Response to NCIS

Our Response:

First, we would like to state that we have great appreciation for Senator Shaheen and Senator
Warren’s efforts in requesting of NCIS, a thorough review of the events surrounding the Death of
Morgan Patten on November 8, 2019, in Onslow County, North Carolina.
In rebuttal to the response from Naval Criminal Investigative Service dated February 8, 2023,
and signed by Assistant Director, Office of Strategic Communications, Ivan Acosta, please
review the following comments.
We take great offense, first and foremost, to these statements by Mr. Acosta, “They have
therefore speculated that Ms. Patten must have been kidnapped” and “Unfortunately, there is no
information that supports their beliefs and all indications are that Ms. Patten willingly entered the
vehicle with Mr. Wells and Mr. Cornwall,...”. His job at the Office of Strategic Communication is
to choose words carefully to ensure the message is convincing, regardless of accuracy.
The speculation of Sgt. John Edwards, North Carolina State Highway Patrol, that Morgan
entered the vehicle willingly, has less supporting evidence than our speculation that she did not.
Sgt. Edwards was the first responding officer to the crash on November 8, 2019, and, to be
blunt, conducted an incredibly poor assessment of the scene. Though Morgan had been tagged
as a “Jane Doe” due to lack of any identification, and both men had already been transported
from the scene, and despite him finding a firearm in the “debris field” Sgt. Edwards determined
within minutes that he was viewing an “unfortunate dui fatality”; nothing more, nothing less. The
entirety of Sgt. Edwards investigation supporting his theory of an “unfortunate dui fatality” was
complete before the deceased female found face down in a ditch beside White Oak River Road
had been identified as Morgan Patten! More than seven hours later, when speaking with us by
telephone, Sgt. Edwards learned that Morgan Patten had arrived in Jacksonville on the same
evening that she was killed and that she did not know Hunter Wells or Charles Cornwall. It was
not until later on November 9th that Sgt Edwards learned that Morgan’s bill at Applebees had
not been paid the prior evening, and though every officer we have spoken to regarding Morgan’s
death investigation has stated that the driver’s story regarding their activities and intended
destination is senseless, nobody has actively investigated alternate agendas.
The bartender at Applebees, Joshua Thornton provided a written statement, but not to Sgt. John
Edwards or any other law enforcement officer investigating Morgan’s death. Officers from North
Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE) obtained the statement from Joshua Thornton as they
were investigating the sale of alcohol to a minor(Charles Cornwall), and they shared this
statement with Sgt. Edwards. Interestingly, Jessica Brown was also working behind the bar at
Applebees on November 8, 2019, and she was never asked to provide a statement to
investigators. Our private investigator met with Ms. Brown on August 18, 2020, and she made
the following statements.
“ They didn’t know nothing about her. They started asking questions.” “And, um, I’m guessing by
the time I clocked out at that point, you know, they weren’t together, period.”
“So when they said that one girl ended up with them, it was hard to see why.”
“She wasn’t trying to socialize or engage. She was just chilling on her own. You can tell she
was a loner. You know what I mean? And a responsible loner because she was by herself. She
wasn’t trying to throw them back or nothing like that.”
Jessica Brown also described the moment when Wells and Cornwall offered to buy Morgan a
shot of Jack Daniels and Morgan declined their offer, but Jessica went ahead and poured three
shots and left them on the bar. There is no indication as to whether Morgan drank the shot or

not. In his written statement, bartender Joshua Thornton claims that the two men offered to buy
Morgan a shot of Jack Daniels, he turned to Morgan and asked her if it was okay if they bought
her a shot, she said yes so he poured her a shot. We find it very disturbing that both bartenders
claim to have had this personal interaction with Morgan, but the details are distinctly different.
We find it more disturbing that law enforcement officers did not question additional staff and
patrons of Applebees, but merely accepted the statement of Joshua Thornton as fact.
According to the rough timeline of events described to our private investigator by Jessica
Brown, she last recalled seeing Morgan at approximately 10:30 pm on November 8, 2019. If her
timeline is accurate, there was only one text message sent from Morgan’s phone after leaving
Applebees, and it was noted by the Onslow County Sheriff’s Office Detective who reviewed the
contents of Morgan’s phone that this text message to Phil Brandon seemed “out of character”.
On November 11, 2019, Sgt. John Edwards made the following statement to us. “If Morgan’s
blood alcohol concentration comes back higher than .08 I’m going to assume that she got into
that truck willingly.” Despite the fact that this is an absurdly stupid statement made by a law
enforcement officer, we felt certain that Morgan’s bac would come back significantly lower than
that threshold because we knew that she had consumed one beer with her meal, and possibly a
shot of Jack Daniels during roughly a three hour window. When Morgan’s autopsy and
toxicology report were released, and her bac was reported as being .13, Sgt. Edwards stayed
true to his absurdly stupid statement, and has refused to consider science based mitigating
factors. The very same report showed that Morgan’s vitreous humor alcohol concentration (vac)
at time of death was .02. Research we have conducted and medical professionals we have
spoken with assure us that this large discrepancy between bac and vac is impossible aside from
contamination. Vitreous humor is widely considered the most reliable source when determining
antemortem alcohol consumption in postmortem testing simply because the fluid is protected
from outside contaminants and ethanol production from decomposition. Aortic blood was used
to determine Morgan’s bac, 60 hours after her death, and the autopsy report shows that her
brain, heart and liver were all described as “disruption with hemorrhage”. Further details state
that her heart was “fragmented” and much of her large intestines were in the chest cavity.
Sgt. John Edwards made all of his determinations based on partial and tainted information, and
has shared his tunnel vision with Onslow County Sheriffs Office, Onslow County District
Attorney’s Office, North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations and now Naval Criminal
Investigative Service. If he is certain that Morgan was killed in an “unfortunate dui” crash, as the
result of her own actions, namely, overconsumption of alcohol leading to poor and
uncharacteristic decision making, why would he stand in the way of further investigations by
other State or Federal Agencies.
The letter from NCIS includes this very important sentence; “While NCIS maintains federal
jurisdiction over Department of the Navy service members regardless of their location, NCIS is
responsible for the investigation of felony level crimes and does not typically investigate traffic
deaths outside of extraordinary circumstances.” In our meeting with Senator Jeanne Shaheen
on December 9, 2022, we shared irrefutable evidence with the Senator and her staff which
clearly shows that Charles E. Cornwall committed felony level crimes leading up to the crash on
November 8, 2019, and also on December 30, 2019, while providing sworn testimony to Lt.
Justin Silvus, USMC, during his Line of Duty Investigation.

The response from NCIS, in its entirety, is unacceptable! It is unacceptable to us and it should
be unacceptable to you. NCIS did not complete the requested task of thoroughly reviewing the
incident, but merely stated, been there, done that. A thorough review MUST include speaking
with us, in person, so we can share the many documents that local law enforcement failed to
obtain and/or include.
If Morgan Patten were your friend, your sister, your child, you would feel as strongly as we do
that this is unjust. In death, Morgan Patten is larger than life; Morgan Patten is a friend, a sister,
a daughter to all of us, and justice must prevail completely. Truth must be absolute! This is
about more than the tragic loss of Morgan Patten; this is about accountability in Government at
all levels. The baseless victim shaming is abominable!
We urge that you please demand better of the Department of the Navy and Naval Criminal
Investigative Service. At the very least, demand that their representatives involved in this
fictitious review of events surrounding the death of Morgan Patten meet personally with us,
immediately. We are willing to travel anywhere to facilitate this.
Morgan Patten deserves your immediate attention to this matter.
Thank you.
Steven and Renee Patten
Philip Brandon