This is the latest out of Carbondale, CO, the place where our youngest daughter Morgan was stalked & murdered. I applaud CBS4’s Matt Kroschel for reporting about these recent attacks on the Rio Grande Trail. In the past there have been crimes that have not been reported & when the news is repressed (for whatever reason) these predators can continue hurting innocent victims and destroying lives.  http://denver.cbslocal.com/2016/07/26/police-search-for-suspects-after-2-women-attacked-on-trails/

At the time both Morgan’s stalking & murder were kept out of the news – Carbondale being a small town had people shocked when they found out what had really happened. Morgan was stalked & terrorized for 4 months before she was murdered during an active investigation into her felony stalking. Other women, in the subdivision right across the road from us, told us of similar stalking incidents that they had reported to the sheriffs over the 2 years before Morgan’s stalking began, separate stalking incidents that continued in the area up until 2 weeks before Morgan’s stalking started…and yes, the sheriffs knew.  Two different sheriffs patrol officers told us about some of the incidents right in the beginning of Morgan’s stalking.  Other victims told us about similar tapping on their windows and the description of the person wearing a dark colored hoodie in their yard that ran when spotted.  But was any of this in the news in order to warn other potential victims – NO!  Do crimes stop just because people are not informed about what is going on in their communities?  NO!  If anything it just gets worse because these predators are emboldened by the lack of news or a lack of any investigation into their crimes.

In this video you can see the Carbondale police speaking about the recent attacks.  Important to note the police are only allowed to respond to things within city limits, and obviously these 2 attacks that they are talking about happened within the Carbondale city limits.  Our daughter Morgan’s stalking & murder happened just outside the city limits, even though we lived in Carbondale at the time, our home was just outside city limits.  So the first time we called 911 we were told the Garfield County sheriffs were the only law enforcement that could come out to investigate…not the Carbondale police.

In this video you can see the bike path Morgan used to take to and from town when she wanted to get exercise and be in nature…after her stalking started she had to stop riding her bike to and from town because of the isolation on that path & the danger of an attack from her stalker. This was just another thing she loved that had been taken away from her once she became a target.  I really want people to understand what victims of stalking, or even young women like these recent victims of a sexual predator, get taken away from them…their freedom and their lives as they knew them.  For these victims they can never feel safe again, they become hyper-vigilant…as so they should.  They go out and buy tasers, pepper spray, anything to protect themselves.  Is this the kind of world we want our children to live in?  We can’t completely rid the world of evil and yes, we need to teach our children how to protect themselves, BUT we also need the media to report crimes so people can be aware of what is happening.  We can’t live with our heads buried in the sand…that will not make us safer.

I also want to say I applaud the Carbondale police for speaking out about these recent attacks – an officer can be seen on this video WARNING people and making suggestions to try to keep people safe…that is what law enforcement should do.  They can’t be everywhere all the time – that is why community policing is so very important.  USDOJ.gov on Community Policing

In our daughter’s case her stalking was not shared with the community by the sheriffs – they even asked us not to talk to the neighbors about it.  Patrol officers that were involved in the beginning were reassigned to other areas and we had to explain to new officers about what had happened over, and over again.  Then when our daughter turned up dead the cover up started.  Why not tell people the truth?  Why not warn communities when there is danger so they can help protect their families and help law enforcement get the bad guys?  The media is a very powerful tool by which law enforcement can communicate with the community.

Let us all share information early & often in the hope of raising awareness and making this a safer place for our family, friends and communities.  Truth, transparency, ethics and humanity are the things I pray for in the people that are in positions of power. Share what you have learned with others, by doing so it raises awareness, and who knows…someday it may even save someone’s life.