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.

Someone elses hair was shed and caught and not washed down, why is it hard to believe hers wasn't?

Read the whole scenario. She was playing there. Apparently we lose one hair every fifteen minutes. Assuming she was there for only a short period of time she would only shed one hair. This one hair had to make it to the floor and not the carpet. It further had to be washed up by Westerfield and put in the drain and it had to avoid getting trapped (not all hair gets trapped). The sum total of all of these probabilitiers is almost 0. Adding more time spent increased the number of hairs normally falling but it would still multiply out to nonexistant.

Add to the hair, the other improbable occurances and its a very remote possibility the evidence came from a short visit while she played.

If so, how do you explain the physical evidence in the RV and on Danielle ?

"Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left -- no matter how improbable -- must be the truth!" -- Sherlock Holmes

Since DW couldn't have dumped the body, DW didn't do it. Which means, like it or not, LE falsified evidence!

It's not so improbable, really. It is certainly consistent with the motivation LE displayed when deciding which evidence to look at and which to ignore. They wanted him found guilty, and they made sure he would be convicted!

A Sprinkle and a smear, and a promise not to tell. They probably thought they were being secret heroes.

Unless of course the OJ jury has been reincarnated.

OJ was not all like this case. The OJ jury just couldn't face the fact that a hero of color — the same color as themselves — could possibly have committed the dastardly act with which he was charged. But the physical evidence was overwhelming. The only way past it was to assume it was trumped up. And why would the LA's finest do that? Why, because they're racist pigs! And on what grounds could the jury believe that? Well, the Dream Team got lucky and caught Lt. Fuhrman lying about having used the N-word. Case closed!

Indeed, blood and hair evidence is very important, especially if the blood is proven to be blood and more than one hair (easily transferrable from dancing with Brenda). DNA evidence is very important also, but one very small spot ( however did they find it?) does not convince me of Westerfield's guilt. I want the Prosecution to expalin to me how he was able to get into the home, snatch Dannielle, drag her and carry her to wherever (the MH was not parked at the house) and leave no trace of him at her house or her in his or in his car. But yet - one drop of DNA is in his motor home? why did she not cry out? if he murdered her in her bedroom - why no fibers from his clothes? no DNA or hair from him in her room or in her entire house? but yet one single hair was in the MH?

And fingerprints. Some of you act like you are personally involved in this. Why? Are you friends of Westerfield? Maybe you are related to the OJ jurors.

I can only speak for myself, of course. Don't know DW, probably never will. He is, I DO KNOW, a citizen of the US and is entitled to a fair trail. It would appear to many that JUSTICE is not only BLIND, but is at the service of a DA attempting to capitalize on a HIGH PROFILE CASE to ensure his re-election bid. Little did he know that he was being taken on a ride (it would appear) by the parents who seemed to have control over the investigation. (If you don't understand this comment, ask about it, and I will explain in detail.) That they would continue to lie and change their stories, that Publicity seemed to be more important than their missing daughter. They have moved on, it would seem, and started on 02/01/02.

Maybe only 1 of the parents is hiding something, and was involved in Danielle's disappearance. We don't know for sure and we may never know.

The many posters on here that you say 'are friends' of DW , are really friends of TRUTH and JUSTICE.

We don't want to see a person that isn't guilty of the crime go to jail. Neither do we want a criminal let go. That is why we have TRIALS and JURIES.

And I can't say again, how it is really funny that the UN-INFORMED use referring to the OJ trial as a defense for their statements.

It is almost as if you WEAR THIS AS A BRAND.

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2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense

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