'c r i m e - t i m e' "AFTER THE STORM" by-tomevans

A storm began brewing inside of David Westerfield, and after the turbulence built to a crescendo- a seemingly normal man, once married and a father of two sons, had emerged as the frightening image of a relentless child-killer. We expect these predators to look like the grotesque Henry Lee Lucas, Otis Toole, or John Wayne Gacy's of society. Killers with a lifetime of experience at murder and mayhem, pain and horror. Killers who are taught to kill through hate and spite. We just don't expect a 49 year-old design engineer to leap into the dark world of pedophilia and thus begin a journey of rape/death against a defenseless child. So much for profiling. Danielle van Dam was unaware that she was the object of Mr. Westerfields obsession and twisted desires, she never had a chance to consider any options or any safe-guards, but then again- she was only seven years old. While she was living the life of a normal child, looking forward to showing off her handsome father at a school dance- her neighbor two doors away was plotting to abduct her and rape her, then steal her childhood and her innocence. The plan would remain locked in his brain until the perfect time to execute and deploy. It was a blueprint for evil & if not for the courage and strength of Danielle- she would have been the lst victim of a new serial-child killer, her life was taken but the clues she left behind became the tracks uncovered by David Westerfield, and in the end, were his undoing.

Maybe once a person crosses over into that world of darkness, their mind begins to think so irrational and illusional that there is no longer any logic or reality. After kidnapping, raping, torturing, and murdering Danielle van Dam- it seems as if Westerfield really believed that a little clean-up mixed with some ingenuity and a stupid alibi, filled with confusing ingredients, would make for a perfect crime. He not only underestimated those around him, but he underestimated his victim as well. To believe that he could just lie away the truth, wash away the blood, sweep up the fibers, and dry-clean away the death- was the lst part of his long list of mistakes. Thinking that a scared child won't fight for their life at the hands of a disgusting and perverted molester was part 2 of his list of mistakes. Thinking that he was so clever, he would leave no trace of his unspeakable acts. It was arrogance to the point of ignorance. The man tried to turn tragedy into personal triumph, and it just don't get no sicker than that.

It's urban 'deliverance'/ It's sadistic & pornographic, it's bottom of the deviant barrel. The thoughts that run through this kind of mind, would have to be of a deteriorating nature. Like a dog with rabbies. So, slowly with the turn of the clock, our society has found a corner to shove the rising number of missing & murdered children. We have dug up enough excuses and done enough studies and research to almost account for why it happens- still there is no cure, and there will never be a cure. How could child-killing & missing children become epidemic in America? Drug Abuse or alchoholism, those are almost understandable plights of society, but murdered children/missing children? Then to think that a middle aged man decides to swing to the blackest pit of all & go against all that is pure and righteous- to savagely manhandle an angel of God, and toss her naked body out of a motorhome like trash.....?

Danielle wasn't strong enough to fight David Westerfield off, she wasn't strong enough to stop his attack and his assault on her innocence, but she was smart enough to outwit him. She left behind the print that couldn't be transfered, or planted- in the motorhome where his attack continued after leaving his house. Her hair in his sink, that didn't just wash down the pipe with some water from the faucett. Hair that belonged to Danielle van Dam and nobody else. She left the blood that blended in with the dark blue carpet of Westerfields RV. He may have cleaned most of it, but he didn't clean it all. She wore the necklace around her neck that contained the orange fibers which come from his home. Danielle left a little part of her, everywhere he visited, and in the end when the smoke cleared from the courtroom- those are the things that convicted David Westerfield of Kidnapping/Murder/Rape/Possessing Child Pornography. Danielle van Dam (7) is the HERO, she stopped what was to become a sure-fire "serial-pedophile" and saved other children's lives, plus she exposed a carnal danger to her very own neighborhood.

The defense that represented David Westerfield should be sent to prison in the same vehicle as their client. Obviously, if Westerfield was about to sign a plea-agreement to spare him from the death penalty when authorities found Danielle's body before he could reveal the location- the defense knew then, he was guilty of her murder. For the defense to point other possible scenario's, implicating friends and aquantance's of the van Dam's, as suspects in her disappearance. The stink that radiated from this putrid team of attorneys must have been thick like quicksand as they struggled to find ways to justify and release this man of ill-repute. They had answer's for every question, but they seemed so outrageous that it really did come down to a 'true-or-false' game. It was as if he was saying, well it's possible that all of the evidence pointed to me because:"danielle had been in the motorhome, as well as her dog, and her mom dirty danced with me at Dad's nightclub, oh & danielle was in my house when she sold me a half-dozen boxes of 'Girl Scout Cookies'. The van Dam's did some swinging in my house, the child-porn belonged to my oldest son. The reason I drove my motorhome in circles for days is?Her blood is in my RV because she cut herself on the?Her hair got in the sink?" These lies come after a plea-agreement almost occured between Westerfield & prosecutors that he would be spared the death-penalty in return for the disclosure of Danielle's body. The defense lawyers should be disbarred and the so called witness's for the defense should be punished as well, for being paid to lie about the time of her death.

It is such a sad and unsettling story. A few years ago, it would be a story made for a thick, yellowing paperback true-crime novel- but in today's world, it unfolds before our eyes on the internet and in the media. They make it almost like a sit-com. After making a daily spin on a story of such gruesome and ruthless chapters of a lurid murder, the characters and the victim can seem ficticious. I think in the case of Danielle van Dam, that is what is so shocking about the whole affair, it really happened just the way the evidence showed it happened. The seemingly average neighbor, two doors away, divorced- with two sons, watching thanksgiving day football with the family, worrying about mother. A self-made, self-employed engineer who finally gained his freedom during the middleage 'crisis' years of his ordinary life. A man who somehow crossed the line and entered into a firestorm of death & confinement. He strayed from a man who feared the law of the Lord to a man who stalked and abducted those who he could control and who would fear him. If you looked deep into the life of this bloodcurdling killer, we would probably find a person incapable of shoplifting or splashing a stranger with the water from a mudpuddle.......

WOOSTER, OHIO: September 19, 2002/ Body parts found in a swampy area near Wooster, Ohio, are the remains of l4 year-old Kristen Johnson, who disappeared September 9th from a local county fair. Authorities said that the girl had just left her older sister and some friends to walk toward the main gate- to meet her mother. F.B.I Agent Joseph Persichini said the body parts, including the victim's head, were discovered on saturday, september l4th. The search for more evidence was difficult because the terrain was swampy & treacherous to work in, compounded by rain & because of the grisly nature of the crime. "It's just an awful situation", Persichini said, "It couldn't be more difficult." Wooster is about 50 miles southwest of Cleveland, Ohio: Police say 46 year-old Joel Yockey, of Wooster, was out of prison after serving l0 years of a 25 year sentence for kidnap/rape of a l4 year-old girl in l986. He's been arrested on a parole violation and the area where the body parts were found is a location known to be a favorite spot of Joel Yockey.

peace: to all crime-timers and PARTNERS-IN-CRIME!!!!!!!!!!!TOMEVANS.

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