TRANSCRIPTION OF PRESS CONFERENCE
26TH APRIL
SHERIFF - I'm here to announce a very sad case in the City of Harahan, which occurred last night and this morning. Earlier today, around 7:30am., a father walked into the Harahan PD to report his child, along with his 43yr old girlfriend, missing. When he woke up this morning, the 6yr old and the 43 yr old were not in the house, although an older child was still in the house there. Reported it to the Harahan PD; they started investigating as a missing person.
They went to the house, started doing canvasses in that neighbourhood. The biological mother of the child lives approximately one block away, around the corner. So, the investigation led to go to that location. Upon arriving at that location they located a... best way to describe it: maybe a 10 gallon bucket, it's a chlorine bucket, large, a little larger than a 5 gallon bucket, on the front lawn of the mother's house. When they opened up that bucket they found the 6yr old deceased inside that bucket.
Turned into a homicide investigation, obviously, at that point. Our homicide detectives from Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office were called out to the scene. We utilised not only our resources with the Sheriff's Office but also used a major crimes task force to come out and try to start canvassing the neighbourhood. Which our attention was drawn very quickly to the missing girlfriend who was now missing in action. We couldn't not necessarily find her. We were able to find numerous video from different households in the neighbouring area which showed her pulling a wagon down, late last night, with a bucket inside the back of that wagon.
Ended up performing an autopsy today on the child and we can classify the child's death as a homicide, at this point in time. We ended up doing extensive interviews with both the mother and the father - the biological mother and the father. We do not believe that they were involved in any foul play, involved with the death of Miss Bellefontelle who is the 6yr old that is deceased. Those interviews also continue to lead us in our investigation. Looking for the suspect in this case, which I have three different names - Hannah Landon, which is an American name, she is described as an Asian female - Hannah Landon, also known as Bunnak Lim or Bunnak Landon, 43yr old Asian female.
As we were doing our best in order to locate her around two o'clock this afternoon, we were notified that she was possibly at one of our local hospitals. We were able to locate her at one of the local hospitals. She is now in JPS custody, where she'll hopefully later be booked with at least one count of first degree murder and obstruction of justice. Got a lot of different avenues with a lot of different scenes here. You know that we'll continue to work through, but of course we have an arrest and we have, more tragically, the death of the 6yr old which is going to be a big shock to the small community of Harahan.
CHIEF - Thank you, Sheriff. I'm the Harahan Police Chief. This morning I was out of town at a conference; an FBI conference down in Orlando. I got a call from my staff in reference to a missing child. Immediately after learning more information, I reached out to the Sheriff, and the other Chiefs that were with me at the conference, all offered to help. The Sheriff and his staff, I can't thank him enough for coming in and working with our guys. Our guys responded, they were doing the right things, we just needed a little extra help and I appreciate the Sheriff for coming in and offering the assistance to develop this case. They were keeping me abreast on the hour. They got me an earlier flight, I just got back in from out of town, but I appreciate everything. The City of Harahan is still safe; it is a safe city. There's no threat to the public right now. There is an arrest, there is a case being worked. The Sheriff, as we get more information, and if it's necessary to report we will, but it takes time. I appreciate all the outside agencies that came in, gave assistance to us, we're a small town, we're a safe town. And I just want the citizens to know that my heart and my prayers go out to the family of this child. This is a senseless type incident that happened, but I can assure you that the Harahan PD and Sheriff's Office are there for the family, and we keep them in our prayers and I thank y'all.
CORONER - Good afternoon. I'm the Jefferson Parish Coroner. I want to start off by saying thank you to everybody involved in this case: from the 911 dispatchers to EMS to law enforcement, and last but not least, the people in my office. Cases like this are hard. You know, we're parents, brothers, sisters, so it's very difficult and affects everybody, so thanks to all of them and they're very much appreciated for what they do.
The young lady, the decedent is Bella Fontenelle, a 6yr old female. The manner of death is homicide. She has multiple injuries and I'm not going to get into details regarding the injuries because this is still a fluid investigation, with a lot of interviews that have yet to happen. So, those details will come out, we're not hiding them, we're just delaying the release.
Thank you very much.
REPORTER - Why was Miss Landon or Miss Lim.. why did she go to the hospital?
SHERIFF - I'm not gonna release that, at this point in time. As I said, the arrest has just been made n her in the last couple of hours, so we haven't had the opportunity to interview her at all, we're going to attempt that. So, that's part of the reason that we're not releasing the cause of death of injuries and some of those information, so, I'll probably release that to you at the appropriate time, but right now is not the appropriate time.
REPORTER - You said the bucket was found in the yard...
SHERIFF - It was directly... it was in the front yard of the biological mother's house.
REPORTER - Of the little girl?
SHERIFF - Yes. So, we believe the child was killed at the father's house which happens to be about a block away, and then transported over to the mother's house and then taken out of a wagon, actually.
REPORTER - Is her home on Sedgefield and the father's on Donelon?
SHERIFF - The father is on Donelon, the mother is on Sedgefield, that's correct.
REPORTER - Do you know if the girlfriend had planned anything or do you have a possible motive at this point?
SHERIFF - I don't have any information to be able to share. That interview has not happened yet.
REPORTER - Any chance that it could have been accidental or...?
SHERIFF - I think the Coroner made it clear; I think the manner of death is certainly a homicide.
REPORTER - Was there issues with the girlfriend and the biological mother? Why was the child placed on the mother's front lawn?
SHERIFF - I don't know the answers to that yet.
REPORTER - Do you know if the girlfriend lived with the child and the father?
SHERIFF - Yes, well the girlfriend lived with the father, biological father, and I believe they had joint custody so at both times live with both partners.
REPORTER - Did the biological mother find the bucket? Was she was home at the time?
SHERIFF - She was home. Harahan PD was there with her, but she was home at the time, that's correct.
REPORTER - Was she the one that found her?
SHERIFF - I don't know exactly. I think that bucket was determined by .... I think.. I don't know who opened it to be honest with you.
REPORTER - Can you talk any more about the mental state of the girlfriend?
SHERIFF - No, not yet. I mean, again, this is all happened within the last couple of hours, so really, she got to our detective bureau while we were here, so let my detectives work for a little bit.
REPORTER - Where's the dad right now?
SHERIFF - Dad, again, went through extensive interviews today. I don't know if he's been released yet but he should be released; fully cooperative from that standpoint. Don't believe he was involved in the murder, by any means. But I don't know if he's... when I left the detective bureau he was still there, but he certainly could have been released by now.
REPORTER - Can you talk about his emotions today, the dad?
SHERIFF - Oh, I mean, look, you can imagine, I'm not gonna speak for him, but both him and the mother are certainly extremely upset, which you would imagine on any person that lost a 6yr old unexpectedly.
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