Criminal
Jul. 24, 2002
Expert Testifies About Fly Larvae in Girl's Body
SAN DIEGO - A forensic entomologist testified Monday that the body of Danielle van Dam was first exposed to flies between Feb. 14 and Feb. 21, a time when the man accused of kidnapping and killing the girl was under police surveillance.
The testimony came as the trial of David A. Westerfield resumed after a week off.
In reopening the trial, San Diego County Superior Court Judge William D. Mudd warned jurors to ignore last week's murder of a young girl in nearby Orange County.
Mudd told jurors to remember that the abduction, sexual assault and murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion "bears no relation"' to the trial of Westerfield.
A 27-year-old Riverside County man, Alejandro Avila, has been arrested in the kidnapping and death of Samantha, who was taken from her apartment complex where she was playing on July 15. Her body was found last Tuesday along a remote highway.
Westerfield's trial has been in recess since July 11 so that Mudd could take a previously scheduled vacation.
Neal Haskell, the entomologist, said recorded temperatures during the month were above the point at which flies are active, even though it was winter.
"The days were available, so the flies would be out and searching for some place to deposit their eggs," he testified.
The period between Feb. 14 and Feb. 21 was when Westerfield was under constant police surveillance, according to previous testimony in Westerfield's trial. Danielle's parents discovered she was missing from her upstairs bedroom Feb. 2. Volunteer searchers found her body Feb. 27 beside a rural road east of El Cajon.
Police put Westerfield, who lived two doors away from the van Dams, under surveillance Feb. 4. He returned that day to his Sabre Springs home from what he told police was a rambling trip from the ocean to the desert in Imperial County and back again. He was arrested Feb. 22.
Defense attorney Steven E. Feldman said in his opening statement June 4 that he would use science to show that Westerfield could not have left Danielle's body where it was found. On July 10, he called another forensic entomologist, David Faulkner, who testified that his interpretation of the fly larvae found in Danielle's body indicated that the body was first exposed to flies between Feb. 16 and Feb. 18.
Faulkner said on cross-examination that Danielle's body possibly was covered for a time after being left beside a road, delaying the time when flies could first reach it.
On Monday, Haskell, the second defense expert on the life cycle of insects in corpses, said Danielle's body could not have been dumped beside the road between Feb. 2 and Feb. 4, while Westerfield was driving through San Diego and Imperial counties.
"The body would not have been there on those dates prior to, most likely, the 14th, possibly as early as the 12th," Haskell said under questioning by Feldman.
Haskell said he used three species of blow flies found in the body by Faulkner to form his conclusions. Those flies can smell a fresh animal corpse from distances of up to two miles almost immediately after the animal's death, he said.
Within minutes of death, the first flies arrive, Haskell said. Then the flies deposit eggs, which go through three larval stages before leaving the body to enter another stage. By knowing the larval stage and rate at which the larvae grow, Haskell said, it is possible to estimate closely when the body was first exposed to the flies.
Danielle's body was nude when found, and Haskell said his conclusions were "based on the condition of the body as it was found, fully exposed."
On cross-examination by Deputy District Attorney Jeff B. Dusek, Haskell testified that his conclusions had nothing to do with the time of Danielle's death.
"I'm saying that the body was exposed for that length of time," Haskell said.
The entomologist said his conclusions essentially matched those of Faulkner. "He's within my time period, very consistent," Haskell said. "He had a narrower time period."
Dusek asked Haskell if a body placed in a motor home storage compartment and driven to the desert and back would have dried so much that it would have little attraction to flies.
"It may be desiccating at a faster rate than it would be if it were not underneath," Haskell said. "I think it would be prudent to check to see what type of temperatures and type of humidity you'd expect in that compartment, and I would have thought that would have been the responsibility of the investigators."
Dusek asked whether bleach dumped on a body would keep flies away. Haskell said bleach could have that effect for a short period, but he knew of a case in which strong acid had been dumped on a body, yet flies had been attracted within about two days.
Police found an empty bleach bottle at Westerfield's home and a grocery list that included bleach.
On redirect examination, Haskell said flies would be attracted to a body even if it were undergoing swift mummification in a hot, windy, dry climate. The extent of mummification in Danielle's body didn't change his opinion, Haskell said, but instead reinforced it.
During Haskell's testimony about insect's devouring Danielle's body, the girl's parents, Brenda and Damon van Dam, stared at the floor as they sat in the back row of the courtroom.
Lawyers for Westerfield have said they expect to offer two to three more days of testimony.
Claude Walbert
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