Van Dam Neighbor, Focus For Investigators From Start: (Who Is David Westerfield?)

Union Trib ^ | February 23, 2002 | Michael Stetz and Kristen Green

[FresnoDA]

Van Dam neighbor had been focus for investigators almost from start (Who is David Westerfield?)

By Michael Stetz and Kristen Green
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

February 23, 2002

He's bright, inventive and gentle, friends say.

But David Westerfield, a man described by longtime acquaintances as a "puppy dog," is in jail, arrested yesterday on suspicion of kidnapping Danielle van Dam, the 7-year-old girl who has been missing for three weeks.

The self-employed design engineer, whose name is on three U.S. patents, had been the focus of the police investigation nearly from the start. Danielle was last seen Feb. 1, when her father put her to bed in their Sabre Springs home.

Westerfield, the father of two adult children and twice divorced, will turn 50 Monday.

He lives two doors away from the van Dam family. In earlier interviews, the missing girl's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, said Westerfield would wave and say "hi" when they waved or greeted him.

He bought Girl Scout cookies from Danielle the week before she disappeared. And that was about the extent of their contact with him, the van Dams said.

Westerfield is the oldest of three children, all born in San Diego County. His mother lives in Clairemont, as does a sister. His father and younger brother are deceased.

Neither of his ex-wives nor his family would talk about him.

Longtime friends say they are certain of his innocence.

Two of Westerfield's friends described him as a "puppy dog." Carmen Genovese, a local engineer who's known Westerfield for two decades, and Wes Hill, a Utah resident who visited Westerfield recently, used that term to describe the man now under arrest in a case that's received national attention.

Police yesterday said they found Danielle's blood in Westerfield's motor home and on a piece of his clothing.

Genovese was angered by the arrest. He thinks investigators are "playing games" and questions the validity of any evidence against Westerfield.

When visiting Westerfield's home this month, Hill told reporters that people who know Westerfield are "100 percent behind him." He said he has known Westerfield for more than 30 years, and records show he was a witness for Westerfield's second marriage.

Genovese, in an earlier interview, said he had exchanged e-mail with Westerfield this month and noted that Westerfield expressed grave concern about how this was affecting his children.

"He seemed very stressed," he said.

Genovese said his opinion is that the media and the police have already convicted Westerfield, even though the judicial process has just begun.

He has received many e-mail messages from Westerfield's other friends and former co-workers who are confused and upset about the developments. They don't buy it.

"This guy is a lovable guy," he said.

Westerfield's life is destroyed, regardless if he is acquitted, Genovese said. "The media is killing him."

Decades in San Diego

It's unclear where Westerfield grew up. Records show he was born in National City and that his Social Security card was issued in Maine. It appears he has spent much of his adult life in the San Diego area.

He married in 1973 at age 21, lived in Del Mar and worked as a draftsman. That marriage ended six years later. His former wife lives in Rancho Peñasquitos.

About two months after the divorce was final in 1979, Westerfield married again. Records show he listed himself as a designer of testing equipment and said he had completed three years of education after high school.

He and his second wife, the mother of their two children, lived for several years on Treeridge Terrace in Poway.

After they divorced in 1996, Westerfield's second former wife moved to a nearby Poway neighborhood. The couple had joint custody of the children, who were teens at the time.

On March 2, 1996, Westerfield was arrested for driving under the influence, according to court records. He pleaded guilty, was placed on probation for five years and fined $1,325. He also completed a Mothers Against Drunk Driving course.

Westerfield moved into his residence in Sabre Springs in 1997, documents show. The house has four bedrooms, 2-1/2 baths and a two-car garage.

Some neighbors said they didn't really know Westerfield. A few noticed he would often spend part of the weekend washing his motor home or repairing cars in the driveway, something unusual for the neighborhood.

"He seemed a fish out of water to me," Patricia Erikson said.

 

Medical inventions

Of the three patents that carry his name, one is for a pulley he created for an Oceanside company, PrePak Products, which makes devices to help those undergoing rehabilitation for shoulder, back, neck and knee problems.

The second patent, which includes the name of another inventor, is for a surgically implanted prosthesis that replaces a bone joint, particularly the knuckle, records show.

The third patent is for a medical device that aids in joint rehabilitation. The patent lists several names as inventors, including Genovese's.

"He seems like a really nice man," said PrePak Products owner Judy Ray, who had contact with Westerfield for more than a year as he worked on the project. "He was very professional."

Westerfield's business is called Spectrum Design.

A published report said that Westerfield is a member of Mensa, an organization of people who score high on intelligence tests. Both the national office and the San Diego chapter said they did not have Westerfield listed as a member.

Westerfield's rather anonymous, suburban life exploded into chaos when he was tagged by police as the focus of the investigation days after Danielle's disappearance.

Police began looking at him because Westerfield left his home about the time Danielle disappeared. He returned the following Monday.

The stakeout

Westerfield initially talked to the media, saying he was cooperating fully with police.

He also told The San Diego Union-Tribune that he had run into Danielle's mother, Brenda van Dam, and two of her friends while at a popular Poway bar and restaurant the night Danielle was last seen. Westerfield told reporters he danced with Brenda van Dam and had a few drinks before leaving.

Brenda van Dam said she saw Westerfield that night, but that the two did not dance. He simply asked her to introduce him to a friend, she said.

As Westerfield came under increasing scrutiny, he became a near-prisoner in his home and stopped talking to the media. The media and police watched his house 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On Feb. 7, he retained Steven Feldman, one of San Diego's top criminal defense lawyers.

That morning, a trip to Feldman's Golden Hill office turned into a circus, as police and the media followed Westerfield as he drove off in his black Toyota 4Runner.

He left that meeting with Feldman without saying a word, without making eye contact with reporters, without showing any noticeable emotion.

Yesterday, he was arrested as he left the very same office, again showing little emotion as officers handcuffed him and put him in a police vehicle. He put up no resistance.

[FresnoDA]

KIDNAP SUSPECT JAILED

DNA links neighbor to missing girl, police say

By Jeff McDonald and Joe Hughes
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

February 23, 2002

Three weeks after the disappearance of a 7-year-old girl rattled the nation and turned a quiet San Diego neighborhood upside down, police said yesterday they had the genetic proof they needed to arrest their prime suspect.

But any sign of the cheery, blue-eyed Danielle van Dam continues to elude a brigade of investigators and volunteer searchers.

San Diego police detectives arrested David Alan Westerfield outside his attorney's office in Golden Hill about 10:45 a.m. on suspicion of kidnapping and burglary. Police Chief David Bejarano said more charges are expected.

Genetic test results from the San Diego police laboratory earlier in the morning prompted the arrest, officials said yesterday.

"We believe without a question that DNA evidence links Mr. Westerfield to Danielle's disappearance," Bejarano told reporters at a lunch-time news conference.

Investigators found small amounts of Danielle's blood on Westerfield's clothing and inside his motor home, which they seized Feb. 5, three days after she was reported missing from her Sabre Springs home, Bejarano said.

Further evidence was discovered on a piece of the girl's clothing in her bedroom, Bejarano said. Detectives can't say if she was assaulted in her home. They have not determined a motive.

Police sources said a dime-size drop of Danielle's blood was found on a jacket belonging to Westerfield. He had the jacket dry-cleaned, along with some blankets from his motor home, within days of the girl's disappearance.

Laboratory analysts will be busy for several weeks, if not months, testing additional fibers, hair strands and fingerprints, sources said.

"I think evidence is now going to start rolling in, and there will be other (DNA) matches," a detective said. "We don't know exactly what the scenario was. We don't know when he broke in, when he took her or what he did with her."

A self-employed engineer who lives two doors from the van Dams, Westerfield, 49, had been under round-the-clock surveillance for 18 days since police publicly named him as a suspect.

The arrest of their neighbor came as something of a relief to parents Damon and Brenda van Dam, but the distraught couple nonetheless continued to press for help finding their daughter.

"We are very happy that the police have made an arrest," Brenda van Dam said in a brief statement outside the family's home an hour after Westerfield was arrested.

"We were forewarned it was going to happen," she said. "But the fact still remains that we don't have our daughter. We need to continue searching for Danielle."

Police are convinced there is no relationship between Westerfield and the van Dams. The van Dams have referred to him as an acquaintance.

Hundreds of concerned volunteers have scoured the canyons and hillsides around Danielle's home and several rural desert communities east of San Diego over recent weekends.

Fliers bearing Danielle's gap-toothed smile have been posted in storefronts across the region since the day she went missing. Recruits are still being sought for an additional desert search this weekend.

Two days ago, the massive hunt took San Diego police to Tijuana. They searched a house where a woman had reported seeing a girl matching Danielle's description, but found nothing.

Authorities have received more than 600 tips and hope one will lead to the missing girl. But they conceded time is no longer on their side.

"As a father, I'm optimistic that at some point we will find Danielle," Bejarano said. But the chief admitted being "less and less" hopeful "as the hours go by."

Private investigator Bill Garcia said he is heading 12-to 24-person volunteer groups that will search areas along Interstate 8, state Route 79 and other sections of Alpine, Pine Valley, Sunrise Highway and elsewhere.

"We want to make people who live in the rural area aware of our search and to look in back yards and elsewhere for anything suspicious," Garcia said.

Other community volunteers also plan to lead search efforts in Mexico, details of which were still being worked out yesterday. An attempt also was being made to sign up volunteer pilots to conduct air searches.

Westerfield, who turns 50 on Monday, has been the primary focus of the investigation almost from the beginning.

Police started looking at him because he was the only neighbor away from home the weekend the search began for the Creekside Elementary School second-grader. He told officers he socialized with Brenda van Dam and two of her friends at a Poway restaurant and bar on the evening of Feb. 1, the night Danielle was last seen.

Westerfield said he went home, then drove his motor home to the desert early Feb. 2, hours before Danielle was discovered missing. He returned the following Monday morning.

Police later learned that Westerfield drove his motor home to Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado that Saturday before heading to the Imperial County sand dunes.

A Silver Strand park ranger told investigators Westerfield mistakenly paid for four nights instead of the two he planned to stay. He left abruptly after the ranger knocked on the motor-home door about 3:30 p.m. to give him a refund.

"There was nothing suspicious about it," Chief Ranger John Quirk said at the time. "He sounded grateful they'd given him the money back."

A frequent desert camper, Westerfield told police he then left for Glamis, a popular off-road destination just west of the Arizona border. In the dunes south of state Route 78, his motor home became stuck in the sand in an area most campers know to avoid. A tow truck driver said later that as soon as he freed the motor home, Westerfield drove off in a hurry.

Westerfield allowed police to search his house on the day he returned from the dunes. His was among the first of some 200 homes officers went through with search dogs in a wide-ranging effort to find Danielle.

Investigators returned to Westerfield's four-bedroom home Feb. 5 with a search warrant. They seized containers filled with property and confiscated his motor home and sport-utility vehicle. Police have not returned the motor home.

Westerfield also submitted a DNA sample for study.

Two days later, under increasing scrutiny by police and news reporters from across the nation, the kidnapping suspect retained Golden Hill defense attorney Steven Feldman.

Investigators returned to Westerfield's house for a follow-up search Feb. 13. After about five hours, they left that night with stacks of cardboard boxes and paper bags containing items from his home.

During one of their searches, investigators confiscated pornography from Westerfield's home. They cannot determine whether girls in the photos are under 18.

This week, police removed a pair of closet doors from Danielle's bedroom and took them away to preserve fingerprint evidence. Sources said police have yet to match any of the prints.

The police chief praised a handful of outside law enforcement agencies for their assistance in the search for Danielle and also in evaluating evidence. Bejarano singled out the FBI, the state Department of Justice, the county sheriff and police from Chula Vista and El Cajon.

After his client's arrest, Feldman said, "Sorry, I can't make any comments." Later yesterday, Feldman said he would seek a gag order to prevent attorneys from discussing the case with reporters.

Bejarano attached no significance to the time and place of Westerfield's arrest, saying that there were no negotiations among police, prosecutors and the defense attorney.

Officers acted soon after the department received confirmation of "a final piece of DNA analysis," Bejarano said. "We wanted to make the arrest as soon as possible."

Under California law, kidnapping someone under 14 years of age carries a maximum sentence of 11 years in prison. However, kidnapping with intent to sexually assault carries a potential life term.

The two San Diego prosecutors assigned to the case are Jeff Dusek, who has handled numerous high-profile murder cases, and George "Woody" Clarke, one of the nation's leading experts on DNA evidence.

Westerfield is being held without bail in the isolation unit at the county jail in downtown San Diego, a jail spokesman said. He is scheduled to be arraigned next week.

Asked whether a murder charge might be included, Assistant District Attorney Greg Thompson said, "It could, but that would have to be only after we've done a careful examination of all the evidence."

[MizSterious]

"Read it later" bump!

[FresnoDA]

Ping...))

[FresnoDA]

A published report said that Westerfield is a member of Mensa, an organization of people who score high on intelligence tests

[SSN558]

I predict a rerun of either the OJ trial or the Richard Jewell case. In either case corruption of Californicate law enforcement agencies and conviction by the media ensure that justice will not served.

Meanwhile OJ still looks for the real killer while Jewell tries to put his life back together.

[spectre]

Brenda VD said the only contact she has had with Westerfield is to say "hello" outside of her residence while checking her mail.

Now this.

Brenda van Dan said she saw Westerfield that night, but that the two did not dance. He simply asked her to introduce him to a friend, she said.

When did she change her story?

sw

[homeschool mama]

***These MADD courses, they're nothing but madrissas for terrorism against children.***

I've never attended a MADD course. Could you explain why you feel this way? Thanks.

[Constitution Day]

Mensa: My Ego Needs Some Affirmation.

[FresnoDA]

Westerfield says, that he and Gary met Brenda and two babe friends at Dad's Cafe, they "ran into them" and that they shot pool and joked around with them. That is a lot more than simply casually running into someone. In fact, Brenda VD does not do anything casually when it comes to her "swing partying"!

[CheneyChick]

Westerfield said he went home, then drove his motor home to the desert early Feb. 2, hours before Danielle was discovered missing. He returned the following Monday morning.

OK - this is really strange. How many folks go out drinking and dancing really late before getting up early to go away for the weekend in their motorhome? It could happen, I guess, but I think that most folks prefer packing up and getting a good night's rest. Weird.

[FITZ]

I hope he's not being framed for something he didn't do. It would be easy enough to slip evidence into a neighbor's home or RV if you planned to make him look guilty.

[ken21]

there's something odd about a family that does not seem to express normal grief and that has a pr firm on location immediately. not to mention westerfield's getting one of the best lawyers in san diego.

[FITZ]

They cannot determine whether girls in the photos are under 18.

Doesn't sound exactly like child porn then. A true pedophile doesn't like those that look like they could be 18, they don't even like those who could be 16, they like them about 4-8 years old or younger.

[homeschool mama]

***Mensa: My Ego Needs Some Affirmation.***

LOL!

A few years back we were out to supper in a lovely restaurant. The table next to us had 5 MENSA folks...attempting to use their command of the English language in an arrogant and condesending way towards the wait staff. It was a complete turn off. I'm glad I'm dumb. :o)

[proudofthesouth]

I'm with you. I will withhold judgement until proof comes out that he is indeed guilty.

[spectre]

Then Brenda has not been telling the truth about her association with Westerfield.

I'm not totally ruling out he murdered the little girl, the facts with the DNA and blood seem to point in his direction. Unless, and this is really reaching, they included the child in their activities, and she was bleeding from "something", so that is how Westerfield got the blood on his jacket. (I repeat, this is far-fetched).

I simply want to know why Brenda denied even knowing Westerfield, other than a simple "hello"?

sw

[Constitution Day]

For the record, I am also a design engineer like this Westerfield.
I have been told that I have a very high IQ, but I do not know what it actually was when I was tested.
Wisely, my mother never would tell me when I was a kid, I suppose so I wouldn't get arrogant about it.

Those who are TRULY smart should have no need to lord it over others.

[FresnoDA]

The interview I heard, Westerfield said he left Dad's around 10:30 P.M. Brenda and her SWING SET supposedly did not arrive to awaken Damon VD until 2:00 A.M. That is a big time gap in there.