Side Door, Open the night of Feb. 1
Posted on 03/05/2002 8:04:09 PM PST by FresnoDA
Side Door, Open the night of Feb. 1|
The photos below are of the Van Dam backyard and show the sliding glass door reported to have been found open the morning Danielle was reported missing. Detectives say this is likely to be the way a possible kidnapper may have entered the home. |
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| Additional Quirks: Danielle was last seen wearing blue flowered pajamas with flowers Her favorite colors are pink and purple Danielle belongs to her local Brownie troop Family friends have set up a website at: http://daniellemissing.tripod.com San Diego police are scouring the Sabre Springs area for 7-year-old Danielle van Dam. Police say Danielle's parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam, reported her missing when they discovered Danielle was not in her room at about 9 a.m. Saturday, February 2, 2002. Damon told police he put Danielle and her two brothers to bed at around 10:30 Friday night while Brenda was out celebrating with friends until about 2 a.m. Saturday, a send-off for a woman who was leaving the area, detectives said. When Brenda arrived home with four friends at about 2 am, police say they ate pizza with Damon and talked for about an hour. Shortly after the friends left, police say Damon and Brenda told them they noticed lights blinking on their burglar alarm panel and found a sliding glass door and a side garage door open. Police say the alarm was not set, but the panel is a type that indicates when doors and windows are opened and shut at all times. The couple told police they closed the doors and went to bed, and did not check on the children. Saturday morning, police say the couple told them a friend stopped by at about 9 am to see if Danielle could come out and play. Damon and Brenda told police that they thought Danielle was still sleeping and that Brenda went to wake Danielle. That is when police say the couple discovered Danielle was missing from her room and called 9-1-1. Police began investigating immediately, using helicopters, horses and dogs to search the area canyons for Danielle, a second-grader at Creekside Elementary School in Sabre Springs. Officers also conducted door-to-door searches and provided the Border Patrol and Customs Service with photos of Danielle to keep watch for her at the border. Detectives additionally interviewed family members, neighbors, schoolmates and friends about the disappearance, hoping to develop leads, but had no luck. Danielle was last seen wearing blue pajamas with flowers. She is white, 4 feet tall and weighs about 58 pounds. She has blue eyes and blond hair. Police say at this point the parents are not considered suspects and have been extremely cooperative with investigators. Police are considering one of the van Dam's neighbors to be the prime suspect. Police have searched his home and impounded his vehicles. At the time of this writing, an arrest has not been made. |
1. Kids Put To Bed at 10:30 P.M., by Damon VD.
2. Brenda arrives at VD residence at 2:00 A.M. with FOUR FRIENDS
3. Brenda and her friends "The Four Amigos" eat pizza with Damon, and “talk” for about one hour.
4. 3:00 A.M., "The Four Amigos" depart the VD residence.
5. Damon and Brenda notice the alarm lights blinking.
6. Damon and Brenda notice BOTH the sliding glass door AND the side garage door are open.
7. Damon and Brenda note that alarm was not “SET” but was only in the monitoring mode.
8. Damon and Brenda tell police they closed all doors, and went to bed.
9. Damon and Brenda DID NOT CHECK on the condition of the children.
10. Approximate time, 3:15 A.M.
LENNY IGNELZI / Associated Press
1. about stealing the momentos from Dehasa, and moving them. That has created a PR nightmare for them.
2. about how they are manipulating the media, junk yard dog PR firm obviously.
· In reference to the Dehesa site, the van Dams offer the following public comment:
“Although we have publicly shared our own raw emotions about the site where our daughter’s body was found, it was never our intention that the remembrances left there be moved to another location. We are asking for that to be discontinued. We deeply, deeply appreciate the love and support of each person, and of the greater, unified community. In our time of sorrow, we don’t wish others any additional sorrow – neither those who choose to visit this site, nor those who were trying to focus the attention elsewhere. We understand that there are many ways to work through grief, and we recognize that this is not just about our loss, but also about a community’s loss and pain. We encourage people to follow their own hearts and path, and do not wish to interfere with that process. Nothing will detract from the anguish we feel missing Danielle, or from the beautiful expression of love that has been manifested in the past four weeks.”
Brenda & Damon van Dam
· Note to Media: We would like to clarify a misunderstanding by some members of the media about the word “table” used in yesterday’s Media Update. Those who have actually spent time outside the van Dam’s home understood the reference; those who’ve never seen the neighborhood table perhaps didn’t. We apologize for not making it more explicit. The referenced “table” is the one located in the Sabre Springs community that was set up by volunteers in the early days on the corner outside the van Dam’s home. That table was moved yesterday out to the mini-park at Springhurst and Mountain Pass at the request of, and out of respect for, the neighbors’ homes that were adjacent to that table and the crowds of people gathering there. We have been asked to leave the table in the mini-park until March 17, the day after the public memorial.
We do read every e-mail but due to the volume we are archiving them for the family to read at a later date when things settle down
Thank you for all your support and kind words
I'm sorry, but I will have to ask again that you do not send any attachments with your e-mails. We have recieved over 100 viruses and I would hate to think your e-mail would not get read cause we deleted it due to a virus.
We have established a Post Office box for the van Dam Family. Please send all correspondence to the P.O. Box and not their home address. It cannot handle the volume. Click on Contacts for the Address
Seems the VD webpage has a little virus problem. AH, nothing worse than a computer virus....LOL
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