Remains Identified as Missing Girl

SAN DIEGO —  Solving part of a mystery that left much of San Diego emotionally spent, authorities confirmed Thursday that the body found in a lonely oak grove by volunteer searchers is that of Danielle van Dam, missing since Feb.2.

A forensic examiner matched X-rays of the jaw to the 7-year-old girl’s dental records, said San Diego Dist. Atty. Paul Pfingst.

Though an initial autopsy was completed Thursday, medical examiners were unable to determine a cause of death, largely because of decomposition, officials said. San Diego Police Chief David Bejarano, who broke the news to Danielle’s parent minutes before Pfingst made the identification public, acknowledged that investigators may never learn exactly how Danielle died.

“That’s a possibility ... because of the condition of the body,” Bejarano said as he left the Van Dams’ home in Sabre Springs, a well-kept community of welcome mats, ski racks, bright stands of bougainvillea and Spanish-tile roofs.

“Obviously we would like to know the cause of death. But if we don’t have that, I believe we will still have a successful prosecution.”

Pfingst would not address whether the body was clothed or whether there is evidence that Danielle was sexually assaulted. “This is a sad day for a lot of people and I don’t want to make it sadder,” he said.

No weapon has been found.

Police have arrested one of the Van Dams’ neighbors, 50-year-old David Alan Westerfield, and charged him with kidnapping and murder.

Westerfield, who has pleaded not guilty, is also charged with possession of child pornography and could face the death penalty if convicted.

Pfingst said it will take at least two months for his office to determine whether it would seek to have Westerfield executed.

Police say they will begin the painstaking process of piecing together a criminal case that could lurch toward trial for a year or more and will be watched closely throughout.

But Thursday was also an ending of sorts, a temporary calm in what has been an emotional storm.

“It’s very tragic, to say the least,” Bejarano said. “But there is a little bit of relief. Danielle is in good hands now.”

Danielle’s parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, went to a borrowed real estate building in Poway, near their home, to thank, one last time, the volunteers who had searched for their daughter. Authorities say the search for Danielle was the most extensive ever mounted in San Diego County.

“Brenda said that love conquers evil,” said Father Joseph Acton of St. Timothy’s Episcopal Church, who has been attending to the family since the body was discovered next to a winding, two-lane road Wednesday afternoon. “This community has shown that.”

In local schools, children were told to take home letters encouraging families to spend time together this week.

On a Web site devoted to Danielle’s disappearance, a flurry of messages organizing everything from search parties to fund-raisers at local restaurants came to an abrupt halt.

The Web site was given a lavender hue, Danielle’s favorite color. Replacing information about how to contact police investigators and rescue organizers was a photo of the girl, holding a flower, and words from the Sarah McLachlan song “Angel”: “You’re in the arms of the angel; may you find some comfort there.”

So many flowers were pouring in to the family that supporters asked residents to stop sending them until they finish planning a public memorial.

They were having trouble finding a hall big enough for the crowd expected at the service.

“It’s been a long three weeks for San Diego and it’s been a long three weeks for law enforcement,” Pfingst said.

Residents, many of whom had never met the Van Dams, descended on the family’s five-bedroom, two-story home Thursday when word came that Danielle was officially dead.

Sarah Plant, an Oceanside woman, brought her daughter Parris to the house to draw pictures on a large sheet of paper placed outside for children to leave messages.

Like many parents, Plant was grappling with the right way to tell her children about the events of the last four days--Monday’s conclusion by authorities that Danielle must be dead, Tuesday’s charge of murder and Wednesday’s discovery of the body.

“I can’t imagine this happening to me,” Plant said. “It’s hard to explain to her about what happened, especially since she’s only 4. She has a lot of questions. She doesn’t understand why Danielle is gone. She doesn’t understand how something bad could happen to a little girl.”

Damon van Dam has said he put Danielle to bed Feb. 1 while Brenda van Dam spent time with friends at a Poway bar.

Westerfield also was at the bar that evening; he has said he danced with Brenda van Dam there. Brenda van Dam has said she merely chatted with Westerfield, and only briefly.

On the morning of Feb. 2, when her parents went to wake her, Danielle was not in her bed.

Police immediately focused on Westerfield, who lives alone, two doors away from the Van Dams. Westerfield, authorities say, was the only one of the Van Dams’ neighbors who was not home the morning Danielle disappeared.

They believe he drove his motor home to a beach strand and then into the desert over the next few days, and subsequently had the RV steam-cleaned before they could inspect it.

Investigators later found blood on one of Westerfield’s jackets and in the motor home.

DNA tests, police say, confirmed that it was Danielle’s blood, and Pfingst said Thursday that Westerfield is the only suspect in the case.

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Times special correspondent Paul Levikow contributed to this report.