2,500 attend emotional candlelight vigil for Danielle
KENNETH MAStaff Writer
SABRE SPRINGS ---- Nearly 2,500 people attended an emotionally charged candlelight vigil for Danielle van Dam on Monday night.
The vigil followed an interview earlier in the day during which Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, spoke candidly about their sadness and concern for their other two children for the first time since the 7-year-old girl's body was found by searchers on Feb. 27.
 Jamie Scott Lytle Staff Photographer |
| Ten-year-old Nicole Wittak of Rancho Penasquitos looks to the sky during a candlelight vigil held for Danielle van Dam on Monday evening at the Carmel Mountain Ranch/Sabre Springs Recreation Center. About 1,000 mourners showed up at the vigil that Clearstation radio stations sponsored. |
"This whole community and all of San Diego has come together," said Brenda van Dam, 39, during an interview with a local television station. "Love has conquered evil."
That evil has turned the van Dam's lives upside down since Danielle was last seen by her father, Damon van Dam, 36, when he tucked her into bed on the night of Feb. 1.
The body of the Creekside Elementary School second-grader was found after an exhausting monthlong search by law enforcement authorities and thousands of volunteer searchers in a roadside dumpsite in Dehesa.
A cause of death has yet to be determined. Danielle's neighbor, David Westerfield, 50, has been charged with kidnapping and killing her. Westerfield, who lives two houses away from the van Dams, has pleaded not guilty. He will appear in a San Diego superior court again on March 11 for a preliminary hearing.
"It was not easy," Brenda van Dam said Monday. "I couldn't look at (Westerfield's) house when I drove by."
Danielle's mother said she was too dignified to go over to Westerfield's two-story house to express her anger while he was under 24-hour surveillance by police and the media.
"Out of dignity, I wasn't going to stoop to that level," she said. "(But) we want our boys to know we are not going to sit by and watch someone walk away with one of our children. We are going to fight for that."
The van Dams said their sons, Derek, 9, and Dylan, 5, have been sleeping with them since Danielle disappeared. Derek has asked his parents to make sure the security alarm is turned on at night, they said.
The van Dams said they have told the boys that the person believed responsible for Danielle's death is locked away behind bars. "That made them feel a little better," Brenda van Dam said. "As far as reassuring them for a lifetime, I don't know."
Brenda and Damon van Dam said they talk to their boys daily to offer them security and comfort.
The parents refused to directly address rumors about their lifestyle, saying the focus should remain on Danielle.
"I think anyone who knows us, knows us," Brenda van Dam said. "(The rumors) did hurt me as a mother."
Brenda van Dam also refused to comment about her evening out at Dad's Cafe and Steak House on the night Danielle disappeared. A bartender at the popular Poway establishment said Brenda van Dam and Westerfield had socialized that evening. Westerfield, the bartender said, left at 10 p.m., while Brenda van Dam stayed with friends until the bar closed at 2:30 a.m.
The couple on Monday offered their sincere gratitude to thousands of searchers who spent nearly a month scouring desert moonscapes, gullies, canyons, valleys and mountains looking for the little girl.
"For anyone who has helped, thank you 1,000 times," Damon van Dam said.
Damon van Dam also gave advice to other parents.
"This can happen to you," he said. "Hopefully one person watching this thinks twice about the security of their children. And if that saves a child's life, then that would be a great thing."
Later Monday evening, thousands of tiny purple candles flickered against the early evening darkness at Carmel Mountain Ranch Community Park during a candlelight vigil held in Danielle's honor. The event was organized by 11 local radio stations.
About 1,000 people trampled across the thick grass to spell Danielle's name in candlelight. Hundreds more signed a huge billboard banner that read: "Keep Our Kids Safe."
"God bless you Danielle. Your life was taken but you are in heaven," wrote Erica Lohrenz.
"Foot steps of Angels watch over our children," another person wrote.
Fingerprint and photo identification kits were available to families, while event organizers showed profiles of nearly 20 other missing children in San Diego County.
"We are here to make sure our kids stay safe," said Scott Hanks of Rancho Bernardo. "This wasn't a normal abduction. In this case, the boogeyman came in the room and took (Danielle)."
Hanks said the van Dam case has made him more vigilant and protective of his 6-month-old son Joshua.
The parents refused to directly address rumors about their lifestyle, saying the focus should remain on Danielle.
"I think anyone who knows us, knows us," Brenda van Dam said. "(The rumors) did hurt me as a mother."
Westerfield, the bartender said, left at 10 p.m., while Brenda van Dam stayed with friends until the bar closed at 2:30 a.m.
Another time line emerges, now BVD does not leave the bar until 2:30 A.M.
