By Joe Hughes and Brian E. Clark
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS
February 4, 2002
Investigators looking for a missing 7-year-old girl now believe the second-grader was kidnapped from her home.
Police interviewed the Sabre Springs girl's parents, relatives and friends. They talked to her teachers and read a journal Danielle van Dam kept in class at Creekside Elementary School.
Assistant police Chief Steve Creighton said officers working nonstop on the disappearance have developed a number of leads, but he would not elaborate.
"We have dedicated 24 hours a day on this case, and we are pulling in more officers and detectives," Creighton said.
Lt. Jim Collins said investigators believe Danielle was kidnapped late Friday or early Saturday by a stranger, but officials declined to provide details.
Police are checking records for registered sex offenders in the area, a tactic some called routine. Records show that in the Sabre Springs neighborhood where Danielle lives and in nearby San Diego neighborhoods, there are 13 registered sex offenders, none of whom are considered by the state to be high-risk. Another 31 registered sex offenders live in nearby Poway.
Danielle's parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam, Monday tearfully begged for their daughter's return.
Friends streamed into the van Dam home to offer support, as a half-dozen television trucks were parked outside.
Paul Hung, who lives three doors west of the van Dams on Mountain Pass Road, said the mystery has unsettled everyone in the neighborhood.
The van Dam family is urging residents to visit a Web site set up to aid the search. The address is daniellemissing.tripod.com, and it contains a picture and a description of the girl.
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