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Prosecution Presents New Fiber Evidence

Blue Fibers From RV Match Fibers Found On Danielle's Body

POSTED: 6:17 pm PDT July 9, 2002
UPDATED: 9:00 am PDT July 10, 2002

Blue fibers found in David Westerfield's motor home match fibers found around the body of murder victim Danielle van Dam and on clothes in his washing machine, a police trace evidence criminalist testified Tuesday.

Danielle van Dam, David Westerfield
WESTERFIELD TRIAL
DANIELLE VAN DAM 1994-2002
The testimony came during a temporary resumption of the prosecution's case against Westerfield, who is accused of kidnapping and killing the 7-year-old girl five months ago. The defendant faces the death penalty if convicted.

Superior Court Judge William Mudd warned the jury last week that the prosecution was going to present more witnesses.

Tanya DuLaney testified that she found a total of 46 blue fibers while examining the defendant's 1997 Southwind motor home Feb. 6, four days after the second-grader was discovered missing from her Sabre Springs home.

Eleven blue nylon fibers were found on the headboard of the bed at the back of the vehicle, DuLaney said, with 31 discovered on bench seats, one on a front passenger seat, and the rest on a couch.

DuLaney said she tested the fibers for the last time two days ago.

Video

She said she compared them to "known" samples "taken from the sheet wrapped around Danielle prior to her body being wrapped in a body bag" and from Westerfield's washing machine.

"Did you note any similarities?" Deputy District Attorney George "Woody" Clarke asked.

"Yes, I did," DuLaney said.

The fibers were the same in every way she could test for, she testified.

Clarke displayed for jurors a series of photographs of the fibers side-by-side, showing how they matched by color, diameter and spots in the fabric.

Police criminalist Jennifer Shen testified that orange fibers found on a towel taken from a bag in Westerfield's Toyota 4Runner were similar to orange fibers found in a necklace on the girl's body when it was discovered Feb. 27 off Dehesa Road.

Jennifer Shen"They looked similar, to me, to the fibers that I had found -- the fiber on the necklace -- from the victim's neck," Shen (pictured, right) said. "They looked similar to the orange fibers that I had seen in the defendant's laundry, from in the washing machine, on top of the dryer, in the dryer. They also looked similar to orange fibers that I had found on the pillow case from the bedding taken from the defendant's bedroom."

The prosecution rested as soon as Shen's testimony ended.

The judge denied a defense motion to acquit Westerfield on a special circumstance allegation of murder during a kidnapping and possession of child pornography.

"The evidence is overwhelming, that Danielle van Dam was kidnapped from her home, that she was killed during that kidnapping at any point from the time she was taken until she was killed, she was being kidnapped, and she turned up dead down at Dehesa," prosecutor Jeff Dusek said before Mudd ruled.

"It's unbelievable that there'd be any concern that this was not a kidnapping for a murder," he said. "In all of the physical evidence, all of the statements point directly at the defendant."

The judge said such a motion "brings to the court the question of whether or not, in the best light possible given to the prosecution's evidence, is there sufficient evidence to go to the jury from the question of the guilt or innocence of Mr. Westerfield on charges he is facing?"

"The answer to that question is yes. The motion is denied."

Earlier Tuesday, Westerfield's lawyer called two witnesses to the stand in an effort to establish alternative ways potentially incriminating evidence wound up in the motor home.

Under questioning by attorney Robert Boyce, the daughter of a woman who lived with Westerfield said she helped him work on the motor home in front of a park on Mountain Pass Road, down the street from his house, sometime last year.

Christina Gonzales Christina Gonzales (pictured, left) could not remember the month when she helped the 50-year-old self-employed design engineer with the work.

While doing the work, she said, both she and Westerfield walked down the street to his house "a couple times." A mother and child were playing in the park at some point, she said, but could not recall the youngster's gender.

The defense has asked a number of witnesses about how often the defendant parks the vehicle outside his home and how many children roam the neighborhood.

One place he parked the motor home was close to a route Danielle took to visit a friend.

Another witness, Stephanie Escudero, said the motor home was unlocked when Westerfield showed it to her and her husband last year.

"We walked right in," Escudero said.

But neither witness specifically remembered children inside.

"You never actually saw any neighborhood kids inside that motor home, did you?" prosecutor Jeff Dusek asked Gonzales.

"No, I didn't," she answered.

Escudero said she didn't see children around the vehicle, either. It was parked in an area where the van Dam children are not allowed to go by themselves when she toured it.

Also in testimony, a San Diego police interrogation specialist said a friend of Danielle's mother gave conflicting statements on what happened after their "girl's night out" on Feb. 1.

Michael Fisher said when he interviewed flight attendant Denise Kemal, she stated that Danielle's father did not come down to eat pizza with them and that Barbara Easton didn't come downstairs until it was time to leave.

Damon van Dam "didn't come down at all, I do know that," Fisher quoted Kemal as saying.

The comments go against previous testimony that Easton visited Damon van Dam in his bedroom when the women returned from Dad's Cafe and Steakhouse in Poway, but both went down to eat pizza after about five minutes.

The woman, along with two men, were said to have stayed at the van Dam residence for about 20 minutes before going home.

Heather MackA Coronado Cays security guard completed testimony, which had begun Monday. Heather Mack (pictured, right) said she saw Westerfield drive his motor home into the parking lot of Cays the evening of Feb. 3, but was unable to state a specific time when that occurred.

Westerfield smiled and waved at her as he drove past her security kiosk, but she never saw him again until he appeared on television, Mack testified.


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