Posted on 03/31/2002 1:52:12 PM PST by FresnoDA
Account set up for Danielle's search still has about $24,000
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this one says
Lawyers for David Westerfield, 50, also chose not to "waive time," meaning the case will go to trial within 60 days. Superior Court Judge Peter Deddeh set a trial date of May 17.
The case will be tried in the courtroom of Judge William D. Mudd, 10News reported.
Defense attorney Milton Silverman told 10News that the fact that Westerfield chose not to waive time may signal that his lawyers will not seek to move the trial out of San Diego.
Silverman said he anticipated that the trial would last for upwards of three months.
Clipping the nails from a mummified corpse would be easier than taking scrapings, even if, or esp. if, she was a nail biter.
"This man's word" is entirely indicative that they were following procedure.
The less time the prosecution has to develop physical evidence the better. Wouldn't want them to have time to make exhaustive and conclusive results on every speck collected.
If there is a lot of physical evidence, then going to trial quickly helps the defense call it into question, as perhaps testing would be rushed/inadequate. Also helps to take advantage of the Van Damming media hype.
Have we seen this one yet?
Many contribute toward finding missing girl | Family vows all funds will be used for search
The San Diego Union - Tribune; San Diego, Calif.; Feb 11, 2002; Kristen Green;
Words in Document: 699
Available Formats: Buy Full Text
Abstract: It's unclear how the money will be spent. But last night, Danielle's parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam, said through a spokeswoman that all donations will go toward the search for their daughter. Any money left over will go to a charity, said the spokeswoman, Sara Muller Fraunces.
"We don't want one cent out of this," Damon van Dam said through Fraunces. Bill Libby, a friend of the van Dams who helped set up an account at Wells Fargo Bank, said the donations probably will be spent on posters, banners and ribbons -- anything that will remind people to look for Danielle. More than $6,900 has been raised, but none of the money has been spent.
He said he paid Fraunces, who owns the marketing-consulting firm OutSmart, a $500 retainer fee out of his own checkbook. Fraunces said she returned the retainer check and will work free.
I hadn't seen this Union Tribune stuff before. Does anyone have a subscription and want to post the whole article? (If you don't have a subscription you have to pay to see the whole thing.)
So, Muller Fraunces was the PR 9 days after the reported abduction. She was probably the first one - the one that worked for free.
Was it possibly Bill Libby who wanted the Van Dams to have PR? Wonder why he paid the retainer?
ANSWERING THE CALL | Ragtag team joins in mission to locate girl
The San Diego Union - Tribune; San Diego, Calif.; Feb 28, 2002; Joe Hughes;
Words in Document: 633
Available Formats: Buy Full Text
Abstract: Thousands of volunteers -- ordinary folks, some with children about Danielle's age -- covered untold square miles in the last three weeks. They looked from San Diego to Imperial County to Mexico. And they refused to give up even when it became painfully clear Danielle would not be found alive.
Members of what the van Dams called the core support team included: center director Diane Halfman, a San Diego police officer who retired from the force after 11 years; community coordinator Susan Wintersteen, a neighbor; fund coordinator Bill Libby, a family friend; communications coordinator Paula Call, whose daughter was in Danielle's second-grade class at Creekside Elementary; and Sara Muller Fraunces, a communications consultant.
2 PICS; 1. [Fiona Oberrick] of the Danielle Search Center talked with Bill Schweizer yesterday just before volunteers went out on a search. 2. A group of volunteers met yesterday morning before starting a search for clues to Danielle van Dam's whereabouts. Thousands of volunteers have been involved in the search for the missing girl.; Credit: 1,2. Dan Trevan / Union-Tribune photos
This one just clarifies that Susan Wintersteen is a neighbor who may have spoken for the Van Dam's - but Muller Fraunces was the PR.
Given the distinct punched-put rectangular shape of mark #2, mommya’s idea of a bottle cap is a good one (the “teeth” of those plastic strips you pull off a gallon plastic milk jug produce such a punched-out silhouette when pressed against skin – yup, did a little experiment of my own!), but then there are the two dumbbell shapes I can’t reproduce from my own particular milk jug thingy ((Mayfield’s brand))…maybe you guys can try with other brands? )
demsux’s postulation that a chain of some sort might have produced the marks also has merit (and good thinking, I might add!). Look at a bicycle chain or a chain from a chainsaw. Try pressing it against your arm. Either type of chain produces marks resulting in alternating rectangle/dumbbell/rectangle shapes when pressed against skin (in my case of experimentation, the chain was still attached to the chainsaw and therefore could not produce the arc shape, but did make these alternating patterns). The scale of such a chain would have to be rather small, not the sort I should think one would use when extricating a stuck RV, though. If this is what made the mark, it would have to have been a bit of refuse down in the sand. And it would have to have left its mark when DW braced his arm against it as it leveraged against a tyre of the RV while was trying to dig out. (Picture is DW digging in the sand, chain discarded and buried in the sand, chain is wedged between his arm and the tyre as he is leveraging out sand or some bulky piece of debris buried the sand, an incompletely burnt piece of firewood or such. The angle and placement of the arc is neither consistent nor is it inconsistent with such a scenario, so far as I can tell, provided the chain was loose and not attached to anything. Remember folks, that such a chain, unattached to anything, will naturally tend to curl.)
Valpal (#226): Hooray that you have a six-year-old and can do “field trials”! (I say this because it it obvious from your posts that you would never unnecessarily frighten your beloved child, but would just make a game of it.) This is very helpful, and thanks for sharing your results with us.
My problem – hey, maybe I’m a klutz – is that the more I try to get the thumb to line up in a perfect arc with the fingers, the more my fingers go awry. Is this me, the shape of my hands? Can your kid accomplish it, Valpal?
Some people have said that if the marks are from fingernails, they are too “dug in” and “stationary” vs. “trailing” in nature. Well, if the marks were made when trying to fend off an assailant, then I’d agree. However, if the marks were made when the child was being suffocated, then “stationary” and “dug-in” would be expected. It’s why there is such an expression as “death grip” in English. But if this were indeed the child’s “death grip” on the arm of her murderer, one would expect a more natural “thumb opposing the fingers” sort of mark. Do let us know, Valpal – can your child produce such a perfect arc with thumb and all fingers replicating the picture?
Um, Kim, if he cleaned and bleached his victim’s fingernails before dumping her, then it doesn’t fit in with the “panicked state” and the “impulsive” nature of the crime you have postulated. You can’t have it both ways. A little far-fetched, this bleaching the poor little girl’s nails anyway. Also, it further complicates the time line.
My belief is that, if they find DW DNA under Danielle’s nails, it will come out at the trial, DW will be nailed, end of story. If no DNA under her nails, then these scratches are not relevant -- unless DW blood/DNA was discovered on thorny bushes at Dehasa. Either would seal DW’s doom.
Ref Danielle biting her nails: if they were bitten down to the quick, this is discussion is moot, anyway. We don’t know the condition of her nails when she was murdered. It was reported that Brenda took her to have manicures to try to cure the child’s nail-biting problem. We don’t know whether these efforts produced results yet.
Guess all this started with my #181?
And you've not answered my freepmail questions.
He did not elaborate beyond the kiss on that particular occasion (doesn't mean it wasn't more) but he did testify to having a sexual relationship with Barbara. I'd say that leaves open a number of possibilities and perhaps, probabilities.
Yea don't they call that the "family bed" or...the "Rodney King size"???
I saw Walsh on TV defending parents that live like the VD's ..saying they are "good " parents..I decided that either he did not know what "good "parents looked like or he was on their payroll
You are one smart mama
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After Danielle van Dam was abducted from her Sabre Springs home, neighbors, friends and even strangers volunteered to help out. Some put up fliers in storefronts around the county, and others joined the search party. But many also opened their checkbooks.