JEFFERSON PARISH, La. – A woman has been arrested on a first-degree murder charge and obstruction of justice charge after the body of a 6-year-old girl was found in a bucket.
Hannah Landon, 43, was arrested Thursday after the girl’s body was found inside a 12-gallon bucket on the child’s mother’s front lawn, according to Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office (JPSO) in Louisiana. The child has been identified as Bella Fontenelle, a kindergartner at St. Matthew the Apostle school.
Deputies said Landon, who also goes by Bunnak Lim or Bunnak Landon, is the longtime girlfriend of the child’s father.
According to JPSO, the girl’s father woke up Wednesday morning and couldn’t find Bella or Landon so he called the sheriff’s office around 7:30 a.m.
A press release from the sheriff’s office stated that Harahan police officers arrived at the man’s home 15 minutes later and by 8:20 a.m. the investigation moved to Bella’s mother’s house, which is only two blocks away from where the man lives.
That’s where police discovered Bella’s body in a 12-gallon plastic bucket normally used for pool chlorine on the front lawn of the mother’s residence.
Jefferson Parish Coroner Dr. Gerry Cvitanovich told 4WWL that a preliminary autopsy shows Bella’s cause of death to be “manual strangulation along with blunt force injuries to the head.”
An investigation revealed that cameras from residents who live along the two blocks between the homes captured Landon pulling a wagon with the chlorine bucket around 9:35 p.m. Tuesday.
Police believe Landon killed the girl before checking herself into a local hospital. She was arrested shortly after and a judge determined that Landon will be held without bail.
In a press conference earlier this week, authorities said another older child was at the home at the time of the killing.
A conviction on a first-degree murder charge is punishable by death in Louisiana.
An investigation into the killing is ongoing.