2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense: (Dusek Melting Down Before Juries Eyes!!)

SAN DIEGO -- The trial of David Westerfield resumed Monday with more testimony about insects, as defense lawyers tried to show that their client was not the person who dumped Danielle van Dam's body along a two-lane road in East County.

Before testimony began, Judge William Mudd warned jurors to ignore last week's murder of a young girl in nearby Orange County. Mudd said that the abduction, sexual assault and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion "bears no relation" to the trial of David Westerfield.

Westerfield's trial had been in recess since July 11 so the judge could take a previously scheduled vacation.

Westerfield, 50, lived two doors from Danielle, who vanished after her father put her to bed the night of Feb. 1. Searchers found the girl's nude body on Feb. 27 along a rural roadside east of San Diego.

Neal Haskell, forensic entomologist A forensic entomologist, testifying Monday for the defense, said Danielle's body could not have been dumped at the roadside before Feb. 12, according to his analysis of flies and larvae collected during an autopsy. The blow flies that were found on the body typically descend on a cadaver shortly after death, but it can take longer in cooler temperatures, entomologist Neal Haskell said. Based on his analysis of the temperatures in the area at the time, Haskell (pictured, right) put "the time of colonization" likely at Feb. 14 and no earlier than Feb. 12.

Prosecutors challenged the defense's weather data.

Haskell's testimony puts the time the body may have been dumped several days earlier than suggested by a previous defense witness, entomologist David Faulkner. The defense has seized upon the time of death, which could not be precisely determined, to suggest that the body was dumped at a time when Westerfield was under constant police surveillance.

Westerfield was put under observation soon after Danielle disappeared, according to police testimony. He was arrested on Feb. 22.

During Haskell's testimony about insects devouring Danielle's body, the girl's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, stared at the floor as they sat in the back row of the courtroom. It is the first time that Damon van Dam has been in court since Judge William Mudd banned him from the proceedings almost a month ago as a security risk. Mudd restored his trial privileges just before going on vacation.

Lawyers for Westerfield have said they expect to offer two to three more days of testimony.

"Kim, you couldn't Chairperson of the DW hanging committee. (well for murder, now for possessing PORN, YES)."

Make that Child Porn...if I had been in charge..fingerprints WOULD have been taken FIRST THING on the CD's.

"There are some weird coincidences going on that need to be researched. I and others are doing so. The linking info was pulled from the public. But not quick enough for FR posters. "

Please explain more!

All of these posters' theoretical wrangling about whether flies OUGHT to be on Dehesa, is meaningless in view of the fact that they in fact WERE there, and the usual maggot infestation DID take place in the Danielle corpse.

That is the experts point, which I disagree with. Its circular logic. It assumes the only way flies get to a body is on their own.

If flies don't normally leave the nice green golf course where food is plentiful to go searching off in the desert where food is not plentiful maybe the body in the desert gets its fair share of flies from the animals.

It wasn't a desert. The desert if FULL of insects, believe it or not. You can be in a DRY, BARREN DESERT and there will be FLIES. JUST ASK A CAMEL. Why do you think they have tails?

According to the canadian site on this, the fly production varies according to the weather so much that there are times when the fly data are not valid. If its true in one extreme environment why assume that its not true in another extreme environment.

Isn't it possible there are times in the desert when fly's are not so bountiful as to create an accurate time frame ? To the canadian expert the obvious answer is yes. TO the american expert the obvisous answer is no. To me the rational answer is given by the canadian expert.

WADR that is just BULL. Have you ever been to a desert? If anything, there may be more flies per square inch in a desert such as Arizona, than there are in a wet climate like Florida. And in the spring, So. Calif IS wet, and don't forget it.

If anything or anybody shits in the open in a desert, a fly lands within 10 min, if not 10 sec, let me tell you. Trash, including fast food and ice cream containers, littered this area.

Would somebody who lives in one of the three driest major cities in the USA, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and El Paso, please step in and tell this poster the truth about flies!

San Diego is much damper and more temperate.

Did you miss this ?

down a steep minor ridge into the soft, sandy streambed of Sheep Canyon."

No - I didn't miss that - just wasn't sure whether it was a wet streambed or a dry one - have since learned that it could be either - depending on when one is there. So water is what the flies are atracted to? Did you know there was water - a resevoir I think (Sweetwater maybe) - on the opposite side of the road from where Danielle was found? OK OK - I know you're gonna say - with all that water over there - why would the flies travel over to Danielle's body? Well apparantly they traveled from the water in the streambed over to the hiker guy who wasn't even dead.

Hi,
You asked:

But did they get there of their own accord or did they hitch a ride ?

Visit here for some ideas on insect flight (impressive!). However, I also found this which measured sheep blowflies Lucilia sericata as only travelling 135 to 183m during a day.

All that said, I can't show one way or another whether or not the larvae came in on animals or the flies flew in. I did see in the sheep blowfly study that populations of 6 female blowflies/hectacre were observed - could the blowflies have been munching on something else in the area (something within 500 ft or so)before flying to Danielle's body?

Guess we'll have to wait on more info from the experts. Sorry I couldn't clear this up more.

FRegards,
PrairieDawg

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2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense

Expert Says Fly Infestations Show When Danielle's Body Was Dumped