TOW TRUCK DRIVER CLAIMS WESTERFIELD TALKING TO SOMEONE: Phone Records Trace Westerfield's Movements

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.

"I'm being slow, I guess, but I got the impression from the way DW said on the tape that he didn't know Damon was home that night was that he found that out later. How does him finding out in the newspaper mean something "good" for the defense? That's the impression I had all along. That he thought there was a babysitter in the house until he found out at a later time that Damon was home. I see you and another poster (Rheo?) think this newspaper thing means "something". Explain? Thanks."

Sorry to take so long to get back with you on this, but have been gone all day.

I think if you read #729 by Rheo, where she quoted part of a transcript By Detective Keene, it will make more sense.

It had to do with the context of the conversation, which apparently had to do with the young man in the white corvette getting DW a newspaper at the gas station, at which time he apparently saw the part about DVD being home, rather than a babysitter, as BVD had previously told him about.

If taken in the context of their discussion about the newspaper and his remembering an inconsistancy he read in it, it is not terribly mysterious. My understanding, is that Keene made it sound like DW came up with it, out of the blue, which doesn't appear to be the case. At least not in this particular instance.

The flaw in your conclusion, is that it seems the alarm was never ARMED to go off. They only used the panel of lights, (red, green) to visually warn them of any breaches.

So in reality, if they were asleep, and someone took Danielle, the alarm would not have sounded, except for a faint series of beeps (according to Damon). In other words, the beeping didn't continue till the breach was secured. At least that is what we are told.

Damon changed his story from (paraphrasing) "I don't know why I woke up"....to "I woke up to pee"....to "I woke up to let the dog out to pee"....But never said he woke up because he heard the alarm beeping. He just noticed it.

Confusing and conflicting.

I haven't listened to the 911 call again recently, but is it possible that something else is beeping, say the microwave or some timer. The kids were all around her talking while she was on the phone.

We have a system that I think is similar to what they have. When all of the doors are closed, the green light is on. It changes to red when a door opens. But the alarm doesn't sound unless it is armed. It would be kind of silly for them to arm it on a Saturday morning, with kids presumably running in and out.

I'm reading the 911 call. I want to make a list of items she mentions, and corrolate them to her, DVD and Denise's testimonies. I'm betting that they all hit those 'talking points.' I'm also inclined to believe that she sat down and made a list of points to mention to establish an alibi, and start 'managing' the investigation.

"unless.." Exactly!

In the very first few days of the childs disappearance, Damon was vocal about "just waking up" and seeing the flashing red light. He positively said that "he didn't know what woke him up"...but that when he did, he NOTICED the flashing light. He did not say HEAR it. DUHHHH.

His conflicting testimony about getting up in the wee hours before Dawn, should more than suggest he was not being forthcoming.

The Prosecution would have slaughtered Westerfield if he even TRIED to pitch this story.

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