Posted on 07/22/2002 3:02:31 PM PDT by FresnoDA
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.
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.
1. The body was not placed at Dehesa until Feb 15 at the earliest, and yes, Virginia, that means DW did not place the body there.
2. UNLESS DAMON KILLED HER, Danielle left her home for the last time in this life, on her own two feet and of her own free will. She was not accompanied by anyone she would have distrusted or felt was a stranger, or by anyone who did not have her parents' permission to be there and accompany her. IN FACT THERE IS AN 80% CHANCE that she was NOT ACCOMPANIED BY ANYONE AT ALL-- but walked out alone, probably just to play outside, out front, or walk down the 200 yds to the community mini-park.
3. I might further aid thought by saying that her walkout could have occurred:
3a. Friday afternoon after school, either before or after she did or did not accompany her mother on a shopping trip.
3b. Friday night after dark, either sleepwalking or escaping from a lonely house after finding her father gone, or after finding everyone locked in the garage having sex;
3c. Saturday morning around 7:30 to 8:30, while her parents were showering or preparing breakfast, etc. She may have gone out to play, or even to sell more Girl Scout cookies, thus proving she could go alone on such a mission!
As you can see, any of those would have provided a stranger perp with an opportunity to grab her from a public area. No one took her from within her home, let's not be fools here. She loved the little park and was hard to get away from it, even if she was the last child left there.
I really don't see how DW could have got her, unless it is 3b, the midnight walkout, and she entered his MH and stowed away. But was the MH even there?
The desert-and-beach wanderings of DW are far more like he was trying to help by finding some perp or person, he was searching desperately for someone, someone he has not named, was that Danielle? Trying to find the person who had her, if he had some idea who that was? Such a silly random-walk course cannot be explained if he were trying to dispose of a body, and in fact we know he did NOT dispose of it there or then...and that it was not HE that disposed of it at all, in any case.... My take is that DW suspected someone, had an idea who had Danielle, and was out looking for him or her. Maybe he still thinks he knows who did this, and maybe he is right!
DW learned soon enough that he was being framed and set up as a patsy, and the dry cleaning etc. no doubt was related to that.
To all of the above must be added the chance that a parent, probably Damon, is responsible, and in that case it must have been he who accompanied Danielle when she walked out of her home for the last time. And of course, if she WAS carried out, not walked, Damon is the person who carried her, living or dead.
The bugs don't fit, you must aquit...
I didn't treat him any different than anyone else. I complimented him when he deserved it. I reacted to his being in league with the (don't know a damn thing about the case, but YOU ALL ARE WRONG) and tried to help inform him.
Maybe he will come back and decide that finding out if DW really killed Danielle, or finding her true killer is more important of a goal than TRYING to WIN by telling everyone how stupid they are.
Only if he want to open ground for appeal of several hundreds of people that were convicted on entomological evidence.
Including his.
Who/what is DRC? Identify Bill Libby? Neighbor or is he the FL resident from DVD past?
I made my last comment after he STOMPED OUT.
I Hold no hard feelings and Anyone is welcome to participate on these threads. None of us own them, except JR.
It would be nice to have TM be able to follow things on here and see how they work out. Even if he get's to tell me and others I TOLD YOU SO!
"Organizers at the Poway-based Danielle Recovery Center are also planning a third weekend of searches in the desert, one in Borego Springs and one in Shelter Valley. "
http://www.thesandiegochannel.com/sand/news/stories/news-124830420020222-120239.html
Maybe Mommy got so darn busy planning the girl's nite out she forgot to pick Danielle up from SCHOOL and she tried to walk home.
This should be easy to disprove somehow. Anyone take a shot at this ?
Only hope: somebody nearby would be willing to be her Grandpa...but Dave was still too much sexually active, and too busy with his work, to fill that role. Still, she might have tried to attract him.
We have most of us, known an older man or woman who has helped where these modern children are not loved, and an old couple live near by.
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