The Serial Killer Next Door

How's that for a headline, kiddies? It comes from our Blog of the Day, callieischatty. This is a real life horror story that is almost as scary as letting Senator Thrillkill foetussit for you.

OK let me tell you a story that is all true.

I lived for 7 years in a beautiful neighborhood in San Diego.....one of those lovely new devolpments of white stucco houses with red tile roofs and backyards full of bougenvilla and palm trees.

It was a semi gated community and like everyone else we bought our house brand spankin new. People came from all over the world to work at Qualcomm, Intel, Cisco and Nokia and thought nothing of dropping 650k for a house in a neighborhood with its own elementary school, play ground and pristine well groomed bike paths. It had that Pleasantville feeling of affuent suburban happiness. It never rained, the people were rich and beautiful and the sidewalks were always full of roller skating, scootering, bike rideing children.

Across the street from me, and right there was a guy named David Westerfield. David sits on death row now for the murder of seven year old Danielle Van Dam. I knew him pretty well and he was a computer guy of some sort just like everything else. Only two things set him apart from the rest of us. He was divorced, and had grown kids, and he liked camping and had this enormous 500k Airstream moter home parked at his house.

Does that name ring a bell?

When David came back from his 'camping trips' on Sunday night he would meticulously clean the RV. I mean it was weird. He would take out the rugs, the furniture and wash it all down with bleach and water. It used to take him a whole day. My youngest is full of mischief and when we would see him with the hose she would ask to hold it and want to squirt the RV. I never let her since I was afraid she would turn it on David! Thank God!

I wish to God I could tell you there was something that creeped me out about him but honest to goodness there wasn't one thing.

He had two nice kids he saw alot of, his house was really nice, he put a pool in and everything, it all seemed very normal to me. He was even nice, once when my husband was in Venezuala he helped me jump my van when my kid left the light on in the back.

I have nightmares about that sometimes.

He knew both my nice little girls by name.

We walked by his house every day. I gave a deposition in his trial. About the camper that is.

Anyhow, one night he snapped and went to the neighbors house when little Danielle was up in her bed. It was the middle of the night and everyone was asleep.

He took her out of her bed and brought her to the desert in the camper and killed her and left her body in this ditch.

Visit the Polly Klaas Foundation.