At 10:10 am Morgan sent a text to me while I was on my way to pick up the office mail, “Will you pick me up a bagel on your way if you have time?” Then I sent her a text back, “Call me.” When she called me back I asked Morgan to drop something off for her dad at his old shop, she was on her way to the caves in Glenwood Springs with some friends. She said text me the location, “He is on the right, past Thunder River by Fastenal & Airgas and the Go Rentals folks.” Morgan responded with a text back, “Thanks!!” Then I sent her a text, “Did you find him?” She texted back, “Yup :)” I said, “Great thanks.”
We had so many glass windows on the back of our house and for many years it was all very sheer covering or even uncovered, lots of Colorado sunlight. First we had added window treatments to all of the lower windows and glass doors and this afternoon, every uncovered piece of glass also had window treatments added. I liked that now nobody could see in, but sadly it transformed what were nice bright rooms into way more darkness than I would have ever preferred. A price we had to pay, and this made me want to catch this stalker even more – I wanted our bright, happy, safe home back.
At 4:15 pm Morgan sent a text to her dad, “Want me to pick up anything? I’m just leaving the caves.” Steve replies, “No, thanks, having a good time?” “We are in Glenwood picking up metal, and driving to Ry’s house for dinner afterwards can you join us there when you’re done?” Morgan texted back, “Just working away” I asked her, “Where?” She then called me back to talk for a bit.
Steve had been so completely frustrated with the disappearing act the stalker was able to pull off so easily. It was one thing to understand the deputies not really seeing him, because they would mostly pull up in their patrol truck, meet us at the door, talk a bit, and then walk around the house and yard. Finding evidence left behind was the best they could hope for with that protocol. In all the times they came to our house, I don’t think they ever actually saw the stalker, or even a glimpse of his shadow disappearing in the distance. That being the case Steve felt it was up to us to somehow catch him in the act ourselves and our present course of action was not doing it.
Then, at 6:45 pm, I said “On our way with really good dinner for you from your brother, are you home with your friend?” Steve and I had been over to Morgan’s brother’s house for dinner tonight, we felt Morgan was safe because she was with friends. Morgan sent her brother a text message, after we got home from dinner. She said, “Thanks for dinner !! It was wonderful. :)” Ryan is such an awesome cook – we all love his food!
Our grandson Jarred was coming home with us to spend the night at our house. He was helping Steve with a simple plan. Jarred was an excellent athlete, “World class.” Steve always reminded him, and he was going to play the part of the stalker. Steve was going to be in the house, and turn on the light in Morgan’s room. This would be Jarred’s cue to start running from the back berm as fast as he could, then dart in at her first window, smack it twice with a long branch, pulled out of our pile of trimmings cut the other day. Jarred would then continue off any way he wanted. Steve would grab his stuff and run out front, try to pick up his direction and give chase. I was to observe this from the street and not tip off Steve as to which way Jarred had gone, but see how close we were coming to actually seeing or catching him with our current protocol.
The first run-through was very upsetting. Jarred saw the light and took off. He banged the window twice on his way by. The sound was completely different, so that was not how our stalker was making the noise, and Jarred was completely out of our yard, and across the street by the time I heard the front door open. Jarred had run between houses, across the street from us, and headed for the club house, by the time I could see Steve, we did not have a chance!!!
All these times I had watched Steve run out the front, or back door I pictured him mere feet from our stalker, just barely missing him so far. Even Steve felt he just had to be a bit quicker, and he would at least see him, and then be able to continue the chase, to a house or a car. Snap a picture, have something positive happen. Now as I stood in the street and watched Steve come past the garage, and reach our grass, Jarred was long gone. All I could do was shake my head at him. This was never going to work, it was not even close.
Jarred and Steve repeated the experiment going toward the berm out back, coming sideways across the front, but it still didn’t matter. It was child’s play for Jarred to get two hits on a window and have turned a corner by the time Steve was there. The few times Steve guessed the correct direction, he was so far behind he didn’t even see Jarred as he reached the same turn Jarred had taken.
Steve was standing in the yard, badly winded and wanting to know from me how close he was getting, what we could change, improve on? I was the bearer of bad news, I told him, no way, Jarred has to trip and go down, maybe even knock himself out for us to have a chance, and actually from what I saw, he could probably trip, fall, get up, and still run off long before Steve got to him. I just didn’t know what to think, and suggested trip strings tied between trees as the answer.
I looked back to the house and was so relieved to not see Morgan’s face in any of the windows. I didn’t want her to see how pathetic our chances of catching the stalker were. Steve was finally catching his breath and had one word, cameras, video cameras all around the house. We had already bought one set of eight and had to return them as the quality was not very good at all. Now we would have to get a better set, a much better set, and have that on our side. I remember wondering if they had something like radar for houses and we could have the round screen with the dot on it. Steve hadn’t found anything like that, but was going to look again. We would have done anything to catch this stalker.
There was this new thermal imaging scope that was ridiculously expensive and we had borrowed it, we could walk across the yard, and look back to see our footprints in the grass as blobs of white – the residual heat of feet left by walking over the grass, with shoes on. The technology might have been impressive for some, but it had gotten us no closer to catching Morgan’s stalker. I was deflated, and Steve could see I was.
We went inside and Morgan was watching a movie in the living room. She slept on the couch that night – right after she turned off the lights, just after midnight, she heard the noise against the living room window that is facing Rhonda’s side of our house. Morgan sent me a text (my phone was now always on and right beside me while I tried to sleep – I would always wake if it sounded like a text came through.) Morgan sent me a text @ 12:48 am that said, “I think I hear rocks.” I got up and went in the living room to speak with her for a moment and then went back to bed. She then sent me another text that said, ” Rocks not on back sliding windows they were on the windows behind 3 dog night” 3 dog night was a sculpture we had under the windows in the living room on Rhonda’s side of the house. At this time the breakfast room did not have complete coverage on all the clearstory windows up by the ceiling, so the stalker could obviously see when the lights went out in the living room. How he knew she was sleeping on the couch in the living room, we did not know at the time.
Cameras, Steve said as I tried to go back to sleep at one am. I was staring at the ceiling and this was getting to me, two days after Morgan had become determined to take her life back, all I could think of was sending her away in order to keep her safe. I woke Steve up and we talked about it in whispers, he was going to talk to Morgan in the morning. Perhaps she would listen to him. If only he had made her listen.
Today in 2012, Veterinarians in the valley, after reading in this blog about large amounts of Amitriptyline in Morgan’s blood toxicology, have shared that it is plentiful, and easily obtained right here, regularly dispensed for dogs, cats, and horses. That, a small part of one dose of a compounded liquid amitriptyline for horses would be far more than enough to have produced what happened to Morgan. In a normal world I would have these Veterinarians call the coroner, but we have learned in a cruel hard way this is not a normal world.
Steve and I expect the completed second opinion from the Medical Examiner, Dr. Dobersen, who has been helping us with the review of Morgan’s suspicious death for months now – we are going to hear from him any day now. As her death has gone from “natural causes” to “suicide’ 9 months after her death. How the two are to be reconciled, I am not sure. I can’t even remotely understand how she had a relentless stalker for 4 months, and died during an active investigation into her felony stalking case, that is now no stalker, no stalking case mentioned or investigated in her suspicious death. Those of you who live in the Roaring Fork Valley, take note Steve and I do not think this stalker just left! All I can say for sure is that this has been a most adversarial process up to now, and I only expect even more of the same. I’m a dreamer when I suggest it could be a team effort, yielding the best truth. I sat up last night, and cried for Morgan because she has had everything taken from her, and now they want her reputation torn into tatters – I guess they don’t care at all about truth. There has to be a better, more sane way, then what is unfolding. We love you Morgan – we won’t give up until the truth is out.
Click here to read about the 37, 38, 39 & 40th days of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1037