Defense could pin hopes on insect life

San Diego Union-Tribune ^ | June 30, 2002 | Kristen Green

[MizSterious]

"Lisa Bloom is Gloria Allreds(sp)daughter."

No kidding? I didn't know that. But it sure explains a lot. It's in the genes!

[MizSterious]

Great site! This should help!

Only one caveat--these are temperatures in general, and San Diego County has a lot of little "climate zones." At the beach, it might be damp and chilly; at Dehesa, warmer and drier, for instance. And there are mountains and desert areas--if you've never been there, it's got a little something for almost any climate tastes. Very lovely area!

But for this, I'd just remember that Dehesa might be less humid over all than the coastal areas, and maybe a tad warmer. I don't know if anyone has found anything like Dread's site speficially for the Dehesa area or not--if so, I hope they'll add it to the thread.

[Rheo]

Hi mommya...thank you for the great fiber rundown..could you post it here too?

[dread78645]

Seems to me that the only thing the insect study could show is a "no later than" time of death.

I'll show when the body was exposed, not the time of death.

Wasn't Westerfield pretty much under observation by police and/or media from the 6th onward ?
And when was his RV impounded ?
Did he have an accomplice ?

The fly lifecycles could have begun earlier, and the evidence to that effect could simply have transformed and literally flown away.

The lifecycle is 18-24 days

But I'm betting Faulkner found a whole bunch of larvae and very few, if any, developed pupae.

[Rheo]

ping..sorry if duplicate.

[mommya]

After looking at the transcripts regarding the various red fibers and the blue/grey fibers - this is what I learned.

From 92, the sheet that Danielle's body was wrapped in - 40 red delustered rayon fibers with a dog bone crossection.
From the right "hand bag" - red polyester fiber (no # given.)
From nail clippings - red delustered rayon fiber (no # given.)
From 108, her cut off hair - bright red rayon multilobed fiber - 10 plus.
There were many different fibers found at DW's - some were red - but none were similar to these.


Now the blue/gray ones...these are short, straight with a slight curve, nylon, blue/gray, with a characteristic shape. They were found to be similar macroscopically, microscopically, and chemically (infrared) - but were not sent to the microspectrophotometer. They were found on...
115, vegetation from the lower back area - 1.
92, sheet wrapped around body - at least 19.
108, her cut off hair - 1.
5,6, and 7 - being DW's laundry from washer, folded on top of dryer, and inside dryer - 10.
The reason the witness says they did not send these fibers out for the further test was because there were not as many of them found. (As many as the orange fibers was implied.)
Seems important to me - just because there are less overall fibers than the orange - there are more that link the two than just the one orange fiber on Danielle.

Also by reading the transcript I learned that the mystery dark brown hair found in her armpit and labelled as such was upon examination found not to be dark brown - but med. brown, getting lighter and lighter as it went toward the tip, where it was blond. It seemed consistent with Danielle's and was not compared to DW - though in her opinion it was not DW's.

---

[dread78645]

Only one caveat--these are temperatures in general

Yep, know what you mean. I lived in Ocean Beach for a couple of years.
Guess I'll jiggle the search to zero in on El Cajon.

[pyx]

An informative article.
Thank you.

[RnMomof7]

Lisa Bloom is Gloria Allreds(sp)daughter.

An ahhhhhh haaaaa moment........the amoral mothers raises the amoral daughter..the fruit does not fall far!

[spectre]

"How so?"

Well, I could be wrong and you are an expert in Forensic Entomology...which would seem to be a far cry from Orbitology?

We look forward to his explanations. Others may not be as comfortable with it...

sw

[dread78645]

Guess I'll jiggle the search to zero in on El Cajon.

Ok. I couldn't find a nice text chart for El Cajon, but BigBobber posted this

Then there is NWS Daily report (futz with the URL for other days).

[Rheo]

ping

[r9etb]

Well, I could be wrong and you are an expert in Forensic Entomology...which would seem to be a far cry from Orbitology?

I'm not even remotely an entomologist (though I do call my youngest "Bug").

The way you said it, I thought maybe you had some background in the area.

[pyx]

The specialist -- who studies the interaction between insects and cadavers -- could be called on to pinpoint the time of Danielle's death.

In his opening statement, Feldman said the child's nude body could have been placed off a road in Dehesa as late as Feb. 16, a dozen days after his client came under 24-hour surveillance by law enforcement.

From readings I did long ago, I think the bug expert will not only use fly larvae but other insect species as well. Using some types of insects and which generational phase they are in, there are times when he can tell within hours when a body was first exposed to insects. I have no idea if this case is one of those times or not.

I suspect that Feldman has known since his own opening statements where he claimed, he can prove scientifically that his client is innocent, that it might come down to this.

I suspect that its also possible that Feldman will add on to a "slam dunk" about insect evidence refutations of any other potential prejudicial evidence. But, Feldman has to be careful not to OVERKILL. All he needs to do is create a reasonable doubt and nothing more.

As I said in another posting on a different thread; I think its possible that several posters on these threads may be disappointed at the unanswered questions when this trial concludes.

Should the defense prevail, the obvious BIG UNANSWERED QUESTION is ; Who done it ?

[nycgal]

Thanks for the ping

[spectre]

Not just "Who done it"...but HOW was it pulled off?

If the Jury convicts DW on just the evidence that has been presented so far, I will still want to know "Who done it"..

sw

[sbnsd]

I suspect that Feldman has known since his own opening statements where he claimed, he can prove scientifically that his client is innocent, that it might come down to this.

If this were the case, and there was obvious evidence to clear him, why did we go through the whole trial? Why wouldn't the DA look at that and say, "Oh, OK, well if we don't have the right guy, we need to go find the real murderer."

Instead, DW is sitting in jail. Why would they be wasting taxpayers' dollars putting on a trial where at some point, Feldman proves completely his client didn't do it? If this were true, why? Why would they be doing this? I happen to have to pay for some of this trial and the jurors who are sitting there. If this turns out the way you predict/suggest, I'd be pretty annoyed that there was obvious evidence clearing him, and they put him on trial anyway.

[spectre]

No, from your first reply to me, it sounded as tho there wasn't a whole lot that Faulkner could tell us, that the average person didn't already know. IOW, no surprises?

sw

[dread78645]

Not just "Who done it"...but HOW was it pulled off?

Was the cadaver dog(s) ever run by Damon's van --vD house/garage ?

Or did only DW got this attention ?

[MizSterious]

According to my understanding of the testimony, the cadaver dogs were led on leashes, not let loose to go where they pleased. So they only went where the police directed them.