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"If it came to be known that she was involved in swinging that night would you feel that she had contributed in some way to Danielle's abduction?"

I'm glad you asked that.

No, not at all.

Let me tell you why.

Theoretically, it's not whether the van Dams were swinging or not that night, it's whether by doing so, they failed to protect Danielle from a sexual predator.

If whatever the van Dams were doing at the time of the abduction is to blame for Danielle's fate, then they would have been equally as guilty if they were simply sleeping.

The problem that FR posters have with this case as opposed to, let's say the Polly Klaas abduction, is the rumours of what the van Dam's may have been doing that evening. In both cases, children were abducted from their bedrooms (in Polly's case in the presence of her friends, while her mom was zonked on pain killers in the room next door, trying to get rid of a migraine) by a sexual predator and murdered. Yet few would point fingers at Mrs. Klaas and call her negligent.

The difference must then be our opinion of the alleged activity itself.

But that doesn't make any sense either, because if they had NOT be swinging, and they HAD been locked in the garage playing poker, and listening to Pink Floyd real loud (keeping the door closed so that the kids wouldn't wake up) they should be able to assume, with a good amount of reasonable expectation, that no one will come into their home and kidnapp their child her bed while they were very obviously at home.

I mean, would it have been OK if they had been in the garage with the door closed simply playing poker and listening to music?

What difference does WHAT they may have been doing in the garage make?

If the van Dam's are to share in the guilt of Danielle's death because they weren't watching her when she was abducted, then every parent of every abducted child is partially to blame for their fate.

Some claim that the fact that they swung meant that they brought strangers into their home, yet, no one involved is a stranger to the van Dams, including the people that came over late that night.

Nor is Westerfield a stranger.

Now, having said all that, I'd like to point out a few things about this story.

It's been nearly one month since Danielle's abduction.

Let's see what we KNOW about the van Dam's swinging lifestyle.

We know that a local DJ claims to have received a tip from a "highly placed law enforcement official" I believe is how DJ Rick Roberts markets his "informant".

We know that internet chat rooms and forums (us) have been buzzing with talk about the van Dam's swinging, generated of course by the Rick Roberts coverage.

We know that Larry King asked them directly, and they chose instead to talk about the subject that they had come to talk about. For the record, had I been in Mr. van Dam's seat, I would have kicked Larry's ass for asking the question to begin with.

Now it bothers me to no end that one month later, not one single one of the "perverts" that the van Dam's have swung with has decided to sell his "I SWUNG WITH BRENDA" story to some upstanding publication like the Narional Enquirer or the Washington Post.

Not a single one.

Beyond that, not one single neighbor (that we now of) has mentioned anything about the van Dams doing anything improper at all in close to one month, to any one of the dozen reporters that have been camped in the neighborhood since the story broke.

That really puts Rick Robert's informant in a bad light, specially taking the whole "don't use my name" thing.

Now, last, but not least.

I know cops. I know detectives.

I have talked about this to some.

There's no way that a highly placed law enforcement official made that call. If that is the truth, he should be found, and at the very least fired. Preferably, he should be arrested and charged with obstructing an ongoing investigation.

In the post-JonBennett world of missing children investigations, the investigators are much too aware of the mistakes made in Colorado, and the cost to the police there.

There's no way in my mind that caller was really what Rick Roberts says that he is.

That's it, almost.

Let me tell you that I have always been a fan of your work, that should not come as a surprise to you, and I think that you are an incredibly talented individual.

But I am really disturbed by the image of the van Dams that you've created. I don't find it very amusing.

Regardless of whatever everyone's opinion of the van Dam's alleged lifestyle may be, to take a picture of a set of parents who have lost a child to a sexual predator, and do what you did to it is below you as both a man, and a Christian.