Woman Who Killed Boyfriend's Daughter, Left Body In Bucket on Mom's Front Lawn Learns Fate

Bunnak "Hannah" Landon was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the first-degree murder of Bella Fontenelle, 6. She was also reportedly given 80 years for obstruction of justice.

The sentencing comes after she was found guilty of both crimes earlier this month, after she pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Per the DA, "Her lawyers argued she could not be held legally responsible for Bella’s death because a mental defect prevented her from distinguishing right from wrong."

"She knew what she did was wrong," Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe reportedly told jurors in closing argument. "She just did not care. She is just evil."

Landon met the girl's father while working as a stripper at a local gentleman's club. The two then embarked upon what the DA called a "cohabitating romantic relationship in which Landon often looked after Bella and her older sister at his home."

The horrific discovery of 6-year-old Bella's body happened on April 25, 2023, when her father was working late and Landon watched the kids. Her remains were found hours after the girl's father -- who went to bed upon returning home, assuming the kids and Landon were asleep -- woke up the next morning and realized his girlfriend, Landon, and daughter were missing.

According to a press release from Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office at the time, 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. It was Bella's grandmother who first saw a "large plastic bucket" that morning at her daughter's home, amid the search for the child, per the DA.

The girl's mother investigated and saw blood. "She was unable to unscrew its lid. She instinctively knew it was her second-born," said the DA, before the victim's remains were found inside, "clad in pink pajamas with white polka dots."

Landon 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 9:35 pm on Tuesday evening -- 5 minutes before the girl's father got home.

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. After placing the bucket on the mom's lawn, she brought the empty wagon back to her boyfriend's home and then left, never to return.

An autopsy confirmed the child's death was a homicide, with the coroner revealing the child suffered blunt force trauma injuries to her head and died by strangulation. Landon's blood was also allegedly found on the bucket.

Overnight, Landon had allegedly walked into the local police department -- where she "was uncooperative with the officers who questioned her and provided aliases." She agreed to go to a nearby hospital, where she was arrested.

Per the DA, Landon said she placed her phone in a plastic bag and buried it by a tree in the neighborhood. Upon recovering the phone, the Sheriff's Office "later found that shortly before she killed Bella, Landon video-recorded the child in her bedroom crying, repeating over and over through her tears, 'I want my grandma.'"

The release notes that, "In turn, Landon placed a bath towel at the bottom of Bella's bedroom door to dampen the sound of her cries."

The phone also allegedly showed she sent texts to Bella's father claiming they were "tucked in their beds and that the tooth fairy had visited Bella’s older sister," while she "repeatedly" searched for a criminal defense attorney.

Additional messages sent after the murder to "two of her stripper friends" allegedly read, "Always remember me as Valentine" -- her dancer name -- and "I'll always remember the good times we had." She also texted an ex-boyfriend's mother -- who was raising two of her children -- saying, "I'm at peace with what I've decided to do" before the killing.

During the trial, her attorneys and psychiatrists argued she was suffering from a "psychotic episode" when the murder happened -- and only remembered "Bella clawing at her own neck and to holding Bella’s body while listening to Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata."

One witness said she also suffered from a "post-traumatic stress disorder rooted in her childhood in a Khmer Rouge death camp in her native Cambodia."

Witnesses for the prosecution, however, claimed that while Landon likely has a personality disorder, she was sane when she killed the girl.

As for why she did it? One witness, per the DA's release, said Bella was in child counseling and said Landon "was mean to her" before her death.

"With the help of counseling, Bella worked up the courage to open up to her father about Landon. That in turn led her father to confront Landon," said the DA, claiming the father told Landon "he would 'reassess' their relationship if he heard this from his daughter again."

The girl was killed the next day.