In taped interrogation, Westerfield tells police 'my life is over'

San Diego Union Tribune ^ | January 7, 2003

[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.

[cyncooper]

Now DW is giving them Keith Sherman's name (the guy on whose property DW stored his MH). He's explaining how he met Keith S. and how it came to be that he kept his MH out at his place.

[BunnySlippers]

So much of what we're learning now explains why LE zoomed onto this guy. But some people are just against LE no matter what.

I just doublechecked the watch ... still not ticking.

[cyncooper]

It is Johnny Keene doing the interview (I suspected as much but had not heard the name).

DW just told him he had just met Brenda two weeks before for the first time and didn't even know her name or that she had kids before the cookie selling visit. That he recognized her as someone he'd see drive or walk by and the occasional wave.

[cyncooper]

DW saying a clean comforter and his underwear were on the couch and the kids sat on this and she (Danielle) was smoothing the comforter with her hand--he saw this out of the corner of his eye and didn't care if they did this. He tries to be tolerant.

(My comment--this scenario was never even hinted at by the defense-I'll bet not only Brenda, but Dylan described DW's house as neat as a pin with not one piece of laundry spread out on the couch)

[Valpal1]

What's funny is some posters so sure of DW's innocence are now on the Petersen's threads, so sure of the husbands guilt.

Hmmm.....

[EllaMinnow]

And let's guess why DW thought to give a pre-emptive explanation for any evidence on his stinking underwear, shall we?

What a pig.

[cyncooper]

I know--comforter and underwear combo--what a story.

Now the female officer (Kramer or Cramer?) is confronting DW with the fact that the police strongly suspect him and is listing why, with #1 being the time period of his taking off for the weekend and Danielle turning up missing and here he is having failed a polygraph.

[Valpal1]

Hate to hijack a thread, but I need a sensible opinion.

This is a link to completed ebay auctions of UPS uniforms:

http://search-completed.ebay.com/search/search.dll?GetResult&query=Authentic+UPS+%22Browns%22&ht=1&combine=y&st=2&SortProperty=MetaEndSort

one buyer, signed up in November has bought over 15,000 dollars in UPS clothing only.

Is it me, or does the traffic in UPS uniforms at such insane prices seem, um, snarky to say the least.

[cyncooper]

Cramer (excuse if it is misspelled) says the parents want to know where their baby is. Now here is what is said, paraphrased:

Cramer says we need to know if we're looking for a live child or a dead body.

DW answers in a very weird way--talking about having or not having first-hand knowledge and does end up saying "I don't know" and would tell you if I could, then DW says obviously the test is going to fail if I'm lying, but he goes on to say he doesn't know anything.

I can't type at real time but this section is worth another listen when somebody has a chance...

Keene points out his statement about the test and says "well you did fail". Hmmmmmmmm

[EllaMinnow]

Those auctions are hinky, to say the least. Very weird.
My husband has some military uniforms from his time in the service, and I won't sell them on ebay because I'm afraid of who might want them for some nefarious purpose.

[cyncooper]

Why is an item of UPS clothing priced at $400.00??? odd.

Tape back. DW says if he wasn't innocent he wouldn't have volunteered to take the test.

[Valpal1]

Well, finally he's said something his defenders can point to and claim he's innocent.

[cyncooper]

DW just tells Cramer "don't try to find differences in what I'm saying", meaning he's talking about the kids being in the house and she reminds him of his story about the comforter on the couch--and that's when he says the above.

He just said they're trying to convince him he did something he didn't do.

DW talks about his right to a phone call and they remind him that Parga was leading him out of the room to make a call when DW said "there are some discrepancies we better go over first". DW--I'm here to help you, I voluntarily let you in my house, I'm not hiding anything, I'll answer your questions, I took the test.

[Valpal1]

I just posted that ebay link in a thread someone started about ebay.

[cyncooper]

3:00 Monday RR will air the last 15 min. of these tapes.

DW's last words played tonight: Tell me what you need me to do to help you solve this (paraphrase).

[EllaMinnow]

I heard the last 15 minutes of RR. Now he says he'll play the last 15 minutes of the tapes on Monday at 3.

[cyncooper]

I heard the last 15 minutes of RR.

Did you happen to hear the part about "first-hand knowledge" and failing the test is an obvious result if someone is lying?

[EllaMinnow]

Just the tail end.

I hope that people have been listening to these tapes. Every flimsy piece of cardboard that they built their pitiful defense of DW on has crumpled into dust.

[let freedom sing]

My apologies for sending out so many pings last night. I don't know what I was thinking. It won't happen again. :)

From the looks of it, I don't know, either.

DW will fry, but BvD will burn in H*** with him-- they're like "peas and carrots".

[cyncooper]

I hope that people have been listening to these tapes. Every flimsy piece of cardboard that they built their pitiful defense of DW on has crumpled into dust.

It has. And I am thinking back to how the neighbor who was up in the middle of the night nursing her baby and told the police what she saw out of her window, remember how viciously she was mocked and derided for being a "Mrs. Kravitz"? I do hope that some reflection is made about what was revealed today about Westerfield, much worse than being a "nosy neighbor", but a bona fide Peeping Tom.

Just a reminder that among the revelations about DW is that he made home movies looking into his neighbor's homes--one example is taping of a female neighbor getting into and out of the shower.

Think about that...

And then there were his nocturnal journeys outside with binoculars in hand...