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I was really hoping for a happy ending....
- Thread starter airprincess
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Autopsy Confirms Body Is Missing Girl
The Associated Press
Mar 1 2002 12:04PM
SAN DIEGO (AP) - For weeks Danielle van Dam's parents kept hoping as volunteers combed canyons and desert, looking for the 7-year-old who disappeared from her bedroom. The hopes and the hunt are over now: An autopsy has confirmed that a body found by a roadside was the missing girl's.
Police Chief David Bejarano informed Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, of the positive identification Thursday. The couple thanked volunteers at an office that had been used as a base for the search, then left quietly.
``There is not a more anxious feeling for parents than to not know where our children are,'' the couple said in a statement released late Thursday. ``Even though the final outcome is horrible, we could not have imagined the rest of our lives without this closure.''
The van Dams thanked police and the more than 2,500 volunteers who assisted in the search.
The autopsy made the identification Thursday through a comparison of the missing girl's dental records and X-rays taken from the body, San Diego County District Attorney Paul Pfingst said. The cause of death could not immediately be determined - and may never be - because of the body's state of decomposition, he said.
A neighbor, David Westerfield, 50, was charged Tuesday with murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography. He has pleaded innocent and is being held without bond.
Authorities said they found traces of Danielle's blood in Westerfield's motor home and on an article of his clothing. The self-employed engineer spent the weekend of Danielle's disappearance traveling around San Diego County in his motor home, stopping in the desert east of the city.
Westerfield has said he was at the same bar where Brenda van Dam was spending time with friends the night Danielle vanished. Her husband was home with their daughter and two sons.
Danielle disappeared after her father put her to bed Feb. 1 in her family's north San Diego home. She was discovered missing the next morning.
As the weeks went by, her parents made plea after plea for their daughter's safe return. A methodical search was organized, with hundreds of volunteers combing an area stretching from Mexico to the desert east of San Diego.
Nothing turned up for nearly a month. But on Wednesday afternoon, a hunch led volunteers to the area where Danielle's body was found.
Volunteers had first checked the site Saturday and found nothing. Ten volunteers returned after investigators decided the area needed to be checked again. Searchers found the body about 25 feet from the road under a cluster of oak trees across from a sand mine.
The remote road about 25 miles east of San Diego was one Westerfield might have taken the weekend Danielle disappeared, said Bill Garcia, a private detective who coordinated searches in the area.
``Someone who would try to evade or stay low-key would have picked that route,'' Garcia said.
The search for the missing girl had been coordinated in part on an elaborate Web site, where a memorial to Danielle was posted Thursday morning. A message on the site quoted singer Sarah McLachlan: ``You're in the arms of the angel. May you find some comfort there.''
In their statement, the van Dams said they desperately miss their ``very special, beautiful, loving little girl'' and are finding comfort ``in knowing that she is now safe again and at peace.''
The Associated Press
Mar 1 2002 12:04PM
SAN DIEGO (AP) - For weeks Danielle van Dam's parents kept hoping as volunteers combed canyons and desert, looking for the 7-year-old who disappeared from her bedroom. The hopes and the hunt are over now: An autopsy has confirmed that a body found by a roadside was the missing girl's.
Police Chief David Bejarano informed Danielle's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, of the positive identification Thursday. The couple thanked volunteers at an office that had been used as a base for the search, then left quietly.
``There is not a more anxious feeling for parents than to not know where our children are,'' the couple said in a statement released late Thursday. ``Even though the final outcome is horrible, we could not have imagined the rest of our lives without this closure.''
The van Dams thanked police and the more than 2,500 volunteers who assisted in the search.
The autopsy made the identification Thursday through a comparison of the missing girl's dental records and X-rays taken from the body, San Diego County District Attorney Paul Pfingst said. The cause of death could not immediately be determined - and may never be - because of the body's state of decomposition, he said.
A neighbor, David Westerfield, 50, was charged Tuesday with murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography. He has pleaded innocent and is being held without bond.
Authorities said they found traces of Danielle's blood in Westerfield's motor home and on an article of his clothing. The self-employed engineer spent the weekend of Danielle's disappearance traveling around San Diego County in his motor home, stopping in the desert east of the city.
Westerfield has said he was at the same bar where Brenda van Dam was spending time with friends the night Danielle vanished. Her husband was home with their daughter and two sons.
Danielle disappeared after her father put her to bed Feb. 1 in her family's north San Diego home. She was discovered missing the next morning.
As the weeks went by, her parents made plea after plea for their daughter's safe return. A methodical search was organized, with hundreds of volunteers combing an area stretching from Mexico to the desert east of San Diego.
Nothing turned up for nearly a month. But on Wednesday afternoon, a hunch led volunteers to the area where Danielle's body was found.
Volunteers had first checked the site Saturday and found nothing. Ten volunteers returned after investigators decided the area needed to be checked again. Searchers found the body about 25 feet from the road under a cluster of oak trees across from a sand mine.
The remote road about 25 miles east of San Diego was one Westerfield might have taken the weekend Danielle disappeared, said Bill Garcia, a private detective who coordinated searches in the area.
``Someone who would try to evade or stay low-key would have picked that route,'' Garcia said.
The search for the missing girl had been coordinated in part on an elaborate Web site, where a memorial to Danielle was posted Thursday morning. A message on the site quoted singer Sarah McLachlan: ``You're in the arms of the angel. May you find some comfort there.''
In their statement, the van Dams said they desperately miss their ``very special, beautiful, loving little girl'' and are finding comfort ``in knowing that she is now safe again and at peace.''
That is just so sad. That poor little girl!!!!!
And not that it matters, but I thought Dahmer killed himself in prison, not that he was killed by other inmates, but I could be and probably am, wrong here.
I heard something yesterday at work, about some woman who strangled and burned her infant child, and all she got was 10 years in prison.
Not sure where this happened, but that is horrible!
And not that it matters, but I thought Dahmer killed himself in prison, not that he was killed by other inmates, but I could be and probably am, wrong here.
I heard something yesterday at work, about some woman who strangled and burned her infant child, and all she got was 10 years in prison.
Where I live, in Minnesota, there is a family whose son was abducted by a total stranger about 10 or 12 years ago when the son, his brother and a friend were outside on their bikes. There were no arrests, no body was ever found, there were no results from any of the leads the police followed, and the parents never heard from their son again, he would be in his twenties by now if he is alive. I have heard that the police still get reports that this person has been seen somewhere, but these are always proven false. This poor family has gone for many years without finding out what really happened and being able to have closure.
