Posted on 01/08/2003 9:24:19 AM PST by TomB
In a videotaped interrogation with San Diego police detectives four days after Danielle van Dam was kidnapped, an exhausted David Westerfield says "my life is over," seemingly coming close to an admission that he murdered his 7-year-old neighbor.
"As far as I'm concerned my life is over, the life that I had, the life that I was living is over," Westerfield says in the interrogation conducted the evening of Feb. 5, 2002. Danielle was last seen the night of Feb. 1.
"But you can't blame anyone but yourself, Dave," answers one of the police detectives.
"And I have no problem with that," Westerfield replies.
In the tapes released Tuesday, Westerfield admits "unusual" sexual encounters with his wife, denies anything improper about his alleged use of binoculars to watch neighbors and says the child pornography found on his computer was simply something he downloaded along with a lot of other pornographic images and that he had no sexual interest in children.
Superior Court Judge William Mudd agreed Monday to unseal the videotape along with hundreds of pages of transcripts, documents and recordings in the Westerfield case, as well as transcripts of police interrogations and court hearings conducted in secret.
Some of the material – audiotape and videotape of Westerfield being interrogated during the early stages of the investigation – was released Tuesday afternoon.
The remainder of the material, which ranges from transcripts of closed-door court hearings to motions regarding potential evidence, will be released Monday, Mudd ruled.
The ruling Monday came three days after Mudd sentenced the former design engineer to death for kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, his neighbor in Sabre Springs.
Monday's court hearing came in response to a request by The San Diego Union-Tribune, which has been seeking access to the information for months. The San Diego-based 4th District Court of Appeal has ruled that Mudd must release the information.
The San Diego chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists made a donation to the legal costs.
Westerfield, who attended Monday's hearing, is scheduled to be moved within days to death row at San Quentin State Prison outside San Francisco.
During earlier court appearances, Westerfield was always dressed in civilian attire, but he appeared in court Monday in a green jail jumpsuit. He sat in a holding area so he couldn't be filmed by a television camera.
There is no telling how many web sites still operating around the world, many may never be found.
These numbers are overwhelming.
DW's actions when he returned after his "trip" just do not seem the actions of a guilty person. He did everything LE asked, the things Scott Peterson are now being critized for not doing i.e., lie dectector tests, etc.
Now LE "got their man". IF there is another person out there that killed Danielle, we will NEVER know. The people that care (his kids) are too young to pursue hiring private investigators or in any way attempting to clear DW. Sad.
The rape of a woman, a child, is all about 'power'. In Law enforcement, power is a primary feature of the job. So it is likely there will be a higher amount of crimes committed by LE's which involve 'power' . It is therefore also likely there will be an even higher incidence of this in politics, as the 'power' factor is higher and the seperation between the ABUSER and ABUSEE is greater.
As someone else already stated here on FR, the FEDS that protect us from terrorists.... When they are doing their job, you hear nothing. When they scew up, then you hear about it.
During Sean Sorino's testimony on 6-20-02 a.m., regarding the blood stained jacket, he said "To test the stain...I cut a small portion of it. So I did cut into the stain prior to taking any photographs of it.
Paraphrasing here: "Photos were taken after the testing was done". My opinion here: This means he had to put the jacket back into the plastic bag before taking a picture of it. Why on earth would he do that? We know from testimony the picture was with the plastic over it.
My second thing and most important (I think) is the testimony given after the first break on June 20. Again so sorry to be so dumb about transferring actual testimony.
26.Q. Now, you were also asked to test a variety of swabs isn't that right?
10)Q. V neck swab, item 105, the oral swabs, I think your abbreviation 11) is the vaginal swabs and the rectal swabs you tested 12) all of those items is that right, sir?
13)A. Correct
14)Q. and the purpose of the test was to determine 15) presence or absence of semen, is that correct?
16)A. The component of semen, correct.
17)Q. You did not find any evidence of that component of semen did you?
19)A. Those items that you just mentioned gave me negative results for the P-30, the component of semen.
Now: Weren't we told over and over those body parts (vaginal and rectal) were missing? Where did those "swabs" come from? With this testimony how can Brenda run around saying she knows Danielle was raped? What am I missing here. Help. And thank you.
Savage
According to Savage swabs were made by medical examiner and given to her after they had been dried. Will now look for testimony as to the condition of the body.
This is Dr. Blackbourne's testimony regarding the swabs.As we all know it was never proven Danielle was raped or how she met her death.
Do you remember someone (stating) or testified that there was no odor when they found the body? The above testimony given by the searcher(Chris I think.
I thought I had read that somewhere....How many days would a decaying body emit(?) an odor? As much as 3 weeks?
I am well, hope you are doing well also.
I am not sure on the odor......I believe different testimonies stated different times for the odor.
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