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;