A Louisiana woman has been convicted of first-degree murder for the horrific killing of her boyfriend’s 6-year-old daughter — a crime that shocked the community for both its brutality and disturbing aftermath.
A jury in Jefferson Parish on Thursday found 45-year-old Bunnak “Hannah” Landon guilty of murdering young Bella Fontenelle in April 2023. Prosecutors said Landon beat and strangled the child to death, stuffed her body into a large plastic bucket, and wheeled it to the biological mother’s home using a wagon, where she left it on the front lawn for the family to find.
In addition to the murder charge, Landon was also convicted on two counts of obstruction of justice: one for moving Bella’s body and another for disposing of the child’s phone after the murder. Under Louisiana law, the murder conviction carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The verdict follows a February 2024 ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, which upheld a lower court’s decision that Landon was competent to stand trial — despite her defense team arguing she suffered from severe mental illness. Her attorney, Cesar Vazquez, admitted the crime was captured on surveillance footage and described the events as “about as insane as things get.”
Prosecutors, however, said the murder was anything but chaotic or confused. They described it as a calculated act of cruelty, noting Bella had recently told her father and a counselor that she was afraid of Landon, who was consistently “mean” to her.
“This isn’t a woman out of touch with reality,” said Assistant District Attorney Rachel Africk. “This is a woman who was pissed off and evil. Her decisions were cold, calculated, and deliberate.”
Africk added that Landon’s hatred for Bella stemmed from jealousy over the attention the girl received from her father. “She didn’t see Bella as a little girl — she saw her as an obstacle,” she said. “So she got rid of her.”
Prosecutors revealed further chilling behavior: after the murder, Landon buried Bella’s phone, Googled criminal defense attorneys, texted farewell messages to friends, and even calmly continued texting Bella’s father about the child’s schedule as if nothing had happened.
“Bella was dead, and Hannah was texting Michael about meals,” Assistant District Attorney Lindsay Truhe told jurors. “These are not the actions of someone who doesn’t know right from wrong.”
The jury reportedly needed less than an hour to return a unanimous verdict.
According to police, the child was killed inside her father’s home in Harahan, a suburb just outside New Orleans. Bella’s father reported both Landon and his daughter missing early on the morning of April 26, 2023. About an hour later, police discovered the girl’s lifeless body stuffed inside a bucket in the yard of her mother’s home just blocks away.
Ring doorbell footage obtained by investigators showed Landon calmly pulling a wagon with the bucket down neighborhood streets at 9:33 p.m. the night before, making no attempt to conceal her actions — even when a vehicle drove right past her.
Investigators believe Bella was murdered in her father’s house, and then transported to her mother’s home in the bucket. Landon later turned up at the Harahan Police Department, where she was taken to a hospital for evaluation. After being released, she was arrested and booked into Jefferson Parish Jail.
Sentencing is scheduled for May 7, 2025, though the outcome is already determined by law: Bunnak Landon will spend the rest of her life in prison.