Category Archives: Stalking

Stalking behaviors, Morgan’s Stalker and his actions.

Identifying the Suspect in Morgan’s Stalking Case – see the prime example of a stalking incident in the diagram below

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Following the events of the night of August 29, 2011, and into the early morning hours of August 30th, the Garfield County Sheriff’s office had a wide array of charges to pursue against the male stalker for his actions against his female victim and her parents, but they did not pursue those charges.

Morgan had been stalked and terrorized for nearly a month at this time. The stalker had been seen in the yard, left clear shoe impressions outside Morgan’s bedroom windows and a bathroom window on the other side of the house that she was using to shower in. And now the stalker was photographed. His face blurred, but his body clearly captured. Crime labs available to the Garfield Sheriff’s office, such as the FBI crime lab, have the capability to identify individuals based on body parts, in addition to facial recognition. This was never done. http://morganingram.com/wordpress/?p=845

The deputies claimed to have access to tracking hounds that could follow the scent trail that was certainly there, but no dogs were called in, not this night nor any other night during the four month stalking of Morgan. This incident clearly indicates not only the mindset, capabilities and bravado of the stalker, but the indifference of the Garfield Sheriff’s office. The officers knew the camera had been broken by the stalker in his attempt to dislodge it, but never even mentioned it in their reports. None of the three deputies would return to assist Morgan in investigating the stalking as required by state law for law enforcement to do. It was Morgan that further investigated and sent an email to one of the deputies exposing Keenan Vanginkel’s mocking attitude toward law enforcement. And then that email, naming Keenan as the suspect by Morgan, resulted in no further investigation or intervention by the sheriffs. Discovered later, was the fact that 5 days before this incident (on August 25, 2011) Keenan was already named as the suspect, by the Garfield County Sheriffs, in Morgan’s stalking case – it is on his Global Subject Activity Report.

After this entire series of events, Morgan vacillated between believing that the Sheriffs did not care that she was being stalked, to then hoping they were getting close to making an arrest. This is what stalking victims do – they want to believe and trust, but when they see that law enforcement is not doing anything to stop the criminal they are frightened and lose hope. At times she felt she would have to wait for her stalker to lose interest and go away and yet she was afraid that something horrible would happen to her before the sheriffs intervened. Morgan continued to be startled, frightened and terrorized on a regular basis, until she was killed.

The Sheriff’s department confirmed Morgan’s fears, because after her murder the detective did a 180 degree about-face and claimed there had never been a suspect, even though only a few days earlier he had said he believed the stalker was going to ESCALATE!!!

Sheriff Lou Vallario would go even further, claiming that in over 50 trips to the Ingram’s house his officers never saw a stalker, when, as evidenced by this series of photos, they had all certainly seen him in a picture, as well as in video footage caught later on. In the four months of Morgan’s stalking the Ingram’s themselves only caught glimpses of the stalker at their house. The sheriff’s would have had to surveil the house ‘without’ glow-in-the-dark reflective tape on their uniforms, and stay off their cell phones, in order to catch the stalker. This never happened. Effective intervention before more serious consequences, as per the Colorado legislative decree, was not in the protocol for the Garfield Sheriffs department, as no crimes were ever charged to Morgan’s tormentor.

Instead it was explained to Morgan’s parents after her death that the sheriffs had “so thoroughly botched the investigation,” that the new District Attorney, Sherry Caloia, did not believe she could ever get a conviction.  And that is how the Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario deals with stalking cases – by NOT dealing with them.

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Read below and tell me if you think the following is a prime example of a stalking incident, as this happened during an active felony stalking investigation…

What was done to Morgan by her stalker(s) was horrific, and what was done to Morgan and our family by the orders of Garfield County Sheriff Lou Vallario was outrageous!  The Sheriffs knew who the suspect(s) were, they said to us that they always needed more and more evidence, and then just days before her murder, the detective tells the “suspects” he is getting close to making an arrest and Morgan will be giving her on-camera testimony the following week at the same time he will be collecting the other “suspect’s” hours – he also tells us that he expects the stalking to “escalate” so then what happens?  The perps get rid of the main witness – Morgan, and then what?  The Sheriffs, that very same morning, told us, “Don’t worry the stalker had nothing to do with Morgan’s death – it’s just a mystery for now.”  I thought, “Are they serious?”  There are no words for the pain and suffering the Garfield County Sheriffs have caused our family – we trusted law enforcement, we were brutally honest with them always, and 5 months after Morgan’s murder Garfield County Sheriff Detective Glassmire told us, “If a suspect decides to lie to us there is nothing we can do.”  If this is what we pay the Garfield County Sheriffs to do – give up and look the other way if a suspect won’t admit they stalked and murdered someone, then the citizens of Garfield County are in grave danger.

Stalkers have been known to abuse/kill their victim’s pets…

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“Animal abuse is also often used by stalkers as a means of terrifying and distressing the victim with dead pets being left for them to find on their doorsteps. Animal abuse is a high risk indicator and predictive of a high risk of serious harm or homicide being inflicted on the victim.”http://www.rachelhorman.co.uk/2018/03/animal-abuse-and-coercive-control/ 

“Killing of a victim’s pet is a frightening act which indicates dangerousness and high risk.” https://acws.ca/sites/default/files/documents/STALKINGHandout.pdf

“Although only 2 percent of stalkers commit homicide, half of them threaten their victims with violence or say they are going to damage property or injure pets, according to studies.” https://www.nytimes.com/1998/08/25/science/researchers-unravel-the-motives-of-stalkers.html

“Acts of cruelty against animals are now counted alongside felony crimes like arson, burglary, assault, and homicide in the FBI’s expansive criminal database.” https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/-tracking-animal-cruelty

Drip Drip Drip Pattern of Escalation in Stalking

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Do you know what that is like?  Have you ever experienced the slow terror of being the target of a stalker?

Laura Richards, BSc, MSc, Asc. IA-IP, MBPsS.  Laura is a renowned international expert on domestic violence, stalking, sexual violence and risk assessment. https://www.laurarichards.co.uk

Laura Richards said, “It is the ‘drip drip drip’ of direct and indirect stalking behaviours over time that makes it so insidious and damaging – psychologically and physically.” https://www.laurarichards.co.uk/news/stalking-murder-in-slow-motion/

She also said, “We know through research that one in two of domestic stalkers, if they make a threat will act on it.”

If your local police or law enforcement do not make stalking a priority, when it comes to their protocol or policing plan – they will continue to fail the victims of stalking.  There needs to be a National Protocol that is accepted and practiced in all agencies.  Law enforcement needs to have the proper education and tools to deal with stalking situations.  Victims need to be believed and assisted in any way possible.  Please use your voice to help raise awareness and make these changes.

 

Why Didn’t Morgan Yell or Scream?

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I have to address this one outrageous idea, that victim blamers keep repeating about Morgan’s murder, “Why didn’t Morgan’s parents hear her being attacked, if indeed she was attacked?”

Try to put yourself in Morgan’s shoes for just one moment – it won’t be easy if you have never been the target of a stalker.  But just try for a moment.  You are exhausted from four months of stalking, you are frightened and on-guard every moment of every day, just waiting for for the next attack to happen, you are hyper-vigilant, and all of a sudden you wake up and your stalker is in your room!  He is probably armed with a gun. And imagine, as we believe, he is not alone. You glance towards your panic button, but it’s not there! (the stalker has removed it), your brain races as you think of how you are going to escape.  You are looking at a weapon, more than one person, and process a verbal threat to be quiet or else… you freeze!

Victims DO report this happening to them, and that is just the ones that survive the attack.  Morgan did not survive, so we are forced to draw possibilities from the facts.  The sheriff’s investigators wrongly believed there was no intruder in her room, because we didn’t hear her scream, yet victims not resisting their attacker is a very well studied and documented FACT.  That very morning, within minutes of arriving, the sheriffs told us her death had NOTHING to do with her stalker.  They did this by ignoring the fact of a victim not resisting, and made matters worse by not treating the crime scene as a crime scene.  The same reason, for so many years, that law enforcement and the courts did not believe or pursue a rape case, if the victim of a rape did not scream or fight back at the time of an attack.  Now of course we know some victims suffered in silence for years before gathering the courage to tell of their attack.  In the case of rape and improper sexual advances, understanding and laws have changed.  Unfortunately in the case of a victim of stalking, who is found murdered in her own home, that type of archaic thinking has not changed at all.

In Morgan’s case, we don’t really know if she was even conscious at all – to not resist her attackers. There is ample evidence she never had a chance to scream out, just as there is ample evidence of intruders in her room that night.  Yet the sheriffs did not tell the pathologist to collect evidence in a rape kit, or test for chemicals that could have subdued her.  The pathologist told us that unless he is directed by the sheriffs to do these things he does not.  So NO simple blood test for any type of chloroform or substance that could have been put over her face, while she was sleeping, to subdue her, was ever made.  NO evidence was collected for a rape kit.  No fingernail scraping were taken to look for DNA, even though 3 nails were broken and there were abrasions on the top and bottom of that same hand.  None of this was done because the sheriffs told the pathologist that it was not necessary…how is that an investigation?

As a little side note to this – did we have a lead that a substance like this was used?  Yes, we did – when the first responders arrived and realized Morgan was already dead, they started to ask questions.  One of their questions was about Carbon Monoxide detectors in our home.  Steve showed them our detectors, and the one plugged into the the wall, above the counter, in the laundry room, had a one-time super high reading that night – Steve was shocked.  The sheriffs were not interested in this one-time super high reading, because it didn’t fit their “no intruder” theory, so they ignored it.  Months later, after other doctors looking at Morgan’s case were convinced it was a homicide, Steve looked up the data on our exact Carbon Monoxide detector and found, to his shock, that it is plausible for chloroform fumes to cause a one-time super high reading without triggering the alarm.  Based on that we surmise that an intruder could have poured chloroform over a cloth on the laundry room counter, before entering Morgan’s room.  We told the pathologist, as well as the sheriff of this discovery, as well as many more facts that absolutely establish the presence of at least one intruder that night, but our FACTS have always fallen on deaf ears – they did not care.  They proved this by there actions.  When too much evidence piled up showing there had to be at least one intruder, they closed her stalking case, claiming there were no more leads to follow up on. That shows they don’t care.

Now some scientific facts, showing why victims may not scream or fight back, by experts in the field…

Freezing in the context of an attack seems counterintuitive. However, tonic immobility may be the best option when the animal perceives little immediate chance of escaping or winning a fight (; ).

Why So Many Rape Victims Don’t Simply ‘Fight Back’

A new study shows it’s common for women to experience involuntary paralysis during sexual assault.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-involuntary-paralysis-freeze-rape-fight-back_us_5936f8e7e4b0099e7faff1dc

The following is a Washington Post article about, “Why Many Rape Victims Don’t Fight or Yell”

Quote from the article: “Countless victims of sexual assault describe just such responses. Too often police officers, college administrators, even friends and family think to themselves – and say out loud – “Why didn’t you run out of the room?” “Why didn’t you scream?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/06/23/why-many-rape-victims-dont-fight-or-yell/?utm_term=.9b6570fd54b6