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.

So you think Westerfield is innocent?

I think that the DA has failed to prove many points needed to find DW guilty. I am not sure if he is innocent, but I am sure that I would vote 'Not Proven' Too many holes in the prosecution's case. Too many unanswered questions and questionable police work. And being a 54 year old man who occasionally imbibes in Rum mixed with Coke, and being somewhat overweight, I am sure that after having a few there is no way that I could sneak into a neighbor's home, sealthly abduct their daughter, cross a street, hide her, then transfer her to a motor home in broad daylight, then drive to places where there would be people that I knew and who would expect me to be open and sociable.

Detective Tomsovic--June 18/Afternoon

Q: Were there missing parts to Danielle?
1A: Yes. The right foot was almost entirely missing.
LARGE portions of the flesh was missing from her arms, her legs, her torso.
9A Yes. and various things were found, small bits of flesh were found in the brush and shrubbery around the body.
11 Hair, which appeared to be from Danielle, was found quite a distance from the body, in some instances up to 80,90 feet away. There were marks on the ground, kind of greasy drag marks that looked like flesh. Decomposed flesh could have caused that type of activity.

28 15 feet North of where the body was --had been laying they were clumps of hair in Photo..........-- Photograph "E" depitcts a typical greasy spot on the ground where it appears that at one time flesh had lain.

I guess most of you have read Det. Tomsovic's test. I had not, I find it interesting that clumps of Danielle's hair was found 80-90feet North of where her body was found. It seems that she was not only missing her left foot, but her right foot was almost entirely missing. And the drag marks--Greasy??? drag marks??? Pieces of flesh found in the shrubbery????

Something else we forgot about.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/danielle/transcripts/20020624-9999-pm1.html

Q: NOW I'M SPECIFICALLY DIRECTING YOUR ATTENTION TO -- I'M MARKING ON MINE SO YOU SEE IT AND I SEE IT ON YOURS.A: M-HM.Q: AND YOU INDICATED I NOTED ONE WHITE HAIR. I'M SORRY. IS THAT WORD WAVY?A: YES.Q: BETWEEN DRIVER'S SEAT AND DOOR ON FLOOR. PERIOD. CORRECT?A: YES. Q: POSSIBLY AN ANIMAL HAIR, CORRECT?A: YES. THAT'S WHAT I WROTE. THAT'S CORRECT.Q: AND THAT'S WHAT IT WAS, RIGHT?A: NO. IT TURNED OUT ON FURTHER EXAMINATION THAT IT WAS NOT AN ANIMAL HAIR.Q: WHAT WAS IT?A: IT WAS A HUMAN HAIR. AND IT APPEARED TO BE A PUBIC HAIR.

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2nd Bug Expert Bolsters Westerfield Defense

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