Authorities say that is Bunnak “Hannah” Landon on surveillance footage dragging a wagon that contained the body of her boyfriend’s daughter, Bella Fontenelle,6. (Mugshot and screenshot: Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office)
After more than two months, authorities are doing more to lay out their case against a woman who allegedly killed her boyfriend’s 6-year-old daughter, put the body in a large plastic bucket, and dragged the remains over to the biological mother’s nearby home, where she dumped the bucket and remains in the yard.
Investigators in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, previously said that Bunnak “Hannah” Landon was caught on neighbor surveillance footage pulling that wagon the night of April 25. At a hearing Thursday, authorities testified about the child’s cause of death, the defendant’s decision to arrive at a police department by herself, her phone search history, and the family’s fractured past, according to details from WWLTV.
Criminal Commissioner Patricia Joyce considered the defendant a flight risk and danger to the community and ruled that authorities must hold her without bond before trial.
The lead detective, Anthony Buttone, reportedly testified about the victim, Bella Fontenelle, telling a school counselor that she did not like going to her father’s home and that Landon was mean to her and her 7-year-old sister.
The dynamic between the victim and defendant allegedly escalated to fatal cruelty on the evening of Tuesday, April 25. The girls’ grandmother dropped them off at their father’s home after hanging out and seeing their dad at work, according to testimony. She said she did not notice anything unusual and would not have left if she did, according to authorities. Landon was the only person allegedly at the home with the girls.
Authorities in April declined to specify Bella’s cause of death, though Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich said she sustained “multiple injuries” before dying. In the new hearing, Jefferson Parish Coroner’s Office chief forensic pathologist Dana Troxclair reportedly testified Bella died of strangulation and blunt force trauma. Her report is not finished, she said.
As authorities previously said, Landon put the body in a bucket, and dragged it in a wagon around the corner and less than two blocks away to the home of Bella’s biological mother.
“At the Sedgefield [Drive] location, officers discovered the victim’s remains inside a large plastic bucket in the front yard,” authorities said at the time. “The victim was pronounced dead on the scene.”
Authorities now say that Landon’s DNA was on the bucket.
She allegedly returned the wagon to the father’s home and put her phone in a plastic bag and buried it nearby.
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Investigators are still looking into the phone, but there are no statements or texts to show Landon killed Bella, Buttone said. With that said, she allegedly had searched on the phone for defense lawyers.
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Authorities also previously noted that Landon visited the Harahan Police Department at around midnight on April 26, hours before Bella’s father woke up to find his daughter and his girlfriend missing.
The hearing on Thursday revealed more of Landon’s initial encounter with law enforcement.
“She looked distressed,” Harahan Police Officer, Logan Barlow, reportedly testified of the midnight incident.
Landon was wearing the same outfit as she did on the wagon surveillance footage, the officer said. Landon allegedly asked police if she could make a phone call and she said she was having family issues.
“I don’t want to talk about that,” she allegedly told cops when asked what the matter was.
Police called EMS a couple of hours later for a mental evaluation.
Authorities do not consider either biological parent a suspect. Surveillance footage and phone data confirmed the father’s alibi about going straight to bed after returning home from work, investigators said. Testimony on Thursday, however, showed a tense family history. In a 2019 Harahan police report, the father allegedly threatened to kill the biological mother, the two girls and himself. Landon was charged in 2021 with battery against the mother.
She was arrested for first-degree murder and obstruction of justice in Bella’s death while at the hospital getting treatment for an injury to her left hand.
Jerry Lambe contributed to this report.
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