March 10, 2025 • 35 mins
Months went by and a 14-year-old's disappearance got little media attention. 23 years later, one woman is ensuring this story isn't forgotten.
High School freshman Danielle Bell went to a party on the evening of September 28th, 2001 in Cantonment, Florida. It was the last time the 14-year-old was ever seen.
Her loved ones describe her as “a stranger to nobody”. When she didn’t return home that fall evening, her heartbroken family clung to hope. They waited for the day Danielle would walk back through the front door.
Still searching more than 23 years later, Danielle’s sister Bonnie sits down with me to share her story.
We’re calling on YOU for help.
If you have any information, please contact the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit:
(850) 436-9580
Or contact Crime Stoppers:
(850) 433-STOP
Danielle’s sister, Bonnie:
justicefordaniellebell@gmail.com
Information & Age Progression Photo:
https://charleyproject.org/case/danielle-arion-bell
***
Method & Madness is researched, written, hosted, & produced by Dawn Cate
Music by Tymur Khakimov from Pixabay
***
Get in Touch!:
methodandmadnesspod@gmail.com
CONNECT:
DIVE INTO MORE:
MethodandMadnessPodcast.com
***
All sources are listed on the website, under each episode description.
MethodandMadnessPodcast.com
Thank you for listening!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/method-madness--6241524/support.
High School freshman Danielle Bell went to a party on the evening of September 28th, 2001 in Cantonment, Florida. It was the last time the 14-year-old was ever seen.
Her loved ones describe her as “a stranger to nobody”. When she didn’t return home that fall evening, her heartbroken family clung to hope. They waited for the day Danielle would walk back through the front door.
Still searching more than 23 years later, Danielle’s sister Bonnie sits down with me to share her story.
We’re calling on YOU for help.
If you have any information, please contact the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Unit:
(850) 436-9580
Or contact Crime Stoppers:
(850) 433-STOP
Danielle’s sister, Bonnie:
justicefordaniellebell@gmail.com
Information & Age Progression Photo:
https://charleyproject.org/case/danielle-arion-bell
***
Method & Madness is researched, written, hosted, & produced by Dawn Cate
Music by Tymur Khakimov from Pixabay
***
Get in Touch!:
methodandmadnesspod@gmail.com
CONNECT:
DIVE INTO MORE:
MethodandMadnessPodcast.com
***
All sources are listed on the website, under each episode description.
MethodandMadnessPodcast.com
Thank you for listening!
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/method-madness--6241524/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode contains discussions about sexual abuse of children. Please
listen with care. Welcome to Method and Madness. This is
Missing Danielle Bell. I'm your host, don.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
My mom did show her commitment to trying to find Danielle.
I don't think that my mom was there when Danielle
was murdered. I don't think that at all. I think
that she set her daughter of her failure through neglect,
is what I think.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
This is Danielle's story. Cantonment, Florida, is located on the
far west end of the state's panhandle, and it's where
today's case takes us. It was a comfortable autumn evening
in the Sunshine State September twenty eighth, two thousand and one,
(01:01):
temperatures in the high sixties when fourteen year old Danielle
Bell left her home to hang out with friends. She
never returned. Danielle was born on July twenty eighth, nineteen
eighty seven, to Susan and Matt. She'd just begun her
freshman year at Tate High School, where she was on
the cheerleading squad. She never got the chance to finish
(01:22):
the ninth grade, and she hasn't been seen for nearly
twenty four years. Today, you'll hear from Danielle's big sister, Bonnie,
who's doing everything in her power to get this case
the attention it deserves, and she's determined to shed light
on the unsettling details surrounding Danielle's disappearance.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
My name is Bonnie, and my sister Danielle Bell has
been missing since September twenty eighth, two thousand and one.
Can start off by telling you I was twenty when
two went missing, and she was fourteen. Danielle was a outgoing, happy,
wild spirited person. She was the baby of the family.
(02:07):
She was treated as such too by our mom. My
mom viewed Danielle as her little buddy more than a
parent child relationship. So we used to watch this show
called Daria on MTV in the nineties, and she used
to always tell me, Bonnie, you're Daria and I'm Quinn.
And if you're not familiar with the show, Quinn is
like the outgoing cheerleader, friends with everybody, and Daria is
(02:30):
like the melancholy kind of dark individual. And that was
the relationship that the difference is between her and I
and Danielle and I shared a room together growing up
so we used to fight over size of the room.
I even divided the room once in half, so that
we spent a lot of time together. By the time
(02:52):
I was driving, so I was sixteen, she was ten.
You know, she would go with me to my friend's house.
So we went to the mall, the beach. It was
that very much that type of sisterly relationship. And she
was not a stranger to anyone. She was friendly with everyone,
and she was a risk taker as well, and she
(03:15):
had a lot of friends. She had a lot of friends.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Despite the six year age difference between Danielle and Bonnie,
the two were very close. In two thousand and one,
fourteen year old Danielle was living with her mother after
her parents had split. But it wasn't a typical mother
daughter relationship. There was a lack of rules, structure, all
the crucial elements of raising an adolescent frime.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Ther time Danielle was born, my mom I believe that
she knew that was her last kid, and Danielle being
the baby, my mom treated her more as a friend.
The older Danielle got, especially her middle school years, that
was her little buddy. And so during the time that
(04:03):
she was living with my mom. She was able to
come and go as she pleased. She didn't have a
whole lot of supervision. Now on the contrary to that,
before our parents split up, it's my stepdad and mom.
But it was only Dad I ever knew while they
were together. He ran a tight ship. There was I
(04:25):
was also a teenager once tried to get away with things,
and I was absolutely corrected immediately on those things. So
if he had been around and they were still together,
I don't feel like Danielle would have been as involved
as she was with these guys.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
These guys were a group of adult men that Bonnie
learned her sister had become acquainted with through mutual friends.
It was two weeks before fourteen year old Danielle went missing,
and Bonnie had taken her to the beach for a
family photo shoot. On the drive back, Danielle asked her
big sister if they could up at a payphone so
friends could come and get her. Bonnie said, no, absolutely not,
(05:05):
I'm taking you home. So Bonnie brought Danielle home, where
their mother greeted them. They were all sitting down to
dinner when Danielle asked if Alfredo could come over. Mom
said yes. This was the first Bonnie had ever heard
of this person, and minutes later, Alfredo arrived and walked
inside the house with his cousin Roel and his brother Alex.
(05:28):
Upon seeing these friends of her sisters, Bonnie was taken aback.
To say the least, it was obvious they were not
in Danielle's peer group. Bonnie, at just twenty years old herself,
could tell immediately these guys were older than even she was,
and they were here to hang out with a fourteen
year old. Bonnie, of course, questioned her mother, who are
(05:51):
these guys and how is it okay that they're here
to hang out with a child? Who the heck is Alfredo?
Susan Bell responded that Alfredo was a good guy. Danielle
had babysat for his child a few times and the
two had formed a friendship. Bonnie, still incredulous that a
grown man was hanging out with her kid's sister, did
(06:12):
not hide her disapproval. This caused an argument that evening,
with Danielle getting upset that her friendship with Alfredo was
being questioned. Bonnie left the home that night and headed
back to her own place. That was, sadly the last
time she ever saw Danielle.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Danielle met Alfredo Sanchez through a mutual high school friend
of hers. That friend was dating one of Alfredo Sanchez's cousins.
She was also underage, and the cousin that she was
dating was over age, I believe in his early twenties,
and so that's how they became acquainted. My understanding is
(06:55):
that she babysat for him at first, and then it
herd into a sexual relationship otherwise known as child sexual assault.
He was twenty four, she was fourteen. So a few
weeks before Danielle went missing, she had reported to our
mother and several of her friends that she had become
(07:17):
pregnant through sexual activity with Alfredo Sanchez. That she had
told him, and he told her that if she called
anyone else, he would kill her. Bonnie wasn't aware of
this information about the child sexual abuse or the apparent
pregnancy until after her sister went missing. According to interviews
(07:37):
that Susan Bell later did with reporters, there was a
doctor's appointment scheduled for Danielle the following week. It had
been two weeks since Bonnie last saw her sister Danielle
on Monday October first, two thousand and one, she got
(07:59):
the terrible news that Danielle was missing. As it turned out,
Danielle had already been missing for three days at that point.
She'd gone out with friends Friday night but never returned.
September twenty eighth, two thousand and one, my sister went
with some neighborhood kids her friends to a what was
(08:22):
a party in the park and this was mainly attended
by high school students from Tate. This party in the
park is at Heritage Park nearwell Line Road. From there,
she was seen getting in a white Lincoln town car
with Alexander Sanchez, the younger brother of Alfredo Sanchez, headed
(08:42):
to five eight eight Cedar Tree Lane, which is the
home of Robert Bassett, Alfredo Sanchez's childhood best friends, after
about war o'clock that one am that night. No one
has seen her since.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
After her friends left the house party, Danielle had stayed
back after that. No one knows, or more accurately, people
know but aren't saying. Robert Bassett's home where the gathering
was held was located down a dirt road in a
wooded area. His closest neighbor barely within earshot. Two days later,
(09:21):
Susan Bell reported her youngest child missing. Now you may
notice if you look into Danielle's case online, but there
are discrepancies about the date she disappeared due to the
fact that she was last seen on Friday but reported
missing on Sunday. Some reports show she was last seen
on September twenty eighth, while others say September thirtieth. Anyway,
(09:44):
over the years, Bonnie couldn't get past the fact that
her mother had waited to make that report, that crucial
forty eight hours had come and gone once police were alerted.
We'll explore more of that in a bit. I asked
Bonnie what happened and when Alfredo and Robert were questioned
following the party in which Danielle was last seen.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
At first they said they didn't even know who she was.
They didn't or so of course they didn't know where
she was at, And then over the months their stories changed.
So I think it just depends on who we asked
at the right time. I mean, it's their stories have
changed over and over again, and to me, being told
(10:28):
that they didn't even know Danielle at first was harness shady.
So Alex Sanchez, the younger brother, said that Danielle had
told him that she was having tribor brought home and
was going to run away. Then later Alfredo Sanchez said
he didn't know who she was. Then he said he
(10:52):
had been in a sexual relationship with her. Then he
said he had an alibi for that night, that he
was at his cousin's house, that cousin king Ford, and
said he could orders her into the alibi. He was
not with her the nine of September twenty eight, two
thousand and one, Alfredo Santas went Mia for a little
while as well. We were trying to find him, and
(11:13):
we couldn't find him for a few weeks to find
out where is Danielle at that time? Did we think
she had been murdered? No, But time went on, Yeah,
yeah we do think she was.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
What did you think initially? Did you think your sister
had run away?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
At first? I sure, sure, because that's what everybody was saying, right,
and that's what I thought could be a plausible thing.
It made sense until I found out later that afternoon
of October first, when we were doing the search. Later
that afternoon was when I found out about Alfredo Santa's
(11:50):
in the relationship.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Bonnie was confused in the days following Danielle's disappearance. She
went from thinking she'd run away to finding out that
the relationship Danielle had with Alfredo was inappropriate. In fact,
it was a sexual relationship. I say relationship, but obviously
it was predatory and a child cannot enter a consensual
(12:12):
sexual relationship with a twenty four year old man. Investigator
Jimmy James questioned Alfredo Sanchez, his brother Alex Sanchez, Roel
Robert Bassett, and several friends of Danielle's. What would be
called into question years later is whether or not investigators
knew the full extent of Alfredo Sanchez's relationship to the
(12:34):
missing child will get there. Meanwhile, Bonnie was holding on
to hope that her sister would walk through the door
until a realization hit about six months later.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Everything that you could imagine went through my mind. I
would say after about six months was when I knew
she was probably not coming back home.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Let's take a break. I was unable to locate any
newspaper articles that covered Danielle's disappearance in two thousand and one.
(13:22):
It's possible they existed and haven't been archived, but based
on what Bonnie has told me, it's more likely that
Danielle's story just hadn't made headlines. Missing children cases can
get national attention or little attention, depending on factors like race, class,
and circumstances of disappearance.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Our team coverage on the search ray missing ten month
old baby Kansas City Police. They are going to be
giving a news conference hopefully to update us on the latest.
But here's what we know so far. The child is
still missing. We were entering day two.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Studies have shown that the missing child cases that get
the most attention are those that are suspected stranger abductions.
These are also the rarest of missing person cases. In
twenty eleven, after baby Lisa Irwin disappeared from her home
in Missouri, media coverage was substantial given the child's age
(14:17):
and that her parents claimed she was abducted from the home.
Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, said at the time, quote, what the media
tends to focus on are the sensational cases. If there's
an indication that a family member may be involved, the
media doesn't want to cover it. Mark Klaz, father of
(14:40):
twelve year old polyclass who was kidnapped and murdered in Petaluma, California,
nineteen ninety three, said this was an accurate criticism. He added, quote,
there are other kinds of biases as well. There's an
age bias, certainly the younger kids get much more attention
than the older kids, and a gender bias. You see
(15:00):
much more attention being paid to girls than you do
to boys. For Danielle's case, it's possible that because law
enforcement classified it as a runaway, that the case was
not prioritized as news. And when you think about it,
how many cases of child runaways do you remember being
a huge deal in the media. Months later, Danielle's name
(15:24):
did start to show up in articles. In February of
two thousand and two, the Pensacola News Journal put out
a story titled missing Children more being found, but some elusive.
In the article, journalist Alan Gomez wrote that cases like
Danielle's were becoming quote less frequent locally as area law
(15:45):
enforcement agencies take steps to dealing with missing juveniles. In
the article, investigator Jimmy James was featured, as he was
the lead on Danielle's case at the time. He stated
that he was in touch with Danielle's mother, Susan Da
every week, but that the case was growing cold. Susan
Bell had criticism of the police for years, stating that
(16:08):
they were quote not doing anything, and even that her
phone calls to investigators were not being returned. The family
held a candlelight vigil on the one year anniversary of
Danielle's disappearance. Loved ones gathered at the National Missing Children's
Monument located in Pensacola. There was a shift in tone
(16:31):
over the next couple of years. The family went from
hoping Danielle would walk through the front door to realizing
they were most likely searching for her body. In two
thousand and four, to honor Danielle's seventeenth birthday, about thirty
friends and family members gathered near the park where Danielle
was seen the night she disappeared. To assist law enforcement
(16:54):
in searching for the missing girl. The Class Kids Foundation
Center for Missing Children again launching searches in and around
the surrounding areas. More than three hundred volunteers had gathered
that summer alone. Cadaver dogs were brought in, but.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Nothing was found.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
The attention to the case did spark renewed interest, and
Leeds began coming in to the police. By two thousand
and five, Danielle's family was reflecting on what would have
been her graduation from high school. Susan Bell said at
the time, quote, we feel certain that she met with
foul play. I'm not going to stop until my baby's
(17:35):
body is recovered and until anyone and everyone who had
anything to do with this is put exactly where they
need to be put. In two thousand and six, and
arrest was made. Alfredo Sanchez was twenty nine years old
by this time. He was charged with Lewde and Lasivia's
battery and molestation. He confessed to engaging in a sexual
(17:58):
relationship with Danielle Bell in two thousand and one. He
also had a pending charge of sex with a sixteen
year old. What do we know about Alfredo Sanchez? Beside
his obvious predatory behaviors, his rap sheet goes back to
nineteen ninety three, and in the early two thousands, he
was charged several times for sexual assault involving miners. In
(18:22):
court documents, Sanchez says that he informed investigators immediately following
Daniel's disappearance that the two were involved in an intimate relationship.
He was not arrested or charged until years later. What
also came out at the time Sanchez was going through
the court system was how many people were allegedly aware
(18:43):
of his sexual relationship with the underage Danielle Bell. Multiple
friends of Danielle's confirmed that they often saw the pair
together and that they were dating. Sanchez claimed that when
interviewed by police in two thousand and one, he was
unaware of Daniel's age. He submitted to two polygraph examinations
(19:05):
in two thousand and two. The results were inconclusive but
did not contain any questions regarding a sexual relationship with
Danielle Alfredo. Sanchez attempted to have his charges dismissed if
he had told investigators in two thousand and one that
he was having a relationship with a fourteen year old,
he says he should have been arrested then the statute
(19:28):
of limitations expired by the time he was charged, but
investigator Jimmy James said that if Sanchez had told him
this in two thousand and one, he would have been arrested.
Sanchez's attorney could not find any documentation to show that
investigators were aware of the defendant's relationship with Danielle. One
(19:49):
court document said, quote, it seems highly unlikely that out
of all of these independent witnesses, many who were presumably
previously interviewed by Officer James or perhaps Officer Fillingham, no
one ever mentioned that she was having a sexual relationship
with the defendant and or that she may have been
(20:10):
pregnant with his child. As it appears that a motion
to dismiss based on the expiration of the statute of
limitations would have merit prejudice is established. Alfredo Sanchez is
currently residing at Santa Rosa Correctional Facility in Florida, where
he's serving a forty year sentence for the multiple charges
related to sexual abuse against miners. What about the other
(20:33):
persons of interest in Daniel's story.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Robert Bassett is in and out of prison constantly for violent,
violent crimes against women, repetitively, and somehow he keeps getting out.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I personally think that there might be a deal that
could be made. I mean, you know, that might be
very selfish of me to think that, you know, Alfredo Sanchez,
a known pedophile, could be walking the streets bret In
Exchange I have my sister's body. I recognize that that's
very selfish. However, I feel that Robert Bassett poses a
(21:11):
greater threat to society than Alfredo Sanchez.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
At the same time, Robert Bassett has been sentenced to
prison for felony battery, simple battery, and aggravated stalking, appearing
in court in twenty twenty on charges related to six
different cases, including one involving his wife as well as
other women. In twenty ten, police went to the home
of where Danielle was last seen. Robert Bassett's septic tank
(21:38):
was searched, but nothing was found in Details about what
prompted the search were not made public. While sitting down
and getting to know Bonnie, one aspect of Danielle's story
kept coming up, and that is the questionable actions of
their mother, Susan Bell.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Growing up, my mom always had a drug addiction problem,
and looking back at things, she hit it really well,
especially for my you know, chef dad. And I can
tell you that when I was a teenager, I was
smoking pot with my mom and even tried a few
hardcore drugs later in my teen years with my mom.
(22:23):
So knowing that daniel had a rock of supervision how
my mom already was. I can totally see how she
might have been doing like hardcore drugsalist Danielle, and I
also believe that my mom willingly allowed my sister to
be involved with a twenty four year old man in
exchange for free drugs. When Danielle went missing, it was
(22:50):
a shock to find out that she had been involved
with alferdosantas on the level of what she was, I
would say within the first six months after Danielle went missing,
I had become suspicious of my mom's level of involvement
because I had heard rumors that my mom was pimping
Danielle out for a drug. I had no verifiable evidence
(23:13):
or information. Until twenty nineteen, my mom had become extremely
strung out. At that point in time, I had very
little to do with her. I started getting phone calls
from people that knew my mom saying that she was prostituting.
And till that point, you know, I had not really
(23:34):
spoken about the rumors that I had heard early on
with many people. So when I got this information, I
was like, Yeah, this is something that I've always been
a little curious about, a little suspicious about. So I
looked into it and then verified that she was indeed prostituting,
and from that point I turned the information over to
(23:55):
the Escambia County Sheriff's office. I asked them to question
her what extent had she been questioned too in the past,
because I thought it was a very viable, key piece
of information.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Unfortunately, Bonnie tells me that the police never followed through
on questioning Susan Bell any further. That request had come
into Escambia County Sheriff's office in the summer of twenty nineteen.
Susan Bell passed away in October of twenty twenty. Here,
Bonnie talks about how she believes it wasn't just neglect
(24:29):
that led Danielle to become involved with the wrong people.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
My mom did show her commitment to trying to find Danielle.
I don't think that my mom was there when Danielle
was murdered. I don't think that at all. I think
that she set her daughter of her failure through neglect
is what I think, and crackticking her own daughter. At
(24:53):
the end of the day, it's a transaction. You're letting
your daughter have sexual relationship with a grown man. She's fourteen,
he's twenty four and you're getting free drugs. That is
called trafficking.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Bonnie demanded answers from her mom, but felt she never
truly got them.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
She was basically on the streets. I gave them her
no location and they never followed up. It was extremely
apathetic in my opinion. Before Danielle went missing, my mom
cling to have known two to three weeks before about
(25:34):
Danielle being pregnant by Alfredo Sanchez, and then you're still
gonna let your kid hang out with this dude, Like,
what are you? What are you doing? It doesn't make
any sense. And that was one thing that I always
kind of picked at with my mom when I was
when we would talk about it, and again the response
(25:54):
always was I did the best with what I had.
It just didn't add It just didn't add up. It's distorted,
sick thinking at the minimum. So it's sad, it's tragic
at the same time. But my wishes is that the
(26:14):
police would have questioned her heavily in the beginning because
she held pieces that only only she's gonna know. I
just I think back to the fact that they didn't
question her, and it just infuriates me to be honest
with you, like all right, it makes me very angry.
I'm bash forth by it. Twenty four years later, I
(26:35):
remember when I was questioned by the police. I told
him everything I knew, you know that the incident with Alfriyo,
what our home life was like in detail, in detail,
and at that point I'm confused. I don't know what's
going on, so I'm like dumping this information. My only
hope is that you're gonna do your job, and it's
(26:57):
just been pulling teeth, get them not only fouler up
around leads, but to answerve questions about why certain things
weren't done in the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Much of what Bonnie has been frustrated with is sadly
the same things I hear from nearly every single family
I work with. Law enforcement agencies are either understaffed or
undertrained in working missing persons cases and homicides. Families don't
feel heard. In fact, they feel dismissed, and in many
instances can't even get a call back from investigators. It's
(27:34):
frustrating and ultimately leads loved ones to the media, including
social media, which Bonnie has been active on in hopes
of getting new attention on the case.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
The misconceptions, the misinformation, it's rampant in it's in Danielle's
case specifically, and in the broader spectrum of how we
view handling these cases. It's something has to change, Something
has to change. Personally, I think it's an epidemic in
our country. Way too many missing people, way too many
(28:08):
core cases, way too many pedophiles walk in the streets,
way too many when they can't answer basic questions like
was my mother never given a lie detect our test?
There's a problem they'd lost for nine one one call
too to the original report. Now there has the original
police report, but the nine one call is missing. And
(28:30):
I am so frustrated and so exhausted of getting their pushback,
and they're laying excuses. I didn't just fall off the
turn up truck yesterday.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Still, Bonnie does have gratitude for two individuals that she
says truly made a difference.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We got really lucky on two aspects, the first of
which is Brad Dennis, who was the director of a
search and rescue team. He conducted several searches for Danielle.
And then we had this amazing detective by the name
of Mark Schmeister who got assigned to Danielle's case in
two thousand and five, and through his work was where
(29:11):
we were able to really put the pieces together. Alfredo
Sanchez was sentenced to forty plus years for two counts
of lude and Lucidia's behavior. But I was amazing, and
then he went on to another agency, probably with better
paye who can blame him. I was very sad to
see him go, but he was amazing. I mean, if
it weren't for him, we wouldn't even have Alfredo Santas
(29:35):
and jail ra. I've been asked in the past, does
that bring me justice? Shure. I want him to be
held accountable for what he did, but it doesn't bring
my sister's body back.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
In twenty thirteen, Robert Bassett allegedly had a concerning interaction
on Facebook, which highlighted to Bonnie once again that there's
an ongoing issue with follow up in this investigation.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Robert Bassett, it was posting and what was a predominantly
African American Facebook group from Pensacola, the local area, and
in that group he starts arguing with these women and
one of them ask him, where's that missing white girl?
You were last seeing with Danielle, and he replies with
(30:20):
in the hub and where you need to be. That
was screenshot and said to me. I reported that to
the police. They never looked into it. I'm not going
to continue to be dismissed and I am certainly not
going to accept this as an answer because this is lazy, lazy,
apathetic police work at a bar minim. I don't care
(30:42):
that you don't have resources. I don't care that you
have a new team and you're not up to speed
with the Danielle Bell case. I keep saying this, I
don't care. It's not about problem. Figure it out and
do something or I'm growing to and that's what I'm doing.
I went back and met with the Sheriff's department in
April last year, and I was like, Hey, you didn't
(31:05):
follow them the information about my mom, you didn't follow
up and the information I gave you about Robert Bassett
posting where he put her body in a face group.
What are we doing? What are we going to do
to move forward?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
You know, we care. I remember seeing the girl board
about her. I don't care if you care about in
her cage. I do not care. I want to know
what your definition of active is, because what I think
is active and what you're doing are two totally different things.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
So here we are twenty twenty five and Bonnie isn't
giving up.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I absolutely want justice served, but you know what, I
want to know what happened to my sister's spotting. I
want to know where her body is. I want to
be able to put it to rest. My stepdad has
gone through pure hell with this. He needs closure. I
need closure, and the rest of our family needs closure.
And that's what I I'm working towards. Plus my other
(32:02):
objective straight up is to keep Rabber Bassett off the street.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Here is today's call to action. The following information describes
Danielle Bell's physical characteristics at the time of her disappearance.
Thank you to the Charlie Project for this write up.
Danielle Bell was fourteen at the time of her disappearance,
a Caucasian female five foot four, one hundred and ten
(32:26):
to one hundred and twenty pounds with light brown hair
and blue eyes. The night she went missing, Danielle was
wearing a sky blue halter top with glitter in the fabric,
a blue Tommy Hill figure jacket, black pants, black dress,
shoes with a medium heel, a dolphin shaped ring, a
heart shaped ring, a silver neck chain, diamond earrings, a
(32:48):
gold ring set with an emerald and two diamonds, and
a gold ring set with a ruby and a garnet.
She was carrying a Tommy Hill figure purse. Danielle would
be thirty seven years old as of this recording. Somebody
knows something, so please do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I'm just gonna keep telling her story. I think that
if you are from the Cantonment or Escambia County, Florida area,
you should be very upset, not only at the injustice
you know that's happened to Danielle Bell, but the apathetic
police work that has been going on as far as action,
you know. I want everyone to share Danielle's story. If
(33:30):
you have information about Danielle's whereabouts, you can find me
on social media. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok
under missing Child Danielle Bell. Also, there's an email address
that you can email Justice for Danielle Bell at gmail
(33:50):
dot com. And today I set up a phone line
a five oh five six.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Five three two four seven the Escambia County Sheriff's Office
Major Crimes Unit still has Danielle's case. They can be
reached at eight five zero four three six nine five
eight zero, or anyone with tips can contact crime Stoppers
at eight five zero four three three stop. Thank you
(34:21):
so much to Bonnie for sharing Danielle's story with us.
Keep fighting. Thank you so much for listening. Method and
Madness is a completely independent podcast, written, produced and hosted
by me. To find out more about the show, including
access to all episodes, visit Methodimadness podcast dot com. To
(34:44):
support the show, consider leaving a rating or a review,
and make sure you share the episode. To connect, I'm
on Instagram at Method and Madness Pod, and you can
find me on TikTok and Facebook as well to chat,
suggest a case, or to discuss the episode. Reach out
to me at Method and Madness Pod at gmail dot com.
(35:06):
That's it for this week. Until next time, take care
of yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
You matter.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
For crisis support, text hello to seven four one seven
four one
This episode contains discussions about sexual abuse of children. Please
listen with care. Welcome to Method and Madness. This is
Missing Danielle Bell. I'm your host, don.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
My mom did show her commitment to trying to find Danielle.
I don't think that my mom was there when Danielle
was murdered. I don't think that at all. I think
that she set her daughter of her failure through neglect,
is what I think.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
This is Danielle's story. Cantonment, Florida, is located on the
far west end of the state's panhandle, and it's where
today's case takes us. It was a comfortable autumn evening
in the Sunshine State September twenty eighth, two thousand and one,
(01:01):
temperatures in the high sixties when fourteen year old Danielle
Bell left her home to hang out with friends. She
never returned. Danielle was born on July twenty eighth, nineteen
eighty seven, to Susan and Matt. She'd just begun her
freshman year at Tate High School, where she was on
the cheerleading squad. She never got the chance to finish
(01:22):
the ninth grade, and she hasn't been seen for nearly
twenty four years. Today, you'll hear from Danielle's big sister, Bonnie,
who's doing everything in her power to get this case
the attention it deserves, and she's determined to shed light
on the unsettling details surrounding Danielle's disappearance.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
My name is Bonnie, and my sister Danielle Bell has
been missing since September twenty eighth, two thousand and one.
Can start off by telling you I was twenty when
two went missing, and she was fourteen. Danielle was a outgoing, happy,
wild spirited person. She was the baby of the family.
(02:07):
She was treated as such too by our mom. My
mom viewed Danielle as her little buddy more than a
parent child relationship. So we used to watch this show
called Daria on MTV in the nineties, and she used
to always tell me, Bonnie, you're Daria and I'm Quinn.
And if you're not familiar with the show, Quinn is
like the outgoing cheerleader, friends with everybody, and Daria is
(02:30):
like the melancholy kind of dark individual. And that was
the relationship that the difference is between her and I
and Danielle and I shared a room together growing up
so we used to fight over size of the room.
I even divided the room once in half, so that
we spent a lot of time together. By the time
(02:52):
I was driving, so I was sixteen, she was ten.
You know, she would go with me to my friend's house.
So we went to the mall, the beach. It was
that very much that type of sisterly relationship. And she
was not a stranger to anyone. She was friendly with everyone,
and she was a risk taker as well, and she
(03:15):
had a lot of friends. She had a lot of friends.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Despite the six year age difference between Danielle and Bonnie,
the two were very close. In two thousand and one,
fourteen year old Danielle was living with her mother after
her parents had split. But it wasn't a typical mother
daughter relationship. There was a lack of rules, structure, all
the crucial elements of raising an adolescent frime.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Ther time Danielle was born, my mom I believe that
she knew that was her last kid, and Danielle being
the baby, my mom treated her more as a friend.
The older Danielle got, especially her middle school years, that
was her little buddy. And so during the time that
(04:03):
she was living with my mom. She was able to
come and go as she pleased. She didn't have a
whole lot of supervision. Now on the contrary to that,
before our parents split up, it's my stepdad and mom.
But it was only Dad I ever knew while they
were together. He ran a tight ship. There was I
(04:25):
was also a teenager once tried to get away with things,
and I was absolutely corrected immediately on those things. So
if he had been around and they were still together,
I don't feel like Danielle would have been as involved
as she was with these guys.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
These guys were a group of adult men that Bonnie
learned her sister had become acquainted with through mutual friends.
It was two weeks before fourteen year old Danielle went missing,
and Bonnie had taken her to the beach for a
family photo shoot. On the drive back, Danielle asked her
big sister if they could up at a payphone so
friends could come and get her. Bonnie said, no, absolutely not,
(05:05):
I'm taking you home. So Bonnie brought Danielle home, where
their mother greeted them. They were all sitting down to
dinner when Danielle asked if Alfredo could come over. Mom
said yes. This was the first Bonnie had ever heard
of this person, and minutes later, Alfredo arrived and walked
inside the house with his cousin Roel and his brother Alex.
(05:28):
Upon seeing these friends of her sisters, Bonnie was taken aback.
To say the least, it was obvious they were not
in Danielle's peer group. Bonnie, at just twenty years old herself,
could tell immediately these guys were older than even she was,
and they were here to hang out with a fourteen
year old. Bonnie, of course, questioned her mother, who are
(05:51):
these guys and how is it okay that they're here
to hang out with a child? Who the heck is Alfredo?
Susan Bell responded that Alfredo was a good guy. Danielle
had babysat for his child a few times and the
two had formed a friendship. Bonnie, still incredulous that a
grown man was hanging out with her kid's sister, did
(06:12):
not hide her disapproval. This caused an argument that evening,
with Danielle getting upset that her friendship with Alfredo was
being questioned. Bonnie left the home that night and headed
back to her own place. That was, sadly the last
time she ever saw Danielle.
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Danielle met Alfredo Sanchez through a mutual high school friend
of hers. That friend was dating one of Alfredo Sanchez's cousins.
She was also underage, and the cousin that she was
dating was over age, I believe in his early twenties,
and so that's how they became acquainted. My understanding is
(06:55):
that she babysat for him at first, and then it
herd into a sexual relationship otherwise known as child sexual assault.
He was twenty four, she was fourteen. So a few
weeks before Danielle went missing, she had reported to our
mother and several of her friends that she had become
(07:17):
pregnant through sexual activity with Alfredo Sanchez. That she had
told him, and he told her that if she called
anyone else, he would kill her. Bonnie wasn't aware of
this information about the child sexual abuse or the apparent
pregnancy until after her sister went missing. According to interviews
(07:37):
that Susan Bell later did with reporters, there was a
doctor's appointment scheduled for Danielle the following week. It had
been two weeks since Bonnie last saw her sister Danielle
on Monday October first, two thousand and one, she got
(07:59):
the terrible news that Danielle was missing. As it turned out,
Danielle had already been missing for three days at that point.
She'd gone out with friends Friday night but never returned.
September twenty eighth, two thousand and one, my sister went
with some neighborhood kids her friends to a what was
(08:22):
a party in the park and this was mainly attended
by high school students from Tate. This party in the
park is at Heritage Park nearwell Line Road. From there,
she was seen getting in a white Lincoln town car
with Alexander Sanchez, the younger brother of Alfredo Sanchez, headed
(08:42):
to five eight eight Cedar Tree Lane, which is the
home of Robert Bassett, Alfredo Sanchez's childhood best friends, after
about war o'clock that one am that night. No one
has seen her since.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
After her friends left the house party, Danielle had stayed
back after that. No one knows, or more accurately, people
know but aren't saying. Robert Bassett's home where the gathering
was held was located down a dirt road in a
wooded area. His closest neighbor barely within earshot. Two days later,
(09:21):
Susan Bell reported her youngest child missing. Now you may
notice if you look into Danielle's case online, but there
are discrepancies about the date she disappeared due to the
fact that she was last seen on Friday but reported
missing on Sunday. Some reports show she was last seen
on September twenty eighth, while others say September thirtieth. Anyway,
(09:44):
over the years, Bonnie couldn't get past the fact that
her mother had waited to make that report, that crucial
forty eight hours had come and gone once police were alerted.
We'll explore more of that in a bit. I asked
Bonnie what happened and when Alfredo and Robert were questioned
following the party in which Danielle was last seen.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
At first they said they didn't even know who she was.
They didn't or so of course they didn't know where
she was at, And then over the months their stories changed.
So I think it just depends on who we asked
at the right time. I mean, it's their stories have
changed over and over again, and to me, being told
(10:28):
that they didn't even know Danielle at first was harness shady.
So Alex Sanchez, the younger brother, said that Danielle had
told him that she was having tribor brought home and
was going to run away. Then later Alfredo Sanchez said
he didn't know who she was. Then he said he
(10:52):
had been in a sexual relationship with her. Then he
said he had an alibi for that night, that he
was at his cousin's house, that cousin king Ford, and
said he could orders her into the alibi. He was
not with her the nine of September twenty eight, two
thousand and one, Alfredo Santas went Mia for a little
while as well. We were trying to find him, and
(11:13):
we couldn't find him for a few weeks to find
out where is Danielle at that time? Did we think
she had been murdered? No, But time went on, Yeah,
yeah we do think she was.
Speaker 1 (11:25):
What did you think initially? Did you think your sister
had run away?
Speaker 2 (11:30):
At first? I sure, sure, because that's what everybody was saying, right,
and that's what I thought could be a plausible thing.
It made sense until I found out later that afternoon
of October first, when we were doing the search. Later
that afternoon was when I found out about Alfredo Santa's
(11:50):
in the relationship.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Bonnie was confused in the days following Danielle's disappearance. She
went from thinking she'd run away to finding out that
the relationship Danielle had with Alfredo was inappropriate. In fact,
it was a sexual relationship. I say relationship, but obviously
it was predatory and a child cannot enter a consensual
(12:12):
sexual relationship with a twenty four year old man. Investigator
Jimmy James questioned Alfredo Sanchez, his brother Alex Sanchez, Roel
Robert Bassett, and several friends of Danielle's. What would be
called into question years later is whether or not investigators
knew the full extent of Alfredo Sanchez's relationship to the
(12:34):
missing child will get there. Meanwhile, Bonnie was holding on
to hope that her sister would walk through the door
until a realization hit about six months later.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Everything that you could imagine went through my mind. I
would say after about six months was when I knew
she was probably not coming back home.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Let's take a break. I was unable to locate any
newspaper articles that covered Danielle's disappearance in two thousand and one.
(13:22):
It's possible they existed and haven't been archived, but based
on what Bonnie has told me, it's more likely that
Danielle's story just hadn't made headlines. Missing children cases can
get national attention or little attention, depending on factors like race, class,
and circumstances of disappearance.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Our team coverage on the search ray missing ten month
old baby Kansas City Police. They are going to be
giving a news conference hopefully to update us on the latest.
But here's what we know so far. The child is
still missing. We were entering day two.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Studies have shown that the missing child cases that get
the most attention are those that are suspected stranger abductions.
These are also the rarest of missing person cases. In
twenty eleven, after baby Lisa Irwin disappeared from her home
in Missouri, media coverage was substantial given the child's age
(14:17):
and that her parents claimed she was abducted from the home.
Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children, said at the time, quote, what the media
tends to focus on are the sensational cases. If there's
an indication that a family member may be involved, the
media doesn't want to cover it. Mark Klaz, father of
(14:40):
twelve year old polyclass who was kidnapped and murdered in Petaluma, California,
nineteen ninety three, said this was an accurate criticism. He added, quote,
there are other kinds of biases as well. There's an
age bias, certainly the younger kids get much more attention
than the older kids, and a gender bias. You see
(15:00):
much more attention being paid to girls than you do
to boys. For Danielle's case, it's possible that because law
enforcement classified it as a runaway, that the case was
not prioritized as news. And when you think about it,
how many cases of child runaways do you remember being
a huge deal in the media. Months later, Danielle's name
(15:24):
did start to show up in articles. In February of
two thousand and two, the Pensacola News Journal put out
a story titled missing Children more being found, but some elusive.
In the article, journalist Alan Gomez wrote that cases like
Danielle's were becoming quote less frequent locally as area law
(15:45):
enforcement agencies take steps to dealing with missing juveniles. In
the article, investigator Jimmy James was featured, as he was
the lead on Danielle's case at the time. He stated
that he was in touch with Danielle's mother, Susan Da
every week, but that the case was growing cold. Susan
Bell had criticism of the police for years, stating that
(16:08):
they were quote not doing anything, and even that her
phone calls to investigators were not being returned. The family
held a candlelight vigil on the one year anniversary of
Danielle's disappearance. Loved ones gathered at the National Missing Children's
Monument located in Pensacola. There was a shift in tone
(16:31):
over the next couple of years. The family went from
hoping Danielle would walk through the front door to realizing
they were most likely searching for her body. In two
thousand and four, to honor Danielle's seventeenth birthday, about thirty
friends and family members gathered near the park where Danielle
was seen the night she disappeared. To assist law enforcement
(16:54):
in searching for the missing girl. The Class Kids Foundation
Center for Missing Children again launching searches in and around
the surrounding areas. More than three hundred volunteers had gathered
that summer alone. Cadaver dogs were brought in, but.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
Nothing was found.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
The attention to the case did spark renewed interest, and
Leeds began coming in to the police. By two thousand
and five, Danielle's family was reflecting on what would have
been her graduation from high school. Susan Bell said at
the time, quote, we feel certain that she met with
foul play. I'm not going to stop until my baby's
(17:35):
body is recovered and until anyone and everyone who had
anything to do with this is put exactly where they
need to be put. In two thousand and six, and
arrest was made. Alfredo Sanchez was twenty nine years old
by this time. He was charged with Lewde and Lasivia's
battery and molestation. He confessed to engaging in a sexual
(17:58):
relationship with Danielle Bell in two thousand and one. He
also had a pending charge of sex with a sixteen
year old. What do we know about Alfredo Sanchez? Beside
his obvious predatory behaviors, his rap sheet goes back to
nineteen ninety three, and in the early two thousands, he
was charged several times for sexual assault involving miners. In
(18:22):
court documents, Sanchez says that he informed investigators immediately following
Daniel's disappearance that the two were involved in an intimate relationship.
He was not arrested or charged until years later. What
also came out at the time Sanchez was going through
the court system was how many people were allegedly aware
(18:43):
of his sexual relationship with the underage Danielle Bell. Multiple
friends of Danielle's confirmed that they often saw the pair
together and that they were dating. Sanchez claimed that when
interviewed by police in two thousand and one, he was
unaware of Daniel's age. He submitted to two polygraph examinations
(19:05):
in two thousand and two. The results were inconclusive but
did not contain any questions regarding a sexual relationship with
Danielle Alfredo. Sanchez attempted to have his charges dismissed if
he had told investigators in two thousand and one that
he was having a relationship with a fourteen year old,
he says he should have been arrested then the statute
(19:28):
of limitations expired by the time he was charged, but
investigator Jimmy James said that if Sanchez had told him
this in two thousand and one, he would have been arrested.
Sanchez's attorney could not find any documentation to show that
investigators were aware of the defendant's relationship with Danielle. One
(19:49):
court document said, quote, it seems highly unlikely that out
of all of these independent witnesses, many who were presumably
previously interviewed by Officer James or perhaps Officer Fillingham, no
one ever mentioned that she was having a sexual relationship
with the defendant and or that she may have been
(20:10):
pregnant with his child. As it appears that a motion
to dismiss based on the expiration of the statute of
limitations would have merit prejudice is established. Alfredo Sanchez is
currently residing at Santa Rosa Correctional Facility in Florida, where
he's serving a forty year sentence for the multiple charges
related to sexual abuse against miners. What about the other
(20:33):
persons of interest in Daniel's story.
Speaker 4 (20:37):
Robert Bassett is in and out of prison constantly for violent,
violent crimes against women, repetitively, and somehow he keeps getting out.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
I personally think that there might be a deal that
could be made. I mean, you know, that might be
very selfish of me to think that, you know, Alfredo Sanchez,
a known pedophile, could be walking the streets bret In
Exchange I have my sister's body. I recognize that that's
very selfish. However, I feel that Robert Bassett poses a
(21:11):
greater threat to society than Alfredo Sanchez.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
At the same time, Robert Bassett has been sentenced to
prison for felony battery, simple battery, and aggravated stalking, appearing
in court in twenty twenty on charges related to six
different cases, including one involving his wife as well as
other women. In twenty ten, police went to the home
of where Danielle was last seen. Robert Bassett's septic tank
(21:38):
was searched, but nothing was found in Details about what
prompted the search were not made public. While sitting down
and getting to know Bonnie, one aspect of Danielle's story
kept coming up, and that is the questionable actions of
their mother, Susan Bell.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Growing up, my mom always had a drug addiction problem,
and looking back at things, she hit it really well,
especially for my you know, chef dad. And I can
tell you that when I was a teenager, I was
smoking pot with my mom and even tried a few
hardcore drugs later in my teen years with my mom.
(22:23):
So knowing that daniel had a rock of supervision how
my mom already was. I can totally see how she
might have been doing like hardcore drugsalist Danielle, and I
also believe that my mom willingly allowed my sister to
be involved with a twenty four year old man in
exchange for free drugs. When Danielle went missing, it was
(22:50):
a shock to find out that she had been involved
with alferdosantas on the level of what she was, I
would say within the first six months after Danielle went missing,
I had become suspicious of my mom's level of involvement
because I had heard rumors that my mom was pimping
Danielle out for a drug. I had no verifiable evidence
(23:13):
or information. Until twenty nineteen, my mom had become extremely
strung out. At that point in time, I had very
little to do with her. I started getting phone calls
from people that knew my mom saying that she was prostituting.
And till that point, you know, I had not really
(23:34):
spoken about the rumors that I had heard early on
with many people. So when I got this information, I
was like, Yeah, this is something that I've always been
a little curious about, a little suspicious about. So I
looked into it and then verified that she was indeed prostituting,
and from that point I turned the information over to
(23:55):
the Escambia County Sheriff's office. I asked them to question
her what extent had she been questioned too in the past,
because I thought it was a very viable, key piece
of information.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Unfortunately, Bonnie tells me that the police never followed through
on questioning Susan Bell any further. That request had come
into Escambia County Sheriff's office in the summer of twenty nineteen.
Susan Bell passed away in October of twenty twenty. Here,
Bonnie talks about how she believes it wasn't just neglect
(24:29):
that led Danielle to become involved with the wrong people.
Speaker 2 (24:33):
My mom did show her commitment to trying to find Danielle.
I don't think that my mom was there when Danielle
was murdered. I don't think that at all. I think
that she set her daughter of her failure through neglect
is what I think, and crackticking her own daughter. At
(24:53):
the end of the day, it's a transaction. You're letting
your daughter have sexual relationship with a grown man. She's fourteen,
he's twenty four and you're getting free drugs. That is
called trafficking.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
Bonnie demanded answers from her mom, but felt she never
truly got them.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
She was basically on the streets. I gave them her
no location and they never followed up. It was extremely
apathetic in my opinion. Before Danielle went missing, my mom
cling to have known two to three weeks before about
(25:34):
Danielle being pregnant by Alfredo Sanchez, and then you're still
gonna let your kid hang out with this dude, Like,
what are you? What are you doing? It doesn't make
any sense. And that was one thing that I always
kind of picked at with my mom when I was
when we would talk about it, and again the response
(25:54):
always was I did the best with what I had.
It just didn't add It just didn't add up. It's distorted,
sick thinking at the minimum. So it's sad, it's tragic
at the same time. But my wishes is that the
(26:14):
police would have questioned her heavily in the beginning because
she held pieces that only only she's gonna know. I
just I think back to the fact that they didn't
question her, and it just infuriates me to be honest
with you, like all right, it makes me very angry.
I'm bash forth by it. Twenty four years later, I
(26:35):
remember when I was questioned by the police. I told
him everything I knew, you know that the incident with Alfriyo,
what our home life was like in detail, in detail,
and at that point I'm confused. I don't know what's
going on, so I'm like dumping this information. My only
hope is that you're gonna do your job, and it's
(26:57):
just been pulling teeth, get them not only fouler up
around leads, but to answerve questions about why certain things
weren't done in the very beginning.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
Much of what Bonnie has been frustrated with is sadly
the same things I hear from nearly every single family
I work with. Law enforcement agencies are either understaffed or
undertrained in working missing persons cases and homicides. Families don't
feel heard. In fact, they feel dismissed, and in many
instances can't even get a call back from investigators. It's
(27:34):
frustrating and ultimately leads loved ones to the media, including
social media, which Bonnie has been active on in hopes
of getting new attention on the case.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
The misconceptions, the misinformation, it's rampant in it's in Danielle's
case specifically, and in the broader spectrum of how we
view handling these cases. It's something has to change, Something
has to change. Personally, I think it's an epidemic in
our country. Way too many missing people, way too many
(28:08):
core cases, way too many pedophiles walk in the streets,
way too many when they can't answer basic questions like
was my mother never given a lie detect our test?
There's a problem they'd lost for nine one one call
too to the original report. Now there has the original
police report, but the nine one call is missing. And
(28:30):
I am so frustrated and so exhausted of getting their pushback,
and they're laying excuses. I didn't just fall off the
turn up truck yesterday.
Speaker 1 (28:42):
Still, Bonnie does have gratitude for two individuals that she
says truly made a difference.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We got really lucky on two aspects, the first of
which is Brad Dennis, who was the director of a
search and rescue team. He conducted several searches for Danielle.
And then we had this amazing detective by the name
of Mark Schmeister who got assigned to Danielle's case in
two thousand and five, and through his work was where
(29:11):
we were able to really put the pieces together. Alfredo
Sanchez was sentenced to forty plus years for two counts
of lude and Lucidia's behavior. But I was amazing, and
then he went on to another agency, probably with better
paye who can blame him. I was very sad to
see him go, but he was amazing. I mean, if
it weren't for him, we wouldn't even have Alfredo Santas
(29:35):
and jail ra. I've been asked in the past, does
that bring me justice? Shure. I want him to be
held accountable for what he did, but it doesn't bring
my sister's body back.
Speaker 1 (29:46):
In twenty thirteen, Robert Bassett allegedly had a concerning interaction
on Facebook, which highlighted to Bonnie once again that there's
an ongoing issue with follow up in this investigation.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Robert Bassett, it was posting and what was a predominantly
African American Facebook group from Pensacola, the local area, and
in that group he starts arguing with these women and
one of them ask him, where's that missing white girl?
You were last seeing with Danielle, and he replies with
(30:20):
in the hub and where you need to be. That
was screenshot and said to me. I reported that to
the police. They never looked into it. I'm not going
to continue to be dismissed and I am certainly not
going to accept this as an answer because this is lazy, lazy,
apathetic police work at a bar minim. I don't care
(30:42):
that you don't have resources. I don't care that you
have a new team and you're not up to speed
with the Danielle Bell case. I keep saying this, I
don't care. It's not about problem. Figure it out and
do something or I'm growing to and that's what I'm doing.
I went back and met with the Sheriff's department in
April last year, and I was like, Hey, you didn't
(31:05):
follow them the information about my mom, you didn't follow
up and the information I gave you about Robert Bassett
posting where he put her body in a face group.
What are we doing? What are we going to do
to move forward?
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (31:19):
You know, we care. I remember seeing the girl board
about her. I don't care if you care about in
her cage. I do not care. I want to know
what your definition of active is, because what I think
is active and what you're doing are two totally different things.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
So here we are twenty twenty five and Bonnie isn't
giving up.
Speaker 2 (31:40):
I absolutely want justice served, but you know what, I
want to know what happened to my sister's spotting. I
want to know where her body is. I want to
be able to put it to rest. My stepdad has
gone through pure hell with this. He needs closure. I
need closure, and the rest of our family needs closure.
And that's what I I'm working towards. Plus my other
(32:02):
objective straight up is to keep Rabber Bassett off the street.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Here is today's call to action. The following information describes
Danielle Bell's physical characteristics at the time of her disappearance.
Thank you to the Charlie Project for this write up.
Danielle Bell was fourteen at the time of her disappearance,
a Caucasian female five foot four, one hundred and ten
(32:26):
to one hundred and twenty pounds with light brown hair
and blue eyes. The night she went missing, Danielle was
wearing a sky blue halter top with glitter in the fabric,
a blue Tommy Hill figure jacket, black pants, black dress,
shoes with a medium heel, a dolphin shaped ring, a
heart shaped ring, a silver neck chain, diamond earrings, a
(32:48):
gold ring set with an emerald and two diamonds, and
a gold ring set with a ruby and a garnet.
She was carrying a Tommy Hill figure purse. Danielle would
be thirty seven years old as of this recording. Somebody
knows something, so please do the right thing.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
I'm just gonna keep telling her story. I think that
if you are from the Cantonment or Escambia County, Florida area,
you should be very upset, not only at the injustice
you know that's happened to Danielle Bell, but the apathetic
police work that has been going on as far as action,
you know. I want everyone to share Danielle's story. If
(33:30):
you have information about Danielle's whereabouts, you can find me
on social media. I'm on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok
under missing Child Danielle Bell. Also, there's an email address
that you can email Justice for Danielle Bell at gmail
(33:50):
dot com. And today I set up a phone line
a five oh five six.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Five three two four seven the Escambia County Sheriff's Office
Major Crimes Unit still has Danielle's case. They can be
reached at eight five zero four three six nine five
eight zero, or anyone with tips can contact crime Stoppers
at eight five zero four three three stop. Thank you
(34:21):
so much to Bonnie for sharing Danielle's story with us.
Keep fighting. Thank you so much for listening. Method and
Madness is a completely independent podcast, written, produced and hosted
by me. To find out more about the show, including
access to all episodes, visit Methodimadness podcast dot com. To
(34:44):
support the show, consider leaving a rating or a review,
and make sure you share the episode. To connect, I'm
on Instagram at Method and Madness Pod, and you can
find me on TikTok and Facebook as well to chat,
suggest a case, or to discuss the episode. Reach out
to me at Method and Madness Pod at gmail dot com.
(35:06):
That's it for this week. Until next time, take care
of yourself.
Speaker 2 (35:10):
You matter.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
For crisis support, text hello to seven four one seven
four one
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