13 total SO in the area Amore.....also, check out the inconsistencies the VD's early statements were, compared with their testimony a month later.
Police believe girl was abducted
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The house-to-house search was mostly concluded by 10 p.m.
San Diego police continued to interview Danielle van Dam's parents, relatives and friends yesterday. They talked to Danielle's teachers and read a journal she kept in class at Creekside Elementary School in Sabre Springs.
Assistant Police Chief Steve Creighton said officers working nonstop on the disappearance have developed a number of leads, but he would not elaborate.
"We have dedicated 24 hours a day on this case, and we are pulling in more officers and detectives," Creighton said.
Lt. Jim Collins said investigators believe Danielle was kidnapped late Friday or early Saturday by a stranger, but officials declined to provide details.
Police are checking records for registered sex offenders in the area, a tactic some called routine. Records show 13 registered sex offenders are in the Sabre Springs neighborhood where Danielle lives and in nearby San Diego neighborhoods. None of them are considered by the state to be high-risk offenders. An additional 31 registered sex offenders live in nearby Poway.
Danielle's parents yesterday tearfully begged for their daughter's return.
As Brenda van Dam held up a pair of flowered blue pajamas identical to those Danielle was wearing when she went to bed Friday night, Damon van Dam said his family's hearts "ached for this very special girl."
Brenda van Dam said she did not think any parent could describe the feeling that comes "when you get up one morning and go into your daughter's room and she's not there."
Police called for the dog-aided search of the neighborhood after consulting the FBI, which has joined the investigation.
"It is a daunting task," said Lt. Bill Nelson, supervisor of the San Diego police canine unit.
Michael Ebert, a lawyer in the appellate division of the San Diego County District Attorney's Office and an expert in search-and-seizure issues, said forcing residents to submit to a search of their homes may cross constitutional boundaries.
Police said they hoped residents would let them in voluntarily. Ebert said officers would need to obtain search warrants for those who balk.
It was unclear last night whether any residents refused to allow the search.
Ebert said that if neighbors did not let police search their homes, that fact cannot be held against them when police seek a warrant. Police can search a home without a warrant if they have probable cause to believe that someone inside the home is in immediate danger.
Officers said the house-to-house searches involved dogs from the sheriff's and police departments.
One officer conceded the dog search may be "grasping at straws," but said everything must be done to find the girl.
David Westerfield, a friend of the van Dam family who lives a few doors down, said his house was one of the first police dogs searched.
"Police asked me if the dogs could check out my house and I agreed, of course," Westerfield said.
Two sheriff's dogs went in and found nothing.
Westerfield said he was with Danielle's mother and two of her friends Friday night. Brenda van Dam was with the friends at Dad's, a Poway restaurant, when Westerfield said he happened to see them.
Brenda van Dam and the others left about 2 a.m. Saturday and returned to the van Dam home, where Damon van Dam was watching the children, and the group ordered pizza, police said. (NOT TRUE!! It was left over)
Brenda van Dam said she and her husband noticed lights blinking on their burglar alarm panel and found a sliding glass door and side garage door open. The alarm had not been activated, but the panel indicates when doors and windows are opened and closed.
After the gathering broke up about 3 a.m., the couple went to bed. The family did not realize Danielle was missing until the next morning, police said. (Wait, the VD's said everyone left around 3:30???)
Yesterday, friends streamed into the van Dam home to offer support, as a half-dozen television trucks were parked outside.
Paul Hung, who lives three doors west of the van Dams on Mountain Pass Road, said the mystery has unsettled everyone in Sabre Springs, a San Diego neighborhood east of Interstate 15 near Poway.
"It's a nightmare, and it makes us nervous," said Hung, who has two children ages 15 and 17. "Even though my kids are older, they don't feel safe now that this has happened in our neighborhood."
Late last night a police command-post van and a Red Cross van, whose crew served coffee to the officers, remained parked about a block from the van Dam residence after the canine officers concluded their search effort.
The disappearance has affected neighborhoods beyond Sabre Springs. Tina Assi, who lives in Rancho Peñasquitos, said she double-checked to make sure all her doors and windows were locked after hearing of Danielle's disappearance.
Assi said she had yet to talk to her two children, ages 5 and 8, about the missing girl.
"I don't know if I will, because I don't know if I want to upset them," said Assi, who was shopping with her younger child in a Poway Road shopping center.
At Danielle's elementary school, where a patrol car was parked most of the day, security had been increased. Children were hustled into classrooms upon arrival, instead of being allowed on the playground.
The van Dam family is urging residents to visit a Web site set up to aid the search. The address is http://daniellemissing.tripod.com, and it contains a picture and a description of Danielle.