[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
Two years after her tragic and horrifying death, Morgan Kay Harris’ family is finally seeing justice.
In 2023, the 27-year-old and her dog Huck were locked in a CubeSmart Self Storage unit in Murray, Utah — allegedly by her boyfriend. Shortly after locking her and the pooch up, Alexander Wardell left the storage facility where a fire broke out, burning six units… Including the one Harris and her dog were trapped inside of. Unfortunately neither her nor the animal survived the fire.
Wardell was arrested shortly after and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of kidnapping and negligent homicide… But a year later, the case was dropped and Wardell walked away a free man as the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office declared that given “the current evidence,” no charges could be filed.
Infuriating, right?
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill called the incident “tragic” and claimed “this office turned every stone to make sure Ms. Harris’s memory was served with our best effort.” But thankfully, that wasn’t enough for Harris’ mother Laurice Williamson.
Per KUTV, she asked the Attorney General’s Office the review the case… And it worked! Last Thursday, the office OFFICIALLY charged Wardell in connection with his ex’s death! And not just with negligent homicide, either! According to documents seen by People, he was charged with felony murder-domestic violence, kidnapping-domestic violence, aggravated animal cruelty, and a few other crimes besides. Wow! And now we have a much clearer vision of how things went down, too…
According to legal docs, surveillance cameras picked up footage of Morgan and her boyfriend arguing before he locked her in the unit! Wardell told police there were no candles in sight when he left the storage unit. However, we now know the fire DID originate from their unit. And according to the charging documents, “a burnt cardboard box was located near where (Harris’s) chair had been. Inside the box was an intact candlestick. A lighter was found on (Harris’s) body.” Whoa.
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Also, it turns out Morgan was initially unconscious in a chair in the unit and suffered burns to the left side of her body. When she finally woke up, she sustained burns to her upper airway and larynx as a result of the hot air, so she crouched down and cradled her dog on the floor in an attempt to breathe in air from outside. Unfortunately that didn’t work, and she and the pooch perished.
Why was she unconscious? That’s the question… Per the Attorney General’s investigation, a search warrant was ordered for a duffle bag belonging to Wardell:
“In it, investigators found an extra-large blue button-down long-sleeve shirt wadded up in the center of other XL clothing. Blood stains and burn marks appeared to be on the shirt. A rapid DNA test revealed the tested red brown stains to be blood and the DNA in the blood matched (Harris’s) DNA.”
Stains from her blood? Yeah. The implication now is that there must have been violence before the fire. Maybe that’s why she was unconscious in a storage unit? Maybe she’d been knocked out? And it no longer looks like negligence — it looks like murder!
So crazy…
We’ll let you know how the case progresses after these new findings were enough to bring charges. We hope it means some measure of justice for Morgan.
[Image via Murray City Police Department]
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