HARAHAN, La. — Bunnak "Hannah" Landon, the woman accused of killing a 6-year-old Bella Fontenelle in Harahan, will remain behind bars awaiting trial.
Thursday morning, Landon appeared in Jefferson Parish Criminal Court. Criminal Commissioner Patricia Joyce called Landon a 'flight risk' and potential danger to the community. Joyce denied Landon's request for a bond reduction.
Landon's defense attorney argued that there are no witnesses to either crime. However, Joyce said the court found probable cause for both obstruction and first-degree murder. Joyce declined to set bond for the murder charge and reducing the $50,000 obstruction of justice bond.
Landon will be held in jail without bond. Multiple law enforcement officials testified on Thursday as well, revealing new details about Fontenelle's death.
April 25 approx. 7:30PM
According to JPSO's lead detective on the case, Anthony Buttone, Fontenelle and her 7-year-old sister were last seen by their paternal grandmother.
The grandmother picked the girls up from school, took them to eat, to the library and to see their father at work before bringing them home. The grandmother left their father's house after getting them ready for bed, Buttone said.
The grandmother later told detectives she would have never left had she noticed anything unusual. According to Buttone, Landon was the only person at the home with the girls.
Landon was the live-in girlfriend of Fontenelle's father since around 2019, Buttone said.
Later that night, surveillance cameras captured Landon pulling a wagon with a bucket behind her, Buttone said.
It would later be determined that the bucket contained the body of Fontenelle. It was found on her biological mother's lawn.
Blood found on the bucket matched Landon's DNA, Buttone testified.
Dana Troxclair, chief forensic pathologist at the Jefferson Parish Coroner's Office, testified that Fontenelle died of strangulation and blunt force trauma. Although, Troxclair said her report is not finalized.
Buttone said the video shows Landon return the wagon to the father's residence before putting her phone in a plastic bag and burying it nearby.
Buttone testified that the phone is still under investigation, but no statements or texts indicate Landon killed Fontenelle. However, she had made previous searches on the device for defense attorneys.
When the father returned to the home after work, he told detectives he went straight to bed, Buttone said.
The detective said they used video surveillance and phone data to confirm his alibi; he was at work during the time of Fontenelle's death.
Other law enforcement officers with Harahan Police testified that Landon showed up to the police department around midnight.
"She looked distressed," Harahan Police Officer, Logan Barlow, said.
Barlow said she was wearing the same outfit seen in the surveillance video with the wagon.
Landon asked the police if she could make a phone call and said she was having family issues.
Barlow said when police asked Landon what was going on with her family she told them, "I don't want to talk about that."
Police called EMS a couple of hours later to do a mental evaluation on Landon.
April 26th
Fontenelle's father reported her and Landon missing to Harahan Police the morning of April 26.
He told detectives it was odd that Landon did not wake him up and he hadn't heard the girls getting ready for school that morning, Buttone said.
Harahan Police Sgt. Jordan Bloomer said he went with the father after he received a call of a bucket at the mother's home.
Bloomer testified that he requested more units and for everyone to go inside while they opened the bucket.
After detectives discovered the body and worked to obtain surveillance video of the neighborhood, they determined that Landon was a suspect.
Landon was arrested at East Jefferson Hospital where she was being treated for an injury to her left hand. At the time, she was in possession of the same clothes seen in the video of someone pulling the wagon with the bucket, Buttone said.
Prior to April 25th
Buttone said that Fontenelle was seeking counseling at school. Before her death, she told a counselor she didn't like staying at her dad's house and that Landon was mean to the girls.
According to Buttone, a 2019 Harahan police report shows that Fontenelle's father threatened to kill their mother, the two girls and himself. However, Buttone said they do not consider him a suspect in Fontenelle's death.
JPSO said that in 2021, Landon was charged with battery against Fontenelle's biological mother.