Posted on 02/09/2002 6:53:27 AM PST by crypt2k
Suspect's travels included Imperial Valley, Silver Strand
Police continued yesterday to investigate the alibi of David Westerfield and tried to make sense of the kidnapping suspect's wanderings from desert to beach to desert again after the disappearance of his 7-year-old neighbor Danielle van Dam.
Westerfield, an avid camper who has come under intense police scrutiny, drove his motor home to Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado on the afternoon of Feb. 2, apparently after leaving the dunes in the Imperial Valley desert, where the vehicle had been stuck in the sand, officials said yesterday.
Silver Strand park rangers said Westerfield mistakenly paid for four nights instead of the two he intended to stay. He left after a ranger knocked on his door and gave him a refund.
Danielle has been missing from her Sabre Springs home for eight days. She was last seen when her father put her to bed about 10:30 p.m. Feb. 1. Westerfield, who has not been arrested and who friends say is incapable of doing harm, told police he left in his motor home the next morning for the desert and the beach.
Silver Strand rangers said Westerfield arrived at the $12-a-night oceanfront campground Feb. 2. A ranger knocked on his motor-home door to refund the overpayment between 3 and 3:30 p.m., and Westerfield drove off about 20 minutes later.
Westerfield appeared to be alone in the motor home, though rangers did not go inside the vehicle and did not see or hear a child. He did not seem nervous, said Chief Ranger John Quirk.
"There was nothing suspicious about it," Quirk said. "He sounded grateful they'd given him the money back."
Westerfield told police he decided to leave after paying for two nights because "he didn't know anybody down there. He decided to go to the desert where his friends were," an investigator said.
It is not clear to what desert he returned.
Police said they find it curious that earlier that same day, Westerfield, a frequent desert camper, became stuck in the sand in an area most campers know to avoid. Some campers told police they watched as Westerfield continued down a sandy stretch and remarked that he was sure to get stuck.
"He knows the desert real well. What's he doing out there?" an investigator said.
Investigators have been in the Imperial Valley for the past several days. They returned yesterday by helicopter because shifting dunes from a sandstorm Sunday could have covered up clues, and detectives wanted to take an aerial look in a search for possible grave sites or other evidence, one detective said.
"The wind can blow for 15 minutes and you won't see a thing," said Dan Conklin, a towing service owner who pulled Westerfield's motor home from the dunes south of Glamis on Feb. 2.
Yesterday morning, Conklin led members of the news media south from Glamis down a dirt road a mile and a half south of state Route 78, where he said Westerfield's motor home was stuck. There, he hiked up a dune and pointed east to a half-square-mile plot where investigators concentrated their search Thursday.
Conklin said that before noon Feb. 2, Westerfield hiked to an encampment of off-road enthusiasts and told a man he was stuck. That man went to Conklin's business and directed him to Westerfield.
Westerfield was alone and without an all-terrain vehicle or dune buggy when Conklin found him trying to dig out his motor home, which had sunk into the sand up to its frame.
Conklin said he was immediately suspicious, and that he saw a long line of footprints that stretched from the motor home off into the distance. He said Westerfield told him he had been stuck since morning.
Police first showed an interest in Westerfield on Monday when he returned from his weekend trip. Detectives initially said they talked to him because he was the only person in the neighborhood they had not contacted over the weekend.
His house was one of the first of more than 200 Sabre Springs homes that officers searched with the aid of police dogs. Police later returned with a search warrant.
During that Tuesday search, investigators seized Westerfield's motor home and a sport-utility vehicle. They took 13 containers of property from his house and had him retrace his weekend in the desert.
At one point, police dispatched a plumber to the Westerfield house to assist in their search. It was not known what task the plumber performed.
Police are still awaiting results of DNA tests. Undercover detectives also continue to track Westerfield's every move.
As they did Thursday, undercover detectives yesterday followed Westerfield as he drove from his home to the offices of his attorney, Steven Feldman, in San Diego's Golden Hill neighborhood.
Meanwhile, Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, continued to make appearances on several television news broadcasts, where they again pleaded for their daughter's safe return.
The Laura Recovery Center for Missing Children, a Texas group that is joining the effort to find Danielle, launched its first searches yesterday.
From a command post at the Doubletree Golf Resort in Rancho Peñasquitos, the organization sent several groups looking for the girl, said Bob Walcutt, the center's executive director. Searches were conducted by air over the Anza-Borrego Desert, on the ground in east Poway and in an area southeast of Beeler Canyon Road and Pomerado Road, and by car along Scripps Poway Parkway, Walcutt said.
Nearly 150 people turned out last night at Danielle's school, Creekside Elementary, to coordinate efforts for a more extensive volunteer search effort today.
Yes, I'm sure that your "enlightened" wife can tell when someone is lying or not... I'm sure that she's NEVER been in error in this regard; after all, everybody knows that homocide investigators are human lie detectors. Heck, why even have a trial? Let's just let the cops fabricate all the evidence they want, tell the judge who's guilty, and be done with it? It's a lot easier than having to worry about arcane things like citizen rights and fair trials!
The dogs followed Danielle's scent to his home. The parents have said that Danielle had sold him Girl Scout cookies. We have only their word that she actually went to his home for the sale.
Was watching an HBO Documentary on the Susan Smith saga last evening. One extremely interesting part was when one of the chief investigator's gave Susan her polygraph. He said he let her "think" she passed with flying colors, when it was crystal clear she LIED. In fact, he gave it to her twice and she failed it both times.
Very clever, letting her think she was getting away with the "abduction story". All the while, they were laying a trap for her.
sw
/2/ The parents know they will look like heartless orgy porgies who were so after chasing their pleasure that they literally left the door open to the abduction of their daughter by one of the many unknown "swingers" they let into their lives. And then they were so spent and consumed by their pleasure chase they didn't even bother to check Danielle's room for over 11 hours until one of her friends came over at 930AM.
They may not have abducted her, but they sure set up the conditions for her abduction.
Given what we know now, your theory definitely sounds pretty plausible.
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/tue/news/
And according to the tribune "At one point, a dog with the scent of Danielle taken from one of her shoes went into Westerfield's house" It says nothing about leading the police there.
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/wed/news/news_1n6search.html
Oh and the tow truck driver was apparently mistaken about when he got the stuck motorhome out of the sand..I wonder if the kiddie porn will go up in smoke? I would assume if the child porn was illegal, an arrest would have been made by now.......
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/sun/news/news_1n10search.html
Suspect in kidnapping of girl didn't strand RV on Feb. 2, police say
By Bruce Lieberman and Mark Arner
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
February 10, 2002
A towing service owner in Imperial Valley mixed up his days when he said the motor home of a suspect in the Danielle van Dam disappearance became stuck in the desert Feb. 2, an investigator said.
David Westerfield, who has been the focus of the investigation into the disappearance of the 7-year-old San Diego girl, was stranded with his motor home Feb. 3, not Feb. 2. Danielle's parents reported her missing the morning of Feb. 2.
After conducting extensive interviews with witnesses, police concluded that tow service owner Dan Conklin confused his time line. The investigator said others confirmed that Westerfield's RV was pulled out Feb. 3.
Conklin told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday that Westerfield's motor home was stuck in the sand at least a mile off the nearest road last Saturday. He said he was called out to help in late morning to midafternoon.
Conklin's time line had Westerfield in Imperial Valley, then at Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado and back out in the desert. Police explored that scenario and concluded it was inaccurate, the investigator said.
Conklin could not be reached last night at his home. Damon van Dam was the last to see Danielle when he tucked her into her canopy bed after 10 p.m. Feb. 1.
Since then, her disappearance has attracted national attention. The van Dams have been interviewed extensively by all manner of media, and Danielle was mentioned last night on Fox television's "America's Most Wanted."
In other developments yesterday:
More than 300 men and women combed coastal hills and valleys and the mountains for any sign of Danielle. The volunteers, in 30 search parties of about 10 people each, fanned out across a 25-mile radius from the van Dam home in Sabre Springs. They canvassed south to Imperial Beach, east to Julian and north to Pauma Valley.
The search, which will continue today, was organized by the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center Foundation. The foundation was named after a 12-year-old girl from Friendswood, Texas, found slain 17 days after she disappeared in 1997.
As of late yesterday, the searchers, including one group on horseback along Old Julian Highway east of Ramona, had found nothing useful.
"We haven't come across anything that points directly to Danielle," said Bob Walcutt, executive director of the foundation.
The man who offered a $10,000 reward for Danielle's return said there is no money on hand to pay it.
"We have received no money since I came on the scene," said Douglas Pierce, founder of the Millennium Children's Fund. "As of late last night, nothing has come in."
When asked about how he would make good on his much-publicized reward, Pierce said he can call underwriters who support his organization.
"Moneys are now available to our organization in a variety of ways," he said.
He would not elaborate.
Pierce reported no income and no expenses for the 2000 tax year on a federal 990-EZ tax form. Yesterday, he said he paid expenses out of his pocket.
The van Dams urged everyone to focus on the search for their daughter and not on "distractions," such as rumors about their private life.
"We are here today to focus on finding Danielle," Brenda van Dam told a news conference in front of their home yesterday afternoon.
A couple of hours later, the van Dams left to watch their 9-year-old son, Derek, at baseball practice on a field next to Morning Creek Elementary School.
"This would be so different if (Danielle) were here," Damon van Dam said as he watched his son play catch. "You get a couple seconds of this feeling normal again, and then you remember that she's gone."
Westerfield, who lives two houses from the van Dams, apparently remained in seclusion in his home, while television vans and roughly two dozen reporters, photographers and video cameramen waited outside. Westerfield has permitted police to search his house and to talk to him many times. He hired a defense attorney last week, but at no time has he been under arrest.
Police have been watching Westerfield since he returned Monday from a weekend getaway. An investigator said Westerfield told police he first drove his motor home to Silver Strand State Beach the afternoon of Feb. 2 and then drove to the dunes in the Imperial Valley desert.
Yesterday, the volunteer search parties started early and worked until dark.
Among them was Andy Voggenthaler, who as he left home told his children he was helping find a lost little girl. His 5-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy said they wanted to come along.
"It's just unconscionable," said Voggenthaler, who lives near the van Dam home. "To think, how could someone harm a little girl, a 7-year-old girl?"
Voggenthaler was one of 10 volunteers who hiked outside Ramona, along Mussey Grade Road and into Dos Picos County Park.
Several other search parties, outfitted with bright-orange vests, cell phones and maps, embarked from a command center at the Doubletree Golf Resort in Rancho Peñasquitos. Organizers there have named their center the "Danielle Recovery Center."
Finding clues proved daunting for search parties scouring the rugged and vast backcountry, where missing people, or signs of them, could be just about anywhere.
In Dos Picos County Park, where Voggenthaler and others hiked, narrow hillside trails, shaded campgrounds, thick brush and towering boulders presented countless hiding places.
The volunteers examined paper tossed on the side of the road, a discarded pair of boxer shorts lying in a clump of grass, a bag filled with cookies and corn chips.
"Kid food," said Guy Emanuele, 36, a Scripps Ranch resident who found the bag near the park. Like other scraps, the bag was marked with an orange ribbon for later review.
Once inside Dos Picos, Voggenthaler and others knelt at drainage pipes and peered into the shadows, haltingly lifted Dumpster lids, trudged through tall grass and scrambled over boulders and into dry stream beds.
"Where do you go? Which way?" Voggenthaler asked as he hiked through the park.
His search party regrouped in the park's parking lot before heading back in for another look. Volunteer searches are critical in the hunt for Danielle, said Dawn Davis with the Laura Recovery Center Foundation.
"We want to eliminate these areas and conclude that she's not there," Davis said.
Up the road from the park, Richard Williams watched the volunteers as he stood at the fence near his ranch house. Williams said he fears the worst.
"You hope and pray," he said. "But time is not on our side now."
Hmmmm. This is interesting. I wonder, though, if the parents did something to their daughter, why would they? I also remember a reporter saying last week that they had planned an Italy trip the week their daughter turned up missing. And Westerfield's wanderings between the beach and desert are odd....
"We have received no money since I came on the scene," said Douglas Pierce, founder of the Millennium Children's Fund. "As of late last night, nothing has come in."
Surprise, surprise. Fade into oblivion, your 15 minutes is up. Cruise his website and you will find: Heap big smoke but no fire.
I know this is really gross but an RV with an open black water valve is one way to eliminate evidence. If the neighbor drove and dropped the remains could be eaten by birds and other animals by now.
You may show complete emotional apathy but by golly you're funny.
Good grief, diefree.....you don't know ANYTHING! She lives in the middle of the desert. Somewhere between here & there. Surrounded by recluse spiders. Yep. No friends. No acquaintenances. Nope. None at all. Just likes to argue with people like YOU!
I've read part of this thread....you act awfully close to this case or somethin'. Kinda scary, actually.
Yep, gross, but possible. I hadn't thought of that myself. I did think about the high winds that can come up, and last all day, pretty good at covering up anything out in that desert. Usually, the wind is worse in Spring and also fall, like around October. I think it has to do with the change in weather, i.e., heating up in spring pretty fast and cooling off in winter, pretty fast, too. But it can be windy other times. Poor girl.
But this wonderful University apparently failed to impart to you the rudiments of our legal system- especially the part the Bill of Rights plays.
There is a presumption that a citizen who has not been charged with a crime, and who has not been served with a warrant, has the right to be secure in his home and possessions.
The Fifth Amendment seems to imply that mere silence cannot be taken as evidence of guilt.
I know that there are lots of prosecutors, police, and others out there who think that we should all just touch our forelocks and say "Yes, Sir" to anything they want- but if we did, this would be a police state.
Of course, if YOU ever come under unjustified suspicion, I am willing to allow you to invite the police in to search through your closets and sock drawers, and then to "leak" anything they may consider incriminating to the press. You have the right to waive your rights.
But you DON'T have the right to waive MINE!
As a former caterer I sure *could* do that...even in my sleep. But golly gee, why do that when I could continue to rile you up and get you all emotional and stuff?! :o)
The answer to that is yes, Diefree, she certainly does. Me, for one. . .
I followed the dialog back and saw ya'lls discussion there, and found it interesting. This thing with the parents is a little puzzling to me. I have seen some of their public display and I can't help but feel sorry for them. I have not made up my mind as to their involvement. I feel that they are sincere in their grief. Everyone human being is different, some are more emotional than others, some less. That's the nature of the (human) beast - we are all different.
I had the experience a few years ago of knowing the parents whose 2 young children were murdered. You probably have heard about the case - Darlie Routier? (We are in North Central Texas, near Dallas). She was convicted of murderering her kids who were 5 & 6 yrs. old. She is currently on death row, awaiting execution.
Darlie and Darin worked for the same company that I did back in the late 80s early 90s. Darlie was a strange one, IMHO. She had a "clique" and if you weren't part of that clique, you weren't anybody. Countless times when meeting her in the hallway I'd extend a "howdy" or "good morning", etc. Not ONCE did she acknowledge my greeting. I stopped wasting my breath after a little while.
When the police arrested her, we (myself and some of the folks at work) had thought maybe Darin would be charged (and I had trouble believing that he might have done it because Darin was a lot more friendly than Darlie and I didn't think he could have done such a thing). When Darlie was charged, I was not surprised, and COULD believe she was capable of it.
Anyway, to make a long story short, the things they did before she was charged were pretty bizarre. One of the murdered kids birthday was right after the murder. They had buried the kids and Darlie and Darin went to the cemetery and had a “party” for the child at the gravesite. They were using silly string and just having a good time celebrating the kids birthday. When I first saw that, I though “GOSH, what is this?!”. It just seemed so strange to me. I wasn’t alone either, when I talked to others. Some folks thought it was no big deal, but I just thought it took a different person than me to do something like that!
Anyway, I didn’t mean to rant here, folks. Thanks for the ping, homeschool mama!
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