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Anatomy Of A Murder: Westerfield vs. Van Dams (A Mother's Story)
San Diego Online ^ | June 27, 2002 | Kevin Cox

Posted on 06/27/2002 6:47:45 AM PDT by FresnoDA

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To: leilani
Hey, I think you encountered a hole in the Space-TimeWarp Continuum. You are on the David Westerfield Trial threads, not the John Entwistle threads.
181 posted on 06/27/2002 4:51:20 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: cyncooper
I agree--

Questionable strangers should have been checked. Anyone who had access to the home. While the primary witness has long been cremated, It's not too late for the defense to compare those found fibers. Comparisons should be made to clothing worn by the pizza eaters -(if their outfits still exists).
182 posted on 06/27/2002 4:52:28 PM PDT by juzcuz
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To: UCANSEE2
A well-thought out scenario. I'm just wondering, however, how you square it with Feldman's contention that she wasn't killed and that her body wasn't placed in Dehesa 'till after DW was under scrutiny. Like to know your thoughts on this.
183 posted on 06/27/2002 5:02:20 PM PDT by HoneyBoo
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To: cyncooper
Because if someone is ever arrested in the Smart case and that person goes to a trial by jury, the evidence against the defendent will be presented and not the whole investigation of who they looked at and disgarded as suspects.

Thank you Cyncooper. You have just stated what we all have been saying all along.

IF the police in the Danielle case had done what the police in the Smart case are doing, we wouldn't be having these type of threads.

The Danielle case, the police found a perp, then investigated evidence to support that.

In the Smart case, they are investigating evidence and will use the pertinent evidence only to support their case against the person that evidence points to. They will then arrest that person, based on an overall objective investigation.

SO, once again, Thank you.

184 posted on 06/27/2002 5:08:48 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: cyncooper
In the Smart case, they are investigating evidence and will use the pertinent evidence only to support their case against the person that the evidence proves did the crime.. They will then arrest that person, based on an overall objective investigation.
185 posted on 06/27/2002 5:10:47 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: ~Kim4VRWC's~
"Trust me"

Not anymore....

sw

186 posted on 06/27/2002 5:12:15 PM PDT by spectre
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To: juzcuz
About that creamation - I havn't commented on it before - but now I will. There is no way I would have had anything done to Danielle's remains till her killer had been convicted and was rotting in prison. I don't think they had any kind of religious grounds for doing this - why did they? This is way more telling to me than Damon putting the dog gate in front of her room - with the theatrical "I know something bad happened there." How does he know something bad happened there? What he has to know for sure is that something horrible happened to Danielle - to her body - and that's where crucial evidence may lie.
187 posted on 06/27/2002 5:16:21 PM PDT by mommya
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To: juzcuz
This kinda sounds like Danielle might have been held somewhere for a few days before she was killed. The tangled hair mixed with her necklace,etc. Can't figure out if she was taken from the house without clothes or the clothes were disposed of later. Where did all her blood go? Seems blood would have seeped into the ground under her body if she was taken there immediately after being abducted or soon after. I sure don't understand all this.
188 posted on 06/27/2002 5:30:09 PM PDT by BARLF
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To: UCANSEE2
Yeah, tell me about it. I was responding to another response from another thread, sent the post & it showed up on the VanDam thread where I had last posted. Say WHAT? So, I sent a letter to the moderators to delete it but, hey, I guess it's dinnertime & they're busy. Maybe I should go commisserate on the threads about how screwy the new software program is except I have a sneaking suspicion that I was the one who screwed up here. (How I did it, I haven't a clue, but when things go wrong it's a good bet to look in my direction!)
189 posted on 06/27/2002 5:34:07 PM PDT by leilani
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To: HoneyBoo
Hello, and A welcome to you. I think I saw you on the threads yesterday.

A well-thought out scenario. I'm just wondering, however, how you square it with Feldman's contention that she wasn't killed....

As you may have read, this is a big bone of contention on these threads also. We know Danielle is dead. Her death could have been (accidental, unintentional period, heat of the moment unintentional, heat of the moment intentional, pre-planned)

It is very hard to tell which one of these it was.

According to the Medical Examiner and LE, We have no instrument or tool that was used, no trace of drugs or poison of any kind, no apparent major crushing injuries to the body, no signs of strangulation or drowning (although there are countless explanations for why any one of these could be the cause of death, but not visible or apparent to the ME).

SO, what we have in this case is a ME saying that because the police arrested DW, and have what they think is some trace evidence that COULD prove that DW had been in the MH or near his jacket at some time between when the VD's moved into Sabre Springs and when she died, that therefore the police have concluded DW did it, that the ME has concluded that Danielle's death was therefore a suicide.

THis is a BIG POINT that many are missing. That the ME's conclusion, used to bring DW to trial, is based on the police arresting and charging DW with the crime to begin with. (The snake that eats it's own tail.) And the arrest was before they had a body, and therefore any supporting evidence as to the manner of her death. Just that factor alone should have been enough for any person to see that the whole thing is a sham. We all believe, I am fairly certain, that Danielle did not die of natural causes. Other than that, I would say we can not be sure how she died.

and that her body wasn't placed in Dehesa 'till after DW was under scrutiny. Like to know your thoughts on this.

If DW did it, he couldn't have moved her body after he was in police custody, unless he had an accomplice. If DW did it, and he had an accomplice, why move it to where police can find it?

If it can be proven the body was not at Dehesa Rd until very recently(meaning just before discovered), then someone wanted the body found. Someone that knew this was a good likely spot, or someone that felt this would help implicate DW, and/or someone that knew that BILL GARCIA had done a review of that area and maps, and was sending the troops back to that exact area with more manpower. Who would that someone be? Who would gain from this? Without a body, it would be hard to take DW to trial. Without a body, if would be hard/impossible to collect on any insurance on the girl.

Earlier in this thread someone mentioned another thing that got past everyone, I believe.

Diane Halfman. Her domestic partner got arrested for Domestic Violence.

What if Diane and her partner were babysitting for Damon that night? After Brenda was gone?

Could that person have hurt/killed Danielle? Would that explain why Diane Halfman was SO INVOLVED from the very first second of Danielle's disappearance? Why she directed the activies of the police investigators (they were personal friends), why she advised the VD's on police procedures, what to say and do? It would help us if we knew more about Diane Halfman's whereabouts on that Friday night.

190 posted on 06/27/2002 5:37:01 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: leilani
. (How I did it, I haven't a clue, but when things go wrong it's a good bet to look in my direction!)

Well, it's nice to meet someone new, someone with a sense of humor, and humility.

May we meet again, on some common thread!

191 posted on 06/27/2002 5:39:34 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: UCANSEE2
He takes her out to the van, and finds a place to dump her body

Easy as pie for him to do that. All he had to do was pull his car into the garage, if it wasn't already there, and place the body in it. Since garage is attached, no witnesses. (How incompetent is the SDPD that they didn't have forensics check out his suv before he quickly dumped it?)

Not the same for DW. Assuming he was able to get the body out of the house without being seen, he would then have to carry it out to his vehicle in broad view of anyone happening by.

192 posted on 06/27/2002 5:41:57 PM PDT by nycgal
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To: HoneyBoo
A BIG OOOPS. following is a correction:

SO, what we have in this case is a ME saying that because the police arrested DW, and have what they think is some trace evidence that COULD prove that DW had been in the MH or near his jacket at some time between when the VD's moved into Sabre Springs and when she died, that therefore the police have concluded DW did it, that the ME has concluded that Danielle's death was therefore homicide.

193 posted on 06/27/2002 5:41:58 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: nycgal
How incompetent is the SDPD that they didn't have forensics check out his suv before he quickly dumped it?)

We don't know that they didn't check his van. BUT, they may have chosen to ignore any thing they found, BECAUSE THEY HAD THEIR MAN. Any thing they found in the van WOULDN'T SUPPORT THEIR CASE AGAINST DW.

Now, I really don't think the SDPD are all crooks. But, they could have been led by the nose, by a friend (Diane Halfman). They also could have been innocently ignoring things like that, because at the time, they were helping PARENTS look for a LOST or KIDNAPPED child. No reason, AT FIRST, to suspect the parents.

194 posted on 06/27/2002 5:46:17 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: cyncooper
"Because if someone is ever arrested in the Smart case and that person goes to a trial by jury, the evidence against the defendent will be presented and not the whole investigation of who they looked at and disgarded as suspects.

Are you saying that defense attorneys should only have the right to point out what police departments/prosecutors have already chosen to present to a jury? That's friggin' scary, sorry. And tell your story to Richard Jewell & the poor junkie MSNBC all but electrocuted for the Smart crime, while you're at it.

195 posted on 06/27/2002 5:49:20 PM PDT by leilani
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To: All
Where was Diane Halfman on that FRIDAY NIGHT?

Why was she so quickly at the Van Dam's side?

How much influence did she have in the investigation (she was close personal friends of the investigators, and admitted so to the press)?Who is her common law/domestic partner?

Was that partner at the VD's on that FRIDAY NIGHT?

Why was her 'partner' ARRESTED for DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?

196 posted on 06/27/2002 5:49:41 PM PDT by UCANSEE2
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To: bvw
Sandbag does mean to take advantage, it came from
sailboat racing many years ago. Sailboats carried
sandbags as Ballast, they would shift the sandbags
from Port to Starboard or vs. when tacking.
Thus the expression, I was Sandbagged!
Most of the time you did not know the competing
sailboat was using shifting ballast
197 posted on 06/27/2002 5:51:16 PM PDT by Rattlins
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To: sbnsd
The target organ of submersion injury is the lung. Injury to other systems is largely secondary to hypoxia and ischemic acidosis. Additional CNS insult may result from concomitant head or spinal cord injury. Fluid aspirated into the lungs produces vagally mediated pulmonary vasoconstriction and hypertension. Fresh water moves rapidly across the alveolar-capillary membrane into the microcirculation. Surfactant is destroyed, producing alveolar instability, atelectasis, and decreased compliance with marked ventilation/perfusion (V/Q) mismatching. As much as 75% of blood flow may circulate through hypoventilated lungs. In salt water near drowning, surfactant washout occurs, and protein-rich fluid exudates rapidly into the alveoli and pulmonary interstitium. Compliance is reduced, alveolar-capillary basement membrane is damaged directly, and shunting occurs. This results in rapid induction of serious hypoxia. Fluid-induced bronchospasm also may contribute to hypoxia.

In a minor percentage of patients, aspiration of vomitus, sand, silt, and sewage may result in occlusion of bronchi, bronchospasm, pneumonia, abscess formation, and inflammatory damage to alveolar capillary membranes. Postobstructive pulmonary edema following laryngeal spasm and hypoxic neuronal injury with resultant neurogenic pulmonary edema also may play roles.


In short, significant cellular tissue damage also occurs and would be present and detectable even if the water wasn't. There was no evidence of drowning in Danielle's lungs.
198 posted on 06/27/2002 5:57:08 PM PDT by Valpal1
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To: UCANSEE2
Here's another couple of questions that may/may not be relevant.

The police searched Garry Harvey's apartment, why? I believe trashed the place was the phrase used. If Garry and Jeff were cooperating with police when they came to talk to them, were they then considered suspects and thus their home searched?

Were the homes of Rich Brady, Keith Stone and Denise and Barb searched? If not, why not?

Testimony of Garry Harvey:

19 Q. WERE YOU CONTACTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT REGARDING
20 YOUR ACTIVITIES ON THE EVENING OF FEBRUARY 1ST AND 2ND?

21 A. NO, I WAS NOT. OR NOT UNTIL -- NOT UNTIL THE
22 FOLLOWING WEEK.

23 Q. ALL RIGHT.

24 A. IT WAS LIKE -- I THINK IT WAS WEDNESDAY.

25 Q. DID THEY INTERVIEW YOU SEVERAL TIMES?

26 A. YES, THEY DID.

27 Q. DID YOU SPEAK WITH THEM?

28 A. YES, I DID.

1 Q. DID THEY COME SEARCH OR EXAMINE YOUR RESIDENCE?

2 A. YES, TWICE.

3 Q. DID YOU LET 'EM?

4 A. YES, WE DID.

5 Q. HOW DID THEY SEARCH THE HOUSE OR --

6 A. THE FIRST TIME THEY CAME IN THERE WAS A NUMBER OF
7 THEM THAT WERE THERE. THEY CAME UP AND SEARCHED THROUGH MY
8 ROOM. WE HAD TO STAY OUTSIDE. THEY SEARCHED THE PROPERTY. AND
9 THE SECOND TIME THEY CAME WITH HELICOPTERS AND DOGS.

199 posted on 06/27/2002 5:57:17 PM PDT by Jaded
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To: UCANSEE2
Aren't they obligated to share with the defense any fibers, hair, etc. that they may have retrieved from the van, or elsewhere, and opted not to send out for analysis? I hope this is the case as I would love to hear what was found in Damon's SUV. Of course since it was sold, any incriminating items will be explained away as belonging to to the new owner.
200 posted on 06/27/2002 5:57:38 PM PDT by nycgal
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