September 28, 2011 – Day 58 of Morgan’s Stalking – Just Sit Tight…

Spring wild flowerMorgan had jazz dance class early today, and she was not feeling well.  After class she Skyped with her big sister, and lounged around the house.  She was reading and resting.   Steve and I needed to go get something in Glenwood Springs and pick up some dinner, of course Morgan didn’t want to go, so instead she just went and picked up a friend, she came back to the house with her friend before we left, so she wouldn’t be alone in the house.  For a 20-year-old who is used to having so much freedom to come and go, or just be by herself if she wanted, this was making me feel really sad for her. She always had to be with someone…I was praying that this would end soon, and everyone’s lives could go back to normal…especially Morgan’s.

I texted Morgan at 7:43 pm, “What yarn from Walmart?” Morgan answered. “Caron simply soft grey heather, will you grab two just in case?”  I told her “Will do.” And Morgan said, “Thanks!!  At 8:08 pm I told Morgan, ”we got three just to be safe, and we are on our way home now.” And Morgan said ,  “You guys are the (image of love bomb) !”  And I said, “Too cute love the bomb!”

After dinner the detective answered my questions and we had a case number, case #11-20197, this was now the 58th day of the stalking.  The detective had lots of input about getting a restraining order against Keenan Vanginkel, and I sketched them all out on a piece of paper.  He felt that on one hand it could keep him from entering our yard, which is not necessarily a bad outcome.  But then it would also limit our ability to get any additional evidence to charge him.  With stalkers you never know, it might make him do it more frequently.  And of course it would interfere with surveillance, something the detective wanted to do at least twice in the 9:00 pm to 1:00 am time slot as soon as possible.  He said things had come up, and there would be no surveillance this week, so he was hoping we could hold off for a couple of weeks before we did get a restraining order against Keenan.  We would hear from the detective next week, and he would update us as to plans for the week.

I was actually relieved to not be seeking a restraining order right away.  I knew Steve would not be happy about this decision, nor would Morgan, but I thought, okay it was just for a few weeks, and if we caught him in that time it would be so much better.  Let me share the reason I was relieved we didn’t go for a restraining order yet…I know this sounds strange to you but I felt that I had a good reason.  In July of 2010 Vonnie Flores was killed by her next door neighbor in Leadville, CO.  She knew the man that was stalking her for 5 years, as he was her next door neighbor.  She had filed a restraining order against him one week before she was killed. He had been arrested in June of 2010 and was out on bail, this was in July of 2011 – the summer before Morgan’s stalking started.  https://www.denverpost.com/2010/07/08/sheriff-says-leadville-woman-killed-by-stalker-out-on-bail/  He shot her in her own driveway – so needless to say I was a little concerned about getting a restraining order.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working on 9.28.2011)

Today is September 26, 2012, and it is time to answer the question about all those rocks!

Imagine yourself in a room, even the room you are in will do.  Take a moment to imagine – it’s quiet, you are alone, it is dark, and then there is a noise, or is there a noise? A tap? A scratch?  What is it?  You are not sure, and you strain to hear, to know, then BANG, loud reverberating, rattling.  You jump, startled by the sound, you are not alone, and not in a good way!  Your heart is beating more rapidly, fight or flight kicks in, uncertainty, call out, stay silent, you are not sure of what to do.  Try it sometime, see how easily you could be frightened, by just two noises.  Welcome to a fraction of Morgan’s life at that time, because this and more happed on a regular basis.  And it is was not just Morgan, it is the same fear, the same uncertainty for every single person who is a victim of stalking!  And whenever it wasn’t happening, I knew from being with Morgan, as well as when it happened to me, that she was on guard for the next time, she knew would come, never really feeling safe.  Does a longer time period between startles make the next one worse than the last?  Some experts believe that is absolutely the case.  What if is a shorter interval?  Yes, of course, bam, bam, bam, – make it stop!

Steve and I were privileged to be put in contact with individuals who really do understand that you can be scared to death – and could explain it in terms that we could understand…almost.  But, as always, I encourage you to research for yourself, just google – “homicide by fright” – or if you feel that is too narrow of a subsection, broaden out to – “scared to death” – and wade right in.  Bottom line is that it happens, and we spent a good deal of time researching this cause of death because doctors and professors heard:

  • 20-year-old, and very healthy
  • Four months of stalking
  • Terrorized
  • No real obvious cause of death (which we now know was not true – the pathologist just ignored the scientific evidence he had, either through gross negligence or as part of a cover-up

This was of course before the tox report was revisited, and the pathologist, Dr. Kurtzman’s explanation of “Pay no attention to these results, they are insignificant”, and stapled to the top, was peeled back and the actual results were scrutinized by other forensic experts.  Then it was established that Morgan actually had been killed by a massive dose of the sexual assault drug Amitriptyline.  That of course was before the latest coroner twist, which produced a report with six other date rape drugs in her gastric system – drugs that never even made it into her blood stream as she was already dead when they were put in her stomach.  And of course he forgot to mention that in the suicide finding.  Am I sounding paranoid or just stating the obvious?

So what does all that have to do with rocks, you ask?  You can be scared to death by your stalker and it is important for every person being frightened by their stalker to know this.  In Morgan’s case, after her death, there was a period where we thought it was homicide by fright.  But it has been clarified into an massive overload of one drug that was injected into her, enough for a 1,200 lb horse, then many other drugs, a date rape cocktail of drugs put into her stomach after she was already dead, all that is left is to determine who gave them to her and how, or maybe there was more than one person involved.  That is was not Morgan by herself is with out doubt, and besides how does she steal all of her own jewelry at the same time, assault herself and then move her own body after she is already dead?

The lesson I wish to share is that if you are being startled don’t take it lightly, protect yourself from fright.  I’ve even read that in the overtime of a soccer game heart attacks will spike.  Think about it , soccer game, goes into overtime, heart attacks spike.  I remember the pathologist, Dr. Kurtzman, telling Steve it was impossible for Morgan to have died from mere fright, “mere fright,” that’s what he called it.  When so many doctors, professors and specialists have told me that is pure nonsense, of course you can die from fright and if the correct things are tested in the tox screen you will have proof as well, what is a normal person supposed to do?  I guess this is what they mean by fighting City Hall…

Now back to rocks.  Steve was obsessed with the noise on the windows, he wanted to know how did the stalker do it?  How was there never any evidence of how it was being done.  He would stand in the yard, stare at the house, it just came to him.  We had a planter around the house with rocks in it, but that did not seem like how it was being done.  The detectives theorized ice chunks and we would go out right after a noise and search for ice, nothing.  Steve thought he had figured it out once with the bb gun theory, so he bought bb guns.  Laser sights, long range, plastic bbs, and he could make noise on the windows from a great distance, way out of range of the cameras, without breaking the glass.  And when we did it we could not find the bbs either.  But the next deputies out to the house had lots of experience with bb guns said over time the ground would be covered with bbs, so that was not it.  In shear desperation Steve wanted to smear a film of Vaseline over the windows so we could read the streaks left after noises.  Morgan was freaked out by that idea, so instead we mowed the grass extra short in front of Morgan’s windows, raked the ground thoroughly right there too, picked it all up and added it to the grass clippings.  Then took the bags of mixture and spread them out, one by one, over plywood and examined it piece by piece.  And found nothing out of the ordinary.

Steve was tearing his hair out.  Then we met with an Intuitive who, among a lot of other things, said to look on the roof, there is evidence on the roof.  And bingo, two detectives, half dozen deputies, and Steve gave it their all, but didn’t look on the roof until now.  The first time Steve was up on the roof after this meeting he called me and said, “I know how he did it.”  Why couldn’t we figure this out sooner?

With a fixed length piece of metal or wood, a broom handle, or countless other things that could have even been left up there, it was a simple matter to lean over he edge of the roof and tap or bang on any of the upper windows.  Our roof is quite high and from the ground it seemed way too far up there, but it was not.  Most of our windows went all the way up o almost under the eaves.  With a telescoping rod, like say collapsing hiking poles or trekking sticks, it would be even easier, collapse and take with you, nothing to leave behind – Morgan was right when she covered up her clearstory windows with thick sheets.

We had the grounds around the house well covered.  We watered and raked the dirt, preparing it to get some good footprints, so many times.  And all we had to do was look up.  He owned the roof, and we did not figure this out until months after her death.  And really – when there is noise on the glass, no footprints in the freshly watered and raked soil, and nothing caught on camera.  He had to be somewhere, and we missed it completely.  There was a “seam” between two cameras that was utilized to get to the house and then once on the roof every system in palace to catch him was rendered ineffective.

Don’t let this happen to you!  Not just look up on the roof, look everywhere, your stalker will have some other plan every time.  If something unexplained is going on take the time to explain it, no matter how long it takes.  A little piece of information like that could prove to be more important than you would ever know.

Click here to read about the 59th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1462