SDPD MEDIA RELEASE FRIDAY MAY 6TH AM
The search of the Miramar Landfill continues today. As of 11:30 a.m., there were about 150 active searchers, mostly San Diego Police Department personnel. We do have some Marines from Miramar, with additional Marines expected late this afternoon from Camp Pendleton. We're attempting to line up U.S. Navy volunteers for weekend duty at the landfill. Last night, approximately 40 Navy personnel from two ships (one was the U.S.S. Boxer; don't have info on the other) worked from about 7pm to midnight. Search organizers estimate that they should be halfway through the 5,000 tons of trash to be searched by this afternoon. The effort could be completed as early as Monday. If that changes, we'll advise you.
Regarding documents possibly relating to the David Westerfield case being found at the landfill: a detective who was part of a search team late yesterday afternoon spotted an envelop with attorney Steven Feldman's name on it. He is Mr. Westerfield's attorney. The envelop was taken to the command post and was turned over to an evidence technician, who placed it in an evidence bag. The bag has been impounded until we receive instructions from court authorities. Mr. Feldman and the District Attorney's Office are aware of yesterday's discovery.
The department has decided to end the daily 5pm briefings. The questions go over the same issues and have been answered as fully as we're going to answer them. While we will not do regular briefings or one-on-one interviews for the foreseeable future, we will continue to provide e-mail updates when there is information to pass on. If we have a major announcement, we will hold a news conference -- with as much advance notice as possible. There will be no daily updates over the weekend unless there is something significant to report.
We appreciate your interest in this case and your cooperation for the past week. Your coverage keeps the case before the public, increasing the possibility that we ultimately will receive the tip that leads us to Jahi and/or whoever is responsible for his disappearance.
David J. Cohen
Media Services Program Manager
City of San Diego Police Department
Names of interest in this article....
Brenda and The Damon, Sara Muller Fraunces, Susan Wintersteen, Diane Halfman, Reneé Brown, Sharon Walls, Mark Klaas
By Susan Gembrowski
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
May 4, 2002
Brenda and Damon van Dam, whose 7-year-old daughter, Danielle, was kidnapped and killed, returned to the media spotlight this week to help in the search for a missing toddler.
But Sara Muller Fraunces, who coordinated media interviews for the van Dams when Danielle disappeared in February, said the couple have left it up to 2-year-old Jahi Turner's parents to contact them about doing anything further.
"Brenda's main purpose in being involved, as is mine, is to do whatever we can to find Jahi," Fraunces said yesterday.
Fraunces arranged national media interviews Tuesday in which Jahi's mother, Tameka Jones, pleaded for her son's return. She said she will do that again if Jones asks for help. Brenda van Dam, who stood next to Jahi's mother at a local media interview Tuesday, also has offered her continued help.
The van Dams were instrumental in converting the daniellemissing.com Web site into the jahimissing.com site, said Susan Wintersteen, a friend who coordinated community activities in the search for Danielle.
The couple are declining all interviews and were unavailable for comment for this story.
Some have criticized the van Dams for their involvement in the Jahi search, but Diane Halfman, former director of the Danielle Search Center, said the couple probably would have been criticized if they hadn't helped.
Initially, Brenda van Dam contacted Jahi's mother to offer advice on getting out fliers and getting more people involved. The couple and 10 other volunteers from the Danielle Search Center came out Sunday to help find Jahi, who has been missing since April 25.
"The van Dams just simply couldn't stand by and not try to help bring more awareness to Jahi's plight, and they realize not only that coming out in front of the public would be difficult for them emotionally, but that they also may be subject to additional criticism," Fraunces said. "But they put that aside because the best interests of a little boy was more important to them."
Fraunces, who has a public-relations firm, said she offered her expertise at no charge to help find Jahi. She did not know the van Dams until Danielle disappeared and a representative of Qualcomm, where Damon van Dam works, contacted her to help the couple. Fraunces also said she worked for the van Dams at no charge.
Reneé Brown, who runs a small nonprofit company in La Mesa, handles public relations for the Jahi search as a volunteer.
"Brenda's job was to get Jahi's name in front of the camera, and she succeeded in helping us do that and we are just going to take it from here," Brown said.
Sharon Walls, Brown's assistant during the search, had nothing but praise for Brenda van Dam.
"She's been wonderful in support, in knowledge, in helping out and in helping Tameka understand how things are working and how they will work," Walls said. "She has been a pillar of help."
A coordinator from the Laura Recovery Center met yesterday with volunteers who have helped on the Jahi search, much as the national organization did with the volunteers assisting the van Dams.
Mark Klaas, whose daughter was taken from her Northern California bedroom nearly a decade ago, said assisting in another search can be therapeutic.
"What you do when you help somebody in a situation like this is you give meaning to your own child's death," Klaas said. "You take what you've learned in your situation and apply it in another situation, so that what happened to your child doesn't continue to happen."
And I'm sure those fine, upstanding guys on the SDPD didn't take a peek at the contents, eh? (You know, the same ones who tried to question Westerfield without a lawyer? The ones who said there was so much bleach in the motor home the dogs wouldn't go into it? The ones who...well, I won't list it all here.)