Murder Mixtape 188: Danielle Van Dam

Who was Danielle?

Danielle Nicole Van Dam was born on September 22nd, 1994 to Brenda and Damon Van Dam in Plano, Texas. Danielle was the middle of three children, with a brother, Dylan, who was 2 years younger, and another brother, Derrick, who was 2 years older. The Van Dams also had a Weimaraner dog named Layla. Danielle was seven years old and a second grader at Creekside Elementary. She was a creative little girl who loved coloring and drawing. She was always using her imagination to play with her dolls, as well as writing in her journal.

She was described by adults as a sweet, normal seven-year-old, who enjoyed learning how to play the piano. Danielle was empathetic and cared so much for others. She wanted to be either a veterinarian or teacher when she grew up. Her mom and dad described her as strong-headed, but a good listener. She loved going to sleepovers and was known as a really well-rounded girl. Danielle was a Brownie in Girl Scouts and was excited to sell Girl Scout cookies with her mom. In many of the public pictures of Danielle, she’s wearing a black tattoo choker necklace, so it’s obvious that she was a 90’s girl!

At a young age, the Van Dams moved from Texas to California into a two story home in the Sabre Springs neighborhood. Brenda worked as a stay-at-home mother, taking care of the three children, while Damon worked for the company, Qualcomm, as an engineer. The couple seemed relatively quiet on the outside, but they definitely had their own wild side! The two admittedly had an open marriage and enjoyed the company of other couples. Both Brenda and Damon enjoyed going out, drinking, and occasionally smoking marijuana. The couple had fun and enjoyed their adult lives, but their children were their number one priorities. 

The Disappearance

On Friday, February 2, 2002, Danielle’s teacher, Ruby, said that the school day was relatively normal. Danielle completed her assignments that day, finishing a personal narrative and a memory they’d never forget. Ruby was surprised to read Danielle’s, noting that it was a sad story, about her grandmother’s house being broken into. When she asked Danielle about why she told a sad story, Ruby said that Danielle told her that it was the truth, and that it was a memory that she wouldn’t forget. She agreed that on her next assignment, she’d write about a happy memory.

About 30 minutes before school was dismissed for the day, Ruby received a call from the front office. The secretary told her that Danielle was leaving early today and needed to be sent with her belongings to the front office. Ruby said that Danielle was surprised, that she had no clue why she was being picked up early.

When Danielle got to the office, she found her mother, Brenda, waiting to pick her up. She was also picking up Dylan and Derrick so they could go get passport photos taken. Damon went on business trips often, and had an upcoming one scheduled for two weeks in Italy. He’d decided to take the whole family, so Brenda brought the kids to a MotoPhoto store. Afterwards, they went to Staples, the post office, then a nearby clothing store. Danielle needed an outfit for her upcoming father/daughter dance and the boys needed a gift for a friend’s birthday party. The four got back to the house around 5:30PM.

When Damon arrived home between 6 and 6:30PM, he found Brenda and the kids eating pizza for dinner. Around 8PM, two of Brenda’s good friends, Denise and Barbara came over. Brenda and her friends were planning on going out that night, but Brenda wasn’t quite ready. Denise and Barbara sat at the kitchen table and talked to Damon and the kids. Danielle was writing in her notebook at the table, asking her mom’s friends how to spell certain words, or what other words meant. Finally, Brenda, Denise, and Barbara left the home and headed to a nearby restaurant/bar called Dad’s Cafe and Steakhouse, arriving around 8:30PM.

Around 10PM, Damon told the kids that it was time for bed. He sent them upstairs to start their bedtime routine. When Damon made his way upstairs, he found Danielle reading her younger brother a book. After she finished, Damon put her to bed. Danielle and her dad had a special bedtime routine that they did every night before bed. Damon would give her a biiiiig hug and pretend that Danielle was so strong that when she hugged him, he’d pass out. He’d fall down on top of her, playing dead while Danielle giggled. It was their daddy/daughter bedtime ritual. Once he’d tucked all three kids in, Damon also went to bed.

Back at the steakhouse, Brenda and her girlfriends were having a great time. The restaurant had a bar, dance floor, and games, so there was plenty to do. Witnesses saw the group of women and said they looked like they were having fun, Brenda was even “dirty dancing” with one of her neighbors. Finally the three women left the bar around 1:50AM, and brought a few friends with them. Brenda was the designated driver and drove the group back to the Van Dam home. When they arrived, she noticed the alarm system was blinking. She found the side door that connected the garage to the house open, closed it, and the alarm stopped blinking. Her friends came inside, where they found Damon awake. They all hung out for a bit, before the guests left and Damon and Brenda went to sleep. 

Around 3:30AM, Damon woke up when he heard the family’s dog, Layla, whining. He got up to let her out and found the back sliding door open. He let Layla out to use the bathroom, then she came back in. He shut the door and went back to bed.

The next morning, Saturday the 2nd, Damon and Brenda were up cooking breakfast for the family. The kids were still asleep upstairs, and nobody was in any hurry to do anything. They usually let the kids just wake up whenever. Derrick and Dylan came downstairs eventually, but Danielle didn’t. The family ate breakfast and their daughter still hadn’t come downstairs to join them. Brenda went up to her daughter’s room to find her bed empty. She assumed that she was either in the bathroom or in her brother’s room. Brenda looked around, but Danielle was nowhere inside the house or in the yard. 

By 9:39AM, Brenda and Damon had called the San Diego Police Department to report their 7-year-old daughter missing. Police responded quickly and started their search around the Van Dam house, yard, and neighborhood. It wasn’t long before hundreds of volunteers had flooded the area, searching for Danielle. The Danielle recovery center was set up at a nearby real estate agency. Volunteers could come by the recovery center to be given an assignment on where to search.

The Investigation

Investigators were speaking to all of the Van Dam’s neighbors and friends, but nobody had any idea where Danielle might be. There was one neighbor that police were unable to get in touch with, David Westerfield. Neighbors had seen Westerfield take his RV out that morning around 9:50AM. 

Detective Mo Parga with the San Diego Police Department was one of the first investigators on scene. During her neighborhood canvas, she stopped in front of Westerfield’s home. She didn’t know too much about him, other than he lived alone, was out in his RV, and was referred to by neighbors as “Desert Dave” due to his frequent desert trips.

Parga noticed that his yard was beautiful, but oddly enough, his garden hose was lying across the grass. She felt that a gardener wouldn’t have done that. It would kill the grass underneath. Parga felt this indicated that whoever had used the hose last, had used it in a rush. At that moment, Parga said that she knew he was their guy. 

Parga, her partner, and other detectives kept a close watch on Westerfield’s home until he arrived back home around 8:45AM on Monday morning. As they spoke to Westerfield in his driveway, she noticed he was sweating profusely, despite the cool morning. It was something else that stood out to her. She told him that every house in the area was being examined, and that they’d love to see his. He invited the detectives in as he told them more about himself and where he’d been.

Westerfield was a 50 year old engineer who lived just a few houses away from the Van Dams. He was divorced and had two children in college. Westerfield had no criminal record.. He said that on Saturday morning, he’d take his RV out around 9:50AM, just after Brenda called 911. He said that he’d then driven around the desert and beach, then stayed at a beach campground. He told police that he’d planned on going to the desert and staying there, but he’d forgotten his wallet, so he’d stayed at the beach campground. Westerfield said that he then decided that the weather was too cold, so he came back home to find his wallet. He then went back to the desert. His multiple trips would’ve ultimately added up to over 500 miles, with no spare time for anything else. Witnesses confirmed seeing Westerfield at the Bach campground, however another witness testified that he’d seen Westerfield pull out his wallet at the desert campground. On Sunday morning, his RV got stuck in the sand and had to call a tow truck to pull him out.

On the way back home on Monday, Westerfield stopped by a local dry cleaners to drop off two comforters, two pillow cases, and a jacket. He did not mention this when investigators initially had him recount what he’d done that weekend. 

As Westerfield led Detective Parga and her partner around his house, she noticed something strange in his bathroom. She saw an impression in the window screen, which fit a person’s face. It looked right down into the area where Danielle and her brothers played outside. 

Surprisingly, Westerfield gave investigators permission to search his RV, but warned them that he’d cleaned it after his trip, which he always did. He had a Toyota 4Runner in his garage, which had also been freshly cleaned inside and out. While a forensics team scoured Westerfield’s RV, he took AND failed a polygraph test. He had no explanation for Detective Parga as to why he failed the test. Investigators placed him under 24 hour surveillance. 

When the forensics team got inside of Westerfield’s RV, they found that his claim that he’d cleaned it was an understatement. He had steam cleaned the entire thing with bleach. Fortunately, he didn’t do a very good job. Inside the RV they found several strands of long hair, drops of blood, a palm print, and a fingerprint above the bed. They found orange and blue fibers inside of the RV that matched fibers inside of Danielle’s bedroom, as well as animal hairs that could’ve been a match to the Van Dam’s dog. Brenda and Damon said that there was no reason for those fibers to be in Westerfield’s RV, that Danielle had never been in that vehicle. Inside Westerfield’s home, they found more hair in his bed and in his laundry. There were drops of blood also found on the clothing and bedding that he’d dropped off at the dry cleaners. The blood was confirmed to belong to Danielle Van Dam.

In addition to the physical DNA found in Westerfield’s home and RV, investigators searched his computer. They found a significant amount of child pornography.

The Arrest

On February 22nd, Westerfield was arrested by San Diego Police and charged with kidnapping, possession of child pornography, and murder. Though Danielle still hadn’t been found, investigators felt confident that they weren’t going to find her alive. Despite giving Westerfield ample opportunities to admit what had happened to Danielle and where she was, he continued to deny having any information or involvement in her disappearance. The offered him a plea deal, that would take the death penalty off the table in exchange for the location of Danielle’s body.

On February 27th, volunteers found the badly decomposed body of a child beneath a tree along a rural road. She was nude, missing some of her teeth, and wearing Mickey Mouse earrings that were confirmed to belong to the missing girl. The remains belonged to Danielle Van Dam. 

The Trial

Due to the advance stage of decomposition of the remains, the medical examiner was unable to determine the cause of death, whether she’d been sexually assaulted, or exactly how long she’d been dead. Westerfield, of course, pleaded not guilty. His trial began on June 4th, 2002, just over four months after Danielle went missing. His defense team argued that the child pornography might have been downloaded by Westerfield’s 18-year-old son. Once his son testified on the stand that HELL NO, that wasn’t downloaded by him, the defense team said Westerfield downloaded the pornography in order to show them to congress to explain the problems the world was facing with child pornography. HAHAHAHA okay.

A large part of the defense team’s argument was that Brenda and Damon’s lifestyle led to their daughter’s murder. They said that because they brought other people into their lives and home to party and have sex, they likely introduced the kidnapper and murderer into their own home. 

They also said that Westerfield’s rights were violated when he was arrested because he was interrogated for nine hours and not allowed to call a lawyer, shower, eat, or sleep. They also said that there was no physical evidence that placed Westerfield inside the Van Dam home or any of his DNA on her body. They said that the detectives had never even considered anyone else other than Westerfield.

The prosecution relied heavily on the forensic evidence found in Westerfield’s home and RV, as well as the things he’d dropped off at the laundromat. Westerfield’s niece also testified about a time when she was seven years old. She was asleep and Westerfield came into her bedroom and started rubbing her teeth. WTF. She bit him and ran to tell her mother. Westerfield said that he’d just gone in there to check on her. (Does this have anything to do with Danielle having missing teeth???!!)

When Westerfield’s taped accounts of where he’d traveled that weekend were played for the jurors, the prosecution pointed out that Westerfield used the term “we”, rather than “I”, several times.

On August 21st, 2002, Westerfield was found guilty of first degree murder, kidnapping, and possession of child pornography. He was sentenced to death. 

Westerfield has maintained his innocence throughout the trial and his imprisonment, however Detective Parga theorized what she believed may have happened:

On the Friday the week before Danielle was killed, Brenda and her friends had gone to the same bar that they’d go to the following Friday. Westerfield had seen Brenda and her friends that night. Five days later, on Wednesday, Brenda and Danielle had gone around the neighborhood to sell Girl Scout cookies, making one of their stops at Westerfield’s house. He invited them in and told Brenda that he was disappointed she hadn’t introduced him to her friends when he’d seen her at the bar that prior Friday. Brenda told him that she and her friends were planning on going to the same bar that Friday if she was able to get a babysitter for Danielle. She told Westerfield that Damon and the boys were going out of town and wouldn’t be able to watch Danielle. 

Unbeknownst to Westerfield, Damon and the boys had cancelled their trip, so he’d stayed home with the kids that night. When Westerfield saw and danced with Brenda at the bar that night, he assumed a babysitter was home with Danielle and left to carry out his plan.

Parga believed it was pure luck and coincidence that Westerfield didn’t wake the other three Van Dams up or alert the dog. He went in through the open side-yard door (that was admittedly accidentally left open by one of the friends who’d been there that evening) and carried Danielle back out of the house and into his house. Westerfield eventually placed her in the back of his 4Runner, where he transported her to where he stored his RV. 

Though none of this has been admitted to by Westerfield, it fits with the timeline. Westerfield is currently on death row in San Quentin State Prison. In 2019, he appealed his sentence, but the Supreme Court decided to uphold his sentence. In response to his sentence, Brenda said, “honestly, I feel the longer he’s in the box, he’s being tortured. I hate to say this as a person, but whatever is worse for him is better for me.”