Holly MatkinHarahan, LA – A Louisiana woman is behind bars on suicide watch after allegedly beating and strangling her boyfriend’s six-year-old daughter to death and dumping a barrel containing the little girl’s body on her mother’s front lawn.
Jefferson Parish Coroner Gerry Cvitanovich said he met with six-year-old Bella Fontenelle’s parents to discuss the autopsy findings prior to their release on April 27, The Times-Picayune reported.
“It’s not an easy thing to have to relay to somebody,” Cvitanovich said. “Difficult for me. More difficult for them.”
Bella suffered multiple blunt-force trauma injuries to her head and had also been strangled, according to the coroner.
Cvitanovich would not clarify whether the little girl was strangled to death with a ligature or some other object, The Times-Picayune reported.
She also suffered multiple “soft-tissue” injuries, he said.
It is unknown how many times Bella was hit during the beating.
Bella’s father, Michael Fontenelle, contacted police the morning of April 26 and told them his six-year-old daughter and his girlfriend, 43-year-old Bunnak “Hannah” Landon, were missing, the New York Post reported.
Investigators located neighborhood security footage that showed a woman matching Landon’s description pulling a wagon with a bucket in it in the area of Sedgefield Drive at approximately 9:35 p.m. the night before.
Very disturbing story: Hannah Landon is accused of murdering her boyfriend’s 6 year old daughter, Bella Fontenelle. Landon killed the child and placed her remains in a bucket. She walked the bucket to the child’s mother’s home and left it on the front lawn. pic.twitter.com/T9ZwSBHERG
— Dingleberry Finn 🌶 (@thesquanchy420) April 27, 2023
Investigators searched the area and located a 12-gallon bucket sitting on the front lawn of a home.
The residence belongs to Bella’s mother, Jennifer Zeledon, according to the New York Post.
Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO) detectives said Bella’s body had been stuffed into the bucket, which is normally utilized to hold chlorine for swimming pools, The Times-Picayune reported.
“When they opened up the bucket, they found the 6-year-old deceased,” Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto confirmed.
As the search for Landon continued, investigators learned she had shown up at the Harahan Police Department (HPD) in the predawn hours of April 26, The Times-Picayune reported.
No one knew at the time that she had allegedly murdered a child.
“She seemed a little bit out of it,” HPD Chief Edward Lepre said, according to the New York Post. “She was asking for a transport so they called for an ambulance to come pick her up and once the ambulance came to pick her up, they transported her to a local hospital to be evaluated.”
Landon was released from the hospital on April 27 and has since been arrested on charges of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice, the New York Post reported.
She faces a potential death sentence if she is convicted because the victim was under the age of 12 when she was killed, according to The Times-Picayune.
“We’re going to work until the end to make sure we get a conviction,” Chief Lepre said. “This is a small baby, and any family would be devastated. I can only imagine what the mother and father are going through right now.”
Bella Fontenelle, identified as the 6-year-old girl of Honduran mother, who was murdered by her father’s girlfriend and her body was left in a bucket in the garden of her mother’s house. #bellafontenelle pic.twitter.com/9lQgd6qDVj
— Breaking Trends News (@btrendsnews) April 29, 2023
Landon was booked into the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna, where she is being held without bond, The Times-Picayune reported.
A potential motive has not been released.
Police said Landon has refused to cooperate with the investigation, according to NBC News.
Investigators said they do not have any reason to believe Bella’s biological parents were involved in her murder, The Times-Picayune reported.
Landon and Fontenelle had been together for many years and lived together in a home on Donelon Drive with Bella and her sister.
Their home is just blocks away from Zeledon’s residence.
According to court records, Landon was served with a simple battery summons in June of 2021 after she allegedly attacked Zeledon’s sister at a swim meet, NBC News reported.
Landon claimed the woman had attacked her, but she refused to let police check her for injuries and was unable to produce any witnesses to corroborate her claims.
Landon filed for a temporary restraining order against Zeledon and her sister the next month, saying they both attacked her at the swim meet, NBC News reported.
She also alleged Zeledon “made multiple threats” to harm her, according to court documents.
The order was ultimately dissolved and the court refused to grant Landon’s request for damages and a permanent injunction, NBC News reported.
Landon is due in court on May 9.
