es·ca·late – Become or cause to become more intense or serious

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It was coming to a close, the term, “getting close to an arrest,” was being bandied about with new meaning.  In a discussion Morgan had with her doctor concerning how she was feeling about her stalker, only 36 hours before we found her lifeless body, Morgan told her doctor that she was positive, and upbeat and that the Detectives in her case felt they were very close to making an arrest.  She saw the end of the nightmare, and she smiled at the thought.

On the drive home there were even giggles about the happy thoughts we focused on even though some very disturbing news to Morgan had been told to her by a friend over her cell phone.  Instead of going into self-pity mode Morgan, being Morgan asked her dad for a knife for extra protection, which he stopped and purchased for her on our way home.  Morgan had such courage and it never left her, even at the bitter end.

The very day before this drive (2 nights before her murder) I asked Detective Glassmire what he thought it meant, with so many upcoming events in her stalking case.  About how I thought the colder weather may also turn the stalker away, as one of the Sheriff’s Patrol Officers had mentioned in the beginning of the stalking.  When I think back on it now, his answer surprised me for an instant, as he said very matter-of-fact type of way that he felt, “if anything, it was going to escalate.”  Just like that, he “felt it was going to escalate.”

To put it in perspective, when you are not getting sleep, watching surveillance videos until you pass out and finding great joy and relief in a trip to Grand junction for an annual gynecological appointment, the word escalate is not something your mind wants to hear, much less process into a tangible thought.  Steve would have had some quick comeback, he would not have let that particular word slip by, but Steve was not there.  It was only Detective Glassmire and myself, standing at the corner of the house, between Morgan’s room and a tree we would later learn the stalker used to exit the roof.

To find out now that Detective Glassmire had told the suspects about her pending formal interview, on camera, I have to ask…was he thinking that this would scare them?  That knowing their goose would soon be cooked was all this case needed to end?  No, he knew the answer when he told me that, if anything, there would be a reaction, an increase in intensity, it would escalate.  That was Tuesday afternoon, November 30th, 2011, 2 days before Morgan would go to sleep for the last time.

Sandwiched around that day would be an interview with the on again off again prime suspect, known to be involved by the Garfield County Sheriffs Department Detectives, just not in what capacity, Brooke was, “kicked around constantly,” as the leader of the stalking, a participant alongside Keenan, and as knowing what Keenan was doing, but that was all.  This was before we would find out that Brooke had a habit of threatening Morgan, telling many others that Morgan was going to get it someday.  Detective Glassmire would reveal the date of the pending interview of Morgan with this suspect.  Something would happen to raise the Detective’s level of certainty that Keenan was Morgan’s stalker to 100%.

Morgan did not need any more evidence, she was already 100% sure it was Keenan.  She was an eyewitness to Keenan’s stalking, having seen him from a distance of less than 15 feet four times.  Once getting out of her car to stand in the roadway because she was not about to tell the Deputies she was 99% sure it was him only to be told that was not good enough.  Morgan was willing to risk it all to be 100% sure.  She did and she was,  I was 99% sure, and told Detective Glassmire that.

Keenan would know that the record of his hours working for City Market was going to be handed over the Sheriff’s department the following week.  Not only did the Detective think that, “if anything, the stalking was going to escalate.”  He would ask for, and receive increased patrols, an extra one or two a night.  And they would all be 100% focused up on our roof.  What did they find out?  And why did they not share it with us?

Knowing why the extra patrols were ordered would have been far more valuable than the extra minute or two of safety the extra patrols gave.  If we had known the danger level Morgan was in we would have somehow gotten her away where no one could find her – but we were not given that chance.  Was critical information withheld from us?  This has been eating at me for such a long time now and I really need to know.  Law enforcement doesn’t want to give that up – that would look like they made a mistake so they sweep it under the rug for no one to see.  How does that help the next victim?  What do you tell her parents, the same lines we were fed?  Accountability for your actions and changing the way things are done so it doesn’t happen again is what we teach our children – why were we not told, when our daughters life could have been at stake for all they knew those few days before she was, in fact, killed?

8 thoughts on “es·ca·late – Become or cause to become more intense or serious

  1. Another question or two: the death report stated that Morgan’s boyfriend was present in the early morning hours when Morgan was found to be unresponsive. How did he happen to be at your house so early in the morning? Was he with Morgan the night before? Could he have drugged her? (On the Dr. Phil program you said the boyfriend had left a backpack containing intoxicants in your car which had been confused as being Morgan’s) Was the boyfriend ever a suspect? Where the bottle contents in the backpack ever analyzed?
    Why did the boyfriend put the backpack in your car? Where was the backpack before he put it in your car?

    I pray for God’s blessings on you and your family has you search for the truth in these matters.

    Sincerely,
    Bryan

    • First let me start off by saying the Sheriff’s reports and Coroner’s reports are full of mistakes – we only recently received the Sheriff’s reports (many important ones are missing) and have only received the 1st PER and 2nd PER and both tox results from the Coroner – we have been asking for over a year for copies of everything else from the Coroner’s office but they will never answer us and have given us nothing.

      The person they refer to as Morgan’s boyfriend was not her boyfriend – he was an ex-boyfriend that returned to the US from Australia just 2 weeks before her murder. He had just started to work for Steve and after Morgan was pronounced dead Steve spoke with him over the phone and he had his grandmother rush him over to our house. My car (the one Morgan shared with me) was parked in the street at that time and unlocked (I moved it there while Steve was still doing CPR on Morgan so that the first responders could get up the driveway) so I am not positive when or how the backpack got in my car since I do not recall seeing it in there when I drove the car out of the driveway that morning – remember I was in shock at that time and praying that Steve could revive Morgan so I think everything I was doing I was doing in some kind of fog.

      Thank you for your help!

  2. I find it to be unusual that Morgans ex-boyfriend was able to get to your home so early that Dec 2 morning. He was there almost as soon as Police and EMT. Exactly when did he arrive? It is well know in the forensic psychology that the stalker/killer often wants to be involved in the investigation of his or her criminal activity. The stalking often goes on even after the victim dies.

    • Very true, but he rushed over because he called Steve to find out what time they were leaving for work in the morning and the EMT’s had just pronounced Morgan dead and Steve through tears told him, he jumped in his grandma’s car and came straight over – they should NEVER had let him in the room, the whole crime scene was like that – a complete disaster! And yes the stalking did continue but that is for another discussion

  3. So the backpack was placed in the car after 9pm Dec 1 and it was full of bottles of wine, beer –who know what else- the very drink that killed Morgan?

    • We don’t know for sure when the backpack ended up in the car – I didn’t see it when I drove the car into the street and left it unlocked that morning so the EMT’s could come right up the driveway and I didn’t see the backpack, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t there – I was moving while in shock that morning. It had (according to the Sheriff’s) one bottle of vodka and one beer – the forensic pathologist told us there was nothing in her stomach and the blood tests showed no alcohol, no illegal drugs, so I assumed the amitriptyline was in water or just liquid injectable form and the date rape drugs that were in her stomach fluid in a later test never made it into her bloodstream, and were obviously mashed up and liquified. So it had nothing to do with the backpack that was later found.

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