The morning I found Morgan’s body, and our family showed up, our daughter-in-law told me about a show she had watched on TV, and wanted to make sure I told the detective to tell whomever he would be talking to, like the Forensic Pathologist doing her autopsy, so he was aware that she had a stalker and to please, please check for injection marks. The detective said he knew the doctor doing the autopsy and he “always checks for injection marks in this kind of case”, and again I believed him. I now see no notes about looking for injections marks, but I do see in an instruction book on how Forensic Pathologists are supposed to look for injection marks.
Morgan had a beautiful french manicure put on her nails the night before she died. In the instruction book it explains why you have to take any nailpolish off to look under the nails for injection marks. When I spoke to Dr. Kurtzman at the end of February, on a conference call with Steve, myself and Detective Rob I asked about Morgan’s nails, about the 3 nails on her right hand that were torn or cut at an angle and I was assured her nails still had a perfect french manicure on them when her body left their facility. What does that mean – what kind of answer is that? How can there be a proper check for injection marks under the nails with the nail polish still on? I have so many of these unanwered questions they could fill a book, but I wanted to tell you all about this story because a reader last night sent me an email through the webiste with the following information, and yes it is the link to the story that my daughter-in-law saw before Morgan’s death:
Did you see this on DateLine? A college student died, coroner originally thought it was natural causes, but then the ME found a tiny pinprick on her arm and it was discovered that a guy who was obsessed with her had injected her with proponol.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25855779/ns/dateline_nbc-crime_reports/t/obsession/I asked my daughter-in-law if this was the story she had watched and she said, “YES!!!! I watched this just a few weeks before Morgan passed, and this story really stuck with me! I have thought about it of a lot, every time I would have doubts about Morgan….and it would remind me, that crazy things happen!!!”
13 more signatures to go! Sign the petition please!
2 more signatures needed for 1,500!!!!
Wow – you guys are so wonderful! I can’t believe we have that many signatures already. Next will be on to the Governor’s office.
1,500!!!!
Yippee! Thank you all so much! I will let you know as things progress now that we made the 1,500 signatures for the petition to go to the Governor.
Just was looking for ?’s Facebook page and it seems like she is no longer there. Little by little it seems like you guys are at least making all parties suspected to be involved squirm. If they had nothing to hide they wouldn’t change a thing, right? Go Ingrams!
Thanks for your support – we knew it would get worse before it gets better but we will not stop the pursuit of justice for Morgan and all others like her so anyone involved should absolutely squirm.
If you saw this episode of Dateline a few weeks before your own daughter, Morgan, died and you realized soon after that the coroner did not check for needle marks because of the nail polish/treatment still on Morgan’s hands I don’t understand why you went ahead with the cremation?
I did not see it – the morning I found Morgan’s body, and they were taking her to Grand Junction, for an autopsy my daughter-in-law told me she had seen it – the felony stalking detective said to me of course the Forensic Pathologist will check for needle marks, I believed him (again stupid of me, but who else is allowed to check?), then the funeral home was calling, and calling (same funeral home owned by the Coroner) to try to get an answer on whether to cremate or not – they said they needed an answer right away…I was so upset that I didn’t want to deal with them, so our son took the calls. I believe most mothers in this situation would be in shock and I was. Finally they said they really needed an answer, so I called the detective to ask him if we should have her cremated or not (I was aware if they still needed evidence we should not have her cremated) and he said they had everything they needed, and it was no problem – go ahead and have her cremated (another mistake, but again I trusted him at that time). Now just so you know everyone in our family agreed a long time ago that’s what they would prefer when they die – I always wanted my ashes to be in with nature and I didn’t want people to come weep at my grave – the rest of the family vocalized that that is exactly what they wanted to, so we fulfilled Morgan’s wishes – but because of the circumstances I know this was a mistake – I should never have been this trusting!
+ even if we had preserved her body it wasn’t until months later that we were told by Morgan’s doctors that they had looked through all of her records for us and they were sad to report that her manner of death was not natural causes, and they believed it was a homicide. We were just trying to find out if there was any medical problem that had killed Morgan, and could adversely affect our grandchildren, so we were quite shocked at the answer.
I can understand how shock affects different people differently. I’m just not understanding how justice can be achieved for your Morgan if it can’t be proven that she was injected/murdered. I did sign the petition if only to get LE to change/improve procedures when faced with someone being terrorized by a stalker.
This blog was created to raise awareness about stalking, to try to get LE to adopt the National Stalking Protocol, and to try to get an investigation open into Morgan’s stalking and murder. This is why it was created, and it is still why it is going at this time. I am so happy that I have heard from so many current, as well as past victims of stalking, that have contacted me to tell me how much the blog has helped them. Other LE officers from other areas have contacted me to support this blog and inform me that after many years engaged in this type of criminal enforcement they have learned things to do differently going forward…like look on the roof. In my heart I know by reveling the truth this story will help people in so many ways.
I worked as an advocate for victim’s of stalking and dv and I agree with you that the effects and dangers of stalking are completely under-estimated by LE. Stalking is a VERY serious crime and we struggled daily to educate LE and the criminal justice system as a whole to educate themselves further and take this more seriously. I just watched your show on Dr. Phil, and also live in CO and am a mother as well. I am so sorry for your loss and I hope justice for your beautiful daugher is found.
Thanks Gina and just so you know, Steve and I know we can’t bring Morgan back (even though it hurts so bad) but we also know if we keep pushing for justice for Morgan and others stand up against this type of crime then laws can be changed and there can be hope in the future. I appreciate you writing in.
Justice won’t be achieved unless a LE agency opens her case and gathers together all the evidence and then charges someone, a trial ensues and then a jury or judge decides…that’s the only way this will work so that is why I keep saying I won’t stop until an investigation in launched into her stalking and murder.
I am confused, you said before that one of the signs of struggles was 3 of Morgan’s nails being tore but then you say they were in perfect condition and that’s how you know they didn’t check for injection marks? please explain i am confused.
The Pathologist that did the autopsy that day said they were in perfect shape and that he did not remove the nail polish – when we saw her body 3 days later the 3 nails were either torn or cut at an angle and no one wants to say when that happened so we need to see the crime scene photos as well as the autopsy photos of that hand.
i just watched the Dr. Phil show and immediately after the show (which I had taped) I found your blog and have been reading the journals. What I don’t understand is if there was an investigation and there were circumstances not yet figured out, why did you have Morgan cremated? There were so many unanswered questions and now all you have are photo’s and reports.
I still trusted the Sheriff’s department at the time and thought they were doing an investigation, but they did not. They did not collect any evidence, only her computer, cell phone, ipod and one old journal (her current one was in her bathroom and they didn’t take it). They did not collect any sheets, pillows, clothes nothing – they did not call in the CBI – they had officers contradicting each other and writing down things incorrectly but here is the thing – Steve and I were in shock! We had just found our youngest daughter dead and we didn’t know what to do so when the funeral home (owned by the Coroner by the way) started calling us to make a decision right away, right after they were done with her autopsy, whether she would be cremated or buried we didn’t get on the phone with them our son did and 2 days later they told us we really had to decide so I called Morgan’s felony stalking detective (remember I was still trusting at that point) and asked him what we should do – do we need to have her embalmed to preserve any evidence and he said no they had everything they needed from the autopsy…I believed him had her cremated and make a huge mistake! I want others to learn from our mistakes and I have spoken with 2 other parents who listened and had their children cremated and made the same mistake because they know they were murdered as well so I hope I have answered your question.
after being a Investigator with a Police Department in Texas and having worked several homicides and suicides I always went to witness the autopsies and on all of them the medical examiner would clip the nails and preserve them for further investigations. not sure what they do in Colorado, but does the medical examiner still have hair, nails, fluids, etc from Morgans autopsies? since there is no body any longer those items are to be kept so that further investigations can be made on them.
That is exactly what I thought he did too so I called the Forensic Pathologist (on a conference call, so there were 4 people total on the line) and asked if that”s why her nails were like that, but he shocked me by saying not only did he not clip her nails, but he left her nail polish still on.
Yes, please read above where I explain – the one thing I didn’t explain is the reason they say to take off the nail polish is even with a french manicure the tips are painted white, so unless it is taken off you can’t check thoroughly for injection marks. We need to have an investigation and have the investigators look at the autopsy photos as well as the crime scene photos in order to see when the nails ended up like that.
Did the investigators that arrived at your house on 12.2.11 look at her body/see that there were broken nails?! I feel like if they were in the least bit competent (which it sounds like they aren’t…REALLY makes me glad that I moved to Fort Collins where the law enforcement is at least a bit better than Garfield County) they would have noticed that and it would have raised a flag in their mind saying “Oh hey maybe we should look for those nails!!” If the murderer had removed them himself there may have been prints on them, if Morgan struggled against him then maybe there would have been DNA from him on there.
Just a side note- This whole case makes me really think that law enforcement/detectives should be held to the same standard of negligence that we hold doctors to! I think it is 100% bull s*&$ that they didn’t think to check any of the things that you have pointed out.
I agree with your assessment of accountability and also, there were sooooo many red flags!
Regardless of how some may feel, I hope you get the true investigation you deserve.
Thanks Layla – we won’t stop until it happens. There needs to be an investigation by a law enforcement agency.
We all know that the TRUTH will come out very soon, despite how hard those losers try to stop you!
We know the closer we get to justice for Morgan those involved will get louder and harsher and try whatever they can to stop us, but everyone here knows the truth will come out. Thanks Luc.
Hi Toni,
I was curious how the local election went there in Colorado? Did new eyes get elected in? I hope so. Been praying for your family.
Still waiting to hear – ballots are being recounted I heard. Thank you so much for your prayers – I think they are being heard.
Hi Toni – Looking forward to your blog’s uodate. Hope all is well.
All is well – no problems, it’s just I have been so swamped I can’t even explain! I will update the blog as soon as I can.
Are you not blogging anymore or just taking some time off?
So sorry – I will keep blogging I have just been really busy and traveling and couldn’t get to it yet, but I will.
Toni, I saw this on the facbook site for never ever give up and thought of you. Hope all is well… <3
“You can shed tears that she is gone,
or you can smile because she has lived.
You can close your eyes and pray that she'll come back,
or you can open your eyes and see all she's left.
Your heart can be empty because you can't see her,
or you can be full of the love you shared.
You can turn your back on tomorrow and live yesterday,
or you can be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday.
You can remember her only that she is gone,
or you can cherish her memory and let it live on.
You can cry and close your mind,
be empty and turn your back.
Or you can do what she'd want:
smile, open your eyes, love and go on."
– author David Harkins
Janis that was a beautiful poem…thank you so much! Steve and I have enough memories, and happy moments that were given to us by Morgan to last many lifetimes, and we do smile and cry every day. We smile, because we know we were so blessed to be her parents, and we cry, because not just us, but the world has lost another beautiful soul.
We will always live for tomorrow because we have 2 other wonderful children, and grandchildren and new memories are still being made. We will also always be in forward movement because we need to get justice for Morgan and help other victims of stalking and we will never slow down (although it’s so exhausting some days) or stop until it’s our time to go see Morgan in the beautiful place I know she is in now. To me she is still on her path as are we.
While we’re waiting for Toni to post another entry, it would be instructive to read the police reports from the morning that Morgan passed away. The documents themselves are glaringly vague and leave more questions then they answer. I think you will see how things that we might assume had been investigated were simply ignored during what seems to be a very shoddy “investigation”. I should say that I have a lot of respect for LE and am in awe of good police work. So, I don’t have a bias, or if I do, it’s in favor of LE. But there’s no denying that they dropped the ball here, and as a result, the only conclusion they could draw was suicide – if there was no evidence of foul play it was simply because they didn’t collect the available evidence!
I just saw a preview for Mondays Dr.phil show! Way to go! So happy this is finally getting the attention it deserves!! Sending all my love prayers and support your way!
Side note: I emailed the show and tweeted them numerous times about this blog pleading with them to look into it. As did numerous other ppl I know. I’m just so happy they looked into it
I just saw a commercial for Dr. Phil about Morgan’s case. I’m glad this is building momentum… I hope it helps in your cause to get an investigation.
Dear lovely people of this blog~ please remember to donate to help the Ingrams fund this investigation. Like i have mentioned before, if all the readers of this blog donate just $1, then Toni and Steve will have the resources to move forward full force!
Hey Toni, I just saw you on a preview for a Dr. Phil show airing next week! Glad you’re getting the word out.
@ anonymous, I think what he said was very appropriate and very conservative!
Toni, I came to your blog after seeing Morgan’s story through a message board. As I mother myself for 18 years, I cannot begin to know how you feel now and don’t envy that at all. I admire your strength to go on Dr. Phil and share Morgans story. I could see your pain and I think you got your story across well. Morgan was fortunate to spend her short time on earth with such a strong and loving family. Your love for her is so obvious.
Please believe, I have so much emotion for you and your family. I hope you are able to get a case open. I cannot imagine how let down and ignored you feel by LE. You have tons of supporters though! I send my deepest condolences to you and GIANT hugs!