John Walsh: That Friday Brenda and her girlfriends went back to the club, while her husband stayed home with the kids. Westerfield showed up. Posted on 03/04/2002 3:27:44 PM PST by FresnoDA
Tonight:
Damon Van Dam: As soon as I came down I noticed it was the back sliding glass door that was open.
John Walsh: You are getting ready to go through a tough trial.
Brenda Van Dam: They can rip us to shreds if they want to. But all that matters is someone has hurt my daughter.
An exclusive report.
And now from San Diego, John Walsh:
John Walsh: Good Evening. Imagine one morning you go to your daughter’s bedroom, open her door to wake her up and she’s gone. Well that’s exactly what happened in this very house to little 7 year-old Danielle Van Dam. And when she disappeared this family’s worst nightmare began.
(Voice from Video montage of Danielle “In the Arms of the Angels”)
John Walsh: Danielle Van Dam’s face has been all over America, an adorable little girl. The entire nation fell in love with Danielle and prayed for her safe return ever since she disappeared. San Diego police went on high alert to find the 2nd grader. Missing posters covered Southern California. While hundreds of volunteers including the marines joined the massive search. The investigation fanned out all the way to the desert, and even across the border into Mexico.
Last week a surprise arrest in the case. David Westerfield, one of the Van Dam’s neighbors and the main suspect, for Danielle’s kidnapping. He gave no information about what happened to Danielle.
But we all learned the answer on Wednesday when searchers found Danielle’s body in a canyon less than an hour from her home. That answer, however, only raised more searing questions. How could this have happened and why?
With the help of the Van Dam’s and police we piece together the events of the days before and after her disappearance.
John Walsh: It all seems to start the week before Danielle vanished. Danielle’s mother Brenda Van Dam was with some girlfriends at a local hangout. David Westerfield was also at the Club that night. Brenda knew Westerfield lived in the neighborhood, but didn’t know him socially. It seems Westerfield tried to change that.
Brenda: ...He did buy us drinks, but we weren’t talking to him at all. We didn’t really, didn’t really interact with him that much or socialize with him.
John Walsh: 4 days later Brenda and Danielle were selling Girl Scout cookies in the neighborhood. Westerfield’s house was on the route.
Brenda Van Dam: When I went to sell him Girl Scout cookies he said to me “your friend’s look like a lot of fun why didn’t you introduce me to them?” and I said, I don’t even know your first name. And he said, “Well tell your friends you have a rich neighbor that would like to meet them.” And I said well ok we might be going this Friday, I wasn’t sure if I could get a sitter or not and I’ll introduce you.
John Walsh: That Friday Brenda and her girlfriends went back to the club, while her husband stayed home with the kids. Westerfield showed up.
Brenda Van Dam: So we were sitting at the ummm the bar area. He was right behind us and he said ummm “ladies don’t buy their own drinks, let me buy you a drink.” So we thought, well that’s nice. I told him at one point, I had turned my back that I was here to be with my friends, I didn’t, I didn’t mean to be rude. Cause I felt kind of guilty about turning my back to a person that had just bought me a drink. At one point he was just standing and staring at us.
John Walsh: Westerfield finally left the bar and that was the last Brenda saw of him that night. Brenda and her friends came back here to the house and her husband Damon got up and they ate pizza ‘til about 2:30 in the morning and then the friends left. At that time Damon and Brenda went upstairs to bed thinking that they had closed up the house. About an hour later Damon woke up in this bedroom and he noticed a blinking alarm light. Now that meant one thing, a door was open somewhere.
Damon: So I went down to investigate as soon as I came down I noticed it was the back sliding glass door that was open. Cold air was coming in. What I assumed was that someone had a cigarette and had ashed it out there because a couple of the people that were over smoked. Uh, closed the back door and went back up to bed. Thought nothing.
John Walsh: The next morning Brenda went to Danielle’s room to wake her up and she was gone. We don’t know where David Westerfield went after he left the bar. He has said he got in his motorhome the next morning around 9:30 and left his neighborhood of Sabre Springs. He ended up 30 miles south to Silver Strand State Beach a campsite for motorhomes. He self-registered at the campground indicating that he was staying for 2 nights at $12.00 a night. But by mistake Westerfield overpaid by $30.00. Later that afternoon the park ranger showed up at his RV to give him his money back.
Park Ranger: The door opened, I asked him if he was Mr. Westerfield, he said he was, and said goodbye.
John Walsh: But oddly enough even though Westerfield paid for two nights he didn’t end up staying that long. Instead he packed up and drove to Glamis, 125 miles East in the desert. But there Westerfield ran into a problem. His motorhome got stuck in the soft sand well off the beaten path. Two hikers happened to find him the next morning and contacted tow truck driver Dan Conklin.
Dan Conklin: He made a comment that he was familiar with the area, that he knew better to be in here, but he did it anyway, and that to me seems a little strange. He kept asking me if I was sure that I could get him out, and I kept having to reassure him that I could get him out. I eventually did get him out and he didn’t get out of his motorhome. I uh told him I was going to come back and get my wood and get his leveling blocks and I would meet him back on the hard pack road behind us, and when I came over to get the wood and the leveling ramps, I turned around to see him get back onto the hard pack road and head towards the highway and he left.
John Walsh: Dan says Westerfield never waited to get his leveling ramps, he just took off. Monday morning Westerfield returned home police went to his house and with his permission started a routine search.
(Interview of DW in front of his house with reporters)
Question: Are you the homeowner here?
DW: Yes, Um huh
Question: Why would they come into your house)
DW: ummm well you’d have to ask them, I was gone all weekend, so, and I offered to let them look through everything and check it out basically.
John Walsh: Soon police impounded Westerfield’s SUV & Motorhome. Investigators continued to search his house. And left his house with evidence. For 18 days he came and went as a free man.
Ken & John (DJ’s from KFI Radio in Los Angeles yelling at DW through car window): Hey Westerfield did you kill Danielle?
John Walsh: That changed on Friday February 22nd. Police said they finally found the evidence they were looking for. Danielle’s blood on a piece of Westerfield’s clothing and in his motorhome. They took him into custody.
Department 11 of the superior court is now in session.
John Walsh: During Westerfield’s arraignment earlier this week prosecutors added child pornography and murder to the list of charges.
Judge: How do you plead to the list of charges in the complaint, guilty or not guilty?
David Westerfield: Not guilty
Judge: Okay do you deny the allegations?
David Westerfield: Yes sir.
John Walsh: It was agonizing for me to sit in the courtroom and see the Van Dam’s pain. Knowing they still had no idea where their baby was. That evening I sat down with the Van Dams to talk about what lay ahead for them.
John Walsh: There was the arraignment, you know I felt honored to be there cause that was the first time I met you, I had talked to you on the phone so much that I had felt like I had gotten to know you and know about your family and your boys and how much you loved Danielle. Are you prepared for the downside? You’re getting ready to go through a tough trial. This is going to be a high profile trial.
Brenda Van Dam: I think we’re prepared.
John Walsh: You know most people that uh were never victims of crime don’t realize how brutal these things can be. And they can be very brutal and mean spirited, umm are you prepared for that?
Brenda Van Dam: Yes, none of that matters, all that matters is Danielle. Nothing else matters. They can rip us to shreds if they want to, but the focus here is someone has hurt our daughter, taken our daughter, we don’t have her. None of the other matters, none of the other stuff matters to me.
John Walsh: Having been involved for years now with thousands of cases of missing children, I think the toughest thing is for families that have other children and you have two other children. How is the family doing? How are the boys doing?
Brenda Van Dam: Well from day one we have totally straightforward with them. They know their sister did not walk out of the house they know their sister was taken from our home, umm, they know of our search efforts we take them to the search center. Umm we also talk about the possibility that she might be in heaven with grandpa.
John Walsh: I don’t think anybody is prepared for the bad news in the case of a missing child. Are you prepared for that reality if that is the reality?
Damon Van Dam: We’ve cried
Brenda Van Dam: We’ve gone over it, we’ve talked, you can’t lose that little ounce
Damon Van Dam: We’ve gone over it for a long time umm you know you try to prepare as best you can, All I know is you can’t really prepare, and we do keep holding out hope
(They both are talking at the same time here, so it is a little hard to hear them both)
John Walsh: Thousands of searchers shared the same hope. Volunteers from all over kept looking for Danielle day and night. On Wednesday two of those searchers discovered what they prayed they’d never find, the body of Danielle Van Dam. There is still much work to do. Many questions remain. And that’s where you can help. Police would still like to know more about the movements of David Westerfield in the days before and after Danielle’s disappearance. Here’s what they do know. David Westerfield first appears with his motorhome here at Silver Strand State Beach, he then travels 125 to Glamis in the desert. Danielle’s body was discovered here near El Cajon. Anyone who spotted David Westerfield or his motorhome on February 2nd or 3rd might be able to shed more light on what happened that weekend. If you have any information about this case, please call us at 1-800-crime-tv.
I've heard this here on FR a few times but, I've not heard it in the local San Diego paper or news. Where did you get your info?
Anything is possible, but it is not procedure to make false press statements. If they were doing a sting, they would have simply said nothing to the press about polygraphs and having ruled the parents out as suspects.
Cops are generally considerate, caring, and honorable people. They greive with victims and their families. Their attitude toward and statements about the Van Dams are indicative of what they know about the evidence.
Many just want to overlook this point so as to continue full tilt in the Van Dam Slam as you so poetically put it. As poorly as they've played to the t.v. cameras, it's impossible for me to believe they've "played" the cops.
Of course, some now want to conclude that there is a cover up because the swing thing goes high up into local politics. And while paranoics sometimes really do have enemies, Free Republic has its share of iredeemable tin-foil mad hatters. They simply cannot accept that another pedophile killer could have just happened to an unlucky and unperfect family.
Searchers on Saturday were in the area where the body was found yesterday and came up empty, Garcia said. It's about midway down in the story.
Many just want to overlook this point so as to continue full tilt in the Van Dam Slam as you so poetically put it. As poorly as they've played to the t.v. cameras, it's impossible for me to believe they've "played" the cops.
yes, cops are indeed very caring individuals, especially when it comes to child abduction/murder. My older brothers are all police officers and have had to deal with very similar situations to the Van Dam case. I do not envy them their jobs.
I do not believe that the cops are being played - but having some insider information regarding the workings of law enforcement, I do know that the police will often play good cop/bad cop in order to draw out a suspect (Ala Susan Smith)I also know that they will be respectful to the family even if they suspect that a family member was involved.
I know very little about the case, but from what I have read in the news, I am very uncomfortable with the way things have played out - especially the part about the location/recovery of the body. A body left outdoors for a period of several days, will start to carry a stench. The stench will draw scavengers out, which in return will decimate a small body in very little time. And as I have stated before, according to reports, the area had already been searched prior to the recovery and it was not located.
It is possible that scavengers were the reason that the body was moved...... but wouldn't the police have known this?
There's your common sense speaking. "Could have just happened" -- magical thinking, possible, but almost magic if so. "Unlucky and imperfect" -- glimmer of common sense, as that combination means "likely suspects".
A rotten situation, and circumstances as reported do leave the couple VDs in serious consideration, at least as a major contributing factor, if not as accomplices or worse.
A certain portion of this pervert population do not have the social skills to groom children for seduction so they resort to coercion, i.e. abduction and rape. Most release their victims alive, but about one third don't. Usually because the child knows who they are and can identify them, but sometimes because they are "out of control" much like Ted Bundy's last rampage.
DW "crapped" in his own back yard, so to speak. The Van Dam's were the unlucky victims who made the unfortunate mistake of not properly securing their home. For this, they will pay forever in private guilt and public shame.
Bogeyman thinking, still in that magical mindset.
You are unfamiliar with the Belgium kidnap/child sex ring?
Or the many third world child sex tourism hot spots? They aren't catering to the locals. It's for rich Americans and Europeans.
Take your blinders off!
These people make me sick. We talk about the terrorists being animals. Well, these people are animals in heat. It is so sad that the little girl had to suffer this way. While I don't blame the girl's death or abduction on the parents, I do think that she was a victim of the culture of(or lack of) the community, where sex was the focus of their lives.
Can you find how many children were killed by their own parents last year? That question is begged, as a fair follow-on to your cite of the 100 killed by pedophiles.
I'm in agreement with you but 100 is AWFULLY low. John Walsh on LKL (transcript on cnn.com) last night said that just in the Sabre Springs community there were 13 registered sex offenders. Children disappear without a trace all the time.
Certainly, trained police dogs.
And that number does not include the unsolved/body not recovered cases. Only the confirmed DEAD.
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