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
No. I know exactly what you are referring to.
So far, the last known contact between DW and Danielle was Tuesday Jan 29th. Nothing on Wednesday, or Thursday, nor Friday.
Stealth Ninja Dave (drunk by his own report) decides in the wee hours of Saturday to sneak into a alarmed house, containing 3 kids a dog and two (nominal) adults; abduct a little girl and then kill her.
Then this clever fiend manages to wiggle his nose and make all traces of himself dis-appear from the scene.
The bastard !
</sarcasm> for the clue impaired
Nor I. I do not understand why there is all this testimony about hairs without having the determining DNA tests completed.
That's already been established. That's why DW is in so much trouble right now IMO. If the DNA and fingerprints fit...
That virtual child porn may be legal, per se, does not mean that it can't be evidence of DW's intent and motive.
sw
Nude, suffocated, seven year olds do not turn up in trash dumps through accidents or natural events.
Since seven year olds have no legal ability to consent to any actions done to them, any events leading to her death are the sole responsibility of the person acting upon her, and with greater expectation of intentionality as all adults are expected to act in a manner as to protect children from harm.
Premeditation in this case of a murdered kidnap victim is implied in the act of kidnap. The only defense against the charge of murder in a kidnap case is the return of a live victim. Once a kidnap victim is found dead, it is automatically felony murder. The law is very harsh with kidnapers, has been since the Lindbergh kidnaping.
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