SAN DIEGO — On the day he became the prime suspect in Danielle van Dam's abduction, David Westerfield took clothes and bedding to his dry cleaner twice and both times struck employees who had known him for years as simply not himself, the workers testified Monday afternoon.

"He wouldn't look at me eye to eye," said Julie Mills, who was behind the front counter of Twin Peaks Dry Cleaners in Poway Feb. 4 when Westerfield dropped off a sport coat and bedding.

Later that day, he returned and asked for rush service on an all-black outfit, employee Kelly Belom told jurors in Westerfield's capital murder trial.

"He was acting very different than he usually does," said Belom. "He's usually very talkative and outgoing and smiles a lot."

Westerfield listened to the testimony of both women intently, removing his gaze from the witness box only to whisper to his lawyers.

Prosecutors allege Westerfield, a 50-year-old engineer who lived two doors from the van Dams, crept into the family's darkened home the night of Feb. 1 and stole Danielle, 7, from her canopy bed. Her nude body was found by the side of a road 25 miles from her house Feb. 27.

Blood on the shoulder of the sport coat Westerfield took to the dry cleaners matched Danielle's DNA.

Westerfield claims he had nothing to do with her disappearance and spent the weekend after she went missing on traveling alone in his recreational vehicle. Investigators say the meandering trip was a cover for disposing of Danielle's body and began focusing on Westerfield as soon as he returned home the morning of Feb. 4.

In an audiotaped interview with police later that day, Westerfield acknowledged going to the dry cleaner once in the afternoon, but said nothing about the early morning visit Mills described to jurors.

Mills, who had waited on Westerfield for 8 years, said he pulled his 37-foot recreational vehicle in front of the cleaners about 7:30 a.m. that Monday. It seemed strange to her that he was driving the motor home, which she had never seen before, instead of his SUV, she said.

She also said that despite the "very cold" morning, Westerfield was barefoot and wearing "short shorts" and a light-weight T-shirt.

"Ever see him come to the store like that before?" asked prosecutor Jeff Dusek.

"No, he has not," said Mills. She said he gave her one floral comforter and matching pillow shams, a striped comforter and the sports coat, but barely spoke. "I had to make conversation," she recalled.

A little over two hours after leaving the dry cleaners, police began questioning Westerfield at his house. After a cursory search of the home and his RV, investigators left Westerfield alone. He told police that during that time he vacuumed and cleaned his motor home and took some items to the dry cleaner.

Belom, who knew Westerfield for four years, said he pulled up to the cleaners in his SUV between 12 noon and 2 p.m., this time with a black shirt, black sweater and black Wrangler jeans. He asked for same-day service, but Belom told him it was too late in the day, she said.

Police later seized all items and sent them for lab testing.

Defense lawyer Steven Feldman appeared to use Mills' testimony to make an opening assault on the DNA evidence.

"If any of the items would have had blood on it, you would've spotted it?" Feldman asked.

"Yes," Mills said.

Prosecutor Dusek immediately ridiculed the suggestion someone planted blood on the items.

"Did you have a packet of Danielle van Dam's blood at the dry cleaner?" he asked Mills. Westerfield's lawyers objected to the question as argumentative and Judge William Mudd ordered Mills not to answer.

Also Monday afternoon, jurors heard about gas purchases made with Westerfield's Chevron credit card the weekend Danielle vanished. A credit card company official, Rosalyn Youngblood, said he stopped for gas at the same station in Carmel Mountain Feb. 2 and Feb. 3, spending nearly $150 on fuel. Prosecutor George "Woody" Clarke showed Youngblood five other Chevron receipts for that weekend, but she said three were not charged on Westerfield's gas card. At least one of those three were found in Westerfield's house. The source of the other two was not clear

In addition, a police officer patrolling a beach town where Westerfield claims to have parked his RV the night of Feb. 3 said he saw another motor home illegally parked in the area but did not see the defendant's vehicle.

Feldman, however, got Coronado Police Officer Michael Britton to acknowledge he did not drive down every street in the exclusive Coronado Cays enclave looking for RVs.