The Trial Of Danielle Van Dam

A genuinely twisted world, a life taken far too soon, but most importantly, justice was brought to the family after the crime. Danielle Van Dam, seven years old, was a young girl from the Sabre Springs community in California. This place was and continues to be a well-ranked neighborhood and location for many families to raise their children, but even in the most beautiful places, monsters may still be lurking. On February 1st, 2002 a man acted on his terrible thoughts. The criminal, David Westerfield had taken young Danielle from her room. Previous to the kidnapping Danielle’s parents reported that her mother had gone out for a few drinks with her friends and when they came back they smoked marijuana with Danielle’s father. When the company

Catherine Theisen was the initial laboratory investigator and her conclusions came back as follows: “could not exclude Danielle as the source of a hair recovered from the bathroom rug of the motorhome” (In the Supreme Court of California, 16). To review Theisen’s work, Holland administered a second test conducting mitochondrial DNA testing of hairs found around the motorhome and Holland’s results are as follows: “All of the hairs contained the same mitochondrial DNA profile as Danielle” (In the Supreme Court of California, 16). Lastly, the evidence of fibers. Tayna Dulaney, a criminalist for San Diego Police Department controlled the collection of fibers. There were many fibers involved including blue, orange, and tan fibers. All the fibers were chemically analyzed to reveal that the blue were consistent with fibers from the motorhome. The orange fibers were synonymous with clothing and pillowcases found in Westerfield’s home. Finally, the tan fibers were found to be from the carpet of the Van Dam’s home, but these fibers were found by the bed, the bathroom, and the hall of David Westerfield’s motorhome. All of the evidence that was found in this paragraph would have had to have gone through a process of forensic science. As previously mentioned, the hairs found were tested using a comparison microscope and the hairs also were tested with mitochondrial DNA. We know as investigators that the significance of mitochondrial DNA is major because it is unique to the mother, unlike nuclear DNA which requires both parents. Mitochondrial DNA is advantageous in analyzing items such as hair that does not have the hair root attached. As stated for the fibers, tests like SEM and electronic microscopy were evaluated to determine that the fibers were in fact comparable to the fibers found around the