John Walsh: That Friday Brenda and her girlfriends went back to the club, while her husband stayed home with the kids. Westerfield showed up. Posted on 03/04/2002 3:27:44 PM PST by FresnoDA
Tonight:
Damon Van Dam: As soon as I came down I noticed it was the back sliding glass door that was open.
John Walsh: You are getting ready to go through a tough trial.
Brenda Van Dam: They can rip us to shreds if they want to. But all that matters is someone has hurt my daughter.
An exclusive report.
And now from San Diego, John Walsh:
John Walsh: Good Evening. Imagine one morning you go to your daughter’s bedroom, open her door to wake her up and she’s gone. Well that’s exactly what happened in this very house to little 7 year-old Danielle Van Dam. And when she disappeared this family’s worst nightmare began.
(Voice from Video montage of Danielle “In the Arms of the Angels”)
John Walsh: Danielle Van Dam’s face has been all over America, an adorable little girl. The entire nation fell in love with Danielle and prayed for her safe return ever since she disappeared. San Diego police went on high alert to find the 2nd grader. Missing posters covered Southern California. While hundreds of volunteers including the marines joined the massive search. The investigation fanned out all the way to the desert, and even across the border into Mexico.
Last week a surprise arrest in the case. David Westerfield, one of the Van Dam’s neighbors and the main suspect, for Danielle’s kidnapping. He gave no information about what happened to Danielle.
But we all learned the answer on Wednesday when searchers found Danielle’s body in a canyon less than an hour from her home. That answer, however, only raised more searing questions. How could this have happened and why?
With the help of the Van Dam’s and police we piece together the events of the days before and after her disappearance.
John Walsh: It all seems to start the week before Danielle vanished. Danielle’s mother Brenda Van Dam was with some girlfriends at a local hangout. David Westerfield was also at the Club that night. Brenda knew Westerfield lived in the neighborhood, but didn’t know him socially. It seems Westerfield tried to change that.
Brenda: ...He did buy us drinks, but we weren’t talking to him at all. We didn’t really, didn’t really interact with him that much or socialize with him.
John Walsh: 4 days later Brenda and Danielle were selling Girl Scout cookies in the neighborhood. Westerfield’s house was on the route.
Brenda Van Dam: When I went to sell him Girl Scout cookies he said to me “your friend’s look like a lot of fun why didn’t you introduce me to them?” and I said, I don’t even know your first name. And he said, “Well tell your friends you have a rich neighbor that would like to meet them.” And I said well ok we might be going this Friday, I wasn’t sure if I could get a sitter or not and I’ll introduce you.
John Walsh: That Friday Brenda and her girlfriends went back to the club, while her husband stayed home with the kids. Westerfield showed up.
Brenda Van Dam: So we were sitting at the ummm the bar area. He was right behind us and he said ummm “ladies don’t buy their own drinks, let me buy you a drink.” So we thought, well that’s nice. I told him at one point, I had turned my back that I was here to be with my friends, I didn’t, I didn’t mean to be rude. Cause I felt kind of guilty about turning my back to a person that had just bought me a drink. At one point he was just standing and staring at us.
John Walsh: Westerfield finally left the bar and that was the last Brenda saw of him that night. Brenda and her friends came back here to the house and her husband Damon got up and they ate pizza ‘til about 2:30 in the morning and then the friends left. At that time Damon and Brenda went upstairs to bed thinking that they had closed up the house. About an hour later Damon woke up in this bedroom and he noticed a blinking alarm light. Now that meant one thing, a door was open somewhere.
Damon: So I went down to investigate as soon as I came down I noticed it was the back sliding glass door that was open. Cold air was coming in. What I assumed was that someone had a cigarette and had ashed it out there because a couple of the people that were over smoked. Uh, closed the back door and went back up to bed. Thought nothing.
John Walsh: The next morning Brenda went to Danielle’s room to wake her up and she was gone. We don’t know where David Westerfield went after he left the bar. He has said he got in his motorhome the next morning around 9:30 and left his neighborhood of Sabre Springs. He ended up 30 miles south to Silver Strand State Beach a campsite for motorhomes. He self-registered at the campground indicating that he was staying for 2 nights at $12.00 a night. But by mistake Westerfield overpaid by $30.00. Later that afternoon the park ranger showed up at his RV to give him his money back.
Park Ranger: The door opened, I asked him if he was Mr. Westerfield, he said he was, and said goodbye.
John Walsh: But oddly enough even though Westerfield paid for two nights he didn’t end up staying that long. Instead he packed up and drove to Glamis, 125 miles East in the desert. But there Westerfield ran into a problem. His motorhome got stuck in the soft sand well off the beaten path. Two hikers happened to find him the next morning and contacted tow truck driver Dan Conklin.
Dan Conklin: He made a comment that he was familiar with the area, that he knew better to be in here, but he did it anyway, and that to me seems a little strange. He kept asking me if I was sure that I could get him out, and I kept having to reassure him that I could get him out. I eventually did get him out and he didn’t get out of his motorhome. I uh told him I was going to come back and get my wood and get his leveling blocks and I would meet him back on the hard pack road behind us, and when I came over to get the wood and the leveling ramps, I turned around to see him get back onto the hard pack road and head towards the highway and he left.
John Walsh: Dan says Westerfield never waited to get his leveling ramps, he just took off. Monday morning Westerfield returned home police went to his house and with his permission started a routine search.
(Interview of DW in front of his house with reporters)
Question: Are you the homeowner here?
DW: Yes, Um huh
Question: Why would they come into your house)
DW: ummm well you’d have to ask them, I was gone all weekend, so, and I offered to let them look through everything and check it out basically.
John Walsh: Soon police impounded Westerfield’s SUV & Motorhome. Investigators continued to search his house. And left his house with evidence. For 18 days he came and went as a free man.
Ken & John (DJ’s from KFI Radio in Los Angeles yelling at DW through car window): Hey Westerfield did you kill Danielle?
John Walsh: That changed on Friday February 22nd. Police said they finally found the evidence they were looking for. Danielle’s blood on a piece of Westerfield’s clothing and in his motorhome. They took him into custody.
Department 11 of the superior court is now in session.
John Walsh: During Westerfield’s arraignment earlier this week prosecutors added child pornography and murder to the list of charges.
Judge: How do you plead to the list of charges in the complaint, guilty or not guilty?
David Westerfield: Not guilty
Judge: Okay do you deny the allegations?
David Westerfield: Yes sir.
John Walsh: It was agonizing for me to sit in the courtroom and see the Van Dam’s pain. Knowing they still had no idea where their baby was. That evening I sat down with the Van Dams to talk about what lay ahead for them.
John Walsh: There was the arraignment, you know I felt honored to be there cause that was the first time I met you, I had talked to you on the phone so much that I had felt like I had gotten to know you and know about your family and your boys and how much you loved Danielle. Are you prepared for the downside? You’re getting ready to go through a tough trial. This is going to be a high profile trial.
Brenda Van Dam: I think we’re prepared.
John Walsh: You know most people that uh were never victims of crime don’t realize how brutal these things can be. And they can be very brutal and mean spirited, umm are you prepared for that?
Brenda Van Dam: Yes, none of that matters, all that matters is Danielle. Nothing else matters. They can rip us to shreds if they want to, but the focus here is someone has hurt our daughter, taken our daughter, we don’t have her. None of the other matters, none of the other stuff matters to me.
John Walsh: Having been involved for years now with thousands of cases of missing children, I think the toughest thing is for families that have other children and you have two other children. How is the family doing? How are the boys doing?
Brenda Van Dam: Well from day one we have totally straightforward with them. They know their sister did not walk out of the house they know their sister was taken from our home, umm, they know of our search efforts we take them to the search center. Umm we also talk about the possibility that she might be in heaven with grandpa.
John Walsh: I don’t think anybody is prepared for the bad news in the case of a missing child. Are you prepared for that reality if that is the reality?
Damon Van Dam: We’ve cried
Brenda Van Dam: We’ve gone over it, we’ve talked, you can’t lose that little ounce
Damon Van Dam: We’ve gone over it for a long time umm you know you try to prepare as best you can, All I know is you can’t really prepare, and we do keep holding out hope
(They both are talking at the same time here, so it is a little hard to hear them both)
John Walsh: Thousands of searchers shared the same hope. Volunteers from all over kept looking for Danielle day and night. On Wednesday two of those searchers discovered what they prayed they’d never find, the body of Danielle Van Dam. There is still much work to do. Many questions remain. And that’s where you can help. Police would still like to know more about the movements of David Westerfield in the days before and after Danielle’s disappearance. Here’s what they do know. David Westerfield first appears with his motorhome here at Silver Strand State Beach, he then travels 125 to Glamis in the desert. Danielle’s body was discovered here near El Cajon. Anyone who spotted David Westerfield or his motorhome on February 2nd or 3rd might be able to shed more light on what happened that weekend. If you have any information about this case, please call us at 1-800-crime-tv.
I cannot seriously credit the idea, that parents who are allegedly complicite or guilty themselves would take this route. The risks of exposure seem to great.
But desperate and innocent parents would. They would do anything, and skeletons in their closet be damned, they will take the hits to get their daughter back.
What Is the AMBER Plan?
The AMBER Plan is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases.Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System (EAS), formerly called the Emergency Broadcast System, to air a description of the missing child and suspected abductor.
This is the same concept used during severe weather emergencies. The goal of the AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe return of the child.
When and Why Was the AMBER Plan Created?
The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special “alerts” over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future.
In response to the community’s concern for the safety of local children, the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Radio Managers teamed up with local law-enforcement agencies in northern Texas and developed this innovative early warning system to help find abducted children. Statistics show that, when abducted, a child’s greatest enemy is time.
How Does the AMBER Plan Work?
Once law enforcement has been notified about an abducted child, they must first determine if the case meets the AMBER Plan’s criteria for triggering an alert.
Each program establishes its own AMBER Plan criteria; however, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children suggests three criteria that should be met before an Alert is activated.
• law enforcement confirms a child has been abducted
• law enforcement believes the circumstances surrounding the abduction indicate that the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death
• there is enough descriptive information about the child, abductor, and/or suspect’s vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast alert will helpIf these criteria are met, alert information must be put together for public distribution. This information can include descriptions and pictures of the missing child, the suspected abductor, a suspected vehicle, and any other information available and valuable to identifying the child and suspect.
The information is then faxed to radio stations designated as primary stations under the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
The primary stations send the same information to area radio and television stations and cable systems via the EAS, and it is immediately broadcast by participating stations to millions of listeners.
Radio stations interrupt programming to announce the Alert, and television stations and cable systems run a “crawl” on the screen along with a picture of the child.
Is the AMBER Plan Successful!
Tremendously! The program’s popularity has been sweeping across the United States and into Canada. Since the original AMBER Plan was established, 26 modified versions have been adopted at local, regional, and statewide levels. To date the AMBER Plan has been credited with recovering 16 children!
Those 16 kids are worth any amount of public humilation. They are alive and with their families.
That's part of it. I also believe that some people feel that the VD's "alternate" life style was in large part responsible for what happened to their daughter.
If only a third of what I have read about these two is accurate, I would agree.
This is the part that really gets me!!!
About the "close to the road" angle: The body was 25 feet from the edge of the road and the embankment was 7 feet high so it was never visible from the highway. (The fact that it was 7 feet up is why they built those stairs).
I cannot seriously credit the idea, that parents who are allegedly complicite or guilty themselves would take this route. The risks of exposure seem to great.
But desperate and innocent parents would. They would do anything, and skeletons in their closet be damned, they will take the hits to get their daughter back.
But isn't this exactly what Susan Smith did???
I am going to try not to be too greusome about this..... But have you ever been anywhere near a decaying body? Because if you have, it is a smell that is unmistakable and unfogettable. If the area was searched prior to the time the body was found, and the body was in such an advanced state of decay, how could it not have been found in the first search? The smell alone should have led anyone to the area that the child's body was.
The situations are not even close. The Van Dam family has been ruled out as suspects and is closely cooperating with the investigations according to SDPD press releases.
I am not giving "lifestyle" rumors much credence until confirmed by reliable sources willing to give up faces and names. No anonymous sources, or posters meet that criteria.
I am going to "trust" SDPD is doing it right, unless somebody can show more than gossip and innuendo is at work.
As for conflicting stories - press versions are often conflicting, especially in the early days, as they rush to be first with publication, or cut and chop the story to fit the space available on the web or print page.
There are no credible (or even any) reports that I know of saying their statements to police conflict.
The child was missing, and the circumstances allowing for her easy abduction have to be examined.
If Westerfield comes up being the perp, and he did it, then he deserves his eternity in hell.
Meanwhile, we need all the facts about that evening brought forth, including what the van Dams relationship was with him, even if it hurts their "reputation". For the sake of their Daughter, they should have answered the question about their fun and games honestly, with a simple "yes or no", instead of allowing this so-called rumor and inuendo to spiral out of control. At the least, it's only good PR.
sw
I was referring to the fact that Susan Smith did in fact go on the talk show route. I made no reference to any other similarities in the two cases. You are correct that she was told that she passed the lie detector test, Are you absolutely sure that the VD's have? could they be being told the same thing?
I am not going to join in the "slam the Van Dam's" fest that goes on here - and I admit that the Ramsey/Smith/Yates/Barnes cases have maybe left me a little jaded, but something is just not right about this case.
sw
I hope they are examining all that trash. If the body laid there for 25 days or so, the trash in the immediate area should contain a lot of clues. But that only applies if the authorities are actively pursuing clues.
My thoughts were that her body could not have been there very long. There are coyotes that roam the hills in East County and there are birds of prey and other animals that would have drawn attention to a body there.
We did not stop but there were many people paying tribute and the small parking lot was full.
It all seems very strange...
And this is not a job for the police but the torch waving gossip mongers. Right?
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