Volunteers Monday removed a carload of flowers, stuffed animals, wreaths and photographs placed at the Dehesa Road site by hundreds of people who visited the location following last week's discovery (news - web sites) of the partially decomposed body.
"How dare they?" Cindy Moore of Spring Valley told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Although Danielle's parents have requested that people remember their daughter at a Sabre Springs neighborhood park near their home, they did not request that the Dehesa Road memorial be taken down, a family spokesperson told the newspaper.
The van Dams requested Tuesday that any additional flowers and stuffed animals dropped off at the East County location be left in place, according to the Union-Tribune.
The volunteers who removed the memorial on Monday said they were acting on their own and that they had taken the mementos to the park in Sabre Springs, the newspaper reported.
"They didn't leave anything," said Moore's sister, Connie Munzer. "It's upsetting. It's not right."
Moore said that people have the right to grieve for the slain second-grader in a location of their own choosing and that Sabre Springs is a long drive from East County.
"Nothing will ever change that her body was dumped in this spot," Moore said. "There will never be a time that I come up here that I won't think of her."
Meanwhile, the 4th District Court of Appeal is still deciding whether to release search warrant affidavits of the investigation into David Westerfield.
Westerfield's lawyer, Steven Feldman, also filed another request for a gag order to provent investigators and prosecutors from talking to the media. His first request, made during Westerfield's arraignment last week, was put on hold. A hearing on the new request is scheduled for friday.