Isn’t that all that it comes down to in most every crime?  Honesty? If the truth were just known, aligning the pieces would be so simple.  Conclusions would quickly follow, and a case would be solved.  I’m thinking of this today because in my loose notes that I have been reviewing for the past week is a statement made by our lead Detective that if people choose to lie to them there is absolutely nothing they can do about it.  I remember the instant he said it, our victim’s rights coordinator was standing right behind his shoulder, glaring, and nodding in approval.  She had become a very upsetting “victims rights coordinator”.  I did not believe this about lies then, and I believe it even less now.

Not every conviction comes wrapped in a confession.  I would guess that very few do, and if every criminal that lies, and never admits the crime, went free, there would not be very many prosecutions or convictions.

In the morning hours of 12/2/2011, the day Morgan’s body was found James Harris made at least one phone call to a client that we know of.  He had to cancel their appointment for the day.  Then about a week later he talked to her again, part of that conversation was to explain that he was “just trying to protect his daughter.”

I assume that would be Brooke, nice sentiment, father protecting daughter, but why would she need protecting?  Morgan was dead.  And why exactly would Brooke need someone to try to protect her, from what?  On her facebook she agreed with her friend Hannah Hurlocker, who didn’t know if she could go through with it, the day before Morgan was killed.  Hannah was staying at Brooke’s house at the time.  On the day Morgan’s body was found Brooke posted a picture of herself wearing an interesting piece of apparatus around her neck.  What was that all about?

Once again the lead Detective, was informed of, and knew all this, but chose to investigate none of it.  That is, at least as far as I know, or have seen in any report.  The only mention is of the fact that I spoke with the witness months later, and made notes about the conversation and passed it all along to our Detective.  But is that how it is supposed to work?  Are the victims of a tragedy, such as the stalking, and murder of their daughter, are those grief stricken victims supposed to be out conducting interviews, because they believe it is important evidence, and might be lost forever?  Well that was how it worked in Morgan’s case.

There was a time when I felt that the more evidence I tried to share with our law enforcement, the less interested they were.  Yet I was always assured that the case just needed more leads, and evidence, that were lacking.  Steve and I are not investigators but we were not going to give up.  If even a little rumor came along we followed up on it… why wouldn’t you?

Honesty, today, right now, every single word gains new importance.  It is absolutely amazing to me how little actual evidence was collected, both physical evidence, and by interview, and how many conclusions were draw from the little they had, so much of it completely wrong.  More like guesswork parading as an investigation.  Or wouldn’t you expect that when nothing is double checked, questions rephrased and asked again to arrive at meaningful conclusions – errors should be expected, right? – not at all a surprise.

One little incident comes to mind, actually for a couple of reasons now.  It was an afternoon where the Detective had finished questioning both Christina and Brooke Harris about the source of the stories about the stalker(s) circulating around the neighborhood.  Sometimes it was simple rumors, but far more disturbingly it was the directed, and timed, false information meant to do nothing but confuse the issue.  A little like what I am told is going on out in the vast reaches of the internet – directed and timed false information meant to confuse and distract.

In gang stalkings this is a well documented method of increasing the terror of the stalking.  False information is regularly spread with the specific intent as to discredit the victim, in an attempt to make them even question themselves as to if the stalking was really happening.  When OF COURSE the stalking was happening, of course they are frightened.  But the goal is to make the victim question everything happening.  I don’t remember right now who said, “in my experience there is no such thing as coincidence.”  But the words ring very true in the context of the misinformation campaign that was being perpetrated.

So Detective Glassmire had just returned from the conclusion of that line of questioning and told me how Brooke had said she got all her information from Christina, her mother, and then Christina said she got all her information from Brooke, her daughter.  The Detectives take was that he thought they could have at least gotten their lies straight.  He used the word lies, and I applaud that because its exactly what it was, and it was exactly what drove the insanity that was Morgan’s life for those four months – an endless string of lies.

And the lies never really stopped.  No sooner had an almost unbelievable string of people tell me that they had heard Brooke, talking about Morgan, saying, “That bitch is going to get it someday,” that I had the chance to confront her.  And Brooke denied ever having said such a thing, in front of a camera.  All those people, independently and at different times, and in different places all recalled almost the same line from Brooke, yet she said she never said it.

It’s really bad when Brooke does things like that, and then has Keenan telling the Detective, “It could be Brooke that is doing the stalking.”  But somehow, I don’t see Brooke staring at Morgan through her bathroom window.

And of course there is the saying that the, “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”  Remember James Harris claiming to not know there was a stalking in the neighborhood, again in front of a camera, actually many cameras.  The same James that evidently approached every person in uniform that neared his house to ask about the stalker and the stalking.  Whom Keenan also happens to claim was a great source of information about the stalking.  The same James Harris that had been interviewed by Detective Glassmire about the stalking while it was ongoing.

Wouldn’t all this be nothing more than lies?  Really bad ones at that and I would think when you contradict yourself completely with your own words.  Just imagine if they had the four of them, Keenan, Brooke, James, and Christina in four separate soundproof rooms, and just went from room to room asking the same question, and taking notes.  It could have been that simple, if they all agreed to it that is.  Maybe Morgan would still be alive.

Morgan just wanted to live her life, never asking for much.  Always thankful and happy with whatever she had.  Spreading love and never shying away from the chance to help someone with a problem.  What I wouldn’t give to have been able to change places, except in reality, I was being stalked and terrorized as well, but then at least she would not have been murdered.