Working in one degree of separation…

MorganarmsupA play was written by John Guare, based on a theory by Frigyes Karinthy that there are six degrees of separation, an idea that everyone is six or fewer steps away, by way of introduction, from any other person in the world.  Strange as it sounds at first, on average, it really holds up, so that a chain of “friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.

In other words you meet someone, and they know someone, who knows someone, who knows someone, and six people later, viola, that person knows you!  And why is this important you ask?  Well once you get this idea there is another one to ponder.

We live in a small, very contained valley, so small that Steve has a theory that we live with one degree of separation.  Maybe he’s right, and at times it sure seems like everyone you meet knows at least one friend of yours.   And this cuts so many ways in Morgan’s Stalking.

For example:

  1. James Harris confesses to a client (the same morning we find Morgan’s body) that he knows who the stalker is, and that person he confessed to turns out to be friends with a very good friend of mine.  But then the detectives never investigate, never question this witness.
  2. The detectives interview Keenan’s boss at work (since Keenan was the prime suspect), Keenan gets a glowing review, hard working clean nosed young man, our detectives get the idea at that time that maybe he is not the stalker, and they are wrong about him.  Except the detective does not know that the manager is Keenan’s Uncle, by marriage.  Nor does he know that at least three other relatives of Keenan work at the same store.  The truth was being hidden to confuse this poor detective?  Certainly possible.  As we all know it was just weeks later that Keenan was arrested on a warrant for theft by receiving, I am told Keenan is the one who walked into the cash for gold store, and fenced the goods, and I believe it.  During the stop his car was taken to the station, and a stash of drugs prepackaged for sale were found inside – so much for the clean nosed young man, wouldn’t you say?
  3. James Harris claims to have not known there was a stalker when questioned on the Dr. Phil show, and said he wishes we would have told him so he could have taken appropriate measures. This was on a TV show where he came with the intention of defending himself with the truth, one might assume.  And over the past weekend another connection just jumped out.  During Morgan’s stalking the President of the HOA (not James) wanted to do something to stop this situation, and decided one of our next door neighbors had let his yard get quite overgrown (a good place for the stalker to hide) and his plan was to organize a work party of board members to trim it all down.  Hopefully give the stalker fewer places to hide, as the stalker was doing so successfully up till then.  Don’t we all remember the stalker wandering out and leaning on Steve’s truck to watch the Sheriffs drive away?  Guess who was a part of that work party to reduce hiding places for the stalker?  You guessed it, James Harris spent a good part of his weekend trimming, and raking and cleaning our neighbor’s yard, because of the stalker we had in our neighborhood – but I guess he must have forgotten all about that.  Then, just months later James claims, with a straight face, and actually feigning surprise, that he knew nothing about a stalker.  This just gets deeper and deeper, doesn’t it?  This latest memory lapse that he had is in addition to all his conversations with the Detectives and the Deputies that came to his house, or that he approached in the street during the 4 months of stalking to ask about the stalker, and James also chooses to completely forget he was interviewed, as well as his daughter Brooke, a face-to-face interview he was at! – a fact he must have forgotten all about as well.  Part of this amazing changing memory was posted on April 4, 2013 – “Definition of Accuse.” Click on it if you want to read it again.
  4. In the months following Morgan’s death many individuals independently came up to me and shared something they had heard Brooke Harris say before Morgan died that troubled them.  At different times, and worded slightly different, they all reported hearing her say either, “That bitch is going to get it someday”, or just, “That bitch is going to get it.”.  Of course when confronted on stage in TV land she denied ever saying that, and not stopping there she claimed to be a friend of Morgan’s and why would she ever say that?  She exclaimed.  Just a last tidbit on this, when Keenan was asked if he knew about the “keying” of Morgan’s car, the word ‘Bitch’ scraped into the driver’s door, right down to the metal, Keenan said he did not know about it, but told the detective he either thought “Brooke could have done it,” or “that’s her style, so it is very possible that she did it.”  I wasn’t there during his interview with the Detective so I am not sure of the exact wording, but basically that is what I was told that he said to the Detective.
  5. Everyone wanted me to talk to the ranch next door, and I mean everyone, one by one, they told me about things at the ranch.  So thanks I guess to the one degree of separation theory he’s a few more disclosures.  The ranch had most, but probably not all, of the seven drugs found in Morgan’s system, and responsible for her death.  Keenan’s sister worked her community service at the ranch.  Brooke’s mother worked at the ranch.  Brooke visited the ranch for reasons unknown to me.  Keenan was at the ranch at times.  Elliott’s two daughters took riding lessons at the ranch, under the watchful eye of Elliott.  At this point all that needs to happen is for James to stop by to pick up one of his daughters or drop something off for his ex and do you realize that every player from the neighborhood in this mystery was at the ranch in the room where the drugs are stored at one time or another?  And yes, this connection has also never been investigated by the Sheriff’s department.
  6. Oh, and as to the seven drugs – as I have not mentioned that in a while, because that part of the investigation is pretty much closed from where I sit.  Let me, however, say this; Morgan’s labs confirm the existence of seven drugs of importance, some of these seven drugs can be a synthesis of others, but they can also exist, and can be administered independently, that is a very important detail.  As it has been explained to me, EVERY one of those seven drugs has to be analyzed, and evaluated both independently, and then together to approach the true story of what happen to Morgan that night.  Focusing on one or two, and dismissing the rest is a sure path to introducing erroneous conclusions.  So you can rest assured that the conclusion arrived at by the contracted pathologist is indeed erroneous, of that I have been assured.

Quite fascinating, these varying degrees of separation, especially when you attempt to harness them in order to solve a crime.  When the truth never changes, and you have a statute of limitations of forever when it comes to murder, only your tenacity to stay the course becomes the limiting factor in a search for justice.  For whom the bell tolls, or the clock ticks in this case, we shall see in the end.  Human nature is hard to overcome for most, impossible for others.

In Morgan’s memory Steve and I want to help others, it is the most satisfying task for us now.  Research has led us to believe that there are laws to prevent such tragedies as Morgan and our family suffered, they have already been written, and are part of our State law.  Now we just need to find out what happened to that memo.  I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile look for these laws to be posted in their entirety at the State of Colorado to help stalking victims understand the laws at their disposal to protect them…we were not given any of this information during Morgan’s stalking, and I dearly wish we had been given it.  It breaks my heart to continually hear from victims that are not being protected due to lack of enforcement of laws that are already in place to protect them.  When I travel to Denver I want to be sure to address this very question with as many people in office as I can.

Victims of Stalking need your Compassion – it means a lot!!!

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Far – far too often in a country where stalking is usually a felony, and victims suffer untold physical, and emotional injustice, I read some variation of a stalking story that is disturbingly like the following I just received today:

“Almost everyone I have told about my Stalker / Harasser in hopes of some advise or help, seems to not believe me…& they end up turning against me instead of helping me…I just don’t understand what has happened to this world?  Because that just doesn’t make any sense to me…so now I not only have the Stalker Harassing me & doing his best to keep me in fear, but I now have others doing it as well. Great!!! :'(“

She told her friends and coworkers, she did the right thing.  A basic first step in protecting yourself is to try to tell all others around you so there are more eyes and ears and bodies watching out for you, but in her case this didn’t help.  And while I ask why, I am also reminded of a slogan – raising awareness.  And this means raising all kinds of awareness.  If you have never been stalked as the majority have not, then it is hard to know what it is like.  If you are being stalked it is hard to know the right things to do to stop it, really stop it.  And as you involve others they will most likely need to learn what stalking really is.  Of course as the Law Enforcement becomes involved, while one incident usually does not make for a stalking case, they need to become involved ASAP and you need to have the particulars as to  just when your stalking becomes rises to the level that Law Enforcement becomes involved explained to you by Law Enforcement.

A big part of raising awareness is another slogan – “Take Stalking Seriously”

For example legislative declarations usually precede actual law, and here an excerpt from the Colorado legislative declaration on stalking

(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:

(a) Stalking is a serious problem in this state and nationwide;
(b) Although stalking often involves persons who have had an intimate
relationship with one another, it can also involve persons who have little or no past relationship;
(c) A stalker will often maintain strong, unshakable, and irrational emotional feelings for his or her victim and may likewise believe that the victim either returns these feelings of affection or will do so if the stalker is persistent enough. Further, the stalker often maintains this belief, despite a trivial or nonexistent basis for it and despite rejection, lack of reciprocation, efforts to restrict or avoid the stalker, and other facts that conflict with this belief.
(d) A stalker may also develop jealousy and animosity for persons who are in relationships with the victim, including family members, employers and coworkers, and friends, perceiving them as obstacles or as threats to the stalker’s own “relationship” with the victim;
(e) Because stalking involves highly inappropriate intensity, persistence, and possessiveness, it entails great unpredictability and creates great stress and fear for the victim;
(f) Stalking involves severe intrusions on the victim’s personal privacy and autonomy, with an immediate and long-lasting impact on quality of life as well as risks to security and safety of the victim and persons close to the victim, even in the absence of express threats of physical harm.

(2) The general assembly hereby recognizes the seriousness posed by
stalking and adopts the provisions of this part 6 with the goal of encouraging and authorizing effective intervention before stalking can escalate into behavior that has even more serious consequences.

The Colorado Legislature knows stalking is very real,  it is serious, it is dangerous, and it does happen to normal people, not just celebrities.  There is a growing awareness and it is largely under-reported, and ineffectively responded to by Law Enforcement.  This is why it is so important to educate yourself and then talk about it to raise awareness!

When dealing with Law Enforcement in almost all States you have victims rights to aid you, in the event that law enforcement is just ignoring you – please look up your particular States laws.

In the State of Colorado Victims Rights Act it states:

The general assembly hereby finds and declares that the full and voluntary cooperation of victims of and witnesses to crimes with state and local law enforcement agencies as to such crimes is imperative for the general effectiveness and well-being of the criminal justice system of this state. It is the intent of this part 3, therefore, to assure that all victims of and witnesses to crimes are honored and protected by law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judges in a manner no less vigorous than the protection afforded criminal defendants.

Now if the State of Colorado (and I assume most states in our Country) wants to assure that all victims of, and witnesses to crimes are honored and protected by law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judges then why does this not always happen with victims of stalking?  Why are people in our areas  like not believing and watching out for the victims?  I truly believe it is one of those things that people tell themselves that crime could never to happen to them, they are protected/isolated so if they turn a blind eye to it and pretend it’s not happening (the God forbid this ever happen to me theory), this person is just over reacting, this mentality helps them just go along with their everyday lives and PRETEND that everything in the world is how it should be – but THEY ARE SO WRONG!

One day we were a happy family, looking towards the future with our youngest daughter, talking about all the normal things in life (like should she stay in a dorm at CU Boulder for her last 2 years or an apartment with a roommate), and the next day we were wondering what was going on, starting to get that frightened feeling that we had to protect our daughter from some unknown evil. Then later that month our home became a dark fortress in an effort to keep out the evil that had invaded our family, and then the following month we were investing money (that should have been for Morgan’s last two years of college) purchasing things to try to catch her stalker so she would not have to continue her life in fear.  Some stalkers actually follow their victims from place to place, from state to state and Morgan did not want to always be looking over her shoulder, she did not want to live in fear.  But as we all know now after only 4 short months Morgan’s stalking ended in her murder.  I know this is not what always happens, but it DOES HAPPEN far more often than anyone would like to admit.  As parents we failed miserably to do the right things at the right times.  Not a sympathy call – just the real truth.  The Garfield Sheriff’s office failed miserably at protecting one of its citizens.  Once again just the sad truth.  And the Coroners office is up to its neck in inexcusable behavior that completely stripped Morgan of her rights to due process.

If that’s what the professionals did for Morgan then you need to learn patience with friends and coworkers, bosses and even parents.  They all need to come around and the best endings to stalking situations has come when friends and family are all helping and working together to end the stalking.

It is an honor in life to be able to help others – it is not something that should be on the bottom of anyone’s list.  Please share this one thought with everyone in your life that you come in contact with along your life’s journey…if we all help one another, evil will have a really hard time completing it’s journey.  Thank you all so very much!

And to the stalking victim that wrote in (the first paragraph of this blog) all I can say at this point is that I am so sorry that this is happening to you and I will make every effort for the rest of my life to try to educate people to not react like that to a victim…you deserve people to believe you, and try to help you for the simple reason, that is what they would want if they found themselves in your situation.

Steve and I were very uneducated about stalking when Morgan’s stalking began.  We received little or no help from the Sheriffs department. And the Coroner will still not even meet with us.

We all have to believe the outcome of Morgan’s stalking could have been turned for the better, instead of the tragedy it  became.  WE all have to believe that raising awareness and taking stalking seriously are much more that just catch phrases, they are part of the solution.

One of Morgan’s favorite movies – Where the Wild Things Are

Morgan loved this movie so much she did an artistic design of letters cut-out and placed  across one of her bedroom walls that spelled out “Where the Wild Things Are” and each letter of that title was made to look like some kind of adorable animal.

Click on or copy the link below, and put it into your Internet URL and you will see the trailer to the movie…it is a movie full of HOPE!

http://youtu.be/01-PqqifyjA

April 26 – May 5, 2012 / A dog with a lot of love, but too old to patrol, and a lot of unanswered questions

 

Joey - Ryan's old watchdog that we borrowed for a week during the stalking - unfortunately Joey was just too old and slept we couldn't wake him up when something happened - he loved Morgan and used to sleep in her room when we would babysit him but since she now had a puppy he could no longer sleep in her room

Joey – Morgan’s brother’s old watchdog – we borrowed him for a week during the stalking – unfortunately Joey was just too old and slept…we couldn’t wake him up when something happened – he loved Morgan and used to sleep in her room when we would babysit him, but since she now had a puppy he could no longer sleep in her room so guarding her was not easy for him.

Thursday, April 26th

This morning the two of us discussed what our friend, the former Federal Investigator thinks we should do in order to move the case along.  We all have our jobs, and he will get back in touch with us.  He left this afternoon late to go back to Colorado Springs.

Sunday, April 29th

Our old next door neighbor called back tonight to give us some good information about Morgan’s case.

Monday, April 30th 

Tonight at 7:38 pm I was lying on the couch in living room all by myself.  I was trying not to, I wanted to be the strong mama lion, but I just started crying my eyes out over the loss of Morgan, when my cell phone rang.  A good friend just had a feeling to call me, and we talked about Morgan for the longest time.  Steve, for some reason was still having a hard time fully accepting Morgan was a homicide, because it meant someone, and maybe more then one person was in her room that night.  As a father that wants to protect his children, can you just imagine how awful that idea felt to him?  It’s amazing what you can accept at different times, and how obvious the situation was becoming for seasoned professional investigators.  We talked about how crazy it was that local law enforcement and the contracted pathologist were so willing to accept anything, and question nothing.  And changing laws too, it was what I thought back then, laws needed to be changed!  Now as I research the subjects more and more, all I see are laws that are not being enforced, these laws were ignored as if they did not exist, as though they were not even laws of the State of Colorado…but they are!  What happens when our own law enforcement and Coroners do not follow State law?

Tuesday, May 1st

I called the Garfield County Coroner, Trey Holt’s office to set up a meeting, but the person who answered told me that I will have to call back next Monday as he is out of town till then, and she can’t make appointments for him. I made a note to myself that I was thinking it sure seems like he is out of town a lot.  In fact I have never called the Coroner’s office and had anyone there tell me that Trey Holt was in town!  We have still never been able to meet with him to this day.

Wednesday, May 2nd

Based on a suggestion, more like hounding, I forced myself to sit and review the tapes from the security cameras.  It was so hard to see anything  from back then, and as I looked at the tapes I saw the unmistakable figure of a human, it was not identifiable, but it was the stalker, or one of his accomplices.  It has been 5 months since Morgan died.  Now I had another image of a person in our yard in the middle of the night.  It was unfortunately of far worse quality than the ones the Sheriff’s had previously dismissed as, “not clear enough”.  It raised my hopes that there were certainly many more shadowy figures throughout the tapes.  I will continue to review the tapes – but it’s so very emotional.  To this day I still don’t understand why the Sheriff’s said most of our tapes are not clear enough, because when I see videos or camera shots on the Internet from other law enforcement agencies across the US that are trying to track someone down they seem to be the same resolution as ours, and they seem to get results…

Friday, May 4th

Steve was mowing the lawn when two of Morgan’s friends showed up unexpectedly.  They all came in the house and  we talked about Morgan and  shared ideas about how we could change things in the future.  It was a great afternoon.

Saturday, May 5th

Today I looked at our tapes some more.  In the afternoon I spoke with an artist who gave Morgan and Steve painting classes, I told him about what happened to Morgan and he had a suggestion about a person I should call.

The Post Independent had an article called, “Women worried about reports of naked man”.  It spoke of reports dating back to 2008 all around Carbondale, Red Hill Mushroom Rock trail north of Hwy 82, and the trail by Blue Creek Subdivision, the Rio Grand Trail, and Lorax trail.  The trail by Blue Creek Subdivision was the neighborhood across the two lane County Road from ours.  It seemed like a lot of crime in such a small area, by population it was tiny, but all the crimes had one glaring similarity – they were all unsolved.  Was our little corner of the County just ignored?  Or was the entire county infested with unsolved crime?

Today Steve and I decided on a date for the memorial to spread Morgan’s ashes, and I started checking with Morgan’s friends about the date to see when they would be back from college, etc.  So many of her friends were away at college when we had the first celebration of her life four days after she was murdered, and they were so upset that they couldn’t attend.

Later that afternoon I talked to the security person Valerie at City Market in Carbondale about what tapes she had saved from the night Morgan was killed, then Steve and I looked at our tapes some more.  There were so many cameras, so many different views (and yes Morgan’s bedroom windows were always covered by a camera), so many hours of footage, and when the real stalker, peeping tom, voyeur, sociopath or whatever I should call him would show up on one of the cameras it would be very quick, so your eyes had to stay glued to that screen at all times, and it was extremely hard from an eye strain point of view, and emotionally it was next to impossible.  But there are a lot of things about what happened to Morgan, and what has gone on afterwards that feel were impossible – but they are not…they are real, Morgan was stalked, hunted down and killed as though she were prey, and we know we can, and will do whatever it takes, no matter how long it takes, to get this case opened, and see the guilty party/parties sent to jail.  Morgan needs justice – the people in this County need justice – this world needs justice, and pretending this didn’t happen, and will not ever happen to someone else is just nonsense, it’s like putting your head in the sand.  So many people in this valley, state, nation and world support our efforts and I just want you all to know it won’t be in vain, things will change for the better and we will not stop until they do.

 

Some exciting news…KDNK our small local radio station won an award for the series they did on “What Happened to Morgan Ingram?”

Click onto https://soundcloud.com/user-744545581/kdnk-series to listen to the 3 part documentary series that KDNK did.  We know so much more now than we did then but they did a wonderful job of investigative reporting on her case with what was available at that time.  If you haven’t listened to it before it’s worth taking the time to listen now.  It even has some clips from the 911 calls in it – my heart races and I start to cry every time I listen to it, and remember what it was like back then.  Ed Williams has interviews with experts in their field about our daughter Morgan’s case and it is worth listening to.

The Radio Television Digital News Association announced the winners of the 2013 Regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. The awards recognize work of the highest quality produced by radio, television and online news organizations around the world.
KDNK Community Radio in Carbondale won the award for “Best News Series” in Small Market Radio for Region 3, which is comprised of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The series, titled “What Happened to Morgan Ingram?” was produced by Ed Williams and Eric Skalac, KDNK’s full time reporters.  “For more than 40 years, the Edward R. Murrow Award has honored the best of electronic journalism,” said Mike Cavender, Executive Director of RTDNA. “This year’s winners represent the outstanding work being done in local  newsrooms, which we are proud to recognize.”
“I am proud of our news efforts. It’s wonderful to be recognized for the work in the news department. This is a big part of what we do,” said KDNK General Manager Steve Skinner. “A record number of award entries were submitted, and judges selected winners in 13 regions across the United States and from international entrants from across the globe. The regional winners are automatically entered in the national Edward R. Murrow Awards competition, which will be judged during the summer. National awards will be presented at the New York Marriott Marquis in New York City on Columbus Day.”
“The Radio Television Digital News Association has been honoring outstanding achievements in electronic journalism with the Edward R. Murrow Awards since 1971.  Award recipients demonstrate the spirit of excellence that Murrow set as a standard for the profession of electronic journalism.”
KDNK’s local and regional news stories are archived at KDNK.org.
CONGRATULATIONS KDNK! and that you for your hard work in raising awareness of stalking and the tragedy of Morgan’s Stalking.