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Posted on 05/01/2002 4:03:29 PM PDT by FresnoDA
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—Thomas K. Arnold
Talk show host Rick Roberts made headlines with his KFMB-AM radio show about Damon and Brenda van Dam’s allegedly swinging lifestyle. But he wasn’t the only radio personality—or media outlet—to cast a critical eye on the backstory of the Danielle van Dam kidnapping case.
John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, whose John and Ken Show airs weekdays from 3 to 7 p.m. on Los Angeles station KFI-AM, devoted three shows to the case, even traveling to San Diego to broadcast from the van Dams’ Sabre Springs neighborhood. The week before that, they were the first to cast aspersions on the van Dams, a full day before the Roberts broadcast.
The Millennium Children’s Fund had just announced a $10,000 reward for information leading to the safe return of Danielle. Fund administrator Douglas Pierce had visited with the van Dams, and the next day he called a press conference in Los Angeles at which he voiced suspicions about the couple’s behavior. For an hour, Pierce blasted the van Dams for their apparent lack of emotion and general rudeness to him.
“I don’t know how much was true and how much was hysterical, but that’s what made it fascinating. We tried to unravel it on the air,” Kobylt says. “In retrospect, I think he did peg their personalities very well—the lack of emotion, the detachment, the obsession with the media message—and perhaps he got the vibe that they live a different life than most people.”
As soon as Pierce finished on-air, John and Ken introduced their next guests: an angry Damon and Brenda van Dam, who lambasted Pierce as a nut case. “We had scheduled them in advance, but when they heard Doug was on the show, they canceled, only to change their minds right before show time,” Kobylt says.
After the interview, John and Ken picked apart the conversation and spoke critically about the van Dams’ lack of emotion and their defensiveness about questions pertaining to their own behavior and actions the last night Danielle was seen. The next day, the swinger story broke in The San Diego Union-Tribune—furthered that evening on San Diego radio by Rick Roberts.
“It’s a very dramatic story,” says Kobylt. “Everybody got obsessed with it pretty quickly... We have a pretty fair audience in San Diego—we’ve even made it into the top 10 on occasion—and we started getting calls from people who live in the neighborhood and know the van Dams. As a result, it might as well have been in L.A. I tend to look at the whole [Southern California] area as the same, anyway.”
(By press deadline, the van Dams could not be reached for comment by San Diego Magazine.)
Quoting the proverbial unnamed sources “close to the probe,” the Star reported that later-arrested suspect David Westerfield “was aware of the van Dams’ sexual activities and had approached Brenda about hosting a sex-swap party in his house.” The Star said Brenda had admitted to police “that the couple belonged to a swingers’ club called Club CB” and that sources say she “flirted outrageously and danced with Westerfield” the Friday night Danielle disappeared. “He [Westerfield] knew that Brenda and her friends were sexually involved, and he wanted to be part of the action, but for whatever reason, he was not invited by Brenda to accompany her and her four friends back to her home that night for more partying and sex,” the Star says it was told by a source.
I'd sure be interested in knowing why. As I have said, the peculiarities of the van Dams alone should make LE inclined to look very closely and then look again.
Before I heard a whisper about the swinging, I found it so strange that the parents were eliminated in record time. How much valuable information may have been lost because of this? We may never know.
Danielle’s Death
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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. (AMEN RABBI!!) 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. 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. (Long...uninterrupted...applause...FDA) |
sw
Police have repeatedly said they do not consider the van Dams suspects in the girl's disappearance, which is officially considered a case of kidnapping, though they pointed out that no one has been completely ruled out.
Yet many people here "marvel" at the police ruling the VD's out at lightning speed, when, in fact, the police really said "that no one has been completely ruled out." I doubt all investigating of the VD's really ended as early as some here would have us believe. And I think the police leaks of their "swinging lifestyle" supports the view that the police continued to look at the VD’s.
And now the police’s statements in Danielle's case are starting to look like those in Jahi's case. What did they say yesterday about the stepfather "not being a suspect," Fresno? I questioned that statement yesterday and it appears rightly so. In light of the latest evidence that Jahi was never at the playground (surprise!) that police statement yesterday looks like understandable, intentional disinformation to put the stepfather off-guard.
Trouble in Gringoland
The Weirdness, Violence and Decadence
of North San Diego County, Californiaby
Ernesto Cienfuegos
La Voz de Aztlan
Los Angeles, Alta California - 2/12/2002 - (ACN) - North San Diego county is a rapidly growing area in southern California that is inhabited by mostly white upper middle class folks. Most of the residents here have fled from the now largely minority populated cities of Los Angeles and San Diego. The region is a mix of brand new residential developments and dwindling agricultural fields. The many bedroom communities that have arisen in this corridor between Los Angeles and San Diego pride themselves in being family oriented and an excellent and healthy place to raise children. Recently, however, three major incidents have shattered the false image that was being projected by whites in the area.
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The first incident occurred in the community of Rancho Sante Fe (Map location 1) on March 26, 1997 when 39 bodies of young men an women were found dead in various rooms of a $1.6 million dollar home. The bodies of 18 men and 21 women where dressed similarly and all were lying in a prone position, hands at their side as if asleep. Autopsies of the bodies later revealed that all had committed suicide and that 8 of the men were castrated. The castrations had occurred years before and had already healed. Subsequent investigations by police authorities of the bizarre case revealed that the 39 young men and women were members of a group called Heaven's Gate that was led by a homosexual who called himself "Do". "Do" apparently had convinced the 39 young men and women that a spaceship hiding behind the Hale-Bopp comet would take them to heaven and that they must free themselves from their temporary vessels (bodies) in order to be lifted away as the comet approached earth. They prepared for the trip to heaven, on an alien UFO, by first purifying their bodies. The castrations were performed on those who had deviant sexual desires in order to free them of sin.
The second incident was one of racial violence against 4 elderly agricultural Mexican workers by 8 white thugs from the community of Carmel Valley (Map location 5)and the dragging death of a fifth. The incident took place not far from where the Heaven's Gate suicides occurred. The horrific racial incident took place on July 5, 2000. The four Mexican migrant workers, ages 64 to 69, lived in a worker's encampment by a creek (Map location 2). The four worked in nearby nurseries and tomato fields. They where terrorized for 2 hours by 8 local white high school aged hoodlums with baseball bats, pellet guns and a pitchfork. One of the workers lost one eye when he was shot point blank in the face seven times. The dragging death of a fifth migrant worker from Oaxaca, Mexico occurred two days later in the same vicinity. The 8 youths were arrested and tried for the beatings of the 4 elderly workers but they were never charged with the murder of the 17 year old migrant worker who had been dragged on his face and dumped over a ravine. The San Diego police determined that the two cases were unrelated.
The third case is currently in the news. It involves the disappearance of 7 year old Danielle van Dam from her Stable Springs home (Map location 3). Stable Springs is another of the new white communities in north San Diego county. This incident has been compared to the Jo Bennet case except that no body has yet been found. It appears that the girl was abducted on February 1, 2002 from her upstairs bedroom while her so called "soccer mom", Brenda van Dam, was out dancing till 2:30 in the morning in a bar in the adjacent community of Poway (Map location 4). The father, Damon van Dam, who was at home, does not know what happened. The prime suspect is a neighbor who lives two houses down. According to the suspect, David Westerfield, he danced with the "soccer mom" at about 10:00 P.M. and then left the bar. The "soccer mom", Brenda van Dam, said that she went out with two single female friends to celebrate the going away of one of them. She said that all three met two other friends and that the five came back to her home for some "pizza" at around 2:30 AM. The following morning, Danielle was gone. No trace of her has been found. There have since been media reports citing law enforcement sources that the Van Dams took part in a "swingers" lifestyle and were engaged in an after-hours sex party with a group of people Mrs. Van Dam brought home from the bar. No one has been arrested. The reader can draw his or her own conclusions concerning the case.
Superficially, north San Diego county seems like an ideal place to live. It is marketed as a crime free and family oriented area. Most schools are brand new and churches abound. White picket fences surround the well manicured lawns and gardens of the upscale homes. It looks like a utopian "Gringoland"! But looks can be deceiving. Underneath the facade, lurks violent racist kids, decadent "soccer moms" and weird groups of people yearning to to be lifted away to heaven in UFO's. Is this the real America? Is white north San Diego county just a small aberration of the nation as a whole? Pat Buchanan recently wrote a book titled "The Death of the West". Possibly, the three incidents in this small region of America, are just mere symptoms of a larger, deeper and more serious problem that is beginning to rear its ugly head.
Danielle Van DamYou may have heard about Danielle Van Dam, the 7-year-old taken from her San Diego home last month and apparently murdered. It's an awful story. What makes it worse, however, is the way Newsweek and other media have turned this into a lewd morality tale.
Danielle's parents are swingers--they are non-monogamous and have sex with other couples. Incredibly, some commentators blame this lifestyle for Danielle's disappearance. If her parents weren't distracted by a sex party, opines Newsweek, they would have somehow known she was being kidnapped, and could have prevented it.
How sleazy can "journalism" get? Three hundred children are abducted from their homes each year. The majority have parents who are not swingers. How do Newsweek, Frontpagemag.com, and other holier-than-thou's account for those cases? If 80% of the parents of abducted kids are monogamous, should we blame their "repressed lifestyle" for their inability to protect their children? While we're at it, let's remember that most of the parents of molested, beaten, and unhealthy kids are (or claim to be) monogamous too. Clearly, monogamy puts children at risk. There's a hot "lifestyle trend" story for USA Today.
What have we heard from the latest hearing today????? Anything?
sw
Hi spec,my post about the profile of a pedophile was a valid post..no more or less than some others, right? I haven't denied anything either.
I have strong ''feelings''..but they are no more or less valid then those who believe the vd's are faking grief (from the earlier threads). Feelings are worthless in a sense because emotions interfere..many of the every day people who are following this case are emotional about it.
I'm not going to deny that my "feelings" about him aren't influenced by the 60,000+ pornography pics, along with the rape animations etc., which have been proven to be true according to the official transcripts. If he's the killer, we have to wonder if he is a pedophile. Could he have killed her because he's insane and not a sexual predator...sure!
The difference between over there and over here is night and day isn't it..
Typical
Is it a pic Fres? It didn't show up? :(
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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.