Stalkers Never Stop…

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I recently read this article that was emailed to me.  It caught my eye for obvious reasons…it was about a speech given by Rhonda Saunders, from the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office Stalking & Threat Assessment Team & Los Angeles Stalking Task Force.

She warned the CLU audience, “One thing I know about stalkers is they never stop.”

As part of the educational process, as well as raising awareness about the seriousness and dangers of stalking, I wanted to share this article with you.  I agree with Saunders 100% – she said:

“What these stalkers do is destroy any sense of security,” she said.

“It’s a crime of mental terrorism.”

Unless you have been a victim of stalking you would have a hard time understanding the damage that occurs.  I hope you never are a victim of stalking, but I know many of you that are reading this have been, or currently are victims of stalking, and if so you know exactly what she means. You are always looking over your shoulder, you don’t know where to turn, you wonder when the moment will arrive when something terrible will happen and you may not see it coming…it is mental terrorism!

Stalking is the most under reported crime in the US at this time.

60 percent don’t report it.

“Either they feel embarrassed or they feel like, ‘I can handle this,’ ” Saunders said.

Here is the link to the article http://www.vcstar.com/news/one-thing-i-know-about-stalkers-is-they-never-stop-expert-warns-clu-audience-ep-364292849-352257781.html

Missing Morgan Every Minute of Every Day…

Morgan picture copy

Every Life Matters – put a stop to murder!

everylifematters

Every life matters.  Morgan’s life mattered.  Morgan was loved & she is missed.

No one had permission to end her life at the young age of 20. She had her whole life ahead of her and now the people that decided to do just that must be held accountable.  They must be investigated – Morgan deserves justice.  Morgan’s loved ones, friends and the community she lived in all deserve to see her receive justice.

2016 is the year for JUSTICE!

Arrest Made in the Ashley Olsen Case

There has been an arrest made in the Ashley Olsen case.

Her beagle was found at the same time as her body in her apartment. Beagles, as most dog people know, are big barkers – which leads me to wonder if Ashley’s murderer attacked and subdued her dog, just as happened in an attack on someone I personally know who’s husky was thrown down the stairs, and locked out of her room, when the dog lunged towards the attacker while it was trying to protect her.

It is so very sad.  http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jan/14/ashley-olsen-man-held-suspicion-murder-florence

How Do Criminals Get Away With Crimes?

handcuffsThere are many reasons criminals get away with crimes and one reason is the lack of shared information between law enforcement agencies.  This is an eye opener for most people – it was for me.  Did you know that the following 8 law enforcement districts are all within a 15 minute to an hour drive from each other, and some are just across the street from one another?  With this jurisdictional overlap I have been told that a criminal can get arrested in one jurisdiction (let’s suppose it is the City of Carbondale), but just one block over the jurisdictional line (let’s say in the County of Garfield where Morgan was murdered – our house was in Carbondale BUT it was not within the city limits, so it was patrolled by the sheriffs not the police) the records of those crimes are not shared with the other law enforcement agency.  So it is feasible that a woman that is being stalked, or has been raped, and is only within a 5 minute drive away (or less) from the same crime that has happened to another woman, the information and MO on that crime is not shared, so the other law enforcement agency would have no idea they are dealing with a serial offender.  I don’t know what you think, but for me this revelation was outrageous considering the technological age we now live in!  This makes it extremely easy for a criminal to believe he has a good chance of never being caught…and he would be right.
So people always ask me, “What could be changed in order to stop these types of serial crimes?”  And this is one of my suggestions…a database of crimes committed that the different jurisdictions can access I believe is imperative in order to identify and stop serial offenders.
Here is the list of police & sheriffs departments that are included in the list of agencies that are all very close to one another and overlap, but do not share this type of crime information with each other.  These are all in the valley that Morgan lived in and grew up in – a valley that we thought was so safe.  It is not the fault of law enforcement that they do not have this “tool” in order to share information.  It is up to the voters to insist on an allocation of funds to make this kind of a database and app available to these officers.
Aspen Police Department
Pitkin County Sheriff Department
Snowmass Village Police Department
Basalt Police Department
Eagle County Sheriff Department
Carbondale Police Department
Garfield County Sheriff Department
Glenwood Springs Police Department
Roaring_Fork_Valley_Map
Morgan was murdered on 12/2/2011. Just weeks after Morgan’s murder the main “suspect” in her stalking was arrested on a warrant. The Glenwood Springs police issued a warrant for him on 12/19/11 and then it was “suppressed from public access” (why?), but then on 12/27/11 they “unsealed” it and he was arrested. It was written up in the Post Independent newspaper, then I received a phone call to inform me about the article.  I immediately called the lead detective in charge of Morgan’s felony stalking case and he said he was not aware of the arrest, but would look into it.  He knew things were stolen from Morgan’s room the night of her murder, and I thought there was a possibility that something from her room may have been included in the jewelry that was sold to this cash for gold business.  But every time I asked the detective about it he said the police had not met with him yet to give him the details.  Finally I went Steve & I went in to the cash for gold shop and showed them the suspect’s picture and asked about the sale.  The person in the shop recognized the picture and said the “suspect” was a regular customer, she said the police had confiscated jewelry from the last sale he made and they could not show us records because they did not keep records.  We then returned home and told all of this to detective Glassmire.  We later found out that detective Glassmire then went to the cash for gold store only to show them our pictures to confirm that we had really been there asking questions and then he wrote in his report that he was going to site the store for not keeping records, and then later mentioned he would have the Glenwood police site them instead.  What was that all about?
So in summation it was a different case, in a different jurisdiction (even though it’s was just a 20 minute drive from our house).  There had been a warrant for the sale of stolen jewelry, and when they pulled him over they found drugs, and a scale, etc. in his vehicle, so they arrested him on felony distribution.  I think his friend later confessed to stealing the jewelry and giving it to him so that one particular charge was dropped and the other charges were plead down. So yes, those police officers in that jurisdiction knew nothing of Morgan’s jewelry being stolen, and when I went in to look at the police report the police records officer could not find it, so she sent me to the DA’s office.  I was then told in the DA’s office that they could not find it either, but suggested that maybe an investigator had it on his desk and would need to call me back.  Now at this point it had been over 3 months since the arrest and they told me it “should” be in the computer, but was not.  I was told by the police that it should have been public record at that time.  After filling out a bunch of paperwork an investigator from the DA’s office called me back to talk to me, and he was not very happy with me. He firmly (he actually sounded angry) told me if I wanted any information I should call the lead sheriff’s detective on our daughter’s case and not them – and again what was that all about?  So this is why it is crucial for the laws to change and for multiple jurisdictions to share information about crimes.
It was so hard for me to comprehend why we were continually getting the run-around back then, but I have learned a lot over the past 4 years.  I will continue to share the information that I have learned in the hopes that someday things can and will change for the better.  Take care and always remember each and every one of us can make big changes in this world.  Don’t just believe what you are told – get the facts, and do the research. That is my suggestion.