Blame The Swingers

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On the first of February two thousand
and two, seven year old Danielle van

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Dam was at home with her two
brothers. Her dad, Damon van Dam,

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looked after the kids while his wife, Brenda, spent the Friday evening

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out drinking with some of her friends. At about half past ten that night,

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Damon tucked Danielle into bed. She
fell asleep quickly, and shortly afterwards,

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Damon went to bed himself until he
was woken up in the early morning

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hours by Brenda returning home. While
coming in the house, Brenda noticed that

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somebody had left a small side door
that led into the house's garage open,

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and one of the lights on the
alarm system was flashing after being set off,

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but Brenda didn't think much of it
because Damon had been home the whole

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time. The four girlfriends that she
was out drinking with she brought them home

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with her, and Damon and Brenda
stayed up talking with the group for a

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while before saying good night and going
to bed. Damon had a disrupted sleep

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that night and woke up again at
about three thirty a m. Again,

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he noticed that one of the alarm
system's lights were flashing. He investigated what

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might have set the alarm off,
and discovered that the door to the back

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yard was wide open. He closed
the door and went back to sleep.

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The next morning, Damon and Brenda
went to check on their children. The

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two boys had slept through the night, but Danielle's bed was empty. There

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was no sign of her in the
house or backyard, so at nine thirty

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nine that morning, the Van Dams
called nine to one one in a panic,

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telling the operator that their seven year
old daughter was missing. The community

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in the neighborhood of Saber Springs,
San Diego pulled together in an attempt to

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reunite Danielle with their family. Large
groups of volunteers combed the area, searching

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along the highways and the nearby desert
for any sign of the missing child.

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Meanwhile, Saber Springs law enforcement systematically
interviewed everyone in Danielle's neighborhood. That morning.

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All the neighbors were home except for
one, a forty nine year old

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engineer named David Westerfield. David only
lived a couple of doors down from the

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Van Dams, and he owned a
high end motor home that he often used

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to go for getaway trips, overnight
trips David wasn't a stranger to the Van

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Dams. In fact, Brenda had
taken Danielle to David's house only a few

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days before her abduction because she was
selling cookies for the Girl Scouts. After

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David answered the door and bought some
cookies, Brenda asked if she could come

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inside and look at the kitchen because
she knew he had recently had it remodeled.

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Investigators discovered that not only was David
not home, his motor home wasn't

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there either. Only a handful of
minutes after Brenda and Damon had reported their

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daughter missing, David had packed up
his motor home and driven to Silver Strand

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State Beach, where he had paid
to stay for two nights. However,

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the following day he decided that it
was too cold to stay at the beach,

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so he took the motor home to
the desert instead. On Monday morning,

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David drove back home. He was
seen at the dry cleaners he frequented,

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barefoot and appearing to be exhausted.
While he was there, he dropped

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off a small load of laundry,
two pillowcases, two bed comforters, and

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the jacket. Immediately after he arrived
home, he began to clean his motor

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home. The police placed him on
around the clock's surveillance, and the following

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day they impounded his motor home and
another vehicle for forensic testing. While speaking

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to the police, David insisted that
he had no idea where Danielle had gone,

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but he had actually seen Brenda the
night her daughter disappeared, because the

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two of them had been out drinking
at the same bar. One other aspect

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of David's original interview with police was
very interesting to investigators. He provided an

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incredibly detailed summary of his nights spent
away in the motor home, and all

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of the details could be backed up
by eyewitnesses, receipts, and phone records.

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However, despite all of this detail, there was one thing that David

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somehow forgot to mention, the fact
that he had stopped at the dry cleaners

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on his way home. On the
twenty second of February, David was arrested

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for abducting Danielle. One tiny spot
of blood had been found inside his motor

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home and another had been found on
the jacket he had dry cleaned shortly before

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returning home. DNA testing revealed that
the blood was a match to Danielle's Five

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days later, on the twenty seventh
of February, a group of searching volunteers

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in Dahsa, California, found Danielle's
remains lying just off of a trail.

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She had been stripped nude, and
exposure to the elements had caused the decomposition

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process to accelerate. Because of the
degree of decomposition, no cause of death

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could be identified, and the coroner
could not confirm whether or not she had

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been sexually abused prior to the murder. The location of Danielle's remains further implicated

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David Westerfield in the case. The
road was one of the couple of routes

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that David might have taken during his
drive to the desert. Despite the evidence

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against him, David decided to plead
not guilty. In the lead up to

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his June two thousand and two trial, his defense attorneys attempted to have his

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police statements exit gluted from the trial, alleging that the interrogation process had been

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unfair. During his interrogations, David
had been questioned for almost ten hours,

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and the detectives had ignored all of
his requests, including asking to speak to

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a lawyer go to sleep and eat. This resulted in the two detectives who

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had interrogated David not testifying at the
trial, but the police statements themselves remained

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included. During the trial, the
prosecution presented a wealth of forensic evidence,

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as well as the spots of Danielle's
blood that had been found on the floor

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of David's home and on one of
his jackets. Forensic testing had also found

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strands of hair that were believed to
be Danielle's on David's bed sheets, several

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of her fingerprints inside David's motor home, and several pieces of dog hair on

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the comforter of his bed which were
a match to Danielle's pet dog. The

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prosecution provided the theory that David might
have gotten into the Van Dam residence through

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the garage side door, which Brenda
had noticed was unlocked when she returned home

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with her girlfriends. However, despite
the theory, attorney Jeff Dusak emphasized one

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thing to the jury the prosecution did
not need to prove how David got into

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the house to kidnap Danielle. They
only needed to prove that he kidnapped her,

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and the forensic evidence suggested that he
had. In contrast, David's defense

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lawyers argued that law enforcement had felt
pressure to solve the kidnapping case, so

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they had focused on David instead of
investigating any other suspects. Because David was

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also facing charges for pornographic material involving
children that had been discovered on his personal

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computer, his lawyers suggested that the
pornography did not belong to David. Instead,

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the person who had downloaded it was
his son, eighteen year old Neil.

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Neil, who was now being partially
blamed for his own father's crimes,

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testified and denied that he had any
knowledge of the material. In an attempt

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to argue that other people who could
have kidnapped Danielle had been inside the Vandam

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house that night, the defense lawyers
zeroed in on Brenda and Damon, who

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they alleged had a non monogamous marriage
where they would have sexual encounters with other

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couples, as well as smoking marijuana. Because of Brenda and Damon's alleged swinging,

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the defense proposed the theory that more
people had actually been in the house

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during the night of February first,
two thousand and two, and it was

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possible that these unnamed, unidentified people
had abducted and killed Danielle, despite the

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forensic evidence proving that Danielle had been
in David's trailer shortly before her death.

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The defense argued that there was no
forensic evidence that David himself had been inside

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the Vandam house in order to abduct
her, and that there was also no

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evidence that he'd been physically present at
the site where her body was found.

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In response, Attorney Dusak argued that
it was completely possible for somebody to avoid

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leaving forensic evidence inside a home if
they were being cautious. David had known

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to be careful about leaving DNA and
fingerprints inside the Van Dam home, but

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meanwhile, Danielle had likely been frightened
and struggling inside David's motor home, causing

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trace evidence to be left behind.
There was no innocent explanation, Attorney Dusk

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stated, for Danielle's DNA being left
in David's home. On the sixteenth of

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September two thousand and two, the
jury reached their decision David Westerfield was guilty

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and should be sentenced to death.
He is held at San Quentin State Prison,

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but it is unknown whether his execution
will ever go ahead. That's ten

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Minute Murder for today, brief and
bingeable true crime. My name is Joe.

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sweeping romance turned sour right at the
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couple's lives. It's the chilling Case
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figured it was a good time to
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