Officer describes scene where Danielle was found
Posted on 03/11/2002 4:56:10 PM PST by FresnoDA
Officer describes scene where Danielle was found
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 Police lieutenant, medical examiner testify at hearing for WesterfieldBy Jeffrey J. RoseSIGNONSANDIEGO Updated 3 p.m. March 11, 2002 SAN DIEGO – A preliminary hearing for David Westerfield, charged in connection with the kidnap and murder of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, opened Monday morning with testimony by a police lieutenant who described the scene where the girl's naked, blackened body was found off Dehesa Road. "I saw the body of what appeared to be a young child, in an advanced stage of decomposition, on her back," said police Lt. James C. Collins. Collins said that although parts of the unclothed body had decomposed so much that the tissue had disappeared, he noticed the body was wearing a plastic choker necklace and an earring in its left ear identical to those Danielle was wearing the evening she disappeared on Feb. 1.
There were drag marks in leaves on the ground near the body, Collins said. "It looked like somebody had dragged it into the underbrush," he said. Westerfield's attorney, Steven Feldman, asked Collins whether he was aware of blood found by forensic investigators on the stairwell inside the van Dams' home and on concrete outside the garage. Collins, who headed the investigation into Danielle's disappearance, responded that he was not. Feldman also asked Collins about drag marks found near the home, and Collins responded that he was aware that drag marks had been found near a sidewalk there. San Diego County Medical Examiner Brian D. Blackbourne, the next to testify, said a lot of the body had been destroyed by animals and the remaining parts were severely decomposed, with the skin "mummified." Blackbourne testified that the condition of the body was consistent with having been dead for the 3½ weeks Danielle was missing, but under questioning by Feldman later admitted he could not pinpoint the time of Danielle's death and in fact she could have been killed as late as Feb. 10 or later. Much of the body's tissue was missing, he said, as was its left foot. An autopsy found that the organs of the chest were mostly intact, and fluid and air were found in its lungs, he testified. Blackbourne testified that in the autopsy he looked for evidence of sexual molestation but was hampered by the body's poor condition. The cause of death could not be immediately determined, Blackbourne said. "The deterioration of even the tissue that was there makes it difficult to determine a cause of death unless a major, major trauma was the cause," he testified. Although he could not immediately determine a cause, Blackbourne said he could determine that the death was a homicide based on the circumstances of Danielle's disappearance and discovery of her body. The body was found by volunteer searchers Feb. 27 about 25 feet from the north side of Dehesa Road, about a mile east of Singing Hills Country Club and about 1½ miles west of Sycuan Casino. Westerfield, a 50-year-old neighbor of Danielle's, pleaded not guilty to murder, kidnapping and possessing child pornography at a court hearing Feb. 26. If convicted, Westerfield could face the death penalty. Testifying Monday afternoon at the pretrial hearing was Christina Hoeffs, a dispatcher for the California Highway Patrol whose home is behind and above Westerfield's. Hoeffs said that after she got up to attend to her infant son around 2:30 a.m. Feb. 2, she went back to her bedroom and through her window noticed all the window blinds at the rear of Westerfield's home were shut tight. She said she also observed an outside back light remained on that she had first noticed was on at 10 p.m. "I did make a note of it because he doesn't usually do that," Hoeffs said. "I've never seen the blinds shut completely tight on every window in his home." The blue-eyed, 7-year-old girl was last seen when her father, Damon van Dam, put her to bed around 10 p.m. in their Sabre Springs home the night of Feb. 1. She was discovered missing the next morning, spurring a hunt that involved hundreds of volunteers. Investigators believe Danielle was kidnapped from her bedroom and taken to the Silver Strand near Coronado by Westerfield, who then drove sometime on Feb. 2 to the desert. Neither Damon nor Brenda van Dam, the girl's mother, attended Monday's hearing, which was broadcast live on local television stations. Norman D. Sperber, a forensic dentist, also testified Monday on the condition of the body's teeth and how he identified the body through comparison with dental records.
 Union-Tribune reports were used in compiling this story |
No questions that I recall about whether body had been moved...definately questioned his non-determination of time of death..did talk about rigor mortis and that body was rigid in that position...IMO no evidence that body was or was not moved from elswhere..the hands foot and head were seperately bagged before being moved to preserve any possible trace evidence...
1. No way did he get scratched up digging his motorhome out of sand. It may be a cover up story though.
2. INvestigators do make messes..we'll have to wait. That one is stupid..BUT if he didn't throw the dirt away, not really a problem..cept the location of the evidence is screwed up.
3. The drag marks at residence..to prevent blood stains on clothes? Did they say that the drag marks were of a body? How do we know he didn't wrap her in a sheet and then drag her?
4. I doubt drugs..the blood would have indicated that. I want to know a lot..but especially what evidence they found in her room!
 Note, "Nosey Neighbors" house directly located in the background......from today's testimony..... |
| A pink ribbon, calling attention to missing 7-year-old Danielle van Dam, flutters in the breeze outside the home of neighbor and suspect in the disappearance, David Westerfield, Monday, Feb. 25, 2002, in San Diego. Westerfield, 50, was arrested Friday on suspicion of kidnapping and was jailed without bail. Authorities said they found traces of Danielle's blood in Westerfield's motor home and on a piece of his clothing. (AP Photo/Jack Smith) |
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