Posted on 06/25/2002 9:30:26 AM PDT by FresnoDA
SAN DIEGO ---- A police criminalist testified Monday that tiny pieces of evidence ---- hairs and carpet fibers ---- found in David Westerfield's house and motor home could link the Sabre Springs man to Danielle van Dam, the 7-year-old neighbor he is accused of kidnapping and murdering.
Tanya DuLaney, a trace evidence analyst with the San Diego Police Department, said blonde hairs, dog hairs and tan carpet fibers found on Westerfield's property were similar to Danielle's hair, the short brown-gray fur of the van Dam family dog and Danielle's bedroom carpet.
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DuLaney said she could not make a 100 percent match of the hair and fiber evidence.
Westerfield, 50, could face the death penalty if convicted of kidnapping and murdering Danielle. The young girl was reported missing Feb. 2. Her nude and decomposing body was found nearly four weeks later in rural East County.
Westerfield, a twice-divorced design engineer, kept his hands clasped in front of him during Monday's proceedings, occasionally writing notes and consulting with his attorneys.
Danielle's mother, Brenda van Dam, attended the entire hearing. The van Dams live two doors down the street from Westerfield and were passing acquaintances with him. Damon van Dam sat with his wife during the morning session.
Day 12 of Westerfield's trial was dominated by the hair and fiber testimony of DuLaney, who told jurors that light brown-blonde hairs found in Westerfield's motor home and house were similar to Danielle's hair in color, length, diameter. Westerfield has short, dark hair.
Jurors heard testimony that DNA evidence will show Danielle could have left the blonde hairs found on sheets and pillow cases taken from Westerfield's master bedroom ---- the first possible evidence placing the second-grader upstairs in his home.
"They could have come from Danielle van Dam," DuLaney said of tests performed on the hairs. "All six of them."
Further testimony on the hair samples is expected today or later this week when prosecutors are expected to wrap up their side of the case.
Meanwhile, Westerfield's defense attorney, Steven Feldman, focused on what didn't match, having DuLaney go over hair after hair found in the motor home ---- some brown and others color-treated blonde ---- which were determined not to be Danielle's because of color, length or dye.
Earlier in the trial, Brenda van Dam testified her daughter's hair was never dyed and Danielle had a haircut about a week before she disappeared. Van Dam also had testified she took Danielle to Westerfield's house to sell Girl Scout cookies a few days before Danielle disappeared. She testified her daughter went into the house briefly, but did not go upstairs.
The tedium of the fiber and hair testimony prompted Judge William Mudd to give jurors an extra long afternoon break.
Feldman followed the same line of questioning with the carpet fibers, asking about fibers that didn't match. He called attention to a lack of physical evidence putting Danielle in Westerfield's black Toyota 4Runner, the car Westerfield drove when he went to get his motor home on Feb. 2 ---- the morning Danielle was discovered missing.
None of Danielle's hair or blood was found in the vehicle, another police criminalist, David Cornacchia, testified. Nor were any of the carpet fibers lifted from the soles of Westerfield's 25 pairs of shoes similar to Danielle's bedroom carpet, DuLaney said.
Also on Monday, DuLaney told jurors about finding five carpet fibers in Westerfield's motor home that were similar in size and shape to Danielle's bedroom carpet.
She showed jurors enlarged pictures, showing the fibers side by side with those from Danielle's bedroom and magnified 400 times, to illustrate how the fibers were consistent.
Under questioning from Feldman, Westerfield's defense attorney, DuLaney said it was possible that many houses in a development like the Sabre Springs neighborhood where the van Dams and Westerfield lived could have the same carpet.
She also talked about dog hairs found in dryer lint thrown away in Westerfield's garage. More hair was found in the hallway carpet of his motor home, on a bath mat in the motor home and on a white towel. Those hairs were consistent with the hair on van Dam's dog, Leyla, DuLaney testified. Westerfield does not have a dog.
Brenda van Dam testified earlier in the trial that her daughter would often roll around with Leyla, especially after she had changed into her pajamas before going to bed.
While the dog hair found in Westerfield's house and motor home had the unusual pigment formations found in Leyla's hair, DuLaney said she could only say the hairs were similar, not exact matches.
Attempts to perform DNA tests on the hair were unsuccessful, said Holly Ernest, director of the UC Davis veterinary genetics lab. She briefly testified that there was not enough DNA on the dog hair sent to the university for testing to determine whether it belonged to Leyla.
Feldman did not ask Ernest any questions.
Testimony in the case continues today.
Contact staff writer Kimberly Epler at (760) 739-6644 or kepler@nctimes.com.
6/25/02
Yes, there was by some of the campers who were there. At the location where he was stuck in sand, though, and not at the Strand where the testimony about closed curtains was pertaining.
The world as I had known it before was strange, frightening, unpredictable, and completely barren of hope, joy, or meaning. For months I had a strange physical sensation that there was this huge hole right through my midsection, as if I had been shot through by a huge cannonball.
Doing something as mundane as buying a car would have been impossible, ludicrous, and pointless in our state of mind...
Time passes, and I recovered, but will never forget that "dark night of the soul", and the Van Dam's behavior seems very strange to me. On the other hand, in my shock the day after we got that horrible telephone call, I was obsessed because we didn't have appropriate clothing for her funeral. But I couldn't bring myself to do anything about it. Fortunately, others helped me.
No notes of sympathy are needed. She died years ago and we have put our lives together again as most are able to do. She was a beautiful girl, and we are happy we had the years with her that we did.
Also van Dams did not live in San Diego either before or at the time of Danielle's birth.
This is in regard to whether DW and BvD had a thing going on. He did not tell Keene or Redden. We'll wait and see if he claims it now.
Once again, my friend, the answer is blowin' in the wind.
I know all about that feeling. I use to say it felt like I was carrying around a lead anvil and at others time it felt empty as if there was nothing there at all.
I have never fully recovered and I dunno if I will. I go through the motions and I pray but your entire life and thought process is thrown upside down. So as for someone who has been there and done that I cant understand the VD's. I just pray that justice is done and the VD's are able to love and take care of their other children till they are grown and on their own.
I am not sure if they said for certain where the blue/gray fibers came from. Some said MH carpet. Those fibers were also found with her body and witness did have comparison fibers---I'm not remembering where they came from. Witness opinion was the fibers came from the last environment Danielle was in.
There were ALOT of orange fibers throughout all of his laundry---washer, dryer and top of dryer----plus on his bedsheets and pillowcases.
Am I right that there is still no evidence linking DW either to Dehesa or to to the VD home?
Danielle had an orange fiber tangled within hair tangled on her necklace and witness was able to testify that her opinion was it came to be there very shortly before Danielle was left where she was found. Also blue/gray fibers found with Danielle--her body and the vegetation--similar to fibers at DW's. So link between DW and Dehesa.
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