Posted on 03/11/2002 4:56:10 PM PST by FresnoDA
Officer describes scene where Danielle was found
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Police lieutenant, medical examiner testify at hearing for WesterfieldBy Jeffrey J. RoseSIGNONSANDIEGO Updated 3 p.m. March 11, 2002 SAN DIEGO A preliminary hearing for David Westerfield, charged in connection with the kidnap and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, opened Monday morning with testimony by a police lieutenant who described the scene where the girl's naked, blackened body was found off Dehesa Road. "I saw the body of what appeared to be a young child, in an advanced stage of decomposition, on her back," said police Lt. James C. Collins. Collins said that although parts of the unclothed body had decomposed so much that the tissue had disappeared, he noticed the body was wearing a plastic choker necklace and an earring in its left ear identical to those Danielle was wearing the evening she disappeared on Feb. 1.
There were drag marks in leaves on the ground near the body, Collins said. "It looked like somebody had dragged it into the underbrush," he said. Westerfield's attorney, Steven Feldman, asked Collins whether he was aware of blood found by forensic investigators on the stairwell inside the van Dams' home and on concrete outside the garage. Collins, who headed the investigation into Danielle's disappearance, responded that he was not. Feldman also asked Collins about drag marks found near the home, and Collins responded that he was aware that drag marks had been found near a sidewalk there. San Diego County Medical Examiner Brian D. Blackbourne, the next to testify, said a lot of the body had been destroyed by animals and the remaining parts were severely decomposed, with the skin "mummified." Blackbourne testified that the condition of the body was consistent with having been dead for the 3½ weeks Danielle was missing, but under questioning by Feldman later admitted he could not pinpoint the time of Danielle's death and in fact she could have been killed as late as Feb. 10 or later. Much of the body's tissue was missing, he said, as was its left foot. An autopsy found that the organs of the chest were mostly intact, and fluid and air were found in its lungs, he testified. Blackbourne testified that in the autopsy he looked for evidence of sexual molestation but was hampered by the body's poor condition. The cause of death could not be immediately determined, Blackbourne said. "The deterioration of even the tissue that was there makes it difficult to determine a cause of death unless a major, major trauma was the cause," he testified. Although he could not immediately determine a cause, Blackbourne said he could determine that the death was a homicide based on the circumstances of Danielle's disappearance and discovery of her body. The body was found by volunteer searchers Feb. 27 about 25 feet from the north side of Dehesa Road, about a mile east of Singing Hills Country Club and about 1½ miles west of Sycuan Casino. Westerfield, a 50-year-old neighbor of Danielle's, pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and possessing child pornography at a court hearing Feb. 26. If convicted, Westerfield could face the death penalty. Testifying Monday afternoon at the pretrial hearing was Christina Hoeffs, a dispatcher for the California Highway Patrol whose home is behind and above Westerfield's. Hoeffs said that after she got up to attend to her infant son around 2:30 a.m. Feb. 2, she went back to her bedroom and through her window noticed all the window blinds at the rear of Westerfield's home were shut tight. She said she also observed an outside back light remained on that she had first noticed was on at 10 p.m. "I did make a note of it because he doesn't usually do that," Hoeffs said. "I've never seen the blinds shut completely tight on every window in his home." The blue-eyed, 7-year-old girl was last seen when her father, Damon van Dam, put her to bed around 10 p.m. in their Sabre Springs home the night of Feb. 1. She was discovered missing the next morning, spurring a hunt that involved hundreds of volunteers. Investigators believe Danielle was kidnapped from her bedroom and taken to the Silver Strand near Coronado by Westerfield, who then drove sometime on Feb. 2 to the desert. Neither Damon nor Brenda van Dam, the girl's mother, attended Monday's hearing, which was broadcast live on local television stations. Norman D. Sperber, a forensic dentist, also testified Monday on the condition of the body's teeth and how he identified the body through comparison with dental records.
Union-Tribune reports were used in compiling this story |
Is one more likely to remember the ordinary and routine or the extraordinary and odd?
Thanks. Either some hard livin' or the photos are really cruel.
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SAN DIEGO -- A scratched-up David Westerfield was "overly cooperative" when detectives questioned him two days after 7-year-old Danielle van Dam was discovered missing, according to preliminary hearing testimony Monday.
Detective Johnny Keene said Westerfield had numerous small scratches on his hand and arm when he was interviewed on his front porch the morning of Feb. 4.
Keene was the final witness on the first day of the hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence to send the girl's accused killer on to trial. "In my opinion, he was overly cooperative," Keene said. "I've been doing this for 16 years. Typically, when we search people's houses, they don't point out places to look. Usually, they ask why we're searching their house." Keene said Westerfield pointed to a number of places in his "immaculate" home where detectives might want to look, including a stack of boxes and a trap door to the attic.
Westerfield also led detectives to a Poway "mountaintop" where he stored his motorhome and accompanied them to the Northeastern substation in Rancho Penasquitos for what turned into a stay of about eight hours, Keene said.
Keene also told the court that, when first questioning Westerfield, he noticed "numerous" scratch marks on his hand and above his wrist. Westerfield reportedly explained that he got scratched the previous day while digging his motorhome out of the sand along a narrow road in Borrego Springs, the second time the vehicle got stuck that weekend.
Keene also said Westerfield was "sweating profusely" as they spoke, even though it was a cool morning and they were standing in the shade.
The 7-year-old was reported missing the morning of Feb. 2 from her home in Sabre Springs. She was last seen when her father, Damon, put her to bed the night before.
Westerfield, 50, lived two houses away and fell under suspicion after he returned from a weekend trip to the desert.
The twice-divorced father eventually was arrested in the case and pleaded innocent to murder, kidnapping and misdemeanor child pornography in connection with the second-grader's disappearance and death.
The self-employed design engineer was arrested when lab tests showed Danielle's blood on his clothing and in his recreational vehicle.
Westerfield, dressed in a gray suit, sat nearly motionless in his seat with his hands folded in his lap. But he shed his jacket and tie as testimony continued into the afternoon.
Earlier, San Diego police Lt. Jim Collins said Danielle's body was nude, in an advanced state of decomposition and missing a foot when it was found Feb. 27 under a tree near Dehesa Road in El Cajon.
"I saw a body of a young female," Collins told a hushed courtroom. "There was an advanced state of decomposition. She was laying on her back. Her head was facing a tree. Her head was turned to the east. The torso was in an advanced stage of decomposition." "Were any parts missing?" prosecutor Jeff Dusek asked. "Yes," Collins said. "One of her feet was missing."
Later, Chief Medical Examiner Brian Blackbourne testified that Danielle's body had no clothes when found and showed signs of considerable "animal activity."
Blackbourne said skin and muscle tissue was missing from many parts of her body. Also gone was her genitalia, which could make it difficult for prosecutors to prove a sexual motive in her death.
Blackbourne (pictured, right) said he tried to find evidence of a sexual assault during the autopsy, but was hindered by the decomposition of the body.
Asked how long van Dam had been dead, Blackbourne responded, "It's certainly consistent with the three-and-a-half weeks she'd been missing."
He testified that the manner of death was homicide, and that the cause of the child's death is still to be determined, pending additional testing.
Westerfield's defense lawyers focused on the uncertainty over when and how the girl died. Under cross examination, Blackbourne said the autopsy found she had died between two weeks and three-and-a-half weeks before she was found.
Attorney Steven Feldman suggested that Danielle could have died after Westerfield was under 'round-the-clock' surveillance or after he was arrested on Feb. 22.
Feldman also suggested Danielle's father, Damon, might have destroyed evidence by vacuuming after she was reported missing.
Feldman also said crime scene investigators found blood on the stairs and garage of the van Dam home, but he did not provide further details.
Westerfield's neighbor, Christina Hoeffs, testified that she noticed two unusual things at the defendant's home the night the young girl disappeared.
Hoeffs, who lives behind Westerfield's house, told the court she went to bed at 10 p.m. and noticed a backyard light -- which he rarely used -- shining into her window.
The light was still on after 2 a.m. after she tended to her crying infant son, she said.
"I got up and looked out to see why the light was on," Hoeffs testified. "I did notice the house was completely shut up. Every single blind was pulled completely shut."
"Had you ever seen that before?" Dusek asked.
"No," Hoeffs replied.
She also said Westerfield's motorhome was usually on a cross street outside his home for a day or two before his trips to the desert. She testified that when she left her house at 4 p.m. on Feb. 1 and returned at 9 that night, she did not see the motorhome.
Defense attorney Robert Boyce will continue his cross-examination of Keene tomorrow morning.
In an interesting twist, Keene is the brother-in-law of Lupe Dailey, the woman whose husband was convicted in her murder, despite the fact that police never found her body. Before the discovery of Danielle's body, prosecutors had used the Dailey case as an example of successful murder conviction without a body.
At the end of the hearing -- expected later this week -- Superior Court Judge H. Ronald Domnitz will decide if there is enough evidence to try Westerfield on the charges that potentially could carry the death penalty if he is convicted.
The other blood found in Danielle's home, whose is it? That was very "explosive" new info.
Don't know what to make of the vacuuming. I can't figure out when it was done. Friday? Saturday. Was he cleaning up from a party, or was he cleaning up after investigators. They make a mess, but you'd think they'd vacuum themselves for evidence.
BTW, I vacuum all the time after putting my kids to bed. That's not strange at all. Heck, I used to vacuum them to sleep as babies in a chest or backpack. Vacuuming/cleaning after kids are down is normal procedure in my home. Especially after movie dvd and popcorn.
Info about condition of body ends all speculation that she was put there much later by accomplice after DW's arrest. Looks like she was there the entire time. Drag marks at body site likely to have been done by animals dragging her farther into brush, but not necessarily. Drag marks at residence, velly interrresting.
Raped or dragged struggling from own home, and no one wakes up? The two younger boys could have slept through anything, mine certainly does. But the Dad? Only under influence of drugs/alcohol. Was the dog shut up with him in the master suite desperately trying to wake him up, staggers down stairs, lets dog out, back in, shuts warning lights off(?) and staggers back to bed, noticing nothing?
I've got lots more speculating to do. These are starters.
One of drag marks was 5'4" in length, one on or near sidewalk SE corner of VD house, one SW exterior corner of fireplace, blood stain on concrete adjacent to garage, potential blood spots on stairwell.......cut to floor plan....whoops the pics & floorplan are gone...!!!!
When did DW go under 24/7 surveillance and what was the arrest date
We need to develop some timelines
Also did I read ME testimony that he believed the spot to be where she was originally placed. Did they ask if they thought/could tell if she had been "stored" elsewhere before being placed where she was?
Val, I'm reading..
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