Authorities say they have locked up without bond in a New Orleans suburb a woman who they say murdered her boyfriend’s 6-year-old daughter and dumped her body in a bucket outside the home where the girl’s mother resides.
On Wednesday, 43-year-old Harahan resident Bunnak Landon was booked on suspicion of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice in connection with Bella Fontenelle’s death.
The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate stated that Landon, also known as Hannah Landon and Bunnak Lim, was on suicide watch at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on Thursday and did not show up for a hearing in Jefferson Parish Magistrate Court.
According to the article, she will be represented by the Jefferson Parish Public Defender’s Office. A call left for comment on her behalf went unanswered. According to WWL-TV, a CBS station, Bella Fontenelle was a kindergarten student at St. Matthew the Apostle School, which was closed for two days following her death.
“This is indeed a horrific tragedy that will impact our school and parish community. Because of the very challenging and sensitive nature of the situation and, in order to help our faculty and families in processing this news, we have made the decision to cancel all classes tomorrow, Thursday, April 27 and Friday, April 28,” an email from the school said.
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Landon and the child’s father share an apartment in Harahan, Sheriff Joseph Lopinto told the media. The apartment is located roughly two blocks away from the home where the mother currently resides. After waking up on Wednesday, the victim’s father reported his daughter missing to the authorities.
After a search of the area, officers in Harahan discovered the child’s body in a 10-gallon bucket on the front lawn of the child’s mother’s house, as reported by the sheriff. The infant was murdered, as evidenced by the autopsy results. Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich, the Jefferson Parish coroner, delayed revealing the cause of death of the child until he had spoken with the child’s family.
“Preliminary findings show the cause of death to be manual strangulation along with blunt force injuries to the head,” Cvitanovich said in a statement Thursday. Cvitanovich said the child’s body was found unharmed, according to WWL-TV.
A Louisiana woman was accused of killing her boyfriend's 6-year-old daughter and then placing the child's body in a 10-gallon bucket before wheeling it to the girl's mother's house in a wagon https://t.co/oAmADnQdjm
— CBS Austin (@cbsaustin) April 28, 2023
“I want to add that Bella’s body was intact and contrary to public speculation, there was no dismemberment of any kind,” Cvitanovich said, according to the station. “This is not something we’re happy to do. It’s something that’s hard to see and it’s even more hard to unsee.“
A woman, identified by authorities as Landon, is seen at 9:35 p.m. on Tuesday dragging the bucket in a cart along the street heading to Fontenelle’s mother’s house. “We believe Bella was killed at the father’s house and then transported over to the mother’s house,” Lopinto said.
Landon arrived at the police station shortly after midnight on Wednesday. According to the publication, she was sent to a local hospital for an evaluation, but neither she nor the cops involved have commented on what led to the need for medical attention.
“Child deaths are always terrible. especially ones like this that should not have happened,” Cvitanovich said, according to WWL-TV. “Quite honestly, it’s personal for all of us.”
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