatened by the pathologist to back off in trying to facilitate other doctors, and experts into explaining to him how his first conclusion was incorrect, that Morgan did not die from natural causes, and yes again, the Sheriff and Coroner had been notified about the threats, but would never respond) on August 31, 2012 Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario is quoted as saying that he would stick by the contracted forensic pathologist Dr. Kurtzman’s conclusion of suicide.  Sheriff Vallario wrote in an email to the reporter, “The results of the autopsy and pathology reports were that the manner of death was suicide.”  The sheriffs knew that her death was considered a suspicious death because of her stalking (that is why an autopsy was done, that was why crime scene tape was put up all around our house and we were asked to leave the scene), but they decided on the exact morning her body was found that it had nothing to do with her stalking.  Then right after the Post Independent article came out, Jeff Todd a reporter for CBS in Denver filmed Sheriff Lou Vallario right in the front of the courthouse in Glenwood Springs, CO stating that he would never open Morgan’s case.  Never?  I thought if evidence is brought forward in a capital crime that there is no statue of limitations, and a case can be opened at any time?  Am I mistaken here, or was Morgan’s case, like so many other suspicious cases in Garfield County closed, shut down, and buried for some sinister reason?  I really need to know the answer to that question – I feel that I deserve an answer to that question, wouldn’t you?  Please look at the following report from Garfield County and tell me what you think.  Is it just me or does something look wrong with these numbers?
 garco.suicide.homicide
garco.suicide.homicide2
Maybe it is just me, but when I look at this stat sheet for Garfield County it suggests to me a story about a county that does not want any murders on its books…natural causes, accidental, or suicide those are all okay, along with run aways, but not foul play, murder, kidnapping, or rape…they don’t want any of those on their stats. As you can see on the Garfield County stats that listed results of Colorado Death Dataset Query for suicides, and homicides- I have circled the 5 years ending in 2011 (the year Morgan was murdered) it shows 53 deaths (due to suicide or homicide), 50 were determined to be suicide and the other 3 are not listed under homicide, so they are either not accounted for, or undetermined…in my opinion this is why Garfield County has been said to have one of the highest suicide rates in the country, but I don’t believe they are all suicides, I think they have listed other types of deaths like Morgan’s as suicides that were really not suicides.  Anything to not have a homicide on their stats.  This type of protocol only causes to re-victimize the already traumatized families.  Not only re-victimizing families, but allowing a murder to never be investigated would seem to me to be dangerous to others in the community, unless of course Garfield County feels confident that a murderer will never murder again.  How confident do you feel about that?
Does anyone know when this type of thing started?  When did Garfield County start to go down this slippery road?  Is there any turning back?  I have to hope they can turn this all around, and start to uphold the law, protect their citizens, make the truth their number one priority.  It may take the citizens of the county to join their voices in protest and show the elected officials what they expect, and in an election year such as this one, it seems like a good time to make your vote count.  Speak out – write in to the local newspaper (like the Aspen Times, or the Post Independent).  Take a stand, make your voice heard.  No one wants this to ever happen to their family, so please make sure it can never happen to another family in Garfield County, or anywhere else.  Change is needed and change will come – hopefully sooner rather than later.  Thank you so much – each and every one of you have the power to move mountains!

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” 

 

Yesterday – it’s been 2 years & 6 months since we found Morgan’s body

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Yesterday…  I could not for the life of me figure out why my whole body was vibrating.  I was in such an emotional state of frustration and could not shake it.  This morning when I woke up and looked at the calendar I realized that as of yesterday it has now been 2 years and 6 months since we found Morgan’s body – I can not believe it has been this long and an investigation into her death has never happened…I am outraged!

COLORADO – TAKE A STAND TO END VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

Map_of_CO.svg

I can not understand why Garfield County does not care about violence against women.  In March 2013 President Obama signed the revitalized Violence Against Women Act  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/07/obama-violence-against-women-act_n_2830158.html 

Under the leadership of then-Senator Joe Biden, Congress recognized the severity of violence against women and our need for a national strategy with the enactment of the Violence Against Women Act in 1994. This landmark federal legislation’s comprehensive approach to violence against women combined tough new provisions to hold offenders accountable with programs to provide services for the victims of such violence.  Read the Act at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/vawa_factsheet.pdf

In the Act it is proudly points out that all states have passed laws making stalking a crime.  In the state of Colorado (the state that Morgan was born in, the state that she grew up in, and the state that she was killed in) the following stalking law is in place:

Colorado’s legislative declaration states:

C.R.S. 18-3-601. [Formerly 18-9-111 (4) (a)] Legislative declaration. (2010)
(1)  The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:

 (a)  Stalking is a serious problem in this state and nationwide;

(b)  Although stalking often involves persons who have had an intimate relationship with one another, it can also involve persons who have little or no past relationship;

(c)  A stalker will often maintain strong, unshakable, and irrational emotional feelings for his or her victim, and may likewise believe that the victim either returns these feelings of affection or will do so if the stalker is persistent enough. Further, the stalker often maintains this belief, despite a trivial or nonexistent basis for it and despite rejection, lack of reciprocation, efforts to restrict or avoid the stalker, and other facts that conflict with this belief.

(d)  A stalker may also develop jealousy and animosity for persons who are in relationships with the victim, including family members, employers and co-workers, and friends, perceiving them as obstacles or as threats to the stalker’s own “relationship” with the victim;

(e)  Because stalking involves highly inappropriate intensity, persistence, and possessiveness, it entails great unpredictability and creates great stress and fear for the victim;

(f)  Stalking involves severe intrusions on the victim’s personal privacy and autonomy, with an immediate and long-lasting impact on quality of life as well as risks to security and safety of the victim and persons close to the victim, even in the absence of express threats of physical harm.

(2)  The general assembly hereby recognizes the seriousness posed by stalking and adopts the provisions of this part 6 with the goal of encouraging and authorizing effective intervention before stalking can escalate into behavior that has even more serious consequences.

And then:

C.R.S. 18-3-602.  Stalking – penalty – definitions – Vonnie’s Law. (2012)

(1) A person commits stalking if directly, or indirectly, through another person, the person knowingly:

(a) Makes a credible threat to another person and, in connection with the threat, repeatedly follows, approaches, contacts, or places under surveillance that person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship; or

 

(b) Makes a credible threat to another person and, in connection with the threat, repeatedly makes any form of communication with that person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship, regardless of whether a conversation ensues; or

 

(c) Repeatedly follows, approaches, contacts, places under surveillance, or makes any form of communication with another person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship in a manner that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress and does cause that person, a member of that person’s immediate family, or someone with whom that person has or has had a continuing relationship to suffer serious emotional distress. For purposes of this paragraph (c), a victim need not show that he or she received professional treatment or counseling to show that he or she suffered serious emotional distress.

(2) For the purposes of this part 6:

(a) Conduct “in connection with” a credible threat means acts that further, advance, promote, or have a continuity of purpose, and may occur before, during, or after the credible threat.

 

(b) “Credible threat” means a threat, physical action, or repeated conduct that would cause a reasonable person to be in fear for the person’s safety or the safety of his or her immediate family or of someone with whom the person has or has had a continuing relationship. The threat need not be directly expressed if the totality of the conduct would cause a reasonable person such fear.

 

(c) “Immediate family” includes the person’s spouse and the person’s parent, grandparent, sibling, or child.

 

(d) “Repeated” or “repeatedly” means on more than one occasion.

(3) A person who commits stalking:

(a) Commits a class 5 felony for a first offense except as otherwise provided in subsection (5) of this section; or

 

(b) Commits a class 4 felony for a second or subsequent offense, if the offense occurs within seven years after the date of a prior offense for which the person was convicted.

(4) Stalking is an extraordinary risk crime that is subject to the modified presumptive sentencing range specified in section 18-1.3-401 (10).

(5) If, at the time of the offense, there was a temporary or permanent protection order, injunction, or condition of bond, probation, or parole or any other court order in effect against the person, prohibiting the behavior described in this section, the person commits a class 4 felony.

(6) Nothing in this section shall be construed to alter or diminish the inherent authority of the court to enforce its orders through civil or criminal contempt proceedings; however, before a criminal contempt proceeding is heard before the court, notice of the proceedings shall be provided to the district attorney for the judicial district of the court where the proceedings are to be heard and the district attorney for the judicial district in which the alleged act of criminal contempt occurred. The district attorney for either district shall be allowed to appear and argue for the imposition of contempt sanctions.

(7) A peace officer shall have a duty to respond as soon as reasonably possible to a report of stalking and to cooperate with the alleged victim in investigating the report.

(8)

(a) When a person is arrested for an alleged violation of this section, the fixing of bail for the crime of stalking shall be done in accordance with section 16-4-103 (2) (d), C.R.S., and a protection order shall issue in accordance with section 18-1-1001(5).

(b) This subsection (8) shall be known and may be cited as “Vonnie’s law.”

(9) When a violation under this section is committed in connection with a violation of a court order, including but not limited to any protection order or any order that sets forth the conditions of a bond, any sentences imposed pursuant to this section and pursuant to section 18-6-803.5, or any sentence imposed in a contempt proceeding for violation of the court order shall be served consecutively and not concurrently.

So where was the effective intervention before Morgan’s death?  Only 3 days before we found her dead body the felony stalking detective (Detective Robert Glassmire) who was assigned to her case told me that he felt like the stalker was going to escalate – his words not mine.  So where was the intervention?  How did he know the stalker was going to escalate?  And why did he tell us the morning we found her body that her death had nothing to do with the stalker?  This is before her body was taken away for an autopsy.  He said her death was a “mystery” at that time.  A mystery?  If it was a “mystery” then why not do an actual investigation, collect evidence, interview our next door neighbor that had information and waited for a call that never came, a Pitkin County Sheriff’s wife that had information, all Morgan’s close friends, her teachers, fellow students, employer, as well as us, her mom and dad.  Why didn’t they ask the really important questions?  More correctly, why didn’t they ask any questions at all.  Why was was Morgan, an innocent women being stalked, completely ignored, while her stalker was given a free pass?

Also, where are all the Sheriff’s reports for ALL the incidents of stalking that Morgan, as well as Steve and I told them about?  The detective met with Morgan once a week to get all updates and this was in addition to the daily calls we were making to dispatch.  In Morgan’s case were they really responding, and investigating the reports?  If that ever happened where are the reports?  I’ll tell you there are not any.  It felt like it was more like the felony stalking detective was trying to convince us that the car with the suspect in it that Morgan reported to him wasn’t really the suspect or his car, and the truck that Steve and I saw surveilling our house over 3 times, and we wrote down the license plate number and gave it to the detective, along with an exact description of the vehicle, he told us it had not really been there, plus more and more incidents that the Sheriff’s office refused to investigate and went as far as to make up excuses for.  Is this what they call investigating a report or cooperating with the witness?

To treat a stalking victim/murder victim in this manner is not only disgusting, but needs to end…2 years and 6 months later this is now only the start.  Morgan will get justice and Steve and I will never give up!