A Louisiana woman has been arrested on charges of first degree murder and obstruction of justice after she allegedly killed her boyfriend’s 6-year-old daughter and buried the remains in a bucket in the girl’s mother’s front yard, authorities say.
Hannah Landon, 43, is accused of murdering Bella Fontenelle and burying her remains in a 5 to 10 gallon chlorine bucket in the front yard of her mother’s home in Harahan, a city 11 miles west of downtown New Orleans, according to the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office.
Police found the girl’s remains outside her mother’s house on Sedgefield Drive at around 8:20 a.m. on Wednesday morning, less than an hour after Fontenelle’s father reported her and Landon missing, Sheriff Joseph Lopinto told reporters Wednesday. The mother’s home is less than two blocks from where Landon lived with Fontenelle’s father, according to the sheriff’s office.
Fontenelle was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the sheriff’s office. A subsequent autopsy ruled the girl’s death a homicide, according to the sheriff’s office.
The cause of death was determined to be strangulation and blunt force trauma, Captain Jason Rivarde, commander of the public affairs division of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, confirmed to NBC News.
Gerry Cvitanovich, the Jefferson Parish coroner, told reporters on Wednesday that the girl had “multiple injuries.”
Lopinto said authorities believe Landon killed Fontenelle at the father’s house late Tuesday and then transported her remains to the mother’s house.
Landon — who is also known as Bunnak Lim and Bunnak Landon — was captured on neighbors’ surveillance video pulling a wagon with a bucket inside it down both Donelon and Sedgefield drives, according to the sheriff’s office.
Authorities secured an arrest warrant for her on Wednesday afternoon and detained her the same day after she was released from a local hospital, where she had been sent for evaluation after showing up at the police department around 1 a.m., according to the sheriff’s office and online jail records. Online jail records show the suspect was booked into custody under the name Bunnack Landon.
A judge ordered Landon to be held without bond, according to the sheriff’s office. She could face the death penalty or life without parole if convicted of the charges, Rivarde said.
Court records show Landon has been appointed a lawyer with the Jefferson Parish Public Defender’s Office. The lawyer, Letita Jachintha Parker-Davis, said Monday morning she did not have any comment on the case.
A motive in the case remains unknown. Landon has refused to cooperate with investigators and declined to be interviewed, Rivarde said.
Investigators do not believe Fontenelle’s parents, who had joint custody of her, were involved with her death, they told reporters Wednesday, adding that authorities conducted extensive interviews with both of them.
A history of alleged altercations
Court documents obtained by NBC News show Landon has allegedly had past altercations with some of Fontenelle’s family members, including her mother.
In June 2021, Landon was served a summons for simple battery after allegedly attacking Fontenelle’s aunt — her mother’s sister — at a swim meet, allegedly leaving the woman with “visible scratches below her left eye and on her left hand,” according to the police report.
“Bunnak was extremely uncooperative with officers for the duration of their time on scene, initially refusing to even identify herself,” that police report states.
Landon told officers that Fontenelle’s aunt attacked her unprovoked, but could not produce any witnesses to corroborate her account and refused to allow officers to examine her for injuries, according to the police report.
The following month, Landon tried to file a temporary restraining order against Fontenelle’s mother and aunt, alleging that they attacked her at the swim meet and that Fontenelle’s mother had “made multiple threats of harm” against her. The restraining order was later dissolved, and Landon’s petition to the court for a permanent injunction and damages was denied, court documents show.
Family decries a ‘senseless and heinous act’
Landon and the father had been together for “several years,” Lopinto, the sheriff, said.
He called the girl’s death “a big shock to the small community of Harahan.”
Harahan Police Chief Ed Lepre said there is no ongoing threat to the public. Lepre got choked up as he offered condolences to Fontenelle’s family at a news conference on Wednesday.
“My heart, and my prayers, go out to the family of this child,” he said. “This is a senseless type of incident that happened.”
Fontenelle’s aunt, Bianca Cano, called the girl’s death a “senseless and heinous act” that “has forever destroyed my family” on a GoFundMe page she set up to pay for funeral expenses and support Fontenelle’s mother.
“No words can describe the pain that is running through our bodies,” Cano wrote. “It’s truly inhumane.”
She described Fontenelle as “beyond perfection.”
“Your beautiful little voice, your funny personality, the way you danced, the way you were so delicate and fragile, your smile, your laugh, the way you expressed yourself. I can go on and on about how amazing this little soul was,” Cano wrote on the GoFundMe page.
Fontenelle was a student at St. Matthew the Apostle School in River Ridge, a census-designated place about two miles northwest of Harahan, NBC News affiliate WDSU in New Orleans reported.
In an email to parents, school officials called Fontenelle’s death “a horrific tragedy that will impact our school and parish community.” Officials added that classes would be cancelled April 27 and 28 to allow students and faculty time to process Fontenelle’s death.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
