Have you seen the most recent data from the CDC? View our Stalking Statistics and Data here: http://bit.ly/StalkingStats
What would you say to a friend who told you they were being stalked? Learn more about stalking this month at http://bit.ly/NSAM2015
Although women are more likely to be stalked than men, anyone can be a victim of stalking. Learn about stalking at http://bit.ly/NSAM2015
Stalking: It’s not a joke. It’s not romantic. It’s not ok. It’s a crime.
Visit stalkingawarenessmonth.org to learn more.
1 in 4 women and 1 in 13 men will be victims of stalking in their lifetime. Visit stalkingawarenessmonth.org for more info.
Individuals identifying as more than one race or American Indian, or Alaska Native experience higher rates of stalking http://bit.ly/NSAM2015
Stalking is a crime in all 50 states, DC, & the territories. Read about your law at victimsofcrime.org/src
On avg. stalking lasts about 2 years; intimate partner stalking lasts longer. Learn the realities of stalking: victimsofcrime.org/src
The National Center for Victims of Crime says, “Stalking is a crime of intimidation and psychological terror that often escalates into violence against its victims. Stalkers can destroy the lives of victims, terrorizing them through a course of conduct that may include monitoring, following, threatening, or harassing victims in a variety of ways. Stalking often has devastating consequences for victims. Many are forced to profoundly alter their lives—going as far as relocating to another state and changing their identities—to protect themselves and their families.”
A leader in responding to stalking The National Center for Victims of Crime has long led the field in enhancing our country’s response to stalking by advocating for key stalking legislation and policy at the federal and state level. In 2000, the National Center estab- lished the Stalking Resource Center to increase public awareness about stalking and help communities across the country develop multidisciplinary responses to this insidious crime. As the only national training and technical assistance center focused solely on stalking, the Stalking Resource Center has provided training to tens of thousands of victim service providers and criminal justice practitioners throughout the United States and has fostered innovations in programs for stalking victims and practitioners who support them.
For more information, please contact: National Center for Victims of Crime 2000 M Street, NW, Suite 480 Washington, DC 20036 202-467-8700 | www.ncvc.org
I know how dangerous stalking is…our beautiful 20 year old daughter Morgan was murdered during an active investigation into her stalking. My wish is that another daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, aunt, Goddaughter, or friend never loses their life again because of their stalker. Law enforcement needs better protocols for cases involving stalking including allowing community policing, states need to have strict laws on their books, the judicial system needs to enforce those laws to the maximum degree without accepting a plea to a lesser charge. No more revolving doors in our system that allows stalkers to continue their reign of terror. Please talk about the dangers of stalkers with your family and friends and raise the awareness. Knowledge is power.
Once, a long time ago, I woke up early, went to the blog and started answering a question, but before I knew it, it was time to get ready for work and I had written more of a blog entry then the answer to a question. Was it the question, my mood, I’ll never know but this is the second time that has happened. If you want to read the question, it was asked in response to – Was it Arrogance or Something Worse? Carolina on
Carolina,
I completely agree with you that the, “investigators,” should have checked for fingerprints, DNA, hairs, etc. However, that was not done, none of it, and it is far, far too late now. The only investigation that morning was into Morgan, her cell phone, computer, camera, a three-year old journal, and even her ipod. Those were the items taken into evidence to solve this crime. Nothing that pointed to an intruder, at all. And trust me the evidence was there, it was everywhere. Only Steve and I are not investigators, we are not accredited death scene investigators, and we were in shock. We wish that nobody is ever put through what we went through, and Morgan is the very first on that list. We believed her stalker was always going to stay outside, satisfied to frighten, startle and shock. We were dealing with him as best we could, but we were too short-sighted. Count on your stalker to always break and enter at some point, think of it as the natural progression of stalking, at first timid, then more bold, and ever more bold, and then at some point, perhaps violent, lethal, as Morgan’s stalker was.
As parents, on the morning Morgan was found dead, we were politely asked if we had somewhere to go, we had to all leave until they were finished, “processing,” the scene, so we had no idea what was or was not done and a yellow crime scene tape was placed across her closed door when they did all leave. Her room off-limits and that day her death was declared a mystery for the time being.
A book Steve is reading on forensic crime scene techniques starts off with, “every death scene must be processed as a homicide until proven otherwise.” Morgan’s was absolutely not, and it was weeks later before her manner of death was found to be, natural causes, from a disease she was never diagnosed with. There was no excuse to attempt only to rule out suicide first, which they did – “no signs of suicide they assured us,” except they must have forgotten to tell Dr. Kurtzman, the contracted forensic pathologist who did her autopsy, that there was no signs of suicide. After many threats to me to give up on my concerted effort at having her manner of death changed from Natural, to Homicide, or Undetermined, and then an investigation being launched, as every consulting Doctor was telling us would be the only correct way to handle this. After eight months, Dr. K did in fact change her manner of death to suicide. Which leaves it up to us to take him to court to restore some truth to the memory of our daughter Morgan.
You are also right about revealing the medications that were a part of her death. We did, then the Coroner and pathologist went way beyond that, far into Morgan’s right to privacy. We had, as the Sheriff’s department well knows, one old, old bottle of a very low dose Amitriptyline in our room, not in Morgan’s room. This bottle started with 30 pills at some time long in the past and had ~ 12 left in it. The bottle was with other bottles waiting for proper disposal at a hospital collection day, usually held twice a year back then. Flushing down the toilet is not advised on small, rural, septic / sewer systems.
The reason Morgan ever had those pills was not for depression, not even close to that, that would be known by looking at the mg, but you see even that brief statement should not have to be made. I find myself saying many things about Morgan that have nothing to do with her stalking and murder, to defend her against, call them what you want, but they are simply lies. So Dr. K does the math, 30 pills when purchased, ~ 12 left in the bottle now, so she took eighteen – #1) Not a lethal dose, not even close to a lethal dose. #2) They were not even in her room and not accessible to her at that time, same pills that were left in the same bottle from a long time ago. #3) An estimate that no one can make, according to experts that testify about drugs in trials, such as a criminal or civil trial about what this would require. #4) Unknown to all because as part of the investigation nobody ever asked, but years prior to her death, Morgan made a decision that she did not want to take prescription medications, except as really needed, so she went to a doctor for help with this goal – once again her privacy being broken by me to tell this, and correct any falsehoods – and used a combination of hyperbaric chamber treatments, a strict diet, an exercise routine, stress management principles, yoga, and more. She was successful and was still not taking any prescription medications the day she was killed, no matter what anyone says, even the investigators at the house, they are wrong and they have to know it. Her tox screen proves this, as the range of detection varies from at least two days for some medications on out to 30 days for other drugs. And she had none of the drugs she was reportedly taking on the day she was killed detected in her, hello people! – except for the seven that were a part of her death, none of those seven were in her room, a container for any of them was not found in her room, a syringe for any was not found in her room. Are you beginning to see the problem? She did not have a prescription for any of the drugs related to her death and never did in all cases except one, and that one had not been for a long time. Due to hard work and commitment from Morgan to live life the way she wanted to. It only gets more obvious there is a big problem the deeper you go.
Then forensic experts, not a part of her original, “investigation,” have weighed in on the combination of drugs found, the locations, the absorption rates, the ratios, and other technical things, and contained in all these facts, they have determined that Morgan had help that night, and not in the good sense. The why we may never know, but there were ample signs of not only an intruder by physical evidence in the room, but evidence of an intruder intertwined in all the different drugs, and their reactions before you even get to Amitriptyline in a very, very large quantity. The crime lab that processed Morgan’s evidence even commented that it was a, “massive,” dose, along with the comment that they have rarely, if ever, seen a level that high. Many have also said to keep in mind that it is inconceivable that she could ingest even a fraction of the total found in her blood without vomiting.
Of course the PJ’s she wore to bed are gone and this might be the answer as to why. The suspicious spray of bodily fluids seen on her chest at the death scene could possibly have been remnants of vomit too, but as with the maddening reality of evidence in his case, it was only seen at the death scene and not by the contracted forensic pathologist at his, “hospital,” with far better equipment to detect it. So it was not swabbed, otherwise collected, and certainly not tested. And if, as one of the detectives opined at the scene, the spray could be an artifact of resuscitation attempts by the first responders, then I said fine, why didn’t you rule that out, because as I found out quickly, they use a gel, not a spray.
No one even went up to Steve that day, the person who administered CPR for his daughter for quite some time and said something really investigative, like, “Could you have sneezed on your daughters chest while you were performing CPR?” As for the vomit theory, we have been told this is a, “least likely scenario,” but that it is remotely possible. And the sneezing possibility, absolutely no, besides she was wearing a t-shirt at the time.
As for Brooke, Keenan lived at her house from the beginning of the stalking, she talked about it on Facebook and obviously knew, her father James also knew. The Sheriff’s Deputies, at least four, came to her house one night to question Keenan during a stalking situation, and she refused them access to Keenan, claimed he was asleep, yet the deputy heard noises inside the house when Keenan was the only living thing inside the house besides her. But Brooke denied the noise heard was anything?
The night Morgan was killed we have identified two figures outside the house on video, not sharp enough to identify, but sharp enough to know they are people and Jame’s friend who is also a criminal lawyer called me and wanted to know if we could tell if the figures seen outside our house on the fateful night were male or female, kind of a curious and revealing question wouldn’t you say?
If Brooke was in the room that night or not – that remains to be proven in court, beyond a reasonable doubt, the same goes for her complicity in the stalking, the burglary, the invasion of privacy for sexual gratification, the harassment, the eavesdropping and – the personal favorite of the Sheriff’s Department – misdemeanor trespassing, that all remains to be established in court.
The Detectives, by the way, were very torn establishing Brooke’s actual involvement in the crimes, their opinion seemed to change weekly, both how deep was she into the cascade of crimes and even if she was in fact, the leader. The question of if she was involved at all was never even questioned, from almost the very beginning of the Detectives involvement.
And, as yet another avenue in the crimes against Morgan, consider this. Brooke spent, judging from my experiences, a lot of time in rehab. I say this because first, I don’t know anyone who has needed rehab for more than a week or two, then, quite unexpectedly, people who were at Brooke’s rehab center in some capacity have contacted me after discovering about Brooke and the situation that happened, anonymously at first, and then more freely, and they then unabashedly paint a picture of Brooke as being very capable of committing all of these crimes. Following the first Dr. Phil episode airing, remarkably, a person who recalled Brooke using the exact phrase, “Where’s the proof.” in response to something she was accused of before Morgan’s death, which I found to be particularly eerie at the time i heard it. I have verified that she actually did stay at rehab for extended periods from her, “friends,” locally, and of course Brooke talks about it on her Facebook.
Meanwhile the absolute right exists for us to believe, based on the facts that we have and know to exist, regardless if we choose to share those facts or are advised not to. And we do have very strong beliefs based on what has transpired to date in Morgan’s case.
Lastly, as for Morgan’s ex-boyfriend, it is interesting how many tips have concerned him and Brooke as suspects, but that is for yet another blog, as this has now become. And don’t jump to any conclusions yet, because Steve and him are very close, and have spoken candidly about Morgan very often since Morgan’s death, we never had any reason to suspect him of anything, nor did Morgan.