EXCLUSIVE PICTURES OF VAN DAM RESIDENCE!!!
A Little Girl LostOn the night of Feb. 1, 2002, 7-year-old Danielle van Dam was abducted from her bedroom in the Sabre Springs suburb of San Diego. After a massive search, her naked body was found in a trash-strewn lot 25 miles from her house. Her neighbor, David Westerfield, went on trial for the crime June 3.
The van Dam HouseDanielle lived in this four-bedroom stucco house on Mountain Pass Road with her parents, Brenda and Damon, and two brothers, Derek and Dylen.
In the KitchenThe evening before her kidnapping, Danielle sat at the kitchen table writing in her diary while her father and brothers played videogames nearby. Her mother and two female friends had gone to a bar for a "girl's night out." They returned at about 2 a.m. and sat around the table eating leftover pizza and chatting with Damon van Dam and two other male friends.
UpstairsThe hallway outside Danielle's pink and purple bedroom leads across a bridge to her parent's master bedroom. Her father got up a few times during the night of Feb. 1 and her mother shut the doors to the children's bedrooms, but neither checked on Danielle or her brothers.
The Open DoorWhen he awoke after 3 a.m., Damon van Dam found the sliding door, visible in this photo, slightly ajar. He assumed one of his guests had opened it earlier in the evening and, after closing it, returned to bed.
A Normal MorningDanielle's parents and brothers were downstairs eating breakfast Saturday, Feb. 2, when her mother went upstairs to wake the second-grader. Danielle was not in her bed.
An Empty BedPolice scoured Danielle's bedroom for signs of a struggle and trace evidence of an assailant, but found none.
The NeighborhoodAs police officers and news trucks poured into the area Feb. 2, Danielle's neighbors learned of her disappearance. The corner where David Westerfield lived is visible from a park at the end of the street where Danielle often played.
A Gruesome DiscoveryDanielle's badly decomposed body was found under a tree along a largely deserted area of Dehesa Road near El Cajon. Jurors saw photos of her body as it was found. Citizens later made an impromptu memorial on the site.
Dehesa RoadThe site where Danielle's body was dumped is near a quarry and a golf course, and about three miles from a casino where Westerfield
Dehesa RoadThere are now stairs leading from the road to the place where Danielle was found.