Police comb digital files in pursuit of evidence

San Diego Union-Tribune via SignOnSanDiego.com ^ | March 18, 2002 | Kathryn Balint

[tutstar]

Thanks for the heads up!

[FresnoDA]

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Neighbour 'killed missing girl, 7'
BY DARRELL GILES in Los Angeles
28feb02

A NEIGHBOUR has been charged with the murder of seven-year-old San Diego schoolgirl Danielle Van Dam – even though her body has not been found.

David Westerfield, who turned 50 yesterday, also faced counts of kidnapping and possession of child pornography.

District Attorney Paul Pfingst filed a special circumstances attachment to the murder charge which means Westerfield faces execution if convicted. Danielle has been missing since February 1. Investigators believe Mr Westerfield abducted her from the bedroom of her parents' home and later killed her.

They revealed on Friday that DNA testing had uncovered traces of Danielle's blood on some of his clothing and in a campervan he took to the desert on February 2.

His fingerprints were also found in Danielle's bedroom.

"I must conclude that Danielle Van Dam is no longer living and was killed by her abductor," Mr Pfingst said outside court. The case has attracted national headlines in the US because Danielle's parents are "swingers" who belong to a partner-swapping club.

Reports said Brenda Van Dam was out with friends at a local pub on the night Danielle was taken. Her husband, Damon, was entertaining a friend at home.

The Van Dams have refused to talk about their sexual preferences, criticising the media for switching the focus away from the search for their child.

Westerfield has strenuously denied any involvement in Danielle's disappearance. But he has confirmed he was dancing and drinking with Mrs Van Dam at the pub on the night of February 1 and left before she did.

An extensive search that stretched from Mexico to the desert east of San Diego found no trace of Danielle.

Investigators became suspicious when he was the only neighbour of the Van Dams not present on February 2 for a wide search for Danielle.

It emerged he had gone camping and returned two days later.

The absence of a body creates a legal challenge, but the district attorney's office has successfully prosecuted four such cases, the most recent in August.

To try someone for murder without a body, prosecutors must establish a "reasonable probability" that the victim has died, said Justin Brooks, director of the California Innocence Project at California Western School of Law in San Diego.

"It's nowhere near as hard as proving something beyond a reasonable doubt, but it's a lot more than just showing blood stains," Brooks said.

Westerfield, a divorced father of two grown children, has a 1996 conviction for drunken driving but no violent criminal history, police said.

 

 

Mirror Australian Telegraph Publications

[DoughtyOne]

All that clearing and the free pass for papa have me scratching my head. I'd sure hate to think Westerfield being the prime suspect that everyone's zeroed in on could facilitate someone else getting away. And I have to tell you, I have not completely rulled out mom and pop doing a little housecleaning in the early morning hours. I don't buy the complete alarm system story. I can't remember ever going to bed without checking in on my two kids.

[DoughtyOne]

Someone today mentioned that Westerfield didn't leave with the motorhome for twelve hours after she was thought to have been abducted. That's rather unusual if true.

[MizSterious]

Disquieting Disclosures -
The Unbearable Sadness of the Danielle Van Dam Story
by Jennifer King, Senior Editor

March 15, 2002

"The Heretical Housewife"

There should be no quarter given to those who abuse and defile the trust placed in them by an innocent child. Child molesters are heinous creatures, destroyers of the future who themselves deserve to be dispatched in the most hideous way possible. Whoever murdered Danielle Van Dam (right), whoever dumped her soft little body into dirty scrub brush by the side of the road to be mauled and desecrated by the fangs of wild animals, deserves to die an equally painful and inglorious death. And, Danielle’s parents, Damon and Brenda Van Dam, deserve our heartfelt sympathy for their disastrous loss of their little girl in such a horrid manner.

However, disquieting revelations have been floating around this case since Danielle disappeared on February 1st, 2002. First disclosed by radio talk-show host Rick Roberts, these rumors have been linked to an unnamed San Diego Law Enforcement Officer (LEO). The rumors alleged that the Van Dam’s were “swingers”, who had a special room set up in their garage - with inside locks - where eager participants had orgies replete with drinking and pot smoking.

The Van Dam’s, on their appearances on Larry King Live and America’s Most Wanted, seemed evasive, dodging questions about their personal lifestyle. They also almost immediately hired a PR firm, whose spokesman likewise deflected this line of questioning without denying it outright.

Thursday, in court hearings, both Brenda and Damon Van Dam seemed to verify some of these allegations. At the very least, the Van Dam behavior and home life can be said to have been highly unusual.

Brenda Van Dam (left) gave some staggering testimony. Among the stunners were the revelation that she had left 7-year old Danielle alone, trying on clothes, in Mervyn’s, while she hunted down her 5 and 10-year old sons who were “at other stores” in the same mall. Then, Brenda admitted that she had noticed her neighbor, David Westerfield (right), the accused killer, at a Poway bar, “Dad’s”, the previous Friday, January 25th. Van Dam, who was with two friends, Barbara and Denise, admitted under questioning by the defense attorney, that the three women had been dancing together, suggestively, with Barbara even attempting to fondle Brenda’s breasts.

According to testimony, the following week, Brenda Van Dam, Danielle and her brother went over to Westerfield’s house in order to sell him some Girl Scout cookies. Westerfield asked Van Dam why she hadn’t introduced him to her friends, who, he allegedly said, “looked really fun“. She also testified that Westerfield had told her that he often had “adult BBQ’s”, at which, according to Van Dam, he said, “He would provide the salad, but everyone had to bring their own meat.“ Van Dam testified that she told Westerfield to meet her and her friends at Dad’s the following Friday, and she would then introduce him to her friends.

On February 1st, the day Danielle would disappear, the following events transpired, according to Van Dam’s testimony. Brenda returned with the kids at approximately 5:30, then went out to pick up pizza for dinner, leaving the children alone in the house. After dinner, her two girlfriends, Denise and Barbara, came over and stayed about 15 minutes. The three women each had a beer, then they and Brenda’s husband Damon, met in the garage, where they smoked part of a joint (marijuana cigarette).

At approximately 8:30 p.m., the three women went to “Dad’s” where they met up with Westerfield. Westerfield bought them all drinks (Brenda testified that she had three cranberry-vodkas, one shot of tequila and one Red Bull). Westerfield says he danced with Van Dam, she initially denied it, but testified under oath that she “couldn’t recall.” She did admit to “slow dancing” with an older man, and testified that Denise and Barbara were “sexual dancing” with each other and with other women in the bar.

Van Dam also testified that the girlfriends met up with two men named “Rich and Keith.” Rich was alleged to be the pot connection, in later testimony given by Damon Van Dam. Supposedly, Keith was very interested in Barbara, and confided to Brenda that he had “popped a “V”, apparently referring to a Viagra pill. He allegedly asked Brenda to facilitate a tryst between the two.

At 2:00 a.m., when closing time was announced, the three women got in Brenda’s truck (allegedly taking hits from the same joint they had smoked earlier) and the two men drove in another vehicle to the Van Dam home. Damon, who was allegedly asleep in his underwear in his own bed, was awakened by Barbara, who climbed on top of the bed. Damon admits to “kissing” Barbara, and “rubbing her back”.

Brenda Van Dam came upstairs about 15 minutes later, and informed the couple that they were being “rude” and that they should join the rest of the ensemble downstairs. Yet, after pizza, the remaining guests allegedly left. The Van Dam’s assert that they went to bed at approximately 2:30 a.m. They did not consider checking on their children then, and did not realize that Danielle was missing until approximately 9:30 a.m. the next morning.

Danielle’s naked and decomposed body was found by volunteer searchers on February 27th.

Whether her parent’s lifestyle had anything to do with her death is debatable. Surely, the Van Dams love their children, aged 10, 7 (Danielle) and 5. Yet the Van Dams appear to have engaged in a lot of activities which could be directly and indirectly injurious to their family. There aren’t too many families, for example, where the mother leaves her young children alone while she runs out to pick up dinner. There aren’t too many devoted mothers who routinely spend Friday nights dirty-dancing at the local bar. Wise parents who exercise sound oversight do not partake in the heavy drinking and pot smoking which appear to have occurred on a regular basis in the Van Dam household.

And, most parents simply do not invite a group of drunken, pot-addled barflys over to their home at 2 o’clock in the morning, while their innocent children sleep only a few rooms away. One wonders whether either Damon or Brenda’s “friend” Barbara, ever considered what the children would think should they awaken and find their father with a woman who wasn‘t their mother rolling around on their parent’s bed.

Many dark theories abound as to what might actually have transpired between the Van Dams and David Westerfield. According to the defense attorney, witnesses have offered to come forward to testify that, not only DID Brenda Van Dam dance with Westerfield, but she did so exclusively and in a suggestive manner. Nevertheless, Westerfield may indeed be solely responsible for the murder of Danielle, and if he is found guilty than he should fry.

However, the Van Dam’s do appear to have fostered, at the very minimum, a home environment where the least suitable people would often be around their most precious assets. Their little girl, unfortunately, was the one who paid the price.

© 2002 Jennifer King

Source: The American Partisan

[Jaded]

Reports said Brenda Van Dam was out with friends at a local pub on the night Danielle was taken. Her husband, Damon, was entertaining a friend at home.

If this Australian publication is to be believed (they have less motive to keep quiet)that could possibly be what danielle walked in on. The accident was somehow tied to this. It would certainly make more sense than David. Here is a man who has a record of interaction with grown women and more than one. He's gonna get p* because one trashy wh** out on the prowl spurned him and kill her kid as revenge? I think not. For those whe take his "meet your rich neighbor" comment as some kind of statement on his overall character. He knew what BvD was why should her closest friends be any different. From witness accounts, the girls weren't.

[MizSterious]

More from Australia's papers:

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`Swingers' in spotlight

Perth Sunday Times, Edition 1 - StreetSUN 17 FEB 2002, Page 039

By: DARRELL GILES

SDT-20020217-1-039-4033531V35

Daughter, 7, snatched from her bed as parents party with different partners

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl has been missing in southern California for two weeks, but there has been more fascination with her parents' sexual peccadilloes than with her disappearance.

The well-to-do couple -- from the quiet, upscale suburb of Sabre Springs in northern San Diego, where multimillion-dollar homes line the street -- are reportedly swingers. Their partner-swapping practices have been scrutinised by the US media and on the Internet since secondgrader Danielle Van Dam went missing on February 2. Danielle was abducted from her bedroom in the early hours of the morning while her mother was off partying and father was entertaining a friend. Authorities fear she has been murdered and her body dumped in the nearby desert. While police have several suspects in their sights, the media attention has been on Danielle's parents, Jane Fonda-lookalike Brenda Van Dam and her subservient husband Damon.

The couple were outed as sexual swingers -- apparently members of a wife-and-husband swapping club -- but have refused to discuss their lifestyle preferences in public. But it raised the curiosity of respected interviewer Larry King, who, on his CNN news program, questioned them about the media interest -- to no avail. A tearful Mrs Van Dam criticised King and other news organisations for switching the focus of the search for Danielle to their private lives.

She would neither confirm nor deny they were swingers, saying such questions were invasive and had nothing to do with the search for their daughter. But calls to a San Diego radio station and newspaper days earlier had spilt the beans on the Van Dams' vices.

Several people came forward wanting to tell their explicit stories of friendship with the Van Dams. On the night Danielle went missing, Mrs Van Dam was at a bar with her friends, while husband Mr Van Dam was at home with a friend.

She told police she met a neighbour, David Westerfield, at the bar and that the two of them danced and had a couple of drinks together.

Mrs Van Dam did not return home until 2.30am and did not check her daughter's room.

She told police she had noticed a side gate open.

Mr Van Dam has said that, earlier in the night, he found the glass sliding door to their home open and the burglar alarm flickering -- but he did not contact police.

Much of the subsequent police investigation has focused on Mr Westerfield, who apparently left the pub before Mrs Van Dam.

The 50-year-old married man spent two days camping in the desert immediately after Danielle's disappearance.

Detectives have repeatedly questioned Mr Westerfield, searched his home and vehicles and the desert area where he camped and follow him in unmarked cars wherever he goes, but have not charged him.

A friend at Mr Westerfield's house described him as a ``puppy-dog''. The self-employed computer software engineer has denied any knowledge of Danielle's whereabouts. He has confirmed meeting Mrs Van Dam at the bar and dancing, but declined to elaborate.

She has denied any romantic involvement with him.

The Van Dams have put up a $50,000 reward for information on Danielle.

Fearing a repeat of the controversial JonBenet Ramsey case, when the parents were suspected of killing the child beauty queen in Colorado in 1996, the Van Dams instantly agreed to a lie-detector test. Mrs Van Dam said they both passed. Police confirmed they were not treating them as suspects at this stage.

``We've done everything we can. I'm not offended at all,'' Mr Van Dam said of the investigation.

There has been no ransom demand or contact from the abductor.

The Van Dams have two other children, both boys, and Mrs Van Dam said the ordeal had been hard on the family. ``It's so hard for me to deal with the fact that somebody knows where my baby is and it's not me,'' she said.

``Every day has been different for me emotionally.

``I take time in the morning to let everything out. And I do that alone in my room.

``I don't want my children seeing too much of that coming out of me. I just scream and cry into my pillow.''

On Friday, the couple released a family video of Danielle and a photograph they had taken of her in period costume.

They also revealed the family had a holiday to Italy planned for later this month. Investigators have used a bloodhound to search the Van Dam home, saying they hoped the dog might be able to turn up clues they had missed in previous searches.

They have not said if they found anything.

The trail has gone somewhat cold.

Police in helicopters, on horseback, and door-to-door, have turned up few clues in the neighbourhood.

They returned to the desert area, on the California-Arizona border on Friday, but again the search proved fruitless.

Article available for a fee from newstext.com

[MizSterious]

Danielle’s Death
Child abductions do not, for the most part, occur at random.

By Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of Toward Tradition, a Seattle-based national pro-family coalition of Jews and Christians.
March 12, 2002 8:50 a.m.

A little girl is dead, left under a clump of oak trees in the backcountry east of San Diego. Many have seen her murder as a warning, applicable equally to all mothers and fathers, that child abduction occurs by random chance.

On March 1, a day after the body of Danielle Van Dam was identified, the San Diego Union-Tribune published a heart-rending account of parents and school counselors trying to explain to children how it could happen that seven-year-old Danielle was kidnapped and killed. "Mommy," a boy was quoted as saying, "I don't want anyone to steal me." Counselors advised parents "to listen to their children's fears and acknowledge them."

The unstated assumption of much of the press coverage of the tragedy has been just this: Children are afraid, counselors and parents are stumbling to find something comforting to say, for what happened to Danielle could as easily happen to any of our children. Since the grim discovery was made, the nation has absorbed the message that Danielle's death was an event without explanation or reason.

Or was it?

On the morning of February 2, Danielle was found to be missing from her bed. The man who has been arrested for her murder is 50-year-old David Westerfield. Reportedly a child-porn enthusiast, he is a neighbor of Danielle's parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam. That night, says the accused kidnapper, he and Mrs. Van Dam had been dancing at a local bar. Mrs. Van Dam denies dancing with Westerfield, but she does admit being out till 2 A.M. without her husband. Nor do the Van Dams deny the stories reported in Newsweek, stories that say they are active "swingers" with a taste for wife swapping. The Van Dams say their lifestyle has "nothing to do" with Danielle's abduction.

Let us be clear. This horrible death can be blamed only on the man who kidnapped Danielle. But if the Van Dams are indeed "swingers," if Mrs. Van Dam was carousing without her husband until rather late, then these parents — who deserve our sympathy no matter what their follies and vices may be — will have something in common with the parents of many other abducted children, beyond the bare fact that they have lost a child. For these terrible events do not, for the most part, occur at random.

The National Institute for Missing and Exploited Children supplies the figures. In 1997, 24 percent of abducted children were abducted by strangers. About half, 49 percent, were kidnapped by family members, typically a divorced parent. Another 27 percent were kidnapped by an acquaintance. In other words, 73 percent of abducted children suffered that fate due in part to lifestyle choices their parents made: the choice to divorce, or to befriend sleazy characters. When the media, by ignoring these data, give the impression that child kidnapping could happen to any family, the wholesome no less than the unwholesome, we are once again being grievously misled.

This same notion — that a certain kind of misfortune, in choosing victims, makes no distinction between wholesome and unwholesome — animated the AIDS scare of the late 1980s. Back then, the media and AIDS activists asserted that the disease was about to erupt among the population of heterosexuals who are not abusers of intravenous drugs. It never did. AIDS, it's now acknowledged, is a killer with a marked preference for people who engage in particular activities: anal sex and needle sharing.

It does occasionally happen that an unknown drifter will invade the life of an upstanding family and steal and murder their child. That is what happened to 12-year-old Polly Klaas, abducted from a slumber party in Petaluma, California, in 1993. It is what happened in 1981 to six-year-old Adam Walsh, whose father, TV host John Walsh of America's Most Wanted, initiated a campaign to place photos of missing children on milk cartons and junk mail. That well-intended campaign has supported the misconception that children go missing by chance. The brief biographical sketch of the missing child never indicates the family dysfunction that likely contributed to making the abduction possible.

Random kidnapping is not what happened to Danielle van Dam, and the fact is worth considering. For our actions have consequences — often unintended, often for future generations, often tragic — and parents would do well to remember this.

Source: The National Review Online

[MizSterious]

Yes, the Aussie papers have been more forthcoming--generally speaking. But if you read through carefully, there are some errors in reporting--although usually the same ones the US press made.

This morning my little project was to find an old article originally posted by FresnoDA that detailed neighbors' accounts of an affair of some 9 or so months between Westerfield and BVD. Someone (and I suspect I know who) immediately flipped a gasket and hit the abuse button. The story is gone, and I am still searching for the original. I don't recall the Aussie paper, so that's a handicap. If I find it, I'll repost it--and like the ones I posted today, I'll keep a copy for myself in case this happens again.

I just hate the heavyhanded deletion of information just because someone doesn't like it.

[RnMomof7]

The Westerfield connection is something that has mystified me from the start. How did that man become the leading suspect so rapidly?

I have wondered that from the beginning...especially since they said there is something like 13 convicted child molesters in the neighborhood..what did "red flag " that man...momma perhaps?????

[RnMomof7]

"I'm sure in due time that they will turn their attention to the appropriate and productive use of those funds, but right now they're really still dealing with the loss of their daughter," said family spokeswoman Sara Muller Fraunces.

Yea they will have one heck of an "ADULT" party

[RnMomof7]

Wise parents who exercise sound oversight do not partake in the heavy drinking and pot smoking which appear to have occurred on a regular basis in the Van Dam household.

Yes and wiser and moral people do not engage group sex...a man that pimps his wife is not caing for his family...those kids need to be removed from that home till mommy and daddy become adults!

[MizSterious]

It was good for the soul to find these articles on conservative websites. For awhile, I had just about convinced myself that most conservatives had gone over to the Dark Side, espousing values that had long been relegated to Clintonian liberals. Or maybe it was just a noisy few, and it only seemed like most.

[DoughtyOne]

Exactly. Momma.

[MizSterious]

Just to add another thought or two to the "momma" theory--consider that the vDs almost immediately hired an attorney. Not a criminal defense attorney, as some might suspect, but a "personal injury and civil suit" type of attorney. Maybe it's just a coincidence if they pointed the finger at a guy with very deep pockets, and then hired this attorney, but it could also be interpreted as looking for a fortune via the Brown v. Simpson method.

[Freedom2specul8]

Belated FYI...I tried to get this sent before, but got sidetracked.

[afraidfortherepublic]

You raise some very good points. Also, consider the fact that just about everybody who uses the Internet has received a piece of pornography via Email at some time, or has clicked on a link that turns out to be pornographic. If these images stay in the computer memory nearly forever, I certainly hope the police can differentiate between someone who assembles a file deliberately and someone who has been the unwitting victim of a *spam* scheme!

[afraidfortherepublic]

...especially since they said there is something like 13 convicted child molesters in the neighborhood.

I read that it was 70.

[Lauratealeaf]

"Random kidnapping is not what happened to Danielle van Dam, and the fact is worth considering. For our actions have consequences — often unintended, often for future generations, often tragic — and parents would do well to remember this."
Source: The National Review Online

I appreciate your posting of this article. It is very insightful. Thanks. It is good to see a conservative writer telling it like it is. Too bad that some of the so-called conservatives on this thread seem to be more interested in their pet projects instead of getting at the truth of the matter which is the Van Dams share some responsibility for the death of their daughter.

[Lanza]

Still want to know if they looked at the Van Dams computer as thoroughly.