hhmmmm......
Search foundation needs new base, manager
YVETTE URREAStaff Writer
2/12/02
SABRE SPRINGS ---- Damon and Brenda van Dam told reporters Monday morning they were offering a $25,000 reward for information leading to the return of their 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, who was abducted from her home Feb. 2.
"Somebody out there knows something they're not talking about. We're hoping this (reward money) will motivate them," Brenda van Dam said as she and her husband held up a large poster board with the information. "What we're doing is keeping in our minds that Danielle is alive and is coming home. That keeps us strong." (Who is the Damon trying to convince with this statement???)
 J.S. LOVETT/Associated Press |
| Damon van Dam, followed by his wife, Brenda, carries a large poster with a photo of their missing 7-year-old daughter, Danielle. The couple on Monday announced a $25,000 reward for information regarding their missing child. |
The reward money will come from family resources, she said.
A $10,000 reward fund offered by the Millennium Children's Fund still stands, according to the group's founder Douglas Pierce. He said Monday that despite some reports that he does not have the money, he can get the money if it is needed.
San Diego police investigators have investigated 250 tips from people who said they might have information in the case, including reports of possible sightings and theories from psychics, but none have led detectives to the girl or to an arrest yet. Detectives are still following up on some of those tips, San Diego Police spokesman Dave Cohen said.
Danielle was last seen by her father, Damon van Dam, when he tucked her and her brothers into bed Feb. 1. The next morning she was gone. Detectives have been focusing part of their investigation on a neighbor who lives two doors down from the family, but have not called him a suspect. They have impounded his motor home and a number of boxes of items from his home.
As the 10th day of the search began, the van Dams said they were finding it increasingly difficult to cope with Danielle's abduction.
"It gets harder every day," her mother said. Damon van Dam added, "It's hard but we're holding onto the hope."
Brenda van Dam said she has been praying every night with her 5-year-old and 9-year-old sons for Danielle's safe return. The boys, she told reporters, were curious about the things their parents are doing to try to bring their sister back and asked a lot of questions.
At Monday's press conference, Brenda van Dam said they need more volunteers for the search center. Later that morning they went to the Doubletree Golf Resort ---- the temporary headquarters for the Laura Recovery Center Foundation operation, which is setting up search parties for the Creekside Elementary second-grader. The nonprofit Texas-based organization was formed in 1997 to help families find children who were abducted by strangers.
As of 11 a.m. Monday, the group had only 30 volunteers. That's down from 300 on Saturday and 200 Sunday, said volunteer Jody Maes. The decline in searchers was attributed to the start of the work week.
Bob Wacutt, with the Laura Recovery Center Foundation, said they will be leaving for Texas on Wednesday. They were training San Diego volunteers to take the helm and carry on the search effort.
"It will be in the hands of the community, where it goes from here," he said.
Maes said they are looking for a new base for operations and hope to have one by next weekend. She said they would need one to two rooms, with at least two phone lines, to keep the center going in the area of Sabre Springs.
The new center also could use office and printing supplies, cellular phones and cash donations.
Wacutt said it is difficult to try to estimate in square miles how big of an area they have searched since Saturday, but they are concentrating on a 25- to 35-square-mile area around Danielle's Mountain Pass home.
He said volunteers have not complained despite hot and rugged conditions because they know they have an important task.
Wacutt said also that they have had a lot of people request to search in the desert for Danielle but they would only be able to use experienced desert hikers if they tried to go to that area.
Susan Wintersteen, a family friend and volunteer, said they are organizing a 10 a.m. event Saturday at South Creek Park near Danielle's school in an effort to involve children who want to help.
Children will be able to tie pink and purple ribbons in the park and take some to tie at their homes. The ribbons remind people that Danielle, who loved the colors pink and purple, is still missing, Wintersteen said.
Contact staff writer Yvette Urrea at (760) 901-4076 or yurrea@nctimes.com.