Morgan’s favorite lunch – peanut butter, honey and bananas

Morgan has been feeling sick, and she ignores a text from her friend in Savannah, just past midnight at 12:44 am, “When is your Dad’s bday?”

We have a lot of activity in the morning from the stalker, and for some reason Steve is up, and ready.  Like he knew it was coming.  For the first time in a week he has the thermal imaging scope out, and is dressed all in black, when I see him go out the back door at  4:48 am, right after Morgan alerts us to rocks on her window.

I ask him if I should call the sheriffs, as he goes out he says no.  He has a black aluminum baseball bat in his free hand, and I hope he finds something worthy of a swing.  Steve was quite a home run hitter in his younger days.

I try to watch him from the back windows, and I have lost all sight of him, as I go around the house trying to pick out where he is.  Normally the outside motion detectors would be announcing his actions around the house, but this time there is nothing they are picking up on. Whatever he has decided to do this morning, he is under cover.

He calls me at 5:45 am, it is still pitch black outside, and I ask him what is up.  He has picked up two trails in the grass, and has located an area on the berm where he can clearly see the heat signature of where a body that was lying in the tall grass.  He has been watching deer as they come through, and is very familiar with how they present on the thermal imaging and he is convinced this was a person.  He is still close by so he whispers to me. Call the deputies and tell them I have heat signatures across the yard. Tell them to come in from the north side, our side of the street.

This is a different Steve, he has never had me direct the officers before.  My chest is racing I think he must see something to have said that.  One of the officers on the way calls and he has a thermal imaging scope also. Probably much better than ours and he will circle back in from the end of the street.  I tell him Steve is on the berm and has located two spots where a body was hiding.  The deputy is excited and shortly after our phone call I hear a truck race by the front of our house.

This seems too good to be true, we are working together and putting technology to work in order to catch the stalker.  Steve calls me and says he see their flashlights coming, he wonders why they always use their flashlights, you can see them so easily.  My Steve and Officer Steve P. from the sheriff’s department meet up out on the berm between our neighbor Rhonda’s house and ours.  I can see them standing there and talking, pointing at the ground.

They split up and Steve comes straight for the back door.  I unlock it and let him in, this is pathetic, were his first words.  He is very angry. Something was moving down at his end and he could not see it.  Because his batteries were dead.  Of course he can’t take batteries from us because, what, we might catch the guy?  He won’t take my thermal scope, because that is against policy.  Steve says he told him, maybe we should rent the Unicorn hot air balloon for the day, but he didn’t understand, or wanted to choose to ignore him.  He was coming right at them Steve tells me, right at them.  I thought they had night vision, could have spotted him easily.  This is a nightmare times two!

Morgan is wandering down the hall and wondering what is up.  She tells Steve, it’s just rocks against my window daddy, it’s OK I can take it.  He offers to make her French toast, and she perks up quite a bit.  “But it is your birthday.”  Morgan tells him.  “Yes, it is and I want to make you breakfast.”  Which he does, for us all.

Detective P. and Detective M. knock at the front door apologizing about the dead scope, and promising that they will have it working next time.  I don’t tell him the same thing happened to the detectives last time they were here, and then I say good bye.

We have a wonderful breakfast and Morgan goes about getting ready for school.  Steve tells me this is just not fair.  Morgan is giving this all she has, more than anyone ever should, and it has just become one screw up after the next.  He tells me we have to hold them more accountable.  To actually have live batteries is not that big of a request he feels.  I know they think this stalker is harmless, but you never know Steve tells me.  First the car was keyed before the stalking started, with the word BITCH on it (down to the metal and the Carbondale police officer (not the Garfield County Sheriffs) said that it is usually a sign of someone with deep seated problems or on drugs), with lots of anger and who knows what they do next.  I don’t like this at all.

I agree with Steve, they don’t seem to be very serious at all, just going through the motions, and it is having a big affect on Morgan’s life.

Steve leaves for a project he is working on in Aspen, and Morgan comes back out at 10:27 am to announce a text she just received from her instructor, “No class today.  Had to pick up daughter from school.  Homework due Wed.  Classical vs Neoclassical.”  Then she answers her friend in Savannah who was wondering about Steve’s birthday.  At 10:48 am, she tells him, “Today. HaHa.”

Morgan is worried about her Dad, he seemed extra stressed this morning, and I tell her it is wearing on us all and he wants it over.  Morgan assures me that she is fine.  She feels safe as long as she is in the house.  That actually for her the worst part is driving up the street, once she is in the front door she feels like everything is OK.

Today is October 28, 2012 – Another weekend has been spent with lists, timelines and more evidence – more then I ever thought we would have about Morgan’s death.  The order to bring it all out, and through which communication medium, was a big decision today.  Last year after our meetings in Los Angeles we had a very ambitious plan that has now been scaled back.  Raising awareness is still our biggest goal, and our most successful to date.  Justice for Morgan is still very problematic.  We know what happened to her, that she never really stood a chance in her last 24 hrs of life, but presenting what we know and preserving the possibility of eventual prosecution is not at all so easy, as I would have thought.  I miss my little girl so much and I want to do what is right, so waiting for a few more decisions this week will be something I can do.  Steve and I have had so many offers for help that we are humbled by the love and understanding that Morgan’s story was able to spread in the world.  We pray for the strength to do justice to what she had already accomplished in her lifetime.

The chatter on our tipline about stalkers being cornered, and stopped by the lessons we learned and that are being shared with us is very satisfying.  Morgan’s stalker was a very talented individual, in a sick sort of way, and reading about what happened to Morgan has actually helped many other individuals.  It has been more than satisfying for Steve and I, that methods we employed that were useless for us, have been very successful for others.  And have so changed the perceptions of how to correctly confront your stalker for so many others.  It is not the end I had hoped for when Morgan was still alive, but now I gladly take it, in the memory of Morgan and for all of those it is helping. But this doesn’t mean we are giving up – NEVER!  And I am still very confident that a law enforcement agency will step up to the plate and take over this investigation.  Thank you all for so many signatures to our petition to the Governor of Colorado – we will continue to take signatures (only 300 left to go) and then we will be presenting it to him.