SOLVED: Danielle van Dam Taken From Bedroom

you're such a genuine gem thank you for clicking on my video I'm Brooke McKenna but today's case is the assault case of Danielle Van Dam and this is a case filled with shocked deception and many odd factors nothing is as it seems in this neighborhood a suspect that has ties to more than one family member and a family secret that was exposed at trial this is one that a summary can't really do justice for but thankfully justice was given to this victim by the way I post so much content like this it is my absolute passion to share these stories and I mean no harm or disrespect when I do so so if it's something you would like to support me in doing all you have to do is make sure you are subscribed with the post notification metal on giving this video a thumbs up and leaving a nice comment down below now let's get back to this story so it was 2002 in California and the VanDam family lived in a neighborhood called Sabri Springs I believe is how you say it and this was Brenda and Damon who had three children they had two boys and one girl there was a five year old named Dylan a 10 year old named Derek and then a 7 year old named Danielle who was born on September 22nd 1994 she was at this time a second grader and she was attending Creekside elementary school she is the one that we will be talking about today now Danielle loved coloring drawing playing piano and doing things that a normal child would love to do you could tell she had such a happy childhood and that she really was allowed to be creative and be herself and you know the biggest thing that I heard about Danielle was that she loved to make sure everyone else was okay she was very in tune with emotions and her empathy and she just wanted to take care of everyone and you know you see this a lot in the oldest child but she was actually the middle child and she still felt the same way she was so full of life and joy and she either wanted to be a veterinarian or a teacher which of course sounds perfect for someone who loves caring for other people and she just sounded like a soul that was made to be a healer but unfortunately life was not fair to this young girl so as February its 2nd and the abandoned parents were downstairs in their home cooking breakfast for everybody it was a Sunday so everybody was home and ready for a family breakfast and the children were slowly coming down you know they they were doing kind of their own thing waking up at their own times and both the boys had eventually come down but Danielle still hadn't however this wasn't very suspicious who cause did he concern at all because Danielle was always one to sleep in and be the last to arrive at breakfast however they would eat they would finish breakfast and Danielle still wasn't down so Brenda decided that she was gonna go up and wake up her daughter so she got to her bedroom and she realized that Danielle wasn't in her bed so she thought okay she's woken up she's probably you know getting ready and she's somewhere in the house however she looked around the rest of the house and she wasn't there either the parents wasted no time and by 9:30 9:00 a.m. they were calling the police to report their daughter missing now the investigators didn't take much time at all to get on this case to start the investigation to start this search which isn't given to all victims so this was incredible that they worked so quickly and thankfully within just a few hours a search team was created and an entire system was put together for the hundreds of volunteers coming in to help with the search there was even a Danielle recovery center that was set up at a local real estate agency where people could go and be told you know where they needed to search for Danielle investigators were extremely on top of this case talking to everybody they could but they would retrace Danielle's footsteps for the day that she was thought to actually go missing or you know that night that early morning that she was found to be missing they weren't exactly sure when she disappears so they went all the way back to that Friday and this was Friday February 1st of course it was a school day and Danielle was 7 so she went to elementary school her teacher was named ruby punta knee and they would talk to her about what Danielle did her behavior if she acted any differently that day and Ruby said that she really didn't act too strange they were working on a class project which basically they were writing personal narratives about themselves and they were working on you know recalling memory they were supposed to be working on writing about a memory that they would never forget so that's what they were doing at that Friday however 30 minutes before school was out ruby actually got a call she was not expecting this call and when she picked up the office told her that Danielle was leaving school early and we needed to pack her things and basically go down to the office now Ruby went over to tell Danielle and Danielle had no idea why she was leaving early or that she was supposed to at all this isn't something that she was told previously to coming to school and so Ruby took the paper that she had been working on and noticed that it was a really sad story the memory that Danielle was recalling was actually about her grandmother's house being broken into and Ruby you know said you're supposed to be writing about a happy memory this is so sad and Danielle simply told her it was the truth that's a memory that I'll never forget and so Ruby had her promise that next time she would write about a more happy memory and you know they agreed Danielle was seemed to be like a good student she never talked back she did the work she was supposed to and she you know to her that was telling the truth and telling her memory she would never forget so she was doing her work and so after this Danielle left the class and she was done with school for the day of course investigators now needed to figure out why she left school early that day who she left with and this is when her mother Brenda would say that she actually took all of the kids out of school in that Friday afternoon just like 30 minutes before school was out because they needed to go and passport photos this is because their father Damon he went on business trips often and the next one that he had was two weeks in Italy and he decided he wanted to take the whole family with him so they were getting all of that together you know Damon was getting the flights and all the paperwork and Brenda was going to get their passport photos as well as doing some shopping so after they got these photos they actually went to a store called moto photo and then they went to Staples and then they went to the post office and then a clothing store called Mervyn's I think it's called and they were just doing the usual errands going shopping Danielle needed to pick up an outfit for a father-daughter dance that was happening that next week because this trip wasn't happening for a little while so and we're still gonna be there for the father-daughter dance and so she wanted to get something fancy to wear and the boys actually had to pick up a birthday gift for a friend of theirs which they had a party to go to I think that weekend or you know soon after so they were all shopping for these things and they would actually get what they need and head back home they got there around 5:30 p.m. and then Damon who was at work the whole day arrived home from work around 6:00 to 6:30 and he would actually see Brenda driving up the driveway and the kids were still inside and she had actually gone to pick up pizza for the night and so they all were eating some pizza Damon had about three beers and the parents were said to be smoking at this time as well and then so they were all having a really good night and Damon said a few hours later about a p.m. two of Brenda's really close friends named Denise and Barbara would come over to their house and Brenda would often go out with these two so Brenda was upstairs getting ready and they both just you know came in the house as usual we're talking to Daymond and the kids and then in fact sat at the table where Danielle was doing some journaling and talked to her she was asking them how to spell some words and you know what different words meant always trying to learn different things and that's when Brenda came downstairs and three of them left Damon stayed home to watch the kids he was completely okay with this the kids were always really good and Damon said that around 10 p.m. is when he told the kids they finally needed to go to bed so they all went to do their things they were old enough where he was giving them some space to actually do what they wanted to do and get ready before he went to tuck them in so when he finally got upstairs he found in yell and her younger brother's bedroom reading him a book and you know when she was done with that he told her you know go ahead and go to your own bed and I'll come to tuck you in after I tuck in the boys so that is exactly what he did and now Damon and Danielle had quite a little routine at bedtime they both loved so incredibly much Danielle was already under the covers when her dad got to her bedroom because the routine was about to start and this was a little game they played every night where her father would pretend to play dead on top of her leg and fall completely down and this sounds weird but this would make Danielle giggle uncontrollably she was laughing and this came from the fact that they started exchanging I love yous and they would hug each other really tight and her father wanted her to believe that she was extremely strong and so they would call these hugs big squeezy hugs and so Damon would pretend that she was so strong and she basically made him passed out and he would kind of fall over on to her and this just made them both so incredibly happy and it's something that they both looked forward to so after this Damon would go downstairs and go to bed himself because he knew that the kids were sound asleep in their own bed so at this time Brenda wasn't home she was still out and about and so of course we needed to fill in the missing puzzle piece of where Brenda went Brenda would say that she and her two friends went outside of the home and they smoked for a little while before heading to a place called dad's cafe and restaurant or steak house this was a restaurant that doubled as a bar that also had a dancing floor at a place to play games it was just kind of an all-in-one for adults to go and they were there by 8:00 30 and that is when witnesses of the people who were at the bar who saw them there were talked to about you know what exactly happened at the bar if anything strange if they saw anybody watching Brenda and everyone said that these three women were at the bar and they were having a good time but some strange activities were said to happen because these were actually things that Brenda was doing now she was allegedly said to have told her friends that she wouldn't mind basically taking a couple home and this were a couple who were also sitting at the bar and she said this and then she started dancing with a man named David and they were doing what witnesses described as dirty dancing and of course she had a husband and kids so this was all occuring you know from 8:30 to around 11:30 and bartenders said that they didn't see Brenda there often she you know she was there sometimes with her friends but it wasn't like she often was there and also that the male she was dancing with always just came alone with one of his friends and they were never really seen together before but they were also said to know each other because they were neighbors who lived about two doors down eventually Brenda Denise and Barbara left the bar at around 150 a.m. and they brought a few friends with them this was two men named Keith stone and rich Brady Brenda was driving home she was the designated driver and she got to her home around you know five minutes later and that is when she immediately noticed that the alarm system was blinking she was a little concerned but that's when she found that the side door that was connected to the garage was slightly open so just she just figured that someone had accidentally left it open she shut it the alarm stopped blinking and they carried on their conversations and partying a little bit more in the home Damon was actually awake by this point he was talking to everyone as well Damon said that you know he had been awake off and on anyways because an hour prior to them coming home their dog who was a wee wee Marriner know how to say it but I'll put a picture of the dog that was named Leila was whining and wanted to go outside so he woke up he let her out back and then when she was done they both came back inside and he went back to sleep before waking up when they got home now eventually everyone was there they were talking they were eating the leftover pizza and they were there for a little while longer but you know as it got earlier into that morning where they knew they would have to wake up with the kids everybody went home and Damon and Brenda went to sleep but they said they didn't check on any of the children because they knew that they were safe and down in their beds I mean they had put them to sleep nobody had left Damon was there the whole time so they didn't figure it was a necessity to check in on them again it was the middle of the night they didn't want to wake them up so they just went to bed and an hour later Damon said he woke up once again because he had to go to the bathroom that's when he saw that the alarm was blinking once again and this time as he searched around the house he found that the sliding back door was still open once again he figured someone that was partying just a few minutes before had just left it open so he shut it the alarm stopped blinking and he went back to sleep again he didn't check on the kids because he figured that they hadn't gone anywhere unfortunately he was very wrong because sometime during the time you put them to bed and the time that brenda checked on Danielle that morning she had disappeared investigators were canvassing at the neighborhood talking to all neighbors to see if they saw anything they could get a hold of pretty much all of them except for two and one of which they found had actually taken his motorhome out that morning and was basically out and about so they couldn't really contact him until he came back neighbors saw him leave at around 9:50 a.m. that morning and investigators had to wait until Monday to speak with him so this was Saturday morning he left and it was Monday and he arrived back home and he would talk to investigators he said that he drove around the desert and the beach and stayed at the beach campground now he wanted to stay at the desert but he had realized when he was driving that he had forgotten his wallet so he was just gonna stay at the beach for a while however after he paid for those two nights to stay there he realized it was too cold and decided to go home and grab his wallet and then head back out to the desert where he stayed until about Monday morning unfortunately that Monday morning he actually got stuck in the sand and had to get a tow truck out but then he did make it home when they found him now all of this was confirmed when investigators started looking into his cell phone records gas receipts and credit card information everything checked out neighbors said that this was normal for him to go to the desert they even called him desert Dave because he always was taking his motorhome out however a witness at this Beach campground said if they saw him there but they claimed to see him take out his wallet while he was there but this is the time when he said he didn't have his wallet investigators would also find something and that this man had not made a part of his story and this was that he had stopped at a dry cleaners he had dropped off two pillow covers two comforters and a jacket this man was said to say he had nothing to do with Danielle's disappearance but his name was David Westerfield he was a 49 year old engineer who was self-employed and quite successful he had no criminal record he had two children who were in college and he had been divorced twice he was well known well-liked and super smart he had actually held several patents for different medical devices however now he was being looked into for the kidnapping of a child we have heard about this man before because if you remember the man that brenda was dancing with was also named David this was the same man he was also the same man that Brenda and Danielle had gone to when they were going through the neighborhood selling girl-scout cookies or Danielle they had gone to his house three days prior and you know talked with him and he had bought some gross cow cookies this man had also been interviewed by the news when Danielle first went missing they had no idea that he would become a suspect now he was saying that they were able to search anything they wanted but he gave them a heads up that he cleaned his RV when he returned home because he always did this after trips now David was given a polygraph test and he failed it this is when he was immediately placed on 24-hour surveillance and his RV SUV and other belongings were taken in for testing now his RV was found to be cleaned but not just cleaned it was steam cleaned with bleach thankfully this wasn't thorough enough because there would be so much found there were strands of hair as well as drops of blood inside this RV as well as a palm print and a fingerprint above the bed now inside this home inside his actual home not the RV but inside the actual home were strands of hair in his bed and in his laundry there were also drops of blood on the clothing that he gave me dry cleaners and is what I'll be tested this belonged to Danielle unfortunately that's not all they would find in his home because when they searched his computer they found that there were thousands of sexually explicit material involving children this was shocking to many who knew him because he was such a normal person 20 days after Danielle disappeared they had their first suspect David was brought in and questioned for nine hours and in some of these interviews that were released to the public David had asked one of the officers to leave his gun that he didn't feel and that he also asked to take the polygraph test again he would claim in court that he was denied a lawyer he was denied the ability to eat sleep or shower and then basically he was mistreated while in custody he continued to claim that he had nothing to do with any of this investigators still didn't know where Danielle was but they did believe at this point that she was deceased and part of the reason that they had to believe this was because they wanted to charge David with her murder they were also orange and blue fibers found in his motor home that were said to match the carpet in Danielle's bedroom and were also animal hairs found that could very possibly match their dog Leila Danielle's dog that she always played with the van damme said that there was no way that he would have these fibers or their animals hairs on him because they barely knew him and he never came inside their home to have those hairs on him and so he would have basically only been in the home to take their daughter Danielle could have also not been lured into his motor home on a different occasion because he actually purchased Motorhome in a different location and he didn't keep it at his home this is when it came out that David might have had this all planned out what he was going to do that night because allegedly Brenda went out every Friday to this bar with her friends and when she was with David you know trying to get him to buy some Girl Scout cookies they began to talk about seeing each other at the bars and if they would see each other then next Friday Brendon began to tell him that she wanted to go but she needed to get a babysitter because her husband and boys were going out of town on a little trip now this was true Damon and the boys were going on a trip together and investigators theorized that he heard this and knew that this was the perfect opportunity to sneak in when there was a babysitter only watching Danielle but he didn't know that the boys and and actually had to cancel their trip unfortunately that didn't stop him from taking her this was all just basically speculation on what had happened because David still wasn't talking David was being taken to child this point charged with kidnapping possession of child pornography and murder however a plea deal was in the works trying to find Danielle's body basically saying that he could get life instead of death in exchange for telling them where she was it was now five days later 25 days since Danielle disappeared and on February 27th they would no longer need that plea deal because Danielle would be found on desert road 25 miles from her home at Danielle we found on the side of the road nude and she was partially decomposed and missing some of her teeth and unfortunately when she was taken in for an autopsy she was already too composed to determine the cause of death or to see if she'd been sexually assaulted but now at least her family could give her a proper burial and meanwhile David Westerfield was still pleading not guilty but this time he could be charged and giving it and given a death sentence because his plea deal was no longer needed now on June 4th the trial began and the prosecution claimed that when the side door of the garage was left unlocked David was able to get in without being heard and a witness actually said that they had left the door unlocked on accident which I'm assuming is one of Brenda's friends who came forward to say that this was basically her fault for leaving the door open the prosecution reminded the jury they didn't have to tell them exactly how this kidnapping happened they only had to prove that it did David's defense started to say that the police never considered any other suspects they just wanted to close the case and the defense even tried to say that what was found on his computer was actually from his 18 year-old son named Neil Neil then took the stand and said absolutely not this is not my doing and his own father blamed him for that to try to get away with what he did now David said that he was only after this didn't work David said that he was on and gathering those images and videos because he was gonna take it to Congress to show them you know what he was finding on the internet and when this was not working and they then decided to go to blaming the parents and making it seem like they were horrible parents they claimed that Damon and Brenda were in an open marriage they were swingers they smoked often and that was what caused their daughter to be kidnapped because they were always bringing people into their home that were sketchy characters is what the defense called them now the parents were very honest about this when they were spoken to they said you know all of that really is true we are in an open marriage we do have people over we do smoke but we're not to blame for our daughter's kidnapping the defense continued on saying that when Danielle was said to have been dumped because they concluded this based on you know the bugs in her body they said that this was a time period when David was already in police custody so it couldn't have been him if it down to the body there was also said to be a hair found under Danielle's body that did not belong to him they also said that David might be bad but he wasn't the worst of the worst so that that was what they were trying to say so nobody found him guilty David nice thing came forward and said that when she was seven years old David actually came into her bedroom when he was an adult she was a child and she woke up to him rubbing her teeth and she was really scared so she bit him on the finger ran down to her mom told her mom and when her mom confronted David he said he just went in there to check on them and make sure that they were you know comfortable and comforted and that was basically the last time that any of the family talked about it and this was the first time she was talking about it again now david said nothing the entire time her try his trial was going on he didn't testify I didn't say a word but Brenda did Brenda told David in court it disgusts me that your sick fantasies and pitiful needs made you think that you needed Danielle more than her Emily he did not deserve any leniency any mercy because you refused to give it to Danielle two months later on August 21st david was found guilty of first-degree murder kidnapping and possession of child pornography he was sentenced to death now Brenda said that the only reason she still gets out of bed and handles all of this is because of her boys you know the family has kept her room exactly how it was but they do they don't just lock it up and you know keep it preserved they actually let the boys play in there because they don't want them to forget who she was David was incarcerated at the San Quentin State Prison and the event damns actually sued him but the case was settled and they ended up with 416 thousand dollars and a confirmation that David would never profit from his crime now David's own children who were named Neil and Lisa actually filed a petition to change their name because they didn't want to associate with their father anymore they changed it to Westar from Westerfield to West but some people believe that David was wrongfully accused especially when a year later in 2003 the San Diego police would receive a letter with a person confessing to murdering Danielle they said their name was James Selby this was a person that the police knew well because he was looked into for a whole bunch of sex related crimes in the area and in states surrounding and he had actually also confessed to killing Jon Benet Ramsey now this is what caused many people to believe that he was someone who just like to confess and didn't actually know anything about the people that he was confessing to but unfortunately we don't know the truth about him because a year later when he was awaiting a sentencing for another crime he actually took his own life people who said that they believed that David was innocent said that that was because there was a testimony from his sister is saying that when his father died he took care of the whole family and he was very sensitive to everyone's needs and said that he was a creative talented guy who's very involved with his children but is this because he was innocent or because he was extremely good at hiding who he really was this isn't where the case ends though because in 2019 david was up for an appeal thankfully his conviction was upheld and Brenda said we are not surprised that his automatic appeal was denied because the trial evidence presented by prosecutors Geoff Disick and woody Clark amplifies supported conviction and the defendants legal representation by three lawyers was more than adequate the death penalty appeal process has already taken too long and has been a waste of taxpayer money the cruel irony is that judge Mudd co-prosecutor woody Clark and Danielle are no longer alive but he is it's time for justice to be served for Danielle some of you may know that the death penalty in California hasn't been carried out since 2006 and Danielle's family said that they know that he will die in prison Brenda said honestly I feel the longer he's in his box he's being tortured I hate to say this as a person but whatever is worse for him is better for me her family created the Danielle legacy foundation to promote volunteerism that will initiate positive changes that will put children's safety first Danielle also had an overpass near where she was found named after her in her honor and Danielle's brothers have gone through a lot of trauma through this - when she first was found they were terrified and they ended up sleeping in the same room together they didn't want to leave the house and you know the family had to lock things up really tight to make them feel safe again because it's carried it enough to know that monsters are out there but to know that there was a monster lurking so close to you it didn't look like a monster at all it's even more horrifying now dad's restaurant and bar that Brenda had gone to that night has actually become even more popular because of this case and everybody wants to go there and ash the bartender's if they knew them if they were there that night and just like ask questions about the whole case because people are just fascinated with that kind of stuff however the owner feels horrible because he feels like he's profiting off of the murder of a young girl and he's very sensitive to that and doesn't really want to talk to people about what he knew what he saw anything like that the bar had also just started swing danced classes just like a fun little thing to do on the dance floor and they actually had to stop doing this because there was so much speculation and rumors about this being a place where swingers went because Brenda and Damon came out of swingers and they had gone to this bar and so of course although the swing dance class had nothing to do with actual swingers although the dance class had nothing to do with it the name didn't do anything good for their business so they just canceled it all together now the fact that her parents were swingers the fact that they smoked is something I didn't really talk about much in this case because I don't think it really matters I mean yes somebody could have you know come in and had some anger towards Brenda and Damon for you know not letting them be a part of their relationship or possibly kicking them out when after they had you know been a part of it but I don't really think that that was the case even if you believe that David was wrongfully convicted because if this was revenge you would think that they would have known more about it you know they would have gotten a ransom note they would have gotten some sort of you know knowledge that this was due to the fact that they didn't let them in the relationship and that it was because of their relationship and I mean I guess David did say or his defense did say and that you know is because they were swingers so we could speculate that David was a part of their relationship at one point and we just will never know about that however you know the parents have never said anything about this they couldn't have expected David their neighbor to do this I'd love to know what you think when it comes to this case if David was guilty you think he had any involvement with Brenda and or possibly just Brenda do you think it had anything to do with that relationship as to why he took their daughter or did he possibly just dance with Brenda to get closer to her daughter or possibly you know have a relationship with them to get closer to Danielle because I think the images on his computer say a lot but overall this is such a strange case and I just hate the fact that you know David didn't ever look like he could do any harm I mean from his past other than that one incident where he was rubbing the girls teeth he had nothing showing any signs when he was little there were no signs you know we see a lot of killers that hurt animals were just act weird and he did he was really successful and really well-liked and that is the scariest people of all at least to me but don't ever forget to speak up your voice is powerful enough and I love you to absolute pieces okay bye [Music]

Channel: Brooke Makenna

Views: 164,436

Keywords: solved, Danielle van Dam, true crime, crime, documentary, true stories, solved kidnapping, taken from bedroom, kidnapped, abduction cases solved, solved true crime, kidnapping, missing persons cases solved, true crime podcast, crime solved, missing girl found, David Westerfield

Id: zo5cLhGwPJs

Length: 34min 8sec (2048 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 12 2020