Woman sentenced for killing 6-year-old girl, leaving her body in mother's front yard

Yahoo

08-05-2025

***Warning: Details in this story are disturbing.***
HARAHAN, Louisiana (WJW) – A Louisiana woman was sentenced to prison for murdering a young girl, forcing her body into a bucket and leaving the remains in the child's biological mother's front yard, the Jefferson Parish District Attorney's Office announced this week.
A judge sentenced Bunnak 'Hannah' Landon to life in prison plus 80 years on Tuesday.
Courtesy of Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office via Facebook
Last week, she was convicted of first-degree murder and obstruction of justice in the violent death of 6-year-old Bella Fontenelle in April 2023, according to court records.
The conviction came after a Jefferson Parish jury rejected Landon's insanity defense on May 1.
Landon, a former stripper, met the child's father at a gentleman's club in Baton Rouge, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said they formed a '4-year-long cohabitating romantic relationship.' During that time, Landon was often left to look after Bella and her older sister.
According to court records, Bella struggled after her parents split. She especially had a hard time with Landon, referred to as 'Miss Hannah,' while staying at her father's house in Harahan, Louisiana.
'Her pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers noted the child's inner struggle through observing – and documenting — her growing anxiety, frequent crying and declining grades,' prosecutors said in a press release. 'They associated the child's behaviors with time she had to spend at her father's, and particularly with 'Miss Hannah.''
On April 25, 2023, Landon was watching the kids while their father was working late in another city. Investigators said their grandmother picked them up from school and spent the afternoon with them before dropping them off at home.
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Sometime after 7:30 p.m., investigators said Landon killed Bella by beating and strangling her and forcing the child's body into a 13-gallon bucket.
According to investigators, surveillance video showed Landon around 9:30 p.m. leaving the house with a blue wagon and the bucket.
Investigators said she pulled the wagon less than a quarter-mile to the child's biological mother's home, where she placed the bucket in the front yard around 9:35 p.m. before returning home.
Landon then left the house for good around 9:45 p.m. According to court records, she told Bella's sister earlier that evening she would be leaving for Florida in the morning.
According to investigators, the father returned home about five minutes after Landon left and went to bed without checking on his daughters. Investigators said he assumed Landon was sleeping on the couch that night.
He discovered both Bella and Landon were missing the next morning and called Harahan police.
An Amber Alert was issued and authorities started a widespread search 'that ranged from checking the cabinets in her father's home to patrolling miles of the nearby Mississippi River batture,' prosecutors said.
Amid the search, Bella's grandmother found the bucket around 8:15 a.m. Investigators said she noticed blood on the side but couldn't unscrew the lid.
She called Bella's father, who rushed over with police officers, investigators said.
According to prosecutors, 'a sergeant removed the bucket's lid and found Bella's body, clad in pink pajamas with white polka dots.'
Landon, who was checked into East Jefferson General Hospital for a mental evaluation after walking into the police department the night before, was arrested after investigators reviewed footage from a nearby security camera.
Through the investigation, detectives learned that Landon buried her cell phone in a vacant lot after the murder.
A video recording on the phone showed Bella in her bedroom, crying for her grandmother, investigators said.
Detectives also learned she sent text messages to multiple people the night of the murder, including her ex-boyfriend's mother, saying, 'I'm at peace with what I've decided to do.'
According to the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office, Bella died from asphyxia due to strangulation and blunt-force trauma. She also suffered bruises and neck abrasions.
'The autopsy also revealed that Bella still may have been alive, although unconscious, when Landon folded her little body and stuffed it in the bucket head first,' prosecutors said in the release.
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Meanwhile, forensic scientists determined that Landon's DNA was on the bucket.
Landon pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. During the trial, Landon's lawyers argued that she didn't know right from wrong due to a mental illness.
According to prosecutors, Dr. Gina Manguno-Mire, a forensic psychologist who met with Landon for 22 hours, testified that 'she understood the consequences of her actions at the time.'
'Landon felt her relationship with Bella's father was jeopardized because of Bella, the psychologist opined,' the prosecutor's office said. 'Bella, diagnosed with separation disorder because of her parents' split, was in counseling with a child psychologist in the weeks before she died. Bella disclosed in the sessions that Landon was mean to her. 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. He told her he would 'reassess' their relationship if he heard this from his daughter again.'
Prosecutors said Landon killed Bella the next day.
Before Tuesday's sentencing, Bella's mother read a message from her 9-year-old daughter in court. 'Someday I will forgive you, because I want to be in heaven to see Bella,' she read aloud.
The mother then spoke to Landon directly.
'You made a decision that changed the course of all our lives,' she said. 'Not only did you condemn me and my family to a life sentence of pain and sadness, but you also condemned (Bella's sister) to a life of not getting to know her sister past the age of six. (Bella's sister) no longer has a sister to fight with, to share secrets with, to confide in, to share her first kiss, to make matron of honor at her wedding, to become an aunt and Godmother to her children.'
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