Monthly Archives: September 2012

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

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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.

Stories of stalking…what if stories of the victims helped heal and empower others?

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Morgan's photo of rings of a tree

Just like the rings of a tree, every year we grow, always building on what has come before.

Every day I sit in front of a computer and relive a day that led up to my daughter’s death.  I was truly uncertain as to how she had died at first, and Steve and I sought out a second opinion.  We were shocked, in denial, exercising avoidance, you name a psychological name that protects you from the brutal truth, and there is a good chance it was humming full speed in us at that time.

Along this path to recovery we had a third opinion, a fourth, a fifth, so many we have lost track.  All wonderful caring professionals I will never be able to thank enough for the time they took, and the compassion with which they treated our family.  Completely diametrically opposed to the way we were treated by the Coroner Trey Holt and the subcontractor who does his autopsies Dr. Robert Kurtzman.  At one point I remember Steve pointing out that if the score was being kept it was 12 -1, Twelve professionals certain that the one, Dr. Robert Kutzman was wrong.  As you can imagine that did not go over well with Dr. Robert Kurtzman,  obviously not used to being questioned or having to answer tough questions he became frustrated and dismissed it all as “none of these other doctors can testify, only I can testify in court, and he was so wrong about that too.   But he and Trey Holt had their own agenda, and I really am at a loss to explain what that might have been.  The well being of our family as we dealt with this nightmare, and the pursuit of justice for Morgan Jennifer Ingram did not exist for those two.

Even Thomas Walton, of whom I spoke yesterday, he may have really been trying to do a good job, but if his requirements were zero, and his training was zero, and if part of his job description was to make sure his boss got the job of handling the funeral to come, well if that was the case, he did as good as he could have been expected to.  They are completely separate entities you know, or at least they are supposed to be. The Coroner’s office – ultimate authority for the cause of death, none higher – then the funeral home is what comes after, and only after the County Coroner has completed his job and released the body.  That they are the same person is problematic to be sure, but that is sort of the law here in Colorado.

I have found it really important to share what happened, and along the path to recovery the most amazing thing has happened.  Sharing the story has become the rock around which Steve and I rebuild… our family, the search for truth, and justice for Morgan, and even ourselves.

It has been on my mind for a long time and I believe today is the day.  So many have shared with me their stories of stalking, as you know there have even been a few arrests across the country,  arrests I am told would not have happened were it not for Morgan’s story being shared.  People have realized by reading her story that they have a stalker and need to report it and not just keep it to themselves.

So I want to do something, I want to ask all of you who have been victims of stalking to try something.  Share your story with Morgan, don’t use your real name, maybe initials.  But tell what happened, and how it made you feel, and what you did about it, and the State it happened in, short or long as you want.  This is all in the hopes that it will help to heal and, my fingers are crossed here,  rip the cover off this crime called stalking for all the country, and the world to see.   So keep that in mind as you write.  Then send it to me as an  anonymous tip.  I think it would be a good thing to have a group of stories of stalking.  People are so absolutely amazed by the story of Morgan’s stalking, and certain it has to be told.  Maybe your story will touch a chord too, and maybe that is the real story here.

October 1, 2011 – Day 61 of Morgan’s Stalking

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In the morning we try to sleep in, but Morgan’s motion alarm goes off at 7:18 am. It is still dark out, and I get out of bed to give Steve a break. I go out and drive the neighborhood. At about 7:30 am I drive by Keenan’s house, and his car is there. The light in the front room is out. I circle the rest of the block, Steve had a list of the “normal” state of houses, cars, porch lights, and everything is as his list says to expect it.

Morgan was going to leave at 3:00 pm for her babysitting job in Aspen. She is picking up a coworker on the way, and they will go in together. Before she leaves she tells me about an incident the day before. It was around 7:30 and she was on the back deck watching her puppy play in the grass. Then she heard a noise around the side yard, like a rustling noise, on Ken’s side of the house (this is also right where the Aspen tree is located that we find out that the stalker has been climbing – but we didn’t find that out until after Morgan was already dead.) She said she stepped over the fence and went to see what it was. She stood, and waited and watched and never saw anything.  It was daylight out and she felt she was safe to be there.

First I told her to never do that again. Just to go in the house and let us know. Then I went to tell Steve to tell her the same thing, he had this way of communicating with Morgan when I couldn’t. And then I reviewed the video cameras. There was nothing, and she left to go to work. This was making me so nervous – all it would take is just a few minutes and someone could grab her…

Morgan came home at about 11 pm and I met her in the drive as usual. She came in and went straight to her room. Rhonda’s dog started barking at 11:05 and she called to tell us about the barking, and the motion lights above Morgan’s windows being on. She was such a great neighbor, always on the look out, and always calling when she saw something out of the ordinary.

We were pretty much again getting to the point where part of us wanted to ignore everything, and part of us wanted to never stop with the hot pursuit. This time we were all so tired and worn out and we tried ignore and went to sleep.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening.  On 10.1.2011 he worked from 1:00 am – 6:00 am & then from 6:32 am – 9:34 am… so he was free this evening to continue his torment)

Today it is September 29, 2012 – And there is a lesson we learned but did not know back then. When Rhonda’s dog would bark I believe now it was for the absolute best reason. He was small and short , and if we had bothered to get down to his perspective we would have seen he was looking across at our house, and seeing up on the roof. But we did not. And Rhonda somehow knew when his barking was different, and more meaningful – which we also did not fully appreciate at the time.

It is not uncommon for stalking cases to go on for months and even years. Have “quiet times” and “active times”. We were told to document everything as best we could. I kept a stalking timeline that morphed into different versions. We also had a DVR which had six cameras worth of data from our yard for the last 20 days at all times – then it would “write” over itself. I kept a dayrunner for our “normal things” and we have been able to download all the texts from all of our phones from that time. It is an enormous amount of data. More than we could ever fully go through. I can recreate days, but I can’t recreate Morgan, and that part is specifically what Steve and I hope to do in the future. Turn all that data into the ‘Ah ha’ that stops a bad situation from turning worse. Because if you are in a bad stalking situation the chances of it turning worse are real, and that needs to be stopped.

Who’s minding the death scene?

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Branch after a rain

Morgan was found on December 2, 2011 before 6 am, in her bed, non responsive. We had fears then, but Steve and I would know soon enough that our worst fears would be true, Morgan could not be revived, our youngest daughter was dead.

So who is responsible for the death scene? This is important, hidden clues, evidence, arrest the man responsible, utmost importance, so who is it? Absolutely 100%, without doubt, the Coroner, not the ambulance crew, not the Sheriff’s, certainly not the detectives – the Coroner. Unless he is unavailable, which is, trust me, quite often here in Garfield County Colorado. Enter the Deputy Coroner, he takes over as if he were the Coroner, he pronounces the death, and conducts the investigation. Yes, let me repeat that for you, the Deputy Coroner conducts the investigation, not the Sheriffs, and certainly not the detectives – the Deputy Coroner. I know I said it twice, but not everyone gets it the first time. The Deputy Coroner calls all the shots, makes all the notifications, and performs or causes to be performed the autopsy, should one be needed.

Morgan was a healthy 20 year old woman, she had just seen one of her doctors less than 36 hours before she was discovered for her annual check up. She was being stalked by the typology of a stalker that is considered to rank very high as to the possibility of being a lethal stalker. Steve and I did not know this at that time, we thought a stalker was a stalker and eventually he would go away. Evidently the Sheriffs did not know this either. I prefer to think this than the fact they knew, and chose not to warn us. The Sheriff’s department had been to the house over 50 times by their reckoning, which is a very modest estimate, and had yet to get close enough to catch even a glimpse of him. The Detectives on the Felony Stalking case told us they were 100% certain they knew who it was. So it was without doubt that her death was under suspicious circumstances. And a careful and thorough investigation of the death scene was required, then an autopsy.

Enter Thomas Walton, not just The Garfield County Deputy Coroner, The Chief Deputy Coroner. Here is his card:

Thomas Walton Business Card

Thomas Walton Business Card

Notice he is not only the Chief Deputy Coroner, but in fact he is also the Funeral Home Manager. Is that a special qualification, or a conflict of interest? Well Colorado has a law and it goes like this:

COLORADO REVISED STATUTES

TITLE 30. GOVERNMENT – COUNTY – COUNTY OFFICERS

ARTICLE 10.COUNTY OFFICERS

PART 6. CORONER

30-10-619. Conflicts of interest of county coroners

(1) A coroner who owns, operates, is employed by, or otherwise has an interest in a funeral establishment is deemed to have a conflict of interest and shall not direct business to such establishment when performing his or her duties under this part 6.

(2) Nothing in this section shall prevent a person from taking the body of the deceased to a funeral establishment in which the coroner has an interest if such person decides to do so without the suggestion of the coroner.

(3) The provisions of this section shall not apply if an emergency situation exists and the coroner acts in good faith to prevent a health hazard.

(4) Any person who knowingly violates subsection (1) of this section commits a class 2 misdemeanor and shall be punished as provided in section 18-1.3-501, C.R.S.

(5) This section shall apply to county coroners who take office after the general election in 1982.

So in my opinion, because I never was involved in the decision of where to take Morgan’s body, there was absolutely a conflict of interest. But that is petty, a proper investigation of my daughter’s death is far more important to me than if you should try to steer our business your way. What qualifications does Thomas Walton have? That is what is important here, and that is established by the State of Colorado, isn’t it? Well no, as a matter of fact, it is not. For Coroners yes, training in death scenes, for Deputy Coroners it is a bit of a loophole. It is left up to the County to set the standards for the Deputy Coroner. Like over in our neighboring County, Mesa County, they have a 100+ page document called the Standard Operating Guidelines with 9 appendixes. An impressive package to guide the Coroners officers and treat crime scenes with the utmost respect, both for the victim and the victims surviving family.

Here in Garfield County we do have something like that right? Well no, we don’t, as a matter of fact we don’t seem to have anything. How can that possibly be? You might ask – I did, over and over. And I was always told they do not have one. But it gets far worse than that. Over in Mesa County the Standard Operating guidelines spell out the two associations that the Deputy Coroner must become a part of as minimum training:

II. COLORADO CORONER’S ASSOCIATION

The Mesa County Coroner’s Office requires each Deputy Coroner/Investigator to be a member in the Colorado Coroner’s Association (CCA). The CCA sets standards for minimum training to become a member and requires continuing education to maintain membership.

III. AMERICAN BOARD OF MEDICOLEGAL DEATH INVESTIGATORS

The American Board of Medicolegal Death Investigators (ABMDI) ® is a voluntary national, not-for-profit, independent professional certification board that has been established to promote the highest standards of practice for medicolegal death investigators.

Here in Garfield County we have. . .you guessed it – none. The man in charge of my daughter’s death scene was not required to have any training, any credentials, any education, nothing. That was the conditions under which Morgan Ingram’s death was investigated. Thomas Walton is listed as the investigator on Morgan’s paperwork. If you call the Coroners office and ask, they will tell you the our Coroner Trey Holt is on vacation, at least that is what they have done for us on over 15 occasions that we have called there to schedule an appointment with him. And they also will tell you that Morgan Ingram was not Trey Holt’s Case, it was Thomas Walton’s, and he will be put on the phone.

If you check with the Colorado Coroners Association they have lists of Coroners, and Deputy Coroners throughout the state of Colorado that have completed training courses. But for Thomas Walton there will be none – zero hours of courses and training completed.

Then more laws for Colorado:

COLORADOREVISED STATUTES

TITLE 30. GOVERNMENT – COUNTY COUNTY OFFICERS

ARTICLE 10.COUNTY OFFICERS

PART 6. CORONER

30-10-602. Deputy coroner – duties – oath – bond – insurance

(1) The coroner of each county is authorized to appoint a deputy. Any such appointment shall be in writing and shall be filed in the office of the coroner. The coroner of each county may delegate any of the coroner’s powers to one or more deputies who shall then have the same duties with respect thereto as the coroner has. Any act of a deputy shall be done in the name of the coroner and signed by the deputy performing such act. A deputy coroner shall hold office during and subject to the pleasure of the coroner. Except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, each deputy coroner, before entering the duties of office, shall file with the county clerk and recorder of the county the bond and oath of office required by law to be filed by the coroner.

(2) In lieu of the bond required by subsection (1) of this section, a county may purchase crime insurance coverage on behalf of the deputy coroner to protect the people of the county from any malfeasance on the part of the deputy coroner while in office.

30-10-603. Deputy coroner – appointment

Every appointment of a deputy coroner and every revocation thereof shall be in writing, under the hand of the coroner, and shall be filed in the office of the county clerk and recorder of the county wherein such appointment or revocation is made.

Once again in Mesa County there are documents recorded with the clerk and recorder for their Deputy Coroners, but here in Garfield County there are not any I could find. Surely we thought it was a simple paperwork error and our Deputy Coroner at the crime scene was not breaking the law just by being there. So we called Trey Holt, to talk to him on the phone, or meet in his office, or just answer a letter. But he has never done this and we are forced to assume that what seems to be true Is indeed the case.

The Deputy Coroner has no training, no special qualifications, does not file documents required by the state of Colorado before he can enter into the duties of office and directs business to his Funeral Home in violation of Colorado Revised Statute. What Steve and I expected for Morgan at this most unbelievably painful time was decency, respect – a first class investigation – Morgan not only was not afforded this bare minimum, she has received quite the opposite. Outside experts that review Morgan’s case are incredulous.

  • Her pillow cases were not collected, and therefore not processed as evidence.
  • Her pillows were not collected, and therefore not processed as evidence.
  • Her sheets were not collected, and therefore not processed as evidence.

Had she been forced to drink a Date Rape Cocktail and spilled some on her bed. Or had there been DNA from someone else in her room – no worries, it would never be discovered. Is it true that if you process a crime scene with no effort to discover how the crime was committed, you won’t even discover there was a crime? Evidently!

After his investigation The Deputy Coroner Thomas Walton could not produce a report that correctly:

  • Reported the location and position of her body when it was discovered.
  • Stated which, if any, prescription medications she was talking, then, rather than come back and ask us, they just guessed, and of course got it wrong.
  • State her current doctors.
  • State any medical conditions she had – she had none – but that didn’t stop them from stating she did.
  • Stated she was tired and stressed from four months of stalking – which she most definitely was.

We are sorry Morgan. We are sorry that we did not know better. We are sorry that what we thought was CSI was a few rungs below that, maybe quite a few. You deserved so much better then that Morgan, and for that your father and I will always be sorry. But we will try to right this wrong, so it doesn’t keep happening over and over again to innocent families, and it doesn’t keep this County fertile ground for criminals.

There is the overwhelming cascade of feelings, searching…just who is responsible for a crime scene, when there is a dead body there? Why do us parents, at a time when we are in the most indescribable pain, have to figure out what is going wrong with this investigation?

September 30, 2011 – Day 60 of Morgan’s stalking – how is he doing this? All of this?

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Before any of us leave the house this morning a friend in the neighborhood is walking her dog at 5:15 am and sees Keenan drive into the cul-de-sac, and pull into Brooke’s dad’s driveway, where he is living with Brooke & her father James Harris. Based on a feeling, our friend stops and watches him sitting in his car. Keenan is aware he is being watched by our neighbor and a standoff of sorts ensues with neither of them willing to make a move for a long while. Finally Keenan gets out of his car, and goes directly to the rear door of his car and opens it. He pulls out what is described to me as a “range bag” and goes directly into the house with it. Our friend explains to us that the bag is used to transport pistols, ammunition and related gear to a shooting range, hence the name range bag. There is concern, and this information is passed on to me, and I agree that it should go right to the detectives.

I felt that if there were ever a confrontation, knowledge of the existence of this bag could be important. The next day I told Detective Rob and he agrees completely and is very thankful this information has been passed on. He says that in any situation the knowledge of the existence of firearms is very important in order to respond correctly and safely. He encourages me to pass along any additional information, and wonders if I have an accurate description for the bag. I do not and I give him the neighbors phone number who has a willingness and desire to speak with him about this, and other incidents that have been whiteness Detective Rob thanks me for the number and says he will call soon as he can. But as one thing led to another, he never did call to speak with this individual.

Just before 5:55 am, it is still dark out, and Morgan is awakened by a loud scraping noise on her windows. Morgan alerts us with the panic button and Steve is immediately running down the hall to her room, and once he found out what had happened, he goes outside with a mag light in hand and goes directly around to her windows. Steve does not see anything there and continues through the back and over the berm, checking in both directions for any movement. But he does not see anything.

I go out the front door also, locking the door behind me, and out into the street. I check the neighborhood in all directions and the only light on in any of the houses is the front room at Brookes’s dad’s house. We were still not sure what that room might be, but that the light was on and that Keenan’s car was in the driveway was recorded in our book. It would be much later in the day before we learned of the incident in Brooke’s dad’s driveway at 5:15 am.

Steve has circled all around the neighborhood and returned to the house and we were standing in the kitchen, certain we had just missed him by inches. I tell Steve that while he was gone Morgan came out to tell me that her lights outside her window went on and off when he passed by on his way out to the berm, and then a while after that it happened again and at first she thought it was her father coming back by her room, but then heard me talking to him on the phone so she knew it was not him.

This sent Steve back out the front door and out into the street to see exactly what I had – Keenan’s car in the driveway, the light on in the front room, and the rest of the neighborhood still sleeping. He came back in and joined me in the kitchen again. It was not a minute before Morgan came out of her room to tell us that it had just happened again with the lights outside.

Steve and I poured mugs of coffee and sat in front of the monitor replaying the cameras for Morgan’s window over and over. No animals, just the light going on, then off, then Steve running by, and the light detecting his motion, going off, then coming on again for apparently nothing. No animals, was written in our notes for the morning by Steve three times, darker each time, and underlined the third time.

We all had busy days ahead and that was the end of a busy morning. Morgan was babysitting in Aspen until late and my meeting that evening was over before expected and at 7:20 pm I texted her “Got out early. I’m comin’ home now”. A half minute later Morgan answered, “OK”.

Steve was already home looking at the video when I arrived, searching for an answer he had yet to find. He told me that he had decided he would move the cameras, not to a different place, just rotated a little. Every day he would go outside and go to each camera and maybe move that one or maybe not. That way no matter if someone was watching or not a spot that was safe for the stalker the day before would not be safe anymore.

Morgan was finished babysitting before expected and was home just before 8:30 pm. She was in her room and winding down when there was a loud noise at 10:41 pm. She didn’t know what it was. It was not her windows, it could have been in the garage and Steve went to check. Nothing. Trying to explain the noise the best Morgan could do was call it the house, but it was too loud to be the house.

Steve and I sat out on the couch and watched our favorite series at the time with the volume tuned all the way off. Two episodes before we were feeling like whatever it was it was over. I checked in on Morgan and she was sleeping. Her puppy Wylah, lifted an ear without moving, and looked at me.

Today it is September 28, 2012 Today the lawyers are in as much indecision and disbelief at what has happened as we were a year ago – especially on that day. Our notes speak loudly, not by the words, but by the darkness and underlining therein. Back then we could not for the life of us figure out what was going on. Today we now know someone was on the roof, and it makes perfect sense. We had no idea during the stalking how the stalker could be tripping the motion lights, but not getting caught on camera – after Morgan’s murder we knew…he was on our roof!  How else could someone have done what they did that day – lying, sitting, hiding, and watching from up on the roof, simple. The noise at 10:41 pm, could that have been someone jumping from high up on the ridge of the roof to a lower spot with the resounding boom that would cause perhaps? And ask me again if “law enforcement,” was ever up there after, to like search for clues, you know they were not before you ask. Just as surely as you know that Morgan was murdered, by a date rape cocktail, her body moved into a different position and “staged,” and that her jewelry stolen – – and now all Steve and I have to do is prove it, piece of cake. . .right?