Defense Feldman: Danielle Van Dam Knew Her Abductor: Dusek, Still Talking...Westerfield Waiting

Union Trib ^ | August 8, 2002 | Steve Perez/Greg Magnus

[pyx]

At one point during his summation, Dusek appeared to be having trouble finding a word and a helpful voice came from the audience to his aid. Brenda van Dam supplied the word. When Feldman objected that the audience was "assisting in closing," Mudd urged the audience to "please remain silent."

Given the outright lies and fabrications Jeff Dusek and Brenda Van Dam have been publically caught spewing, I have to wonder if this little event was something these two along with the Van Dam's PR machine may have cooked up and prearranged to sway one or more in the jury.

[FresnoDA]

EXCLUSIVE PICTURES OF VAN DAM RESIDENCE!!!

A Little Girl Lost

On 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.

 

 

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The van Dam House

Danielle lived in this four-bedroom stucco house on Mountain Pass Road with her parents, Brenda and Damon, and two brothers, Derek and Dylen.

 

 

 

 

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In the Kitchen

The 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.

 

 

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Upstairs

The 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.

 

 

 

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The Open Door

When 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.

 

 

 

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A Normal Morning

Danielle'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.

 

 

 

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An Empty Bed

Police scoured Danielle's bedroom for signs of a struggle and trace evidence of an assailant, but found none.

 

 

 

 

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The Neighborhood

As 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.

 

 

 

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A Gruesome Discovery

Danielle'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.

 

 

 

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Dehesa Road

The site where Danielle's body was dumped is near a quarry and a golf course, and about three miles from a casino where Westerfield

 

 

 

 

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Dehesa Road

There are now stairs leading from the road to the place where Danielle was found.

 

[JudyB1938]

Well, you know how it is. I hate arguments and stupid personal attacks. But ... I'm guilty sometimes, too. LOL

My problem on this thread has been that there are people on both sides of this issue I have respect for. It's just like I didn't want my kids fussing with each other when they were little ... I don't want to see you guys doing it either.

Now, don't post any more pictures of that HAINT. I'm tired of puking. :0)

[gigi]

Do you know if the jury gets a copy of opening and closing remarks?

[contessa machiaveli]

what's up with the westerfield defenders. how would you explain daniell's bllod on his jacket? fingerprint and hair on his bed in the van. dumping his clothing at the dry cleaners first thing monday AM. is your revulsion of the van dammes lifestyle eliminate westerfield as the murderer? this man is a sexual deviant who raped, then murdered this child. what normal man gets off on porn depicting a child being raped and sodomized by adults. he used danielle to make his sick fantasies a reality.

[FresnoDA]

Poor Layla sure got dissed today...

"Stupid Puppy, by Dusek..."

[CAPPSMADNESS]

please post the SOURCE of your information..... exactly where is the evidence that Danielle was raped?

[FresnoDA]

[CAPPSMADNESS]

Boom! Boom! Boom!

[JudyB1938]

Excuse me. You weren't talking to me, but I do have a comment. It is apparent you haven't been following this trial and the testimonies from the very beginning. You might do well to get "caught up" on the THOUSANDS of observations in previous threads. As it is, your comments were covered a LONG time ago and are too late to rehash this late in the game.

[FresnoDA]

Mad Dawgs and San Diego Men....

"Just one slip...just one slip...and his butt is mine....

Mine I say....

He's going down...down I say....."

[contessa machiaveli]

she was naked, that certainly indicates a sexual motive. no tattered PJ's anyplace near where she was found. this is a horrible, horrible crime.

[FresnoDA]

Your comrades need you...PING...!!!

[contessa machiaveli]

why the viagra?

[meadsjn]

how would you explain daniell's bllod on his jacket? According to the DNA sites linked to above, a perfect match of 25 DNA markers provides only a high possibility of common ancestry.

This prosecution is trying to say that a match of 12 of 13 markers provides an identical match.

The DNA evidence is a sham.

[FresnoDA]

She also showed telling signs of ongoing abuse..from pictures, videos, and from journal entries in diaries...are you POSITIVE that nothing happened to her from within the safety of her own home? As mentioned earlier..this is a very detailed and complicated case..the emotional response like you are having is understandable...but you need to know more about the "family" and their extended friends...incredible AMORAL folk...

[contessa machiaveli]

and OJ was innocent?

[andysandmikesmom]

I am glad that a link was provided, both on this thread, and on the previous thread, which profiles the jurors...

At least to my eye, it seems that the jury is a very diverse group....different ethnic backgrounds, different beliefs about the death penalty, different ages, etc. etc, which would lead to different interpretaions of the evidence based on their own experiences in life...hopefully this will lead the jurors to spirited debate, once they meet alone, and begin to discuss the case...

If I have to guess at the outcome, I am going to go with a hung jury....because being such a diverse group, I am not sure that all 12 jurors can agree on one possible outcome, in this particular case...to my eye, its not cut and dry, and just like on these threads, where there is such disagreement as to guilt or innocence, these jurors are going to take the same evidence as we have been, and apply their own life experience and reasoning to that evidence...

Again, I am really upset about this case...if DW is really guilty, but is found not guilty by the jury, and he goes on to murder again, that jury will feel tremendous guilt...on the other hand if he is innocent, but found guilty, we have an innocent man paying a great price for something he did not do, and the real perp is still out there, free to do as he wishes, perhaps murdering another young child...

And if DW is truly innocent, then he is experiencing the ultimate horror story...and what is even more scarey, is that the same thing could happen to me, and to anyone else...

For instance, the neighborhood teen, who mows my lawn, sometimes comes into my house, while I pay him...a few times, he has even used my bathroom...I suppose, his finger prints and DNA are in my house...and I have accidentally accessed porno sites, and tho I have not looked at them, still I am sure, that somewhere on my computer, there is a record of my computer having accessed such sites...

Now if that teen turns up missing and dead, and same night after he mowed my lawn during the day, and I have his fresh DNA in my house, and perhaps he has picked up a fiber from a towel in my house, or pet my cat, and got my cats hair on him, where then do I stand? His DNA in my house, perhaps even blood, should he cut himself on one of my blackberry thorns or rose bud thorns outside...my cats fur or towel fibers on him...and porno sites on my computer...and cops and DA anxious to catch a perp....well, stranger things have happened, I suppose they could look at me as a possible suspect...

This is kind of like what I think might have happened to DW.....I am not saying he is innocent, because I really dont know...but I am saying, that my scenario, tho simplistic, could resemble what has happened to DW, tho there are more points of evidence in his case, then in my case between me and my lawn mower boy...

Innocent people have been railroaded and guilty people have been set free....both prospects are frightening...

I just hope that the jury is earnest in their deliberations, and I also pray that God will grant them the wisdom that they need to decide this case...

[CAPPSMADNESS]

you are reaching - no PJ's could mean simply that her clothing was removed because they may/may not have contained evidence. Or maybe she never had pj's on at all - all we have are the parents word as to what she supposedly wore that night. And no pj's were ever found.

[contessa machiaveli]

what signs of abuse were there. i honestly never heard or read about that. where did you get that info and what is it.