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.
"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."
I also think the porn came from Gnutella.
What did the police dogs find that caused the police to come back with a warrant?
I thought the same thing.
But I wonder if we are right to judge "normal" people based on how they act on TV. I mean, it's such a freaky thing to have bright lights and cameras pointed at you, that maybe it would be more surprising if a normal person seemed "normal" with that kind of thing going on.
I don't know what to think about these kind of things. We're so used to seeing slick and polished professionals on TV, that when we see someone who looks downright odd, we assume there's something dubious about them. It could just be normal people reflecting the odd situation around them (especially when they're probably mind-numb and heart-broke from dealing with their missing daughter...).
Mark W.
Then how did the parents dispose of the body? I think the parents MAY HAVE conspired with the neighbor. And I'm not so sure the child is dead. She may even have been passed off to someone else. Of course, all of this is just wild speculation.
"This is in no way related to the investigation," Brenda van Dam said. "Nothing would get in between me checking on my children. It's a rumor. I don't know why people would want to be hurtful."
That's not exactly a denial, is it?
Actually, Walsh was just the opposite -- he was super-emotional and angry. I saw a biographical special on him a few weeks ago, and he was just filled with rage back then. He even called his book about that time "Days of Rage."
True, there are innocent people in jail and on death row. This is unacceptable. But I think it is proper to acknowledge that the right person is convicted by an overwhelming degree.
I understand what you are saying. In Susan Smith's case and in Diane Down's they had a hard time faking the crying (which women are so apt to do). In both cases, their crying was so fake it looked almost like laughing ... very strange.
Has anybody mentioned yet the strong repeated rumors that the Van Dams' garage is "party central" for the swingers, with locks on the INSIDE of the garage to keep out the nosy, (or their kids)?
Were the Van Dams having a sex/drug party locked in the garage, leaving their kids upstairs open to abduction from one of the "swingers" or Westerfield?
This stinks on so many levels.
/1/ The Van Dams didn't check Danielle's room from 10pm to 930AM when a friend of hers came looking for her to play???????
/2/ Mommy Van Damm just "happened" to run into Westerfield at the bar, and isn't sure if she danced with him or not???????
I don't know if you have children...but if you do, wouldn't you display *some* type of emotion if one was missing?!
You REALLY have to "parse" every word from the Van Damms. It's "Clinton speak", every word of it.
Westerfield's movements are damning. The ONLY reason people go to the desert there is to go dune buggying. No dune buggy, no reason. So what's his reason? As as experienced desert traveler, he's very aware that anything buried will be windswept "clean" on top very fast. No tracks, no trail, no scent.
A few years ago in NewYork City, a man claimed to be sexually assaulted on deserted subway platforms. He claimed this about 30 different times, consequently, about 30 men were arrested.
He did this all over the city and since the precincts weren't coordinating arrests, it was not noticed that one man was putting in so many complaints.
About 25 of the 30 who were arrested plea-bargained because they were afraid of going to trial.
Luckily for them, a policeman responding to a sexual abuse complaint realized that it was the same man he had responded to once before. This led him to investigate as to whether the man was making up stories and he found all the innocent people and had them exonerated.
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