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TOW TRUCK DRIVER CLAIMS WESTERFIELD TALKING TO SOMEONE: Phone Records Trace Westerfield's Movements
KNSD NBC ^ | June 13, 2002 | KNSD NBC

Posted on 06/13/2002 4:28:33 PM PDT by FresnoDA

TOW TRUCK DRIVER CLAIMS HE HEARD WESTERFIELD TALKING TO SOMEONE!!!

Phone Records, Witnesses Trace Westerfield's Movements

Witnesses On Day 7 Show Movements

 

POSTED: 12:56 p.m. PDT June 13, 2002
UPDATED: 2:41 p.m. PDT June 13, 2002

 

SAN DIEGO -- The prosecution in the David Westerfield murder trial called on a cell phone company employee and several campers Thursday to verify the defendant's whereabouts the weekend Danielle van Dam disappeared.

A series of calls from Westerfield's cell phone in early February appeared to mirror his rambling motor home trip to the beaches of southern San Diego County and the Imperial Valley deserts, Verizon Wireless representative Greg Sheets testified.

But on cross-examination, Westerfield's defense attorney, Steven Feldman, sought to show that the cell phone calls were not a reliable record of Westerfield's locations that weekend. Under questioning by Feldman, Sheets admitted that the records don't give precise locations and don't identify the user of the phone.

Westerfield is charged with kidnapping and murdering Danielle. He could face the death penalty if he's convicted.

The prosecution also called a series of witnesses who were at Silver Strand State Beach on Saturday, Feb. 2. Westerfield said he drove his motor home to Silver Strand that morning.

Beverly Jean Askey of El Cajon testified that her family was already at the beach when a motor home that she later learned was Westerfield's pulled into a nearby space sometime before 10 a.m. It was a nice, sunny day she said, yet no one came out of the vehicle.

"He just pulled up, he pulled the front window closed and I never saw anyone again," Askey said.

Two other campers said they saw Westerfield's motor home and noticed that it appeared closed up.

Earlier, Angela Elkus, a resident of the Sabre Springs neighborhood where the van Dams and Westerfield lived, answered questions about the motor home. She said she had seen children playing around the vehicle three or four times when it was parked on the street, but she said they were mostly older children. She also talked about a visit to the van Dam home after Danielle disappeared.

  Elkus said she had never been to the home before, but she brought food over for the family on the Sunday after the little girl disappeared. She said that the family's dog appeared "scared, shy, confused and perfectly still" when she came in the house, and it did not bark, she said. Legal analysts say prosecutors want to convince the jury that a stranger could have come into the house and taken Danielle without the dog barking.



TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: vandam; westerfield
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To: FresnoDA
What's with the trip? It's so rambling. Months ago we speculated how odd it was to go from interior to ocean...but now it looks like he did it back and forth. Was he freaking out? Thinking of where to dump the body?
41 posted on 06/13/2002 5:18:54 PM PDT by Shermy
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To: theirjustdue
That could be why no evidence of Danielle in DW SUV and no evidence of DW in VD house. Barb took Danielle after dropping off Denise. She knew door wasn't locked, dog knew her etc. Took her to Ramona. Westerfield met them there. Then something worse than kidnapping happened......
42 posted on 06/13/2002 5:19:03 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: John Jamieson
Maybe Barbara asked Brenda if Danielle couldn't come play at Barbie's house that weekend?

Barbara's also the one who so publicly, in Dad's, stuck her hand down the front of the blouse of the bartender woman from the other bar with whom Westerfield's buddy was having a drink that night.

43 posted on 06/13/2002 5:20:30 PM PDT by Ipse Dixit
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To: MizSterious
"Freepacide.." Geeze...No guts, no glory...

I can't stop laughing...I just can't...

sw

44 posted on 06/13/2002 5:20:30 PM PDT by spectre
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To: Ipse Dixit
What a way to shake "hands" and introduce yourself. I'd have been locked up on the spot.
45 posted on 06/13/2002 5:24:31 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: Ipse Dixit
Did anyone check out the tow truck driver...Maybe he hears "voices"????

sw

46 posted on 06/13/2002 5:25:37 PM PDT by spectre
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To: Ipse Dixit;FresnoDA;miz sterious;bvw
It don't fit. Any half-way rational person would be nuts to stash a kidnapped child, either dead or alive, in a highly visable motor home and then drive it to a very popular public park only to then park smack dab in the middle of a group of other sardined-in, moble home vactioners.

The thrill of victory-- the agony of defeat.

I can't seem to believe it either. I'm waiting to hear the psychiatric expert's report on DW-- too bad, we'll never hear one on the vDs.

47 posted on 06/13/2002 5:26:26 PM PDT by let freedom sing
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To: spectre
I don't know about the voices, but the first time he told the story, he got the date totally wrong. There's an article in the SD U-T, but I sense the end might be near, so don't have time to look it up for everyone.
48 posted on 06/13/2002 5:27:01 PM PDT by MizSterious
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To: FresnoDA
Duskek calls Tow Truck Driver, who claims he heard Westerfield talking with someone in the Glamis desert!!!
BOMB SHELL???

Hmmm ... isn't this the same tow truck driver who mis-identified the exact day that Westerfield was digging out of his breakdown?

49 posted on 06/13/2002 5:28:38 PM PDT by BunnySlippers
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To: MizSterious
Naahh, you've suffered and groveled enough.

Besides, we all learned a lesson that night...NO more flame wars...on the vd posts...

sw

50 posted on 06/13/2002 5:29:06 PM PDT by spectre
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To: ALL
One vote of support for Miz and her contributions, from me. She's an excellant Freeper.
51 posted on 06/13/2002 5:34:17 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: spectre

Tow driver's account wrong

Suspect in kidnapping of girl didn't strand RV on Feb. 2, police say

By Bruce Lieberman and Mark Arner
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

February 10, 2002

A towing service owner in Imperial Valley mixed up his days when he said the motor home of a suspect in the Danielle van Dam disappearance became stuck in the desert Feb. 2, an investigator said.

David Westerfield, who has been the focus of the investigation into the disappearance of the 7-year-old San Diego girl, was stranded with his motor home Feb. 3, not Feb. 2. Danielle's parents reported her missing the morning of Feb. 2.

After conducting extensive interviews with witnesses, police concluded that tow service owner Dan Conklin confused his time line. The investigator said others confirmed that Westerfield's RV was pulled out Feb. 3.

Conklin told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday that Westerfield's motor home was stuck in the sand at least a mile off the nearest road last Saturday. He said he was called out to help in late morning to midafternoon.

Conklin's time line had Westerfield in Imperial Valley, then at Silver Strand State Beach near Coronado and back out in the desert. Police explored that scenario and concluded it was inaccurate, the investigator said.

Conklin could not be reached last night at his home. Damon van Dam was the last to see Danielle when he tucked her into her canopy bed after 10 p.m. Feb. 1.

Since then, her disappearance has attracted national attention. The van Dams have been interviewed extensively by all manner of media, and Danielle was mentioned last night on Fox television's "America's Most Wanted."

In other developments yesterday:

 More than 300 men and women combed coastal hills and valleys and the mountains for any sign of Danielle. The volunteers, in 30 search parties of about 10 people each, fanned out across a 25-mile radius from the van Dam home in Sabre Springs. They canvassed south to Imperial Beach, east to Julian and north to Pauma Valley.

The search, which will continue today, was organized by the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center Foundation. The foundation was named after a 12-year-old girl from Friendswood, Texas, found slain 17 days after she disappeared in 1997.

As of late yesterday, the searchers, including one group on horseback along Old Julian Highway east of Ramona, had found nothing useful.

"We haven't come across anything that points directly to Danielle," said Bob Walcutt, executive director of the foundation.

 The man who offered a $10,000 reward for Danielle's return said there is no money on hand to pay it.

"We have received no money since I came on the scene," said Douglas Pierce, founder of the Millennium Children's Fund. "As of late last night, nothing has come in."

When asked about how he would make good on his much-publicized reward, Pierce said he can call underwriters who support his organization.

"Moneys are now available to our organization in a variety of ways," he said.

He would not elaborate.

Pierce reported no income and no expenses for the 2000 tax year on a federal 990-EZ tax form. Yesterday, he said he paid expenses out of his pocket.

 The van Dams urged everyone to focus on the search for their daughter and not on "distractions," such as rumors about their private life.

"We are here today to focus on finding Danielle," Brenda van Dam told a news conference in front of their home yesterday afternoon.

A couple of hours later, the van Dams left to watch their 9-year-old son, Derek, at baseball practice on a field next to Morning Creek Elementary School.

"This would be so different if (Danielle) were here," Damon van Dam said as he watched his son play catch. "You get a couple seconds of this feeling normal again, and then you remember that she's gone."

 Westerfield, who lives two houses from the van Dams, apparently remained in seclusion in his home, while television vans and roughly two dozen reporters, photographers and video cameramen waited outside. Westerfield has permitted police to search his house and to talk to him many times. He hired a defense attorney last week, but at no time has he been under arrest.

Police have been watching Westerfield since he returned Monday from a weekend getaway. An investigator said Westerfield told police he first drove his motor home to Silver Strand State Beach the afternoon of Feb. 2 and then drove to the dunes in the Imperial Valley desert.

Yesterday, the volunteer search parties started early and worked until dark.

Among them was Andy Voggenthaler, who as he left home told his children he was helping find a lost little girl. His 5-year-old girl and 3-year-old boy said they wanted to come along.

"It's just unconscionable," said Voggenthaler, who lives near the van Dam home. "To think, how could someone harm a little girl, a 7-year-old girl?"

Voggenthaler was one of 10 volunteers who hiked outside Ramona, along Mussey Grade Road and into Dos Picos County Park.

Several other search parties, outfitted with bright-orange vests, cell phones and maps, embarked from a command center at the Doubletree Golf Resort in Rancho Peñasquitos. Organizers there have named their center the "Danielle Recovery Center."

Finding clues proved daunting for search parties scouring the rugged and vast backcountry, where missing people, or signs of them, could be just about anywhere.

In Dos Picos County Park, where Voggenthaler and others hiked, narrow hillside trails, shaded campgrounds, thick brush and towering boulders presented countless hiding places.

The volunteers examined paper tossed on the side of the road, a discarded pair of boxer shorts lying in a clump of grass, a bag filled with cookies and corn chips.

"Kid food," said Guy Emanuele, 36, a Scripps Ranch resident who found the bag near the park. Like other scraps, the bag was marked with an orange ribbon for later review.

Once inside Dos Picos, Voggenthaler and others knelt at drainage pipes and peered into the shadows, haltingly lifted Dumpster lids, trudged through tall grass and scrambled over boulders and into dry stream beds.

"Where do you go? Which way?" Voggenthaler asked as he hiked through the park.

His search party regrouped in the park's parking lot before heading back in for another look. Volunteer searches are critical in the hunt for Danielle, said Dawn Davis with the Laura Recovery Center Foundation.

"We want to eliminate these areas and conclude that she's not there," Davis said.

Up the road from the park, Richard Williams watched the volunteers as he stood at the fence near his ranch house. Williams said he fears the worst.

"You hope and pray," he said. "But time is not on our side now."


Bruce Lieberman: (760) 752-6738;
52 posted on 06/13/2002 5:34:46 PM PDT by MizSterious
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To: John Jamieson
I'll second that.
53 posted on 06/13/2002 5:34:57 PM PDT by bonfire
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To: BunnySlippers
Let's see. TT driver says he thought he heard someone talking. Someone's voice. There is considerable background noise. He asks DW and DW says, "I wasn't talking to you" .

I have been in situations where I was around another person, they were busy doing something, there was background noise, and I said something out loud, talking to myself. When they said "What, did you say something?" , I said back "I wasn't talking to you". So I know exactly how this situation occurs.

SIDENOTE: You can talk to yourself. You can even answer. As long as you don't say "WHAT?"

54 posted on 06/13/2002 5:35:48 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: UCANSEE2
Also could have been TV or radio in RV. Not much to do while your waiting for a tow. Lots of local news that day to watch....or maybe sports.
55 posted on 06/13/2002 5:39:33 PM PDT by John Jamieson
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To: bonfire
3rd the motion!
56 posted on 06/13/2002 5:39:54 PM PDT by Rheo
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To: UCANSEE2
Exactly! Frustrating situation and utter a few cuss-words out-loud...or something like "what a jerk!"...

sw

57 posted on 06/13/2002 5:40:51 PM PDT by spectre
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To: MizSterious; bonfire; John Jamieson; ALL
She has got my support too!
58 posted on 06/13/2002 5:40:52 PM PDT by knighthawk
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To: MizSterious
URL? I was going to start my own list, but why bother if it is somewhere else? : )

Missed you big time yesterday!!

59 posted on 06/13/2002 5:41:00 PM PDT by Politicalmom
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To: MizSterious
Conklin told The San Diego Union-Tribune on Thursday that Westerfield's motor home was stuck in the sand at least a mile off the nearest road

Testified today 1/4 mile off the road.

60 posted on 06/13/2002 5:42:22 PM PDT by Rheo
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