If you drive on the 8 through El Cajon going to work or school, you see it. And if you drive out to the mountains or desert on weekends, you see it.
The green freeway sign on both sides of the 8 at Second Street that reads “Danielle Van Dam Memorial Overpass”.
The sign marks the exit near where David Westerfield is believed to have used as he took Danielle, a 7-year-old girl who he had kidnapped from the bedroom of her home in the Sabre Springs neighborhood of San Diego one night, to Dehesa Road where her little body was found.
It was on this day, on the morning of February 2nd of 2002, that Danielle’s parents discovered her missing from her bedroom and their long nightmare began. For four weeks, the search for her went on, until on February 27 of 2002, her body was discovered just yards away from that stretch of Dehesa Road in the East County.
Police suspected David Westerfield, a neighbor of the Van Dam’s was the one who kidnapped and killed her. He was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death and is currently incarcerated at San Quentin prison.
It was a tragic drama that gripped parents and everyone in San Diego County, including the murder trial. And when Westerfield was convicted, groups of people watching and listening to the live coverage on KOGO and local TV, cheered as the guilty verdict was announced.
Today, 20 years later, there are flowers and a small memorial to Danielle where her body was found.
So today is a day to remember and to say a prayer for the Van Dam family for whom this day is filled with the pain of what happened and the undeserved guilt they may still feel. And it’s a day for all of us to say thanks for our own children, and maybe give them an extra special hug today, in honor of the memory of little Danielle.
(Photo Getty Images)