Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office
The woman appears to not react as a vehicle drives right past her; authorities say the victim is her boyfriend's daughter -- and was found dumped in the front yard of the girl's biological mother.
A Louisiana woman has been charged with the murder of her boyfriend's 6-year-old daughter, whose body was found inside a plastic bucket placed in the front yard of the child's mother.
The horrific discovery was found on Wednesday morning, hours after the girl's father woke up and realized his girlfriend, Hannah Landon, and daughter, Bella Fontenelle, were missing. According to a press release from Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office, authorities first responded to the dad's home, before moving their investigation to the home of the child's biological mother less than two blocks away. At the second location, they found the victim's remains "inside a large plastic bucket in the front yard."
As the search became a homicide investigation, police turned their attention toward Landon.
She was quickly identified as a suspect, after Ring camera footage from the area allegedly showed her pulling a wagon containing a bucket down the streets of both homes around 9:35pm on Tuesday evening. In the chilling video, a woman police say is Landon can be seen casually pulling the wagon behind her, not changing her pace or reacting in any way as a white SUV passes right by her.
"We believe the child was killed at the father’s house ... and then transported over to the mother’s house and then taken out of a wagon," Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said during a press conference this week (below).
According to cops, Landon showed up to the Harahan Police Department after midnight early Wednesday morning and was taken to the hospital for evaluation. It's unclear at this time what she said to police. Detectives located her at the hospital around 2pm Wednesday.
On Thursday morning, she was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center on counts of First Degree Murder and Obstruction of Justice. Under Louisiana law, a first degree charge is applied to anyone charged with murdering someone below the age of twelve. A judge later determined Landon is to be held without bond.
An autopsy confirmed the child's death was a homicide, with the coroner revealing Thursday the child suffered blunt force trauma injuries to her head and died by strangulation. "I want to add that Bella’s body was intact and contrary to public speculation, there was no dismemberment of any kind," the coroner added, via WWL.
Police also said that after "extensive" interviews with both parents, they do not believe either of them were involved in the child's death. According to authorities, Landon lived with the girl's father and they had been together for "several years"; the parents shared joint custody of the child.
No information about a possible motive was shared at this time.
According to NOLA.com, the mother and suspect did appear to have a contentious history -- with court records from 2021 showing the child's mother accused Landon of attacking her at a swim meet for one of her daughters. The outcome of the case is unclear, but Landon reportedly said Bella's mother attacked her first and even filed a temporary restraining order against the mom. A request to make it permanent, however, was denied.
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