Posted on 03/01/2002 4:04:47 PM PST by FresnoDA
Mourners gather at site where Danielle's body was found
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By Seth Hettena ASSOCIATED PRESS March 1, 2002
"The memory of her soul compelled me to come down here and say a last goodbye," Davis said Friday, cradling her 7-month-old daughter and wiping away tears. "To actually see the place where her innocent sweetness was lying under a tree." Davis, 26, added white flowers to a growing memorial of messages, bouquets, a pink teddy bear and a stuffed blue bunny that marks the place where authorities believe a neighbor dumped Danielle's body weeks ago. Dental records confirmed Thursday that remains found by a rural roadside 25 miles east of San Diego were those of the little girl, who vanished from her bedroom Feb. 2. The cause of death could not immediately be determined and may never be because of the body's state of decomposition, said Police Chief David Bejarano. Further tests were under way. Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, said the unflagging efforts of more than 2,500 volunteers who searched a vast area stretching from the ocean to the desert left them with "an overwhelming sense of gratitude and closure." "With love for an innocent child and for one another, the community has brought her back to us, and for that gift we offer our most sincere and heartfelt thanks," the van Dams said in a statement. "Even though the final outcome is horrible, we could not have imagined the rest of our lives without this closure." A memorial service is expected later this month. A neighbor, David Westerfield, 50, was charged Tuesday with murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography. He has pleaded innocent and is being held without bond. Authorities said they found traces of Danielle's blood in Westerfield's motor home and on an article of his clothing. The self-employed engineer spent the weekend of Danielle's disappearance traveling in his motor home, stopping in the desert east of the city, authorities said. A hunch led volunteers to the area the remote road was one Westerfield might have taken the weekend Danielle disappeared, said Bill Garcia, a private detective who coordinated searches. Nearby residents said they were unsettled by the discovery of Danielle's body so close to home. "It kind of sickens us," said Charles O'Neill, 28, who lives about a mile away. "We've been driving by this road every day for the past month and knowing she's that close is something we never would have imagined." |
Same here. I think that being falsely accused is way high on my list for provoking an angry reaction.
I would go nuts if I was accused of such a thing in the midst of the torment and anguish of my child missing. My family and friends would be screaming in my defense.
These norms are conspicuously absent here.
Aren't they, though? Some people love to spread rumors, knowing it untrue, it's just how some people are. But I know if my friends heard these kinds of things about me, or other bad things about me, they would defend me. If some friends/acquaintances don't know me well enough to state with conviction that the rumors are untrue, they would be saying something like, "I've never heard that before, I've never see a hint of that kind of behavior, I've never even heard that mentioned as an interest by anybody associated with my friend, etc."
I dunno. When I'm looking for something, I'll sometimes take a break and get in a different frame of mind before going back over the same ground. I can't count the number of times something I overlooked was staring me in the face the whole freepin' time. Granted, this different, but I would think searchers would cover the same plausible ground twice, if possible, even if they have nothing new that would bring them back to a place.
sw
Brenda was out in front of their home (I believe) last night where there was another makeshift memorial. She looked well groomed and talked as if she was calm as can be. Of course cameras were there to catch her thanking the "mourners", which only numbered a few.
It looked like a photo op to me. I would think that the family may want to avoid all of that right now, but apparently not. She seems to never have met a camera she didn't like.
On and off emotions SEEM insincere to me.....period.
So far, we only have the VD's word of what occurred, i.e., the father going to sleep at a certain time after reading a story to his daughter, etc. What if (and this is IF) the mother went out, the neighbor was there, the father was home....doing things to his daughter, taking her somewhere before the mother got home.....she's already gone out of the house before the mom gets home, the father says he was sleeping, but who knows what he was doing or where he was? Can we say for certainty the father is guiltless? Until the facts of the night are confirmed, everybody has to be looked at with suspicion, along with the stories they tell.
Needs repeating, Bump!
Yes I do think that. I also admit that until one has experienced such tragedy, one can't know how he/she would behave.
HOWEVER, in the case of Brenda van Dam, she appears to have none of the signs of being overwrought with grief. Her hair is combed neatly, makeup carefully applied, nails done, etc.
I could understand stunned lack of emotion if other signs pointed to a person overcome by the circumstances. I see no other typical earmarks of intense suffering and it does not APPEAR to make sense.
Years ago my aunt lost a young child to sudden illness. I've heard the stories about how the shock affected her and that she was unable to cry. The doctor told her she needed to release it. BUT, all other things in her life were in shambles. She could not eat, looked terribly disheveled, could barely speak with friends and family and so on.
It's not just an absence of tears that make Brenda van Dam seem less than typical.
I think this has been going on for a long time. I first noticed it in Indiana when I saw a simple white cross along the roadside from Indy to Kokomo (IIRC). Several years ago when seven Kentucky kids died in a automobile accident near Murray, KY, a significant roadside cross was to be erected in their memory. And here in Austin, TX, I've seen several inersections and roadsides decorated with crosses. A simple cross is a poignant reminder to drive safely. But I'm waiting for the day when someone's roadside 7' cross wreathed in flowers and winking lights becomes such a distraction that IT leads to an accident!
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