Category Archives: Stalking

Stalking behaviors, Morgan’s Stalker and his actions.

September 1, 2011 the 31st day of Morgan’s stalking – she’s not safe during the day either

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Steve left early and was up in Aspen – he needed me to make a deposit for our son, that he had forgotten to take care of.  I argued that I was working, and Morgan hadn’t left the house yet for school, so I couldn’t do it.  Steve said, “You will only be gone for 20 minutes at the most, so please go.”  I left the house at 9:00 am, this is the first time I have left Morgan alone at home since the stalking began.  It was only a 5 minute drive to the bank in Carbondale, while Morgan was getting dressed for her dance class.  Steve thought I would only be gone 20 minutes max.  I told Morgan I would be right back, the dogs were loose, and even though my intuition was screaming at me – NO!  I didn’t listen. 

As I turned out of the subdivision onto County Road 100, it didn’t make sense to be worried, it wasn’t dark out, it was morning, sunny, light, and bright with a few white clouds.  It was quiet and I saw no one out, as I headed for the bank.  Morgan later said she heard me leave, and lock the front door.  A few minutes later Morgan heard the key pad being used on the front door, her puppy started growling, for the first time in her life, sitting and staring up at the front door.  Morgan thought I had forgotten something, and was coming right back in, but then realized it was only a few beeps, not four, and the door lock didn’t disengage.  No one entered, so she was immediately frightened – she knew it wasn’t me.  This was not the first time Morgan or I heard numbers being pushed on the front door keypad lock, but all the other times had been at night. 

Morgan went into her closet, quietly closed the door, and called me on my cell phone…I rushed back as fast as I could.  I immediately called the sheriff’s dispatch number in a panic, and Patrol Officer C. J. came over to the house.  He questioned Morgan, then went outside, looked at the key code lock on the door, did not take fingerprints, and looked at a new footprint in the dirt outside of the bathroom window.  It looked like, from the prints that someone had run alongside one of the pine trees, up on his toes.  I expressed to the officer that we are so frightened that Morgan’s stalker keeps attempting to get into our house.  The officer replied, “No he is probably just trying to terrorize you, just like when he taps or bangs on the windows.”  We now know this was very uneducated opinion in a stalking case…this was very lethal to suppose the stalker was not trying to get in. 

Elliott, our neighbor with two young daughters of his own, saw the sheriff’s car and came over to find out what is going on again.  I told Elliott that I had told Morgan about Brooke’s boyfriend living 3 houses down from us, and how upset Morgan was.  I asked how it was that we had never seen him around.  Elliott said from what he had heard Keenan worked the night shift at City Market in El Jebel.  Another alarm went off in my head, I always sent Morgan there to pick up a few things for dinner.  He could have been her checkout clerk at City Market, and if he had, what if he asked to look at her driver’s license? Our physical address was right there on her driver’s license.

Morgan sent a text to her teacher this morning saying, “I might be a little late, I had an incident this morning and the sheriff needs to ask questions.  Shouldn’t be too late.  Sorry!” Morgan felt awful about how this stalker was not only messing with her life, but how it was affecting everyone around her. 

A Year Later, some more advice.  Do not ever show your drivers license to anyone unless you absolutely have too, if they have to verify your age don’t be afraid to insist on only showing it to a manager – do not have your address written on your checks.  Reduce any way that a complete stranger can find out where you live! You have no idea how thorough of a background check was done on this person before he was hired, or if one was done at all!

When Morgan came home from school the first thing I told her was that Elliott said Keenan worked at City Market in El Jebel.  I asked Morgan if she remembered ever seeing him there, she said, sh…., he was my checker once.  I was buying nail stuff, and he asked to see my license, I don’t like this at all. 

Of course, if Keenan looked at her driver’s license he would have see her address printed on it, and would have known at that time that she lived on Corral Drive, just like his friend Brooke.  I was wondering if he was really her boyfriend or just renting a room from Brooke’s dad.  Elliott had told me that he had moved in to that house at the end of July 2011, while we were on vacation, and the stalking started right after we returned on August 2, 2011.

Jarred (our grandson) came over later that afternoon, looks at new footprints, and thinks they looked like an Etnie type shoe bottom also.  So this is twice with the same shoe.  I called my cousin later for advice and he says “this is horse s…”  he tells me I have to insist that the deputies take a cast of the footprints and fingerprint the front door.  My cousin was in politics for many years in Aspen, and Pitkin County, and he is Morgan’s Godfather – he can’t understand why Garfield County Sheriffs are treating this stalking like it’s not a big thing.

At 6:04 pm Steve sends Morgan a text message, “Hi, we are going to El Horizonte for dinner.  Would you like to join us??”  Morgan replies to Steve, “I’m good.  Thanks though!”  Morgan goes to a play at her school tonight, with a friend from school.  She must have told them what was going on because they sent her a text message that said, “Hi Morgan.  Tom will be at Thunder River Market at 8:30 and will wait for u.”

 

Now this is another perfect example of why I think some law enforcement protocols need to be changed…it will be weeks before we have a detective assigned to this case.  Up until then it is as if it is not really a case.  Essentially they wait two months to see if it goes away first?  And during that time this really isn’t even a case, evidence goes uncollected, except the evidence that we, ourselves, have given to the officers.  A different person comes every time, and Steve or I have to explain the whole growing morass over, and over again.  Nothing that is being discovered is being followed up on, and it cuts both ways, we don’t want to accuse anyone before we are certain of their involvement.  Back then we had only progressed to likely, and not likely.  Likely deserved an interview, a chance to tell their side, but that never happened.  Is this a budgetary issue?  Do they feel most stalkers quit before two months?  Because the stories of stalking that are being shared with me now, always seem to affect people for years in many cases.  After Morgan’s stalking started, Steve would constantly come home with another story from someone he had run into and spoken with during his work day – they told him about how they too had been stalked.  At one point he looked at me and said that at least 75% of the women he met had a stalking story, and worse, he could see how badly it still affected them, even if it had been many years in the past.  He was very mindful of how this would affect Morgan in the future.  He did not want her to end up emotionally scarred for life.

Click here to read about the 32nd day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=930

Connecting the dots…

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When the wildlife camera caught the stalker in our driveway, leaning up against Steve’s truck, thumbing his nose at the three Garfield Sheriffs Deputies who had just spent hours trying to find him and who “were certain they had scared him off” there was a major problem we did not understand at the time.  Morgan’s stalker unfortunately had no fear of, or respect for, law enforcement.  This put the danger he represented right at the top of the list of stalkers capable of extreme violence.

Much later the events covered in the last few blogs become extremely important and if the real significance of these events had been correctly addressed at this early stage in her stalking, I believe Morgan would still be alive and with us today.

It is quite amazing how some of the guests that have come to this blog have figured out things in one day that have taken us a year.  So let me share more details about the last few blogs, which were not known to us at the time.  This would fall under the category of things that we feel need to be corrected to really protect stalking victims.

First – remember the wildlife cam that was assaulted following the photo it took of the stalker?

  1. Look at the Deputies leaving in the first two pictures, NONE of the three Deputies – that are highly trained in observation – react to the subtle red glow that the camera makes as it is taking a nighttime picture.  Only the stalker fully realizes and reacts to the fact that a wildlife cam has just snapped his picture.  Is it because he is an avid hunter, and very accustomed to wildlife cameras?
  1. One of the graphic experts doing his magic, while viewing the image that was captured of the stalker, had a way to enhance the photo very specifically focusing on the reflections captured in the window glass of the LR3 parked in the driveway, right next to Steve’s truck.  This expert was able to add more details to our files. He found in the reflection of the glass that the stalker is clearly wearing a “utility belt” that is strapped onto his waist.
  1. Steve tried to recreate an attempt to leap up and knock the camera down, from the rear bumper of his truck.  Now Steve was 55 years old at the time, and would be the first to admit he might have lost a half step, but he is 6 feet tall, and from where the truck was parked that night he was not able to even come close to the camera.  He estimated he was at least four feet short of hitting the camera on his best attempt.
  1. As no branches were found in the yard or anywhere around the house the next day, we then assumed it was something the stalker carried with him, perhaps in this utility belt on his waist.  A one piece or telescoping rod of some sort, like an old school telescoping pointer or TV antenna maybe???
  1. If that “utility belt” was to contain a telescoping rod, or as was demonstrated for me today, a “tent support rod” that snapped together into something 8’ long, the stalker could not only have used it to try to knock the camera off, but for a more sinister reason…just keep reading.

Second – remember the tapping, and banging on Morgan’s window.  Months after her murder we visited a very talented medium – that is also a very good friend, and loved Morgan dearly.  She told us many amazing things about Morgan and what had happened to Morgan with details, and accuracy she could not possibly have know prior to our visit.  We had never mentioned to her about any of this.  But for this purpose, the one thing that is important is that she said to look on the roof, that we would find evidence on the roof of the house – she was very emphatic.  We tried in vain to have the detective go up on the roof, but that never happened, so Steve finally went up on the roof himself to check this out.   Among other things he found was this section of roof gutter that was directly over Morgan’s window – this is the section that is depicted in the photo.

Steve has worked with metal his entire life, and is certain the crack seen in this metal gutter is a stress fracture caused by bending out and then bending back, many, many, times.  Steve also walked the entire neighborhood, checking out every gutter on the entire block and found no other gutter with ANY similar crack in 15 other homes, plus a club house.  Only this section of gutter, directly over Morgan’s window had a crack from being bent.  This made me ill!  As you can see from the photo our windows went all the way to the ceiling, and someone lying on our roof, and using the gutter to help support himself, could have easily leaned over to terrorize Morgan by tapping, banging and looking through her upper window.

Stress crack in the gutter over Morgan's window

Where the stalker could have laid on the roof and knocked on Morgan’s window

 

With the extendable tool that he could have been using it would have been easy to tap or bang on Morgan’s windows from the safety of this position on the roof.  The detectives conducted a stake out one night, and saw our motion detector light, by our master bedroom, go off and on many times.  Back then he suggested that our motion detector light was defective, and should be checked in to.  Later when all of these facts came to light he said that makes perfect sense now – the motion light was going on because the stalker could have been using the Aspen tree that was up against the back of our house as a ladder to get on the roof.  Also the stalker would not have been caught on the video surveillance cameras that were put on the house shortly after this incident happened.  Beside the gutter Steve also saw a perfect place for the stalker to have hid at the top of the roof – from there you can see what’s happening down below, but remain completely concealed from others on the ground that are trying to find you.

After Morgan’s murder, I could not stand to live in our house.  I kept looking at the front door, and expecting Morgan to walk in at any time, and it was killing me.  Steve and I moved out of that house and that neighborhood forever, about six weeks after her murder.

Remember the men that wear the hats? Well guess what – they didn’t do their job…

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Remember a post I did quite a while ago that I hoped the men who wear the hats do their job.  I’m sure you all wondered what in the world I was talking about…we he it goes.  I was talking about certified, return receipt letters that had gone out to the Garfield County Coroners office with cc’s to the Garfield County Commissioners, the District Attorney’s office, as well as the County Attorney’s office.  After months of trying to speak with our Coroner Trey Holt, and never so much as a call back, I wasn’t too surprised that he didn’t answer my letters, but I honestly thought at least someone in the County would pick up the phone and ask what is going on here.  That didn’t happen either.

So after months and months of trying to get the Forensic Pathologist Dr. Kurtzman to redo Morgan’s death certificate (the original one said that she died from natural causes, and we knew she had not after many, many consultations with specialist as well as another very well respected Forensic Pathologist/Coroner that just wrapped up the Aurora theatre shootings.  

Wednesday, August 31, 2011 – the 30th day of Morgan’s stalking

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It is beyond my comprehension that this is now the 30th day of the stalking and I have no idea what to do! It is a sick feeling and yet we are all still trying to go about our daily lives, trying so hard not to let this darkness in, but it is becoming frightening and all consuming.

We all wake up in the morning, and go about our business.  I start work in my home office, Steve leaves for his shop, Morgan takes off for school.  At 12:45 pm Morgan sent me a text, “Graph paper, shampoo, and conditioner (that Moroccan oil one if possible, the long term relationship red herbal essence if not.)  Bobby pins, and a pair of black tights if they have them.  Thanks!  You’re the best :).”  She wanted me to pick her up some stuff at the store after work today.  Everything seemed like life was normal today – at least we wanted it to be, even if only for one day.  I think your mind tricks you into believing the worse is over (on a daily basis), so you can emotionally survive to face another day…anyway that is what I have come to believe.

Later in the afternoon, after work I am standing out in the street talking to a new neighbor that just moved in down on Equestrian Way.  She had stopped her car to introduce herself.  As I was talking to her, a silver car with blackout windows (I later find out it was Keenan’s car) drives into the cul-de-sac, and parks in Brooke Harris’ driveway.  When the person gets out of his car my grandson Jarred notices the guy is wearing shorts, with purple shoes on his feet – he runs over to look at his shoes, with the excuse that he would like to know if he’d like to have his lawn mowed.  Jarred notices that this guy is wearing purple “Etnies”, (Jarred’s mother is out front on our lawn, looking in the direction her son just ran, and notices the shoes too).  I remember at the time I was so excited that we now know someone that lives right here on our block has the same type of shoe as the shoe prints under Morgan’s windows, so I think to myself, this should be easy for a sheriff to go over to that house, ask to see the shoes, and compare them to the shoe prints – but I guess that only happens on TV.  I told the sheriff’s about this, but they said as soon as this case has a detective assigned to the case (felony stalking) they can do those sort of things, but for the moment the patrol officers are not allowed.  Later that night the silver car is gone, and the next day a little lime green Ford Fiesta is now parked in its spot, with paper plates.  (if any of the readers of this blog happen to have a picture of this person wearing purple Etnies, please let me know – you can contact me through the tip line on this website.  You will see it at the bottom of the home page on the site)

At 7:47 pm I sent Morgan a text, “Can we pick you up in about 10 minutes?  We are in Carbondale, and too tired to drive home & back again.  Thanks.”  I didn’t hear right back from her so I sent another text, “M???”  Morgan responded back at 8:28 pm, “I’m so sorry.  I left my phone upstairs.”  I texted back, “Call me please”  Morgan responded, “K. Now I’m ready. :)”  I sent her another text, “Where should we pick you up?  We will be there in 10 – 15 minutes.”  Morgan texted back, “I’ll just walk to Calder’s”  I responded, “By yourself?  I can pick you up where you are right now.”  (I guess you can all tell I am afraid to have her walk down the street with her puppy at night by herself – I keep imagining this stalker following her, and seeing her alone…who knows what might happen, Morgan texts back, “It’s all good.  I’m already going.”  I said, “OK”  We drive home.  Later when we arrive home I have a talk with Morgan.  I let her know how I feel about he being alone, while this stalker is still out there.  Morgan tells me she is really making an effort to always have someone walk with her when she is in town, but this was just one of those times that it didn’t work out and it was just one block away.  I told he it could only take one time if someone is watching you so please keep trying your best to stay in a group and always pay attention to your intuition.

In the backyard, the master bedroom motion light goes on, and then the master bedroom side motion light goes on – no noise heard.  Morgan is still sleeping in the closet.

It has now been a whole month of this terrorization going on and I Steve and I are arguing more and more about what direction to go in with this. When your in the middle of something that you have never been exposed to before, and there is not much direction from authorities on the subject, you kind of make it up as you go.  We now know this is not a good way to do that – there were authorities on the subject out there, but we hadn’t found them yet and our local authorities didn’t have the correct information or protocol.

Today (a year later) we know that significant incidents, containing lots of evidence, have been posted in the last few blogs, but at the time last summer we missed very important things that were going on right in front of our face.  Later on today after work I will post another blog, and try to connect all the dots.  Now a year later, and after all the things we have learned it is much easier to see…I guess that’s what they mean about hindsight.

Click here to read about the 31st day of Morgan’s stalking. She is no longer safe during the day either! https://morgansstalking.com/?p=913

August 30, 2011, the 29th day of Morgan’s stalking – The neighborhood begins to find out the truth

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Not sure if we slept more than an hour last night and Steve and I are feeling the effects as we get ready for the day.  I want to share the picture from the wee hours of the morning with everyone I can, but the officers have repeatedly told us to not do or say anything.  When I asked why, the answer was variations of: this guy probably lives nearby, and we don’t want to tip our hat just yet.  I don’t want to go against the deputies wishes, but it is so against the way I do things I’m not sure how much longer I can keep it up.  Besides, at this point everyone sees or has heard about the varying numbers of patrol vehicles at out house all hours of the day and night, they know something is up.  Before this stalking, one patrol vehicle on Corral Drive would have been at least a weeks worth of neighborhood gossip.

Morgan gets a text from her teacher this morning, “There will be class tomorrow…just so u know. :)”  I am so unnerved by the web camera pictures I am pacing the hall watching Morgan’s door and the yards, I expect him (the stalker) again at any second.  As soon as Morgan is up I tell her what happened, and show her the picture of the stalker.  She is quite visibly upset.  I ask her if she wants her father to drive her to school, and she actually thinks about it before saying no, she’ll be fine.

A sheriff’s deputy shows up unannounced, he’s heard all about last night’s activity, and just wants to have a look around in the daylight.  This is the first time I don’t have to tell the whole story from the beginning, he already knows, and I am thankful for that.  We walked around and I recount last night for him, pointing out the locations where the camera was, where it started in the rear yard, the trails over the berm, on and on.  I tell him that Steve and I believe there are only three people that would match the body in the photo, Steve insisted on discounting the head completely as it was so distorted, all we had from the head was hair color – light, I did not agree, but we were going with the three for the moment, so I point out where they live and what their names are.

The deputy is standing out in street, staring at the houses and nodding.  He really wants Morgan to think about anyone who could be the stalker, anyone at all.  He says he is going now and I thank him, look up and see Elliott, our neighbor across the street, approaching, more like marching, he looks angry and won’t even look me in the eye. I’m thinking wonderful, like this is all my fault?  He demands to know what is going on from the deputy, he sees the sheriff’s trucks constantly, he has two young daughters and he deserves to know.  I could not agree more, and I wait for the deputy to explain how they would like it kept quiet for the moment, but he tells Elliott we have a stalking situation going on here, and they are trying to apprehend the stalker in the act.  I feel relief, now I can tell everyone.  Elliott wants to know what we know about it, and what he should be on the lookout for.  The deputy tells him we have very little to go on, but they are working on it.  I’m thinking of the pictures from last night, the shoeprints, which were perfectly clear, the trails on the berm, the description of him on our porch, and I’m wondering what do they want, for him to leave his drivers license pinned to the door?  This is so upsetting.

Elliott wonders if I can call him later, he’s very upset that he has been kept in the dark, wonders how we are so sure this guy is not after his daughters too.  I welcome the chance to explain it all to Elliott, but I also have to get back to work, and I excuse myself and leave them to talk.

Now a year later I feel like there was no lack of advice at the time, or at least opinions, as to what we should do, from the sheriffs.  Most of the advice from other people, not law enforcement, was very good and well meaning, but some was what I would call aggressive, many people said if they were me they would shoot him – then I would answer shoot who?  It is pitch darkness when we run outside to try to catch this stalker.  We can’t just shoot off a gun into the darkness.  Now I take it much better, but at the time it would cause such anger, I felt like I was in a fight with the whole world.  Our family lived the dangers of a stalker first hand, and we really thought we were doing the best we could.  What we did was also not good enough, what the sheriffs did was not good enough, and what the coroner did . . . – well that horrifying story is coming up soon.  We can never bring Morgan back, but we can rise above this, we can ALL admit our mistakes, we can ALL improve.  We should ALL be able to look at a group of girls at the school bus stop and think, they are safe here.  We ALL have a way to go for that to be true, and I guarantee denial will not get us there.  Last night, when the viewers reading Morgan’s story went over 6,000 for the day, Steve told me, it may be hard to see, but I am really making a difference.  I really hope that is true, but until I have justice for my sweet baby, I don’t think I can agree with that.

Later that day I go next door to talk to our neighbor Rhonda, I show her a grainy print out of the pictures, and that was enough to get her very upset, and extremely creeped out.  She offered to have the sheriff’s patrol officers set up their surveillance of Morgan’s windows from her dining room window any time they wanted – at least they would be warm, while laying low watching for the stalker.  I immediately passed on this suggestion to the deputy who had just left.

I then went over to Elliott’s house to show him the picture from the web cam.  I went in Elliott’s house.  When he looked at the photo he became excited.  He points at the picture and says, Toni this body type is very unique, and I can only think of 3 people in this whole neighborhood that it could be.  He named off his next door neighbor Peter, Brooke’s dad, James Harris (he leases a house just 3 houses down from us), and Brooke’s boyfriend, Keenan.  I have never seen or heard of this Keenan before, and I tell Elliott that I did not know anyone other than Brooke was living in the house with her dad.  Elliott tells me that Keenan had just moved in to Brooke’s dad’s house at the end of July.  This would be just before the stalking started!  I point out in the photo the long sleeve shirt the stalker is wearing and tell him I think it is unique and not something a younger person would wear.  Elliott disagrees and immediately runs upstairs in his house and grabs a shirt to show me.  It looks like the exact same shirt in the photo – Elliott tells me he has the same shirt in black and it is a very popular shirt, many people have them that like to do things in the outdoors so of course younger people wear them.  We make plans to stay in contact about what is going on, and he offers that Morgan can come over anytime she’s home alone or feels any danger, in fact he wants her to call him and he will come over and escort her to his house.  I told him I do not ever plan on leaving her alone at home, but thank you so much for the offer.

Morgan came home from school with a group of friends she wants to show the pictures too.  They all, one by one, are “freaked out”.  I desperately wish the picture had a clearer face on it.  After her friends leave I tell Morgan that the deputy that came over this morning (while she was at school) wanted to know anyone she could think of who might do this, and what Elliott had told me later. Morgan turned white as a ghost when she heard about Brooke’s boyfriend.  She said Brooke’s boyfriend Keenan drives a big truck, and she hadn’t seen that in our neighborhood, so she had no clue he was living with Brooke.  She also said back in February she had walked into her friend’s house and seen him there with Brooke, and she had gotten a creepy feeling from him, so she just turned around and left without speaking a word.  After that she had asked her friends who he was, and how does Brooke know him, they all said he’s not a good guy (and then went on to describe how bad he was), they warned her not to have anything to do with him, and she never did, so now she is very upset that he is in our neighborhood, living just three houses down from us.

Morgan takes the deputies’ card from me and says, “I didn’t know anyone before, but now I do!” Then she sends the following email to the deputy:

Morgan's email to Deputy J

Morgan sent this email to a deputy in response to his question earlier about possible people she might know that would be capable of doing this to her.

That evening, Morgan goes to see her friends and sends me a text when she is leaving to come home at 7:32 pm, “On my way”  I sent back, “Ok, I’ll be waiting.”

Then nothing is heard tonight – it was quiet.  Morgan goes back to sleeping in the closet, which is upsetting to me because I know her back hurts, but I understand her fear.  I feel its safer for her this way too.

Click here to read about the 30th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=899 – CAN YOU BELIEVE IT WILL BE 30 DAYS TOMORROW AND IT IS JUST GETTING WORSE? WE ARE BESIDE OURSELVES AND DON’T KNOW WHERE TO TURN!