Introduction

Due to stark and eerie similarities between events that occurred almost nine years and 500 miles apart, comparisons are being made between the 1993 kidnap and murder of my daughter Polly Klaas and the 2002 kidnap and murder of little Danielle van Dam. As publicity surrounding the Danielle van Dam murder trial invades the public conscience, many people have asked me about my family’s experience during the 1996 criminal trial for my daughter Polly’s killer. Although many of the traumatic events of the trial are burned into memory for eternity, others fade with the passage of time. Fortunately, I maintained a trial journal, written in the immediate aftermath of daily deliberations.

Although the events of the Danielle van Dam murder trial are unique, the emotions of Danielle’s family are guaranteed to mirror those of the Klaas family in many ways. So that interested parties may better understand the trauma of sitting only feet from the individual who callously and without conscience murders ones child, and having to do so without outward emotion or embellishment, the trial journal will remain on the KlaasKids Foundation website until the conclusion of the Danielle Van Dam murder trial.

Because of the graphic nature of a child-murder trial, much of the language and many of the descriptions in the following journal are not suitable for children. Please use caution and discretion in reading this Trial Journal.

Marc Klaas

Polly Klaas Daily Trial Journal