November 8 – 11, 2011 Days 99 – 102 of Morgan’s Stalking – A few quiet days before the storm…

Morgan on a cold night

Steve is dropped by some illness, and I take him to see his doctor.  I’m not feeling so well either, and I am afraid I will go down also, but I know we can’t both afford to be sick.  Morgan seems perky, she has always had this great way of bouncing back from anything and she is happily coming, and going on her own schedule.

Two of the four days she texts me in the morning, because Wylah is up before 6:00 am, so I get up a little early to take her puppy out, the little yard is cold, but quiet now.  I always take the opportunity to venture outside the fenced part of the yard to look for anything that resembles a stalker.  It’s starting to look as if that one morning was the only time the stalker will make a visit to Wylah’s morning potty stop to terrorize Morgan.

Morgan had the following post on her computer on November 10, 2011 – she was strong and ALWAYS had a great attitude about life, even in the midst of this horrendous stalking…that is just who Morgan was.

I was writing just single words in my dayrunner during this time. Words like afraid, and chicken, and scared.  Not to describe Morgan, but rather to describe him, the stalker.  Because I was reflecting a lot over these quiet few days, even more so, because Steve was laid up with a horrible chest infection. He was on antibiotics, and bed rest, and that left me with more time to just think – much more than I usually have.

And I thought about Morgan’s stalker, how he had acted and behaved.  His real M.O.  He would do anything to avoid being caught, taking great pains to hide how he was managing to make the loud cracking noise against Morgan’s windows at night.  Taunting the sheriff’s, as he had done at the beginning, didn’t even seem to concern him any longer.  I guess the brutal truth is that if you choose to show up fifteen minutes after the crime, your deterrence effect is greatly reduced.

We had installed another wildlife camera (of our own) by Morgan’s window and it was meant just to answer the question of what was causing the noise against her windows.  So far we had caught streaks coming through the air at the time of the noises.  No person, not even an arm, just a streak through the air, and Steve was convinced now that it was not a projectile, but these streaks were attached to something as he could see the streaks, “retract, or withdraw” after every impact noise.

Steve was now guessing it was like the cracking of a whip from some distance.  Just another theory until we could catch him in the act, and that, sad to say was proving to be next to impossible so far.  We were searching for an answer with all the we had,  we had not found it yet, and what we really had going for us is that we would never give up.

On 11/11/11

Morgan sends her teacher a text that she has to miss her jazz dance class today because she has a doctor’s appt., but will see her teacher right afterwards.  Morgan posted a picture today on her FB.  She is getting ready to go out at ~8:00 pm, she doesn’t hear anything, but later camera shows motion detector goes on at this time.  She leaves to drive to Carbondale, I saw a small dark car, with blackout windows speed down the street after Morgan, so I yell for Steve.  Steve jumps in his truck to follow the car – I immediately call dispatch, dispatch says it’s one of theirs going off a “tip” so I thank them and call Steve’s cell phone…I then realize he left it behind and it is ringing in the kitchen. I later find out that Steve raced until he caught up with the car following Morgan and then got waved down at the Carbondale Mini Storage by a sheriff who tells him it’s okay, it’s one of ours.  The car continues to follow Morgan – Sheriffs staged a follow of Morgan as she drives out of the subdivision – why?  We call and tell Detective Glassmire about this incident and replies, “I have no idea what or who that was!”  There was no follow-up.  No answers – end of story.  Why did he lie? What was the “tip” they were going off of?

Today is October 25, 2012 – And little rays of sunshine have begun to peak out in Morgan’s case.  Steve always reminds our other children that stress is not caused by too many problems, it is caused by a lack of solutions.

Today is no different than a little less than a year ago was.  We had a horrific situation unfolding, and just to emphasize the point, I received a comment today from a woman who was stalked right here in Garfield County about 25 years ago, when she was the same age as Morgan, she was also 20 years old.  She recounts a story, not too unlike what happened to Morgan, but gladly, and thankfully she was not killed by her stalker.  The real point I would like to make is that nothing has changed.  Twenty-five years later and it is the same story.  I have met with and spoken with so many people who agree that this situation must change.  The United States Department of Justice developed a protocol for stalking over ten years ago.  It has proven successful, very successful, but there is a catch – you have to implement it.  But guess what? The main player here, the person or even people who’s job it is to make that change don’t seem to be interested in change.  Our District Attorney Martin Beeson and our Sheriff Lou Vallario don’t want anything to change…don’t they have children, wives, or sisters that they care about?  Or is the big blue wall and their egos more important to them?  I know only too well about that big blue wall – I grew up in Los Angeles before that big blue wall came tumbling down – so I know exactly what that looks like.

So what exactly is that telling us?  Is it that two or three murders a year are somehow acceptable, as long as you don’t call them murders?  That if a few of Garfield County’s residents meet with a grizzly end then that is OK?  Because I don’t think so, and a think a simple truth has emerged, a solution to the problem.

The solution is a realization that the answer does not lie within Garfield County.  Garfield County is comprised of a lot of great people with a problem that was evidently here twenty five years ago, and still exists here today.  I wonder what has been here for those twenty five years that has allowed this to exist?  If there was one thing, the solution might just be that simple.  I’m not sure, but I can assure you that tomorrow when I pull out Morgan’s boxes of evidence, I am going to look at them in a whole new way.  I am going to look for a new solution in there.  A solution to how my daughter Morgan, could be stalked for four months, and then murdered, because I believe 100% without a doubt in my mind she was murdered.  And sorry, but I have to say it again.  I believe this 100% not because I woke up one morning and decided it all on my own.  Quite the opposite.  First there was a doctor who saw Morgan less than two days before she died, and talked to me over the phone, and wanted to be sure they were looking into her stalker, because Morgan was in perfect health, just tired and stressed – about her stalker.  Then came another specialist, and another. Then Morgan was found to have died of natural causes.  I wasn’t questioning it, no it was everyone else that Steve, and I spoke with about this that were questioning how Morgan could have died of natural causes, the stalker had to have played some part in her death – if not being completely responsible for what happened to Morgan.  Steve and I were still in shock and were really just going through the motions, some days strong, other days not so strong.  Always helping each other to move forward.

Then I know you have all heard this before, but we traveled to Los Angeles, and asked the person we thought most qualified to answer what happened to Morgan, what her opinion was after reviewing all the records, and it was her opinion, she was 100% sure that it was not natural causes.  This was a homicide!

I truely, truely hope that none of you ever have to go through anything like this, I really do.  But after that meeting in Los Angeles there were more opinions, and every one of them were in agreement.  Morgan had met with foul play.  And we will prove that that is what happened, one step at a time.

And then I’m going to find a solution for how, as citizens of this country, Steve and I are left to prove the entire crime ourselves, so that the next set of parents, who find themselves in our situation won’t have to, because it is a nightmare no person should ever have to live through.  People have been lying, and Garfield County really doesn’t seem to care as long as they never have to have a murder on the books in their County.

Click here to read about the 103rd day of Morgan’s stalking. I can’t believe it has already been over 100 days and her stalking still remains out there to harass, intimidate, frighten and control Morgan, Steve & myself 🙁 https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2022

November 6, 2011 – Day 97 of Morgan’s stalking – wasn’t that a long day?

Morgan holding Wylah and typing on her computer

At 5:55 am Morgan texts me and says, “Will you let Wylah out? I’m still traumatized.”

We had already arranged that I would let Wylah out at 6:00 am every morning, which was working fine so far, but it seemed that her clock was just running a little fast. I was already on the way to let her out, and didn’t get the message until later, after I had already let her out. Morgan thanked me from under her covers when I came in, and I told her she was very welcome.

Detective Glassmire was coming over at 11:00 am and before he arrived I wanted to ask Elliott one question, based on developments from the Facebook conversation over the last few days between Keenan and Morgan’s friend.  I waited until a little after eight before asking him if he had any information on Wiley, as I knew very little and he was being accused by Keenan of being the stalker.

Around 11:00 am I received a text from our detective that he was running late on a call between Glenwood and Carbondale and shouldn’t be any later than 12:00 pm. It seemed at the time that our officers were spread so thin at our end of the valley.  I told Steve they were running late.

They had a little “routine” with Rob and Steve, where Steve would pull out our ladder, from our garage, when the detectives came so they could use it to check the cameras, usually he just had it close by, but this time it was already pulled out and set up right at the tree where their camera was.  We were both very excited to see their “face shot” of the walkabout, waiting another hour was going to be excruciating.

Detectives Rob and Megan have pressing matters when they arrive. We talk about interviews that are ongoing and plans for the resolution of this case.  It is all promising and we believe they are trying their best, Rob discussed information about cars first, so we talk about cars.

Rob tells us that one of their officers saw a green car by Thunder River– right where Morgan has reported seeing Keenan multiple times when she is coming home from school. Our Detective Glassmire said he has revised his numbers when he looked up the exact model and color car that I have given him and their are 6 of them between Grand Junction, Vail and Aspen, so it might not be Keenan. I asked what the problem is, because Morgan said she actually saw Keenan driving when she saw the car that was following her.  Steve adds that he has seen Keenan’s car in the Catherine Store parking lot, with another girl driving it, and it has a unique emblem on the back and it is doubtful any of the other 5 would share that same emblem too.  He is quite certain also that it was Keenan’s car.  Rob is uneasy, and for a few moments there is a tension between us that has never been there before.  Morgan repeats that she saw Keenan in the car when she saw the little green car.  Rob says he will check into it.  What is suddenly going on?

I just want to see his cameras, and I suggest we look at the camera to cut the tension, and at long last we go out into the yard.  Normally it is just Rob and Steve, but now we are all there as Rob checks the sheriff’s wildlife camera that is in the direct path of where the prints in the snow were seen. Steve is talking about all the cameras he has bought and returned, because it took so long for that first picture, when Rob curses, which is very uncharacteristic for him.  As we all stand and stare we learn that the batteries are dead, there are no pictures, nothing!  How can that be?

Morgan goes back into the house without a word, I don’t think Rob notices, but I am pretty sure Megan does not miss this. I am angry beyond belief, and pull Steve back toward the house to talk with him, as they take the ladder and go to check the other camera.  The other camera that they have pointed at the camera with the dead batteries – surely that camera must have caught something.  Steve tells me he knows why I am so upset, but he does not.  There is no excuse for this.  A felony stalking case and the one time someone does not just pass by, but intentionally marches right in front of their camera, and the batteries are dead.  I’m losing track at the moment, but I think this is battery problem three, at least. I want to start screaming, but I do not.  This is our daughter’s life we are talking about here – will someone please take responsibility for this stuff!

Then we learn that the batteries in the other camera are also dead, but it has some images, just none that can be used, just someone’s back. It is a bad meeting all the way around and we say goodbye.  Steve tells me we are obviously on our own here.  I say great, now what? Pray for snow, lots of snow? Let Mother Nature stop him, because nobody else seems capable?

Right after the detectives leave, Morgan walks up and tells us to get Keenan’s phone number for her.  She wants to call him and confront him.  She knows that he lives only three houses down the street and we can’t go near him, but she has to do something.  I was about to say no when Steve agrees and tells her he will ask Rob, in fact he will suggest that they are on hand to record the call.  Morgan is alright with this and I am surprised.

Morgan receives a text message from Nate in Australia in response to her message yesterday, “fifteen minutes and I’ll be free. Just let me know.”

At 6:15 pm I send Morgan a text myself, “Dad and I are leaving to go to Aspen to drop off food for Dave (Steve’s friend Dave is laid up, so we want to bring him some food), so we are wondering what your plans are, do you want to go with us or go to a friend’s house and wait till we text you that we are home?” Since Steve’s friend is laid up and not answering his phone we have cooked up some of his favorites to cheer him up and we were leaving.  Morgan answers, “Just let me know when you’re home.” And I tell her, “OK.”

Leesa calls and their heater is on the fritz and she wonders if she can spend the night because she would rather not spend the night in a cold house.  I welcome the chance to see my grandchildren, and offer to pick her up.  We make arrangements and then as soon as I hang up Elliott sends me a text message, “He (Wiley) wasn’t here when this (the stalking) started. Don’t know his last name.” I wrote back to Elliott, “I know Wylie wasn’t living here when the stalking started, but Keenan told one of Morgan’s friends that Wylie moved in when this first started and people should be looking at Wylie. Could you get Keenan’s cell # I think Morgan should call him and say she hopes it’s not him doing this, but if he has any information on how it could be someone else then please share that with me.  What do you think?”

As we are putting the ladder away and Steve is wondering how the sheriff’s department would respond to a crate of batteries at their Christmas party, I tell him I am just looking forward to a quiet night with my favorite, and only grandchildren.

We pick Leesa and the kids up just after dark, and head home.  On the way Leesa thinks she sees someone she knows in a group of 3 or 4 walking up Equestrian way in our subdivision, just before the turn to our house. She wants Steve to stop the truck and he does.

Leesa leans out and starts talking to the small group.  One of them is familiar to me, but it is hard to be sure in the dark.  One answers with her name and Leesa asks her if they have heard anything about the stalker, and a most interesting conversation ensues.  It turns out that three of them know all about it, but after being told to shut up, by one particular girl (Brooke Harris) who seems to think she is in charge, all of a sudden they know nothing.  It also turns out that this girl (Brooke) tells us that she has knowledge of a “Video that exonerates her boyfriend Keenan” and says this is also well known. Nobody in the group tells her to shut up, and she goes on to explain that she has heard all kinds of weird stories about cameras all over the neighborhood, and does not know exactly what to make of it all.

At the end of the conversation we drive away in silence, until Steve says, “Now how did she know that? I didn’t think we had told anyone yet?” But of course she knew – she was the one doing the alibi walk I truly believe.

Today is October 23, 2012 – It is so easy to look back and see something different from what presented itself at that time. That is the last time I heard from Elliott until the morning of December, 2 2011 when Morgan was already no longer with us in this world.  Rob never mentioned any of our encounters with the green car again.  And the neighbors walking up Equestrian Way?  We only shared with Rob and Megan the odd conversation that took place.  And now that I read through the sheriff’s reports, I still have not found any mention of it in the official reports.  Strange, isn’t it all?  You would think this would be an important fact to be written in to the police reports.

And as I go over the final edit we have 12 signatures to go before we reach 1,000 on the petition to Governor Hickenlooper to open Morgan’s investigation.  Thank all of you out there – I just honestly don’t know what I would do without you.

Click here to read about the 98th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=2001

Almost forgot another milestone

Last week the Morgan Ingram Blog went over 1/2 million views for the week, and I was too busy dealing with hackers of Morgan’s Blog too share.  But someone on their way home from shopping stopped her stalker in his tracks. And a small radio station began to raise awareness of crimes reported in one Sheriff’s district and ignored right next door. I applaud you all for your concern. The time to take stalking seriously has arrived. Remember that Morgan loves you for your efforts!  And the next victim we help could just be you. Share Morgan’s stalking with your friends. We all will make a difference!!!

October 1, 2011 – Day 61 of Morgan’s stalking

In the morning we try to sleep in, but Morgan’s motion alarm goes off at 7:18 am. It is still dark out, and I get out of bed to give Steve a break. I go out and drive the neighborhood. At about 7:30 am I drive by Keenan’s house, and his car is there. The light in the front room is out. I circle the rest of the block, Steve had a list of the “normal” state of houses, cars, porch lights, and everything is as his list says to expect it.

Morgan was going to leave at 3:00 pm for her babysitting job in Aspen. She is picking up a coworker on the way, and they will go in together. Before she leaves she tells me about an incident the day before. It was around 7:30 and she was on the back deck watching her puppy play in the grass. Then she heard a noise around the side yard, like a rustling noise, on Ken’s side of the house (this is also right where the Aspen tree is located that we find out that the stalker has been climbing – but we didn’t find that out until after Morgan was already dead.) She said she stepped over the fence and went to see what it was. She stood, and waited and watched and never saw anything.  It was daylight out and she felt she was safe to be there.

First I told her to never do that again. Just to go in the house and let us know. Then I went to tell Steve to tell her the same thing, he had this way of communicating with Morgan when I couldn’t. And then I reviewed the video cameras. There was nothing, and she left to go to work. This was making me so nervous – all it would take is just a few minutes and someone could grab her…

Morgan came home at about 11 pm and I met her in the drive as usual. She came in and went straight to her room. Rhonda’s dog started barking at 11:05 and she called to tell us about the barking, and the motion lights above Morgan’s windows being on. She was such a great neighbor, always on the look out, and always calling when she saw something out of the ordinary.

We were pretty much again getting to the point where part of us wanted to ignore everything, and part of us wanted to never stop with the hot pursuit. This time we were all so tired and worn out and we tried ignore and went to sleep.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 10.1.2011 he worked from 1:00 am – 6:00 am & then from 6:32 am – 9:34 am… so he was free this evening to continue his torment)

Today it is September 29, 2012 – And there is a lesson we learned but did not know back then. When Rhonda’s dog would bark I believe now it was for the absolute best reason. He was small and short , and if we had bothered to get down to his perspective we would have seen he was looking across at our house, and seeing up on the roof. But we did not. And Rhonda somehow knew when his barking was different, and more meaningful – which we also did not fully appreciate at the time.

It is not uncommon for stalking cases to go on for months and even years. Have “quiet times” and “active times”. We were told to document everything as best we could. I kept a stalking timeline that morphed into different versions. We also had a DVR which had six cameras worth of data from our yard for the last 20 days at all times – then it would “write” over itself. I kept a dayrunner for our “normal things” and we have been able to download all the texts from all of our phones from that time. It is an enormous amount of data. More than we could ever fully go through. I can recreate days, but I can’t recreate Morgan, and that part is specifically what Steve and I hope to do in the future. Turn all that data into the ‘Ah ha’ that stops a bad situation from turning worse. Because if you are in a bad stalking situation the chances of it turning worse are real, and that needs to be stopped.

Click here to read about the 62nd day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1518 

September 17th, 2011 – Day 47 of Morgan’s Stalking – Mind Games?

Morgan's shadow

Morgan striking a pose

Today was the Balloon Festival in Snowmass Village.  We thought about going, but Morgan didn’t feel like it, so we decided not to go. It was a quiet day, Morgan went to her friend’s house and Steve and I caught up on work.  He also boxed up the umpteenth, “catch the stalker device” for return.  As usual it sounded great in the description, but had some sort of fatal flaw upon actual hands-on inspection.  Unfortunately, we didn’t just need a stalker catcher, we needed a super stalker catcher.

I texted Morgan at 10:41pm, “Coming home? Almost 11?”  Morgan answered, “Oo. I’m at a birthday party. Can I be a little later?”  I said, “How much longer getting really tired?  Morgan answered, “How late can I be?”  I gave in a little, “11:30, but any later will be really hard for me.”  Morgan was a sweetheart and as usual, she just said, “K. ;)”   I reminded her, “Text me at 11:20 when you are leaving & please have someone walk you out to the car OK?”  “Will Do.”  she said.  It was really hard trying to stay awake so I could be out on the front porch when Morgan drove up after dark – I missed those nights before a stalker had entered our lives – the nights that Morgan could come home anytime she wanted, safely unlocking the front door and coming in her own home without us knowing…those days were now gone for us.

At 11:18 she texted “On my way.”  And I answered her, “Ok”

She was home shortly after that and we were lying in bed when our neighbor Rhonda called at 11:48 pm.  She had seen Morgan’s motion light go on outside, and Rhonda’s little dog was barking at that side of our house.

Trying not to think about the stalker didn’t last very long, now Steve was out the bedroom door quickly.  With him was the thermal imaging scope, which he took up to the top of the berm – there he planted himself, and watched.  I could not see where he was, and none of the usual alarms were following him around the house so I waited.

Later he would tell me he spent a lot of time watching the ranch behind us, because from where he sat nobody could cross from the berm around our subdivision to the buildings on the ranch without being spotted.  He could clearly pick out movement all the way down to the Blue Creek subdivision.  He did see movement, only it was just animals, large and small, nothing human, or even close.

That he could see so well in the dark was encouraging, I wondered if he could hide in a car at the end of our street or even across the street, and just watch select houses.  He was thinking that just as suspects had been eliminated that now with the ability to “see” people in the darkness he could eliminate areas.  As in this evening he was fairly certain nobody had crossed to the ranch the entire time he was out there.

Rather than try to chase the stalker, which we had proven to be rather futile, he would pick an area and watch it from a distance.  No attempt to physically capture anyone at all, simply see them enter a house from the yard after a stalking incident.

Morgan was fast asleep when we finally gave up for the night, so we couldn’t ask her, and all I had recorded was a question mark as to if she heard noise on her windows or not, I must have forgotten to follow up on that the next morning.  But there were the motion lights Rhonda saw, and then lights that I saw go on.  Rhonda’s dog had been barking, and Steve decided that in the future that will be enough.  He will go outside, and spend as much time as he can, and eventually he will spot someone moving out there.  Instead of even trying to catch him, he was now just going to try to spot him from far away, and narrow down just where he came from, and where he went to.

We had gone from trying to catch the stalker red-handed to allowing a comfort zone that would let us to zero in on him over time.  To me it was bizarre, to allow him to move about, make him feel like we were backing off, so that eventually we could really catch him, but so far nothing else had worked.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 9.17.2011 he worked from 1:00 am – 6:01 am & then from 6:29 am – 9:32 am… so he was free this evening to continue his stalking & torment)

Click here to read about the 48th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1220