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CNN Live Event/Special

Parents of Danielle van Dam Meet With Reporters

Aired February 22, 2002 - 14:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Once again, just to bring you up to date now, Danielle van Dam, the missing 7-year-old in southern California, police apparently have a suspect. They have arrested that man. Show you some videotape. David Westerfield is the suspect, here. Videotape now coming in from southern California. He's a neighbor, lived in that same area as Danielle van Dam.

And I'm being told right now that her mother may brief reporters at any moment now. So when that happens, we'll go to it live here. There we go, San Diego, California, as the van Dams start to come out of their house right now. IT's been a quite familiar scene for reporters covering this story. And again, we should hear possibly more from them, reaction to the arrest of their neighbor.

Police, meanwhile, will come and brief reporters in an hour's time. That's the guidance we have there from San Diego. Here are the van Dams.

BRENDA VAN DAM, DANIELLE'S MOTHER: We are very happy that the police have made an arrest. We were forewarned it was going to happen. But the fact still remains that we don't have our daughter. We need to continue searching for Danielle. That's the most important thing here.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

VAN DAM: I don't want to speculate. We still need searchers. We need to find Danielle.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

VAN DAM: The only thing I can tell you is they informed us of the arrest.

QUESTION: Do you know what information led to the arrest?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No comment. The importance here is we still need volunteers for this weekend. We need Danielle back. That's where we need the help. Yes, we will keep searching.

DAMON VAN DAM, DANIELLE'S FATHER: If you're watching this, please come help.

HEMMER: All righty. It was brief and again, we did not anticipate it to be too long. But we will hear from police again in about an hour's time, so stay tuned for that.

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