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...!!!!
1. No way did he get scratched up digging his motorhome out of sand. It may be a cover up story though.
2. INvestigators do make messes..we'll have to wait. That one is stupid..BUT if he didn't throw the dirt away, not really a problem..cept the location of the evidence is screwed up.
3. The drag marks at residence..to prevent blood stains on clothes? Did they say that the drag marks were of a body? How do we know he didn't wrap her in a sheet and then drag her?
4. I doubt drugs..the blood would have indicated that. I want to know a lot..but especially what evidence they found in her room!