Painstaking process crucial to investigation
By Joe Hughes and Elizabeth Fitzsimons
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS March 2, 2002 The first hours were key. Without the successes that came in the initial stages of the Danielle van Dam investigation, authorities say they still could be looking for a suspect, a body and many more answers in the abduction and slaying that captured the nation's attention. Within hours of receiving a frantic 911 call from Danielle's parents the morning of Feb. 2, police knew the 7-year-old Sabre Springs girl did not wander off. Detectives determined she had been kidnapped after she had been put to bed, although they will not say what led them to conclude that so early. Immediately, they sealed off Danielle's pink and purple bedroom to preserve a critical crime scene. They called for technicians from the San Diego Police Department crime lab, which devoted 16 forensic specialists and criminalists during the next few weeks to the painstaking and methodical process of documenting the scene, collecting evidence and then poring over it for clues. It was the most intense investigation in recent memory, authorities said. At its zenith, well more than 100 officers, detectives and technicians were assigned to the case. A core of 40 detectives followed up on more than 600 tips. About 15 plainclothes detectives worked surveillance. Officers from the FBI, El Cajon and Chula Vista police departments, the state Department of Justice and the Sheriff's Department assisted. The cost has not been tabulated; the investigation is not over. Tiny bits of evidence From the start, investigators were hopeful. A rule among crime scene investigators is that criminals, no matter how careful, always leave something behind and always take something away. Police will not detail what they found. Technicians were looking for hair, fingerprints, fibers and footprints, experts in the field said. Equipped with chemicals and gadgets, technicians can spot blood a killer may have tried to clean up. They can raise fingerprints that dusting could not. The chemicals, such as the cyanoacrylate found in Super Glue, adheres to the moisture in fingerprints. A chemical such as Ninhydrin can lift prints off porous surfaces, such as paper and clothing. "If you treated a piece of paper with Ninhydrin, put it in a humidity chamber where the air's a little warmer, that combination will turn the fingerprints purple," said Mike Wasowicz, a Chicago-area investigator who teaches forensics collection and crime-scene processing. Forensic specialists can spot fibers and human fluids when they don goggles and cast light altered through a range of filters from ultraviolet to infrared. Depending on the type of light used, body fluids, invisible to the naked eye, will glow. "Being thorough in a case like this is absolutely critical," said San Diego crime lab manager Mike Grubb. The time-consuming process is crucial not only to developing leads in the case, but for prosecuting those responsible. "You can't go back and recreate that scene," said Michele Morgans, a major crimes evidence technician for the Oceanside Police Department. "You need to make sure it's documented so you can present it to a jury who's never been there." Outside the crime scene, police searched nearby homes, hoping to find Danielle alive. Dogs, aircraft and volunteers scoured canyons and sewers, checked culverts and probed water tanks. Police phoned the parents of each of Danielle's 39 classmates at Creekside Elementary School. Late that first day, police had talked to all but a few of the neighbors. One of them, David Westerfield, 50, soon became the focus of their case. Westerfield grabbed investigators' attention because of his weekend wanderings and incongruous stories about where he had been in the hours and days after Danielle's disappearance. He told authorities he had seen Danielle's mother, Brenda, at a Poway bar the night before her daughter was found missing. Investigators learned Westerfield was seen at a campground near Coronado in his motor home not long after the search for Danielle began. Then he left for the Imperial County desert. "His time line never made any sense, the inconsistencies were glaring," a detective said. Lie detector tests At first, Westerfield was cooperative. He allowed bloodhounds to search his house. He traveled with detectives to the Glamis dunes where he said he had spent the weekend and where his motor home had become stuck in the sand. But investigators' suspicions grew. Both the van Dams and Westerfield submitted to lie detector tests a few days after Danielle disappeared, police said. Authorities said the van Dams passed the test. Westerfield failed, they said. Officials would not be specific about the questions posed but said the parents and Westerfield were asked about where Danielle was, whether they had abducted the child and whether they had killed her. From those early contacts, detectives were able to persuade a judge to issue seven warrants needed to search Westerfield's house, motor home, sport utility vehicle, computer and the cleaners where he took some belongings. Investigators twice searched Westerfield's home for traces of Danielle's blood and the Mickey Mouse earrings she wore before she disappeared. Police carted off boxes and bags from Westerfield's house. Within days of Danielle's disappearance, an encampment of reporters assembled in the neighborhood. They watched as evidence technicians filed in and out of the van Dam and Westerfield homes. "It's not at all uncommon for us to revisit a crime scene two or three times, and it sort of perks people's eyes and ears up to see us going back to the scene," said Grubb, the crime lab manager. Dr. Henry Lee, chief emeritus of the Connecticut Forensic Science Laboratory, has investigated thousands of crimes and testified in the O.J. Simpson trial. Lee said police had to establish a connection between Westerfield and Danielle after they concluded the van Dams did not know Westerfield well enough to consider him even an acquaintance. "You link the victim to the suspect," he said. Danielle's blood Plainclothes detectives watched Westerfield's every move for nearly three straight weeks, following him down the street to his mailbox, to fast-food outlets, the post office and later to his attorney's office. On Feb. 7, police obtained a warrant to search Twin Peaks Cleaners & Shirt Laundry on Pomerado Road, where Westerfield had taken two pillowcases, a comforter, a comforter cover and a jacket for cleaning the Monday after Danielle disappeared. Westerfield went back that same afternoon and dropped off pants, a sweater and a shirt, court records show. Before Westerfield could pick up the clothes, police seized them. On a jacket, investigators found a drop of blood, according to court records. DNA strands were extracted using tools powerful enough to pull them from a blood sample the size of a pinpoint. Police are certain the blood is Danielle's. "It's safe to say there's no one else on Earth who has the same (DNA) profile of Danielle van Dam," Grubb said. Lee, of Connecticut forensics, said investigators can tell whom the blood belongs to and how long it has been there. They look at the spot's shape and condition, and try to calculate the velocity with which it landed. "The location of the stain and the condition of the stain can give us a lot of information," Lee said. Police also found what they said is Danielle's blood in Westerfield's motor home. Westerfield was arrested Feb. 22, hours after the DNA analysis was concluded. He pleaded not guilty to charges of kidnapping, murder and possession of child pornography on Tuesday. Volunteer searchers found Danielle's body Wednesday at a place in Dehesa used as a roadside dump. Because of decomposition, officials said they were not able to determine a cause of death after a four-hour autopsy Thursday. At least six crime lab technicians will be poring over hundreds of pieces of evidence during the next several weeks. Detectives still are seeking answers to several questions. Among them:  When was Danielle taken from her upstairs bedroom?
Where was she taken immediately after she was abducted? How did she die? Police say they believe Westerfield entered the house through an unlocked sliding glass door. They have found no signs of forced entry. Though San Diego police Chief David Bejarano said it was not known if Danielle was sexually assaulted, detectives believe that was the reason for the kidnapping. "The motive is sex all along," a detective said. "That's the only motive." |
