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 4, 2011 – Day 64 of Morgan’s Stalking

Morgan's favorite little things

Morgan’s shelves by her bed with some of her favorite things

Morgan texts Steve and I in the morning from school, “Don’t forget to track your calories!!!”  She has instituted serious food changes in the house and in what amounts to Morgan’s ‘boot camp’ she has installed calorie counters on both our phones and is going to slowly bring us around to a much better diet.  We welcome the help because with all of the distractions and stress we are certainly not in the best shape of our lives.

I answered her at 4 pm, “Did it.”  I also said there is a big storm forecast to blow in so I wanted her to reschedule a trip to Denver with two dance partners for new toe shoes.  I also asked her if it was raining where she was and Morgan answered, “Oh yeah.”  I told her “Here too – not fit for man nor beast out there.”  Morgan sent me back the image of a heart.  I sent her back six horses running and she said “Haha horses?”  I told her “You got – horses running from the storm.”  Morgan finished “Hahahahaha I didn’t get that.”

She was out for a while still, so Steve and I went shopping.  I texted Morgan at 7:30 pm as we were getting in the car,  “Got you beautiful Adidas yoga pants xs and warm blue sweat pants xs” Morgan of course said, “You’re the best.” I told her no doubt, and that we would let her know when we got home.  Morgan wanted to spend the night at a friend’s house. I told her it was fine and wondered what time she would be home in the morning.  She was thinking early, so now we could hope for a quiet evening.  Steve was wishing there was some way we could fool him into thinking Morgan had come home, we had tried having our daughter-in-law try to wear Morgan’s coat and drive out, come back and see what happened.  Just the thought of it was too much for her, she was too frightened, and that plan was dead.

The night was quiet without Morgan coming home.  No Morgan, no stalker this time.

Today it is October 2, 2012 – And it is the same – no Morgan no stalker – or is that really true?  It is not true – the stalker(s) focused on us after we moved – the sheriffs knew where our new house was located and not long after so did the stalker(s).  But that still won’t stop us.

We work on Morgan’s case and try to make plans that mean something to us.  We have plans to take a trip to see our children and grandchildren soon.  That will be very nice – can’t wait for all those cuddles!  Through our daily pain we really try to think positive and loving thoughts…it’s not easy, but we put on a smile for everyone around us.

Click here to read about the 65th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1561

October 2, 2011 – Day 62 of Morgan’s Stalking


This morning at 6:15 Morgan is awoken by loud stones against her window, the loudest it has ever been (look at the suspects hours below – he was on his break, only minutes from our house at this time!) She presses the panic button immediately and Steve is at her room seconds later, and then he is out the front door.  I rush to her room and Morgan is beside herself.  She thinks that it is a wonder he did not break the window and we both look at all of her windows very carefully for cracks.  We don’t see any, and Steve comes back in to report that he did not see anything, and Keenan’s car is not at Brooke’s dad’s house.  He is going for a drive to record the rest of the neighborhood, and wants both of us to stay inside while he is gone.

We are all far too keyed up for sleep and wind up in the kitchen for a family talk.  I have no notes about what we did talk about that morning, but I can safely guess that it revolved around stalkers and stalking.

After breakfast we go outside and find two questionable footprints on Morgan’s side of the house.  I see them, but Steve does not.  Again, I would like to mention that we had 6 cameras up around our house, but they could not cover every area of the house – it was impossible…so there were holes in the coverage.  We spent some time looking at the live video and Steve positioning on that side of the house, and realized the spot where the prints were is in a “hole” between the two cameras.  Steve aims both cameras at Morgan’s windows and we thoroughly water the side and rake it smooth.  We had been lax in this step since the video cameras went in and we agree to be more attentive to every detail.  Now that we have a detective, if we get a really good print he will cast it.  I am very angry with myself for not keeping up with this “chore”.

Later that morning, right around 10:35 am, a neighbor calls and tells us that Keenan drove up at 10:30 am and, after watching him get out of his car and go in the house, he did not have the “range bag” this time.

Morgan goes out with her puppy and texts me later at 9:51 pm “On my way”.  I have been trying to find an app for my phone that Morgan wanted me to get and I text her back, “Is the app called happy trees?”  She answers, “Hills.” And I tell her, “Ok thanks and I’ll watch for you.”  She tells me “K” and is pulling in the driveway a short while later.

We had all been up since early morning and were tired and went to bed.  At 10:31 pm one of the back motion lights went off, this had been such a pattern, which was followed by something on Morgan’s windows that I went right out into the yard with a flashlight, leaving the bedroom door open.  As soon as I was out in the yard I heard the motion alarm for the driveway going off in the room.  I thought whoever was in the back had gone straight to the front and across our driveway.  Most every time we had seen someone in the driveway they were always going from my office side of the house to the garage side of the house and I went back through the house to see what was out front.  There was nothing and I went back in to discuss with Steve some counter measure for this pattern, it had happened too many times.

Today is September 30, 2012 – A thought about cameras.  If ours had been mounted away from our house looking at our house from some distance they would have proven far more useful.  From a practical standpoint it sounds difficult, but mounting cameras on neighboring houses and the back of the back yard, all aimed at the house seems like a good start.  Our cameras were mounted under the eves of the house which put them about 3’ from the outside wall and as our house had really high ceilings they were about 14’ from the ground.  And reviewing all the cameras we had, in case I have not talked about this, pretty much impossible to see it all.  The video was always on, so it was six cameras times 24 hrs each, every day.  Unless we wanted to focus on a specific place in a certain time range it was difficult.  There was a motion detecting feature that we have found was less than perfect in catching our stalker, but it was very helpful in ruling out wind or animals as a cause for an alarm on one of the motion detectors.  We now know the cameras were not catching any images because the stalker was on our ROOF!  He was coming from above and the cameras were not pointed up there.

Click here to read about the 63rd day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1540

September 29, 2011 – Day 59 of Morgan’s Stalking – What kind of help do we really need?

Morgan has no school today.  She takes her time in the morning and then heads into Glenwood Springs early in the day.  She shops and meets with friends and tries to have a day to herself.  This is why she minimizes what is going on when she talks to her friends.  She wants to drive away and feel like it is not happening.  What sane person would not?  If all of her friends were constantly asking her about her stalker it would be her entire life, and she wanted to maintain Morgan time – time that was hers and not invaded by her stalker.  I am not saying she didn’t tell her friends what was happening – they knew and were worried, it’s just that she didn’t want her stalker invading her entire life…even though that is exactly what happens.

Steve has another new plan and it involves recording the status of the neighborhood when Morgan comes home, in addition to all other events.  He is dedicated to give this new detective enough information so that an end is reached. He has recorded this information for today, and wants me to forward it to the detective.

Morgan got home at 8:30 pm – Steve did a drive of the neighborhood, and Keenan’s car was not in Brooke’s dad’s driveway.  We all go to sleep, and starting at 11:00 pm Morgan’s motion lights go on and off at least 5 times.  That motion light going off has recently always been precipitated by the MBR rear motion light going off (or on really).  Five times this morning and four the evening:

  •  9/29    23        34        MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    23        22        MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    23        14        MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    23        14        MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    4          39        MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    4          7          MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    3          31        MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    1          33        MBR Rear Light
  •  9/29    1          32        MBR Rear Light

She does not hear noise, but at this point the lights put her into the “ready” mode, waiting for a tap or a BANG that may never come.

We tell Morgan that with the detective on board we must really strive to give him the best information we can.  The sheriffs will work this out, and then it will be over.

Morgan is very animate that the detectives do not start from zero with suspects and then we go through another 2 month process again.  She is certain it is Keenan and will report every little incident, as long as they agree to investigate every little incident.

the storm is about to end

Morgan wants the storm to be over

Morgan is also very distraught, she feels that they, the detectives, have no idea what she is living through and are treating it like it is some “ding, dong. ditch” game when it is anything but that. She wants the detectives to come and spend a night in her room so they can experience first hand just what is really going on.  Of course there is the chance that they will somehow know it is not really Morgan in the room and lay off for the evening.  But Morgan is confident that if we do this correctly her stalker will not know, and something really constructive will happen.

Steve and I agree to bring this idea up with the detective right away and we also are alarmed by the spike in motion detectors going off. Our week or so of quiet that came with the new video system is gone – replaced by a concentrated series of alarms going off in specific areas and at specific times.

We have only to corral him into a pattern and then turn the detectives loose on him.  Steve and I explain to Morgan that this is our short term goal.  She must be vigilant, stay safe and report the slightest thing.  This is how we will catch him.  Morgan is in agreement and will do just that.

I also call an old acquaintance who owns a security company and he is sympathetic to what is going on.  He is willing to cut us a deal, but a case like this requires four men overnight, for however many nights it will take. At $90 an hour, per man we are looking at $3,600 per night to cover us, a few nights and it is over $10,000.  We can not afford that much, so I tell him we have just gotten two detectives, and they have plans for two stakeouts.  We will see how those go first and then decide about bringing him in.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 9.29.2011 he worked from 1:00 am – 6:05 am & then from 6:32 am – 9:47 am… so he was free this evening to continue his torment)

Today is now September 27, 2012 and all of a sudden things that just came into view are important.  Who will I support in the next election?  Morgan was so excited when she was old enough to vote, and took it very seriously.  Looking over all the information, and then asking me who we were going to vote for – I told her that it was really important for her to decide on her own who she thought would do the best job…of course Morgan said, “I was planning on that Mom, I was just wondering who you were leaning towards voting for.”  That was then and this is now.

The question of who to vote for now takes on special meaning for me this year.  It is simple, someone with common sense and integrity, who understands that stalking is a serious crime, the most underreported and insidious threat to our communities.  Someone who wants to work with the citizens of this County – not just to make their own decisions and forget about the people they are supposed to represent.  Steve and I will just have to ask ourselves who would Morgan have thought was best, who cared, and would care about protecting her from her stalker.  The news crews are priming for round two of what really happened to Morgan Ingram, and we are so thankful for that.  Oh, and a TV series wonders if they should come here to film, or we should go to Los Angeles, that’s easy.  Come to where it is beautiful, then film…just don’t die while you’re here, our coroner is questionable at best.

Daddy missed you so much today Morgan, Wylah was on the lookout constantly too.  We feel you, and want to do the best we can for you!!!  And yes, I keep breathing, although there are times I wish I wasn’t – I wish I could be with you.

Click here to read about the 60th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1482

September 28, 2011 – Day 58 of Morgan’s Stalking – Just Sit Tight…

Spring wild flowerMorgan had jazz dance class early today, and she was not feeling well.  After class she Skyped with her big sister, and lounged around the house.  She was reading and resting.   Steve and I needed to go get something in Glenwood Springs and pick up some dinner, of course Morgan didn’t want to go, so instead she just went and picked up a friend, she came back to the house with her friend before we left, so she wouldn’t be alone in the house.  For a 20-year-old who is used to having so much freedom to come and go, or just be by herself if she wanted, this was making me feel really sad for her. She always had to be with someone…I was praying that this would end soon, and everyone’s lives could go back to normal…especially Morgan’s.

I texted Morgan at 7:43 pm, “What yarn from Walmart?” Morgan answered. “Caron simply soft grey heather, will you grab two just in case?”  I told her “Will do.” And Morgan said, “Thanks!!  At 8:08 pm I told Morgan, ”we got three just to be safe, and we are on our way home now.” And Morgan said ,  “You guys are the (image of love bomb) !”  And I said, “Too cute love the bomb!”

After dinner the detective answered my questions and we had a case number, case #11-20197, this was now the 58th day of the stalking.  The detective had lots of input about getting a restraining order against Keenan Vanginkel, and I sketched them all out on a piece of paper.  He felt that on one hand it could keep him from entering our yard, which is not necessarily a bad outcome.  But then it would also limit our ability to get any additional evidence to charge him.  With stalkers you never know, it might make him do it more frequently.  And of course it would interfere with surveillance, something the detective wanted to do at least twice in the 9:00 pm to 1:00 am time slot as soon as possible.  He said things had come up, and there would be no surveillance this week, so he was hoping we could hold off for a couple of weeks before we did get a restraining order against Keenan.  We would hear from the detective next week, and he would update us as to plans for the week.

I was actually relieved to not be seeking a restraining order right away.  I knew Steve would not be happy about this decision, nor would Morgan, but I thought, okay it was just for a few weeks, and if we caught him in that time it would be so much better.  Let me share the reason I was relieved we didn’t go for a restraining order yet…I know this sounds strange to you but I felt that I had a good reason.  In July of 2010 Vonnie Flores was killed by her next door neighbor in Leadville, CO.  She knew the man that was stalking her for 5 years, as he was her next door neighbor.  She had filed a restraining order against him one week before she was killed. He had been arrested in June of 2010 and was out on bail, this was in July of 2011 – the summer before Morgan’s stalking started.  https://www.denverpost.com/2010/07/08/sheriff-says-leadville-woman-killed-by-stalker-out-on-bail/  He shot her in her own driveway – so needless to say I was a little concerned about getting a restraining order.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working on 9.28.2011)

Today is September 26, 2012, and it is time to answer the question about all those rocks!

Imagine yourself in a room, even the room you are in will do.  Take a moment to imagine – it’s quiet, you are alone, it is dark, and then there is a noise, or is there a noise? A tap? A scratch?  What is it?  You are not sure, and you strain to hear, to know, then BANG, loud reverberating, rattling.  You jump, startled by the sound, you are not alone, and not in a good way!  Your heart is beating more rapidly, fight or flight kicks in, uncertainty, call out, stay silent, you are not sure of what to do.  Try it sometime, see how easily you could be frightened, by just two noises.  Welcome to a fraction of Morgan’s life at that time, because this and more happed on a regular basis.  And it is was not just Morgan, it is the same fear, the same uncertainty for every single person who is a victim of stalking!  And whenever it wasn’t happening, I knew from being with Morgan, as well as when it happened to me, that she was on guard for the next time, she knew would come, never really feeling safe.  Does a longer time period between startles make the next one worse than the last?  Some experts believe that is absolutely the case.  What if is a shorter interval?  Yes, of course, bam, bam, bam, – make it stop!

Steve and I were privileged to be put in contact with individuals who really do understand that you can be scared to death – and could explain it in terms that we could understand…almost.  But, as always, I encourage you to research for yourself, just google – “homicide by fright” – or if you feel that is too narrow of a subsection, broaden out to – “scared to death” – and wade right in.  Bottom line is that it happens, and we spent a good deal of time researching this cause of death because doctors and professors heard:

  • 20-year-old, and very healthy
  • Four months of stalking
  • Terrorized
  • No real obvious cause of death (which we now know was not true – the pathologist just ignored the scientific evidence he had, either through gross negligence or as part of a cover-up

This was of course before the tox report was revisited, and the pathologist, Dr. Kurtzman’s explanation of “Pay no attention to these results, they are insignificant”, and stapled to the top, was peeled back and the actual results were scrutinized by other forensic experts.  Then it was established that Morgan actually had been killed by a massive dose of the sexual assault drug Amitriptyline.  That of course was before the latest coroner twist, which produced a report with six other date rape drugs in her gastric system – drugs that never even made it into her blood stream as she was already dead when they were put in her stomach.  And of course he forgot to mention that in the suicide finding.  Am I sounding paranoid or just stating the obvious?

So what does all that have to do with rocks, you ask?  You can be scared to death by your stalker and it is important for every person being frightened by their stalker to know this.  In Morgan’s case, after her death, there was a period where we thought it was homicide by fright.  But it has been clarified into an massive overload of one drug that was injected into her, enough for a 1,200 lb horse, then many other drugs, a date rape cocktail of drugs put into her stomach after she was already dead, all that is left is to determine who gave them to her and how, or maybe there was more than one person involved.  That is was not Morgan by herself is with out doubt, and besides how does she steal all of her own jewelry at the same time, assault herself and then move her own body after she is already dead?

The lesson I wish to share is that if you are being startled don’t take it lightly, protect yourself from fright.  I’ve even read that in the overtime of a soccer game heart attacks will spike.  Think about it , soccer game, goes into overtime, heart attacks spike.  I remember the pathologist, Dr. Kurtzman, telling Steve it was impossible for Morgan to have died from mere fright, “mere fright,” that’s what he called it.  When so many doctors, professors and specialists have told me that is pure nonsense, of course you can die from fright and if the correct things are tested in the tox screen you will have proof as well, what is a normal person supposed to do?  I guess this is what they mean by fighting City Hall…

Now back to rocks.  Steve was obsessed with the noise on the windows, he wanted to know how did the stalker do it?  How was there never any evidence of how it was being done.  He would stand in the yard, stare at the house, it just came to him.  We had a planter around the house with rocks in it, but that did not seem like how it was being done.  The detectives theorized ice chunks and we would go out right after a noise and search for ice, nothing.  Steve thought he had figured it out once with the bb gun theory, so he bought bb guns.  Laser sights, long range, plastic bbs, and he could make noise on the windows from a great distance, way out of range of the cameras, without breaking the glass.  And when we did it we could not find the bbs either.  But the next deputies out to the house had lots of experience with bb guns said over time the ground would be covered with bbs, so that was not it.  In shear desperation Steve wanted to smear a film of Vaseline over the windows so we could read the streaks left after noises.  Morgan was freaked out by that idea, so instead we mowed the grass extra short in front of Morgan’s windows, raked the ground thoroughly right there too, picked it all up and added it to the grass clippings.  Then took the bags of mixture and spread them out, one by one, over plywood and examined it piece by piece.  And found nothing out of the ordinary.

Steve was tearing his hair out.  Then we met with an Intuitive who, among a lot of other things, said to look on the roof, there is evidence on the roof.  And bingo, two detectives, half dozen deputies, and Steve gave it their all, but didn’t look on the roof until now.  The first time Steve was up on the roof after this meeting he called me and said, “I know how he did it.”  Why couldn’t we figure this out sooner?

With a fixed length piece of metal or wood, a broom handle, or countless other things that could have even been left up there, it was a simple matter to lean over he edge of the roof and tap or bang on any of the upper windows.  Our roof is quite high and from the ground it seemed way too far up there, but it was not.  Most of our windows went all the way up o almost under the eaves.  With a telescoping rod, like say collapsing hiking poles or trekking sticks, it would be even easier, collapse and take with you, nothing to leave behind – Morgan was right when she covered up her clearstory windows with thick sheets.

We had the grounds around the house well covered.  We watered and raked the dirt, preparing it to get some good footprints, so many times.  And all we had to do was look up.  He owned the roof, and we did not figure this out until months after her death.  And really – when there is noise on the glass, no footprints in the freshly watered and raked soil, and nothing caught on camera.  He had to be somewhere, and we missed it completely.  There was a “seam” between two cameras that was utilized to get to the house and then once on the roof every system in palace to catch him was rendered ineffective.

Don’t let this happen to you!  Not just look up on the roof, look everywhere, your stalker will have some other plan every time.  If something unexplained is going on take the time to explain it, no matter how long it takes.  A little piece of information like that could prove to be more important than you would ever know.

Click here to read about the 59th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1462