SAN DIEGO — Barbara Baker was visiting friends out of state and told them she lives in the same neighborhood as the family of the murdered 7-year-old Danielle van Dam and her accused killer, David Westerfield.
"One friend said: 'Not that terrible place!' " said Baker, a freelance writer. "I said, 'It's really not terrible. There were just bad decisions by people on both sides of this tragedy.' Sabre Springs is a wonderful place."
Until Feb. 2, the day Danielle disappeared, few would have disagreed with Baker's assessment of Sabre Springs, a planned community of about 9,000 people on the city's northern edge along Interstate 15.
Part of the horror has been the incongruity of its location.
"Until Danielle disappeared, Sabre Springs' idea of crime was when a couple of teenagers toilet-papered a house as a joke," said real estate agent Sam Rasoul.
Its tranquillity shattered, Sabre Springs has become an object of curiosity and even ridicule.
One radio talk-show host calls the community Sabre Swings, a dig at the sexually permissive lifestyle of Danielle's parents and the fact that Brenda van Dam was dancing, drinking, shooting pool and smoking marijuana in nearby Poway on the night Danielle was abducted.
Two other talk-show hosts play the theme music from the television series "Twin Peaks" when they discuss the case against Westerfield, the respectable-looking neighbor who, according to prosecutors, was seething with sexual fantasies about young girls.
And one Sabre Springs resident complained that a story done by a weekly newspaper made the neighborhood sound as if it was populated by Stepford wives, a reference to the zombie-like characters in the movie.
Even after months of massive media coverage and with the jury set to resume deliberations today, it remains shocking to many that a young girl could be kidnapped from her bed in the middle of the night in a community thought to be a haven.
"Who would ever believe it could happen in Sabre Springs?" asked Martin Kruming, editor of San Diego Lawyer Magazine.
"It's sad whenever something like this happens anywhere, but it's doubly sad when it happens in a place so focused on protecting children," said San Diego Councilman Brian Maienschein, who represents Sabre Springs.
Sabre Springs' squeaky-clean image made revelations about the Van Dams' lifestyle even more tantalizing to the media.
