[pyx]

Your observations seem astute and well stated.
My position is I truly hope the Van Dams had nothing (more than irresponsibility) to do with Danielle's death. I truly want to believe its someone else entirely and the Van Dams are simply displaying the machinations of white trash liberals constantly tailspinning into the ground.

It may very well end up that I am the wishful thinker in this and be completely wrong about Damon. I just can't conceptualize a father hurting his child like that. There's something about it that refuses to click and allow such a thing to even be considered. I know that incest must exist somewhere, but the sheer horror of even thinking about it, makes it unacceptable for me to even want to contemplate. And so, as naive as it may seem, I reject it for now.

There appear to be many convinced Damon is the one. And while I completely agree with others that Damon's behavior is deplorable ... scratch that ... he is a completely despicable person, I recognize that we all grieve in different ways and wonder if this might mitigate his actions. Its just that I need tangible evidence to jump off the fence about Damon. In short, I'll presume Damon is innocent in this regard until there is reasonable doubt to convince me otherwise.

Now if all y'all can present this pharmboy with some tangible evidence, I'm more than willing to reconsider.

[John Jamieson]

I think at this point if LE had investigated Damon as completely as they did Westerfield, we'd have more than enough evidence to convict the right person. The family was cleared real fast.

[Greg Weston]

"he is a completely despicable person"

Oh I don't know. He might not be moral enough for you but he doesn't seem to me to be Mr.Horrible either. I'll save terms like "completely despicable" for child killers like Westerfield.

If the DNA fits you must convict.

"Westerfield is Guilty"---Bill O'Reilly of the "O'Reilly Factor"

[MizSterious]

"It may very well end up that I am the wishful thinker in this and be completely wrong about Damon. I just can't conceptualize a father hurting his child like that."

I'm sorry to have to say this, but fathers do kill their daughters, and their sons, and sometimes their wives too. And contrary to popular opinion, they also sometimes toss the bodies in dumps "like so much garbage." In the past 5 years, I've seen two such cases locally--I happen to think that's a very high number, but it could be that it happens with greater frequency even than this in other areas.

In the first case, a little boy was beaten to death, and the father disposed of him by throwing him in an old broken freezer, throwing some dirt on top, and moving to another house--leaving the freezer, the tot, and the odor behind. In the latest case, the father was angry at his wife, and so he beat up his wife, then killed his daughter and threw her in a ditch along with the garbage. He claims it was because he was on meth; I say it was because he's a mean s.o.b. and I hope they throw the book at him.

But yes, fathers kill their children, for any and all reasons, and for no reason at all.