Hair in Defendant's Bed May Match Slain Calif. Girl

REUTERS ^ | 06/24/02 | Unknown

[gubamyster]

June 24, 2002 04:00 PM

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - Several blond hairs resembling those of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam were found on the bed sheets of a San Diego man accused of kidnapping and killing her, a police forensic expert testified on Monday.

Tanya DuLaney, taking the witness stand in the trial of 50-year-old engineer David Westerfield, said more hair possibly belonging to the girl was found in lint from his dryer, along with 18 dog hairs similar to that of the van Dam family dog.

DuLaney said three blond hairs were found on bed sheets in the master bedroom in Westerfield's home, two doors away from where the second-grade student lived with her parents, and another in dryer lint retrieved from a trash can.

She said police forensic experts also found a single blond hair, possibly consistent with Danielle's, on carpet from Westerfield's motor home.

Westerfield, who maintains his innocence, is charged with kidnapping and murder, and faces the death penalty if convicted. He is also charged with possession of child pornography.

Danielle, a second-grade student, vanished from her canopied bed in the quiet San Diego neighborhood of Sabre Springs on the night of Feb. 1. Her badly decomposed body was found dumped by a rural roadside more than three weeks later, naked except for the plastic necklace she always wore.

Westerfield has told police that he spent the weekend of Danielle's disappearance alone, traversing the San Diego area in his motor home.

Defense lawyers have suggested to the jury that Danielle was abducted and killed by someone else, possibly one of the house guests invited into the home that night by her mother after a "girls' night out" at a nearby bar.

Lawyers for Westerfield, who faces the death penalty if convicted, have sought to puncture the credibility of Danielle's parents and their friends by attacking their partying lifestyle of drinking, dancing, swapping sex partners and smoking marijuana.

[Illbay]

If this evidence holds up, will Calif. fry this guy as he deserves? With this case, Elizabeth Smart, etc., I just can't take the injustice any more.

Justice Scalia Speaks

[Illbay]

Lawyers for Westerfield, who faces the death penalty if convicted, have sought to puncture the credibility of Danielle's parents and their friends by attacking their partying lifestyle of drinking, dancing, swapping sex partners and smoking marijuana.

More "Clinton Legacy."

We've gone along the logical slippery-slope between "heh-heh, ever'body duz it!" to "Hey, man, anybody COULDA done it..."

[GovernmentShrinker]

They found both Danielle's hair and the Van Dams' dog's hair?!?! This doesn't sound to me like evidence against Westerfield. If both Danielle and the family dog had been romping around Westerfield's house, then there's a simple explanation for all the findings of Danielle's harid, DNA, etc, around Westerfield's house and motor home -- she played there with her dog, and then went home with her dog. I'm not sure the parents are telling all they know about their and their daughter's relationship with Westerfield.