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

NBC/San Diego ^ | July 22, 2002 | NBC/San Diego

[FresnoDA]

2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense

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

 

POSTED: 6:58 a.m. PDT July 22, 2002

UPDATED: 2:28 p.m. PDT July 22, 2002

 

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.

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.

[185JHP]

The poster known as TM has an icandescently-hot hot button - the abuse of children. That's what set him off IMO. BTW note that IIRC he didn't act as a VDA. He's running with a bad crowd on this one, but he's far more honest than most of the THREADJACKAL BANGERS - JMO but I'm probably not wrong...

[UCANSEE2]

NOPE. SOrry, POST 1272 is the correct ONE .

[crystalk]

It is a great rarity when Crystalk speaks ex cathedra, so here go two items you can take to the bank.

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.

[rolling_stone]

So what's different about this case?

The bugs don't fit, you must aquit...

[John Jamieson]

The PRESS said Damon put his "BOY FRIEND" on a plane.

[EllaMinnow]

I did read his post. What I'm asking is why does that make him currentdem instead of formerdem.

[John Jamieson]

NO prosecution case.

[EllaMinnow]

So a person's entire political ideology and identity should be based on whether or not they think the prosecution proved their case?

[John Jamieson]

The prosecution has presented no time and place of death, no manner of death, and has not placed Westerfield and Danielle together at the same time and place.

[UCANSEE2]

The poster known as TM has an icandescently-hot hot button - the abuse of children. As well as us. That is why this thread subject brings out the emotion,the anger, why there is so much infighting and stubbornness.

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.

[John Jamieson]

Obviously not, where did you get that? I just told you, I consider myself a law and order conservative.

[dread78645]

I think you'll get a chance to "meet" Goff when he testifies. If my hunch is right he will turn the bug guy trade upside down.

Only if he want to open ground for appeal of several hundreds of people that were convicted on entomological evidence.
Including his.

[alexandria]

(2)The DRC said the info came from two anonymous phone calls.

Who/what is DRC? Identify Bill Libby? Neighbor or is he the FL resident from DVD past?

[UCANSEE2]

P.S. IIRC he was toning down and starting to learn about the case, then all of a sudden he got mad and left.

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!

[crypt2k]

DNC Danielle Recovery Center

"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

[crypt2k]

DRC not DNC

[UCANSEE2]

3a. Friday afternoon after school, either before or after she did or did not accompany her mother on a shopping trip.

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 ?

[John Jamieson]

As I said in my long post about 45 minutes ago, the evidence best fits DW doing it with an accomplice. But I still don't believe the evidence is strong enough to prove anything beyond a reasonable doubt. The case is full of giant holes.

[crystalk]

Danielle, not loved by Daddy, starved for male affection, would have been a sitting duck for an Avila-type abductor.

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.

[EllaMinnow]

This all started when I asked another poster why he changed formerdem's name to currentdem in his reply. He (or she) hasn't replied to my question, but you have - and I appreciate it. Could you please answer this one last question for me -

Do you think that a person can believe that the prosecution has proven their case, and still be a conservative, a Christian, and a Republican?