Asked by police to account for his whereabouts the weekend his 7-year-old neighbor vanished, David Westerfield broke into a sweat and offered police a long, convoluted alibi, a San Diego investigator said Monday.

Despite the chilly February morning, "Mr. Westerfield was sweating profusely under both armpits to the point the sweat rings were protruding out from his armpits several inches," sheriff's officer Johnny Keene testified during a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to try the 50-year-old engineer for the kidnapping and murder of Danielle van Dam.

Keene

The second-grader was abducted from her bedroom the night of Feb. 1. Searchers found her body Feb. 27 in a trash-strewn lot 25 miles from San Diego. Investigators recovered child pornography from Westerfield's home, two doors from the van Dam family, and have said the motive for her abduction was sexual.

Westerfield, who pleaded not guilty, looked drawn during the hearing and at times seemed to shake uncontrollably. At other points, however, he joked and laughed with his lawyers. Danielle's parents, Damon and Brenda van Dam, did not attend the hearing, which included graphic forensic testimony.

Keene's testimony gave insight into why detectives became suspicious of Westerfield and how they gathered enough evidence to search his property. Those searches turned up blood that matched Danielle's DNA.

But the first day of what is expected to be a three-day hearing also highlighted some of the difficulties prosecutors face in making a case against Westerfield. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy testified that weeks of exposure to wildlife and the elements left her body too badly decomposed for doctors to determine how she died and whether she was raped.

Blackbourne

"A lot of the body was destroyed by animals," Dr. Brian Blackbourne testified. He said there were no obvious signs of trauma, like gunshot wounds or ligature marks, and "the deterioration of even the tissue that was there makes it difficult to determine a cause of death."

Under questioning by prosecutor Jeff Dusek, however, Blackbourne said that if Danielle was smothered with a pillow or otherwise asphyxiated, there would be no visible signs on such a decomposed body.

Officer Keene said he first became suspicious of Westerfield because he was the only resident of the van Dam's neighborhood not home the Saturday morning she was discovered missing. When Westerfield returned home Monday, Keene and other officers questioned him on his front porch.

According to Keene, Westerfield said he knew the van Dams slightly and had purchased Girl Scout cookies from Danielle two days before she vanished. The night of the disappearance, Westerfield told Keene, he had seen Brenda van Dam in a neighborhood bar and they had briefly discussed her daughter. Brenda commented that Danielle had a new dress to attend a father-daughter function and her husband was worried about his daughter growing up too quickly, Westerfield told Keene.

He also stated that, after his conversation with Brenda, he was under the impression that a babysitter was caring for her children, not Damon van Dam, as was the case.

The officer said Westerfield told him that he left the bar before Brenda van Dam.

"He told me that shortly after he got home, he went to bed," said Keene. The van Dams told police they went to sleep at 2:30 a.m. without looking in on their children.

Westerfield told officers that the next morning he left for the weekend in his recreational vehicle. The itinerary he gave was strangely peripatetic. He said he had started out for the desert, only to realize he'd forgotten his wallet. He then went to the beach, but then decided to go home, then back to the mountains, and then back to the desert. According to Keene, Westerfield ticked off 13 different destinations between Saturday morning and Monday morning. None of those trips, Keene testified, took Westerfield anywhere near the quarry area where Danielle's body was found.

Keene said Westerfield's hands were covered with small cuts, which he said he received while digging his RV out of the mud. Westerfield also allowed the officers to search his home and RV. He accompanied them through the house, pointing out closets and the trap door to the attic.

"In my opinion, he was overly cooperative," Keene said.

A neighbor of Westerfield cast some doubt on his account. Christina Hoeffs, who lives in the lot behind Westerfield's, said that when she woke at 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 2, his "house was closed up and every single blind was shut tight."

Hoeffs

That never happened before, Hoeffs said, and she concluded Westerfield must have gone away. She also said that in the past Westerfield had painstakingly prepared his RV before going away, but that Friday he did not.

Also at the hearing Monday, San Diego Lt. Jim Collins said officers searched 200 homes and received 900 tips during the investigation. Defense lawyer Steven Feldman suggested Collins overlooked evidence possibly implicating the van Dams.

He quizzed Collins about dark spots on the van Dams' stair bannister and outside their garage. The forensic team, Feldman charged, identified the stains as potential blood. Collins said he was unaware of the stains, but was not directing the forensics investigation.

Collins

Feldman also pressed Collins about a vacuum cleaner Damon van Dam allegedly used the morning his daughter disappeared.

"Didn't it strike you as unusual that someone concerned about locating his daughter would vacuum up potential trace evidence," Feldman asked.

Collins said he did not discuss the vacuum with Damon van Dam and was not sure whether it was used.