Still Seeking Justice: Danielle Bell

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0:29DeeDee's Discounts Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney and this is Voices for Justice.

1:02Today I'm introducing a new series called Still Seeking Justice. Over the years, Voices for Justice has shared the stories of many families searching for answers. But those cases didn't stop moving when an episode ended. Families continued making calls, following leads, pushing for accountability, and finding new ways to keep their loved ones' names in the public eye. Still Seeking Justice is my commitment to return to those families. In these episodes, I'll connect with people previously featured on the show to learn what's changed, what still needs attention, and most importantly, exactly how we can help now.

1:40For the first installment, we're returning to the case of Danielle Bell. If you haven't listened to that episode, I definitely recommend going back and listening to that first. But as a brief overview, Danielle was just 14 years old when she disappeared from Cantonment, Florida, in September of 2001. She was last known to have attended a party, but nearly two days passed before she was reported missing. Authorities initially classified Danielle as a runaway, a label her sister Bonnie believes cost the investigation critical time and resources. Nearly 25 years later, Danielle has never been found, and no one has been held accountable for her disappearance.

2:18When I first shared Danielle's story in November of 2024, Bonnie had already been told that her sister's case was not being actively investigated. But since then, a tremendous amount has changed. Danielle's family is now working with private investigators. Media coverage has generated dozens of tips, and Bonnie was able to give those investigators a spreadsheet containing 40 separate leads. In less than eight months, they followed up on every single one of them, developed additional information, and began working towards several new searches. One search has already been conducted, and Bonnie's now waiting for searches of two additional locations.

2:58Danielle's case has also received renewed public attention, and law enforcement now describes the investigation as active. But of course, significant questions still remain, along with promises Bonnie says have not been fulfilled. Bonnie's also looking beyond her sister's case and asking what we need to change to prevent another missing child from being failed in the same ways. She's developing an initiative she's currently calling Danielle's Law. It would push for missing children to be treated as an immediate priority, eliminate the runaway label, require guardians to report a child missing within a reasonable amount of time, establish consistent questions and documentation practices, and ensure that officers receive trauma-informed training.

3:41This conversation is about the progress that can happen when families and communities refuse to stop applying pressure. It's also about the enormous personal cost of advocacy, the failures that still need to be addressed, and of course, Bonnie's determination to create a legacy for her sister who once dreamed of going into law herself. But without further introduction, here is my conversation with Danielle Bell's sister, Bonnie. So, Bonnie, welcome back. I know the last time we recorded was like the end of 2024. And for somebody who hasn't heard that episode and hasn't followed like every single development since, what do you think is the biggest thing that's changed in Danielle's case?

4:26uh well we now have a private investigator through uh pi for the missing who i was connected with through advocacy con and additionally there has been a search conducted off of rocky branch road in cantonment florida for danielle and nothing was found we are currently waiting for them to do two more searches on two new locations. We got a lot of leads through the coverage that we got back in 2024, 2025. We did a News Nation episode and Nancy Grace picked it up in December of 2025, of course you, and then I did a bunch of other smaller podcast interviews. So those brought in a lot of leads. And when the private investigators got the case, I was able to give them a spreadsheet of 40 different leads that we had collected through social media.

5:30And they have had the case. So not even eight full months, and they have chased every single one of those leads down, brought in new leads, and are working to move forward on some of the bigger parts of this. So that would be working with the sheriff's department to question the main people of interest. Robert Bassett is back in prison until the end of October. He's in a Holmes work camp in Florida for violating his probation where he contacted the child of one of his assault victims, which was breaking the protection order so he'll be back out so um i hope that they are able to get and question him before he gets out yeah i mean that would be amazing and it seems like so much has changed since we first talked about danielle's case i remember when we did that episode you'd recently been told that her case wasn't even being actively investigated and then i saw in february of 2025 that detective hall publicly described the case as active and said that the national center for missing and exploited children was looking into it do you know what changed was that real uh okay so he did say that and he also referred to 13 binders of information in the Danielle Bell case.

7:09He has become active after receiving an enormous amount of community pressure and pressure from national coverage and my dad calling him every week and giving him leaves.

7:28So that's where that sits. Yeah. I mean, I believe that media pressure moves mountains. And I think that this is another great example of that. Now, did anything come of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reviewing the case at all? Like, did that go anywhere? To my knowledge, they have not reviewed it. I went to CrimeCon when it was in Denver, and I met with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and they had discovered that Danielle's age-progressed picture hasn't been updated and promised me that they would get that taken care of, as well as have an advocate reach out to me.

8:08and after I contacted them as a follow-up and some other advocates have contacted them for a follow-up, we haven't received any response. Oh, I'm sorry. That's really disappointing. But I think it's important to talk about, you know, and I think that we can have these conversations and still recognize the great work that they do and the great work that still needs to be done to ensure that people like you, people like Danielle, don't slip through the cracks. Agreed. I mean, and that's why, you know, I'm still trying to find ways to advocate for her, which is, you know, Danielle's Law, which I'm thinking about renaming.

8:50I don't know, since there was another one called Danielle's Law. I don't know. Anyways, but I'm trying to just take a holistic approach right now and changing the way that missing children cases are handled, specifically with response time, questioning and documentation and trauma informed care skills for police officers and detectives when they're conducting interviews. those are some of the things that are important and that I think would have made a big difference in Danielle's case. Additionally, holding a guardian accountable if they don't immediately report a child missing, like my mother waiting 48 hours.

9:36So at this point, you know, we are still hoping that they do follow through with conducting those other searches, but it's a different ball game for me right now because instead of collecting all of those leads, which was extremely overwhelming and took its toll for sure. You know, trying to make sure that people have an understanding of what prevention looks like, what aftercare looks like, what advocacy looks like. And quite frankly, I want to leave a legacy for my sister. I don't want her name to be forgotten. And so that's where my focus is. And I don't know where that's going to take me completely, but Danielle's Law right now is the number one priority.

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12:47Yeah, I mean, let's talk about it. I want to get into like the nitty gritty, right? So like, let's start from the beginning. What inspired you to create this petition to want to move forward with Danielle's Law? And what is it?

13:03well when i started thinking about what i wanted to do next or work on next like i said it was a holistic approach like i'm one of those people i want to just go right straight to the source just like i'm like why are we doing all of this other crazy stuff in my sister's case and not going straight to the three people that we know know something right so that's just my take uh so for this after seeing countless cases and thinking through how my sister's case was handled um and i have this in the change.org petition but the key failures were the police ignoring uh reports of her relationship when quotations relationship which was actually sexual assault against he was 24 she was 14 and that was never acted upon um nobody questioned it at first and it prolonged response basically um no immediate search of the party location or the suspect's homes i'm fully convinced that if they had followed my mom and called at least by 6 a.m.

14:23Saturday morning, which is a generous amount of time. Right. Maybe they would have been able to go to Robert Bassett's house. Maybe they would have been able to track it quickly enough. You know, it's just stuff like that. I just, oh, it makes me so. Maybe it's a little bit of rage that makes me want to do this stuff. But, you know it's just all of these things and the misclassification as a runaway why are we even using the term runaway they classified my sister as a runaway now we know foul play was suspected and another thing that drives me absolutely bonkers is when you see agencies posting missing persons posters and they have the label habitual runaway uh habitual and i'm like okay well if they are a habitual runaway, why are we not looking into the home?

15:15Exactly. Why are we not using these best practices to protect the most vulnerable in our society? And that's where it just, oh, I know. So that's really where the passion comes from. Yeah. And why are we pretending that, you know, kids labeled as a runaway are still not missing children when they are? right right it's very frustrating and so you know a lot of these you know crossover from Danielle's case to so many other cases and I've talked to other family members and it after you see the same things over and over again the same themes and a lot of cases unsolved homicides missing persons, missing children, etc.

16:04It becomes really frustrating. And sitting back and not doing anything is just non-negotiable for me. So I'm really hoping to make a change with this. I have absolutely no idea how. I'm just collecting signatures now. That's okay. I mean, that's where it starts, right? I mean, we all have to start somewhere and I think it's fantastic. I want to give the listeners a really good idea of what this means. So let's say that Danielle's law is enacted tomorrow and a 14-year-old disappears in Florida, what's going to be different under Danielle's law? That's a really, really great question. So for me, the parent must report the child missing within a reasonable amount of time.

16:52And that's where it gets sticky if you compare it to something like in my mother's case. She waited and Danielle went missing on Friday night. She waited until Sunday. That's punishable by law. I mean, there has to be a reasonable amount of time. That is neglectful. It's neglectful yet where are we holding people accountable? Where was my mom held accountable on that, you know? We find out the reason behind it was this was not an uncommon thing. It was not uncommon for her to not know where my sister was for an entire weekend. So that changes. The elimination of the runaway label, again, a missing child is a missing child, no exceptions.

17:41Because that label delays the resources that are needed. So an immediate response for a missing child, that is put on top priority, just like a murder. It's not, you know, we're not waiting two hours to respond to this. We're responding immediately and we are asking the correct questions. And those correct questions are, you know, the ones that they probably are already asking in most cases. Not always. But trying to dive in and find out who is the child around most of the time. You know, if ask specific questions. Are there any grown men or suspicious or people that you would say are unordinary friends of hers?

18:29Like you would think a 14-year-old girl would have nothing but other 14-year-old girl friends, right? Ideally, ideally. Not grown men who are abusing them. Yeah. Documented and then questioned. And time is of the essence. So we know this. our agencies are even telling us this, but we're not acting accordingly. What gives? No, I mean, obviously I totally agree. You know this. I mean, I think it's a great initiative, right? We want to eliminate that runaway label. We want to make sure that there are penalties in place for parents who don't report. And I know that you wanted to ensure that there was a consistent list of questions to ask to ensure that there's a proper investigation from the start.

19:15All of those, I think, make like it just common sense. And I think that there are things that the general public sometimes believe is already happening when it's not. I don't think so many people understand that when a child is reported as a runaway, oftentimes almost nothing is done. Like they literally just sit and wait for them to come back. And then if something pops up, it becomes an investigation, which I think is insane. right it's it is insane that's why i'm saying time is of the essence and these questions have to be documented somewhere and and to think that you take a report you put up a flyer that that's all that you do because that's what most of them are doing that's what they're doing i hate to say it like that but that is unless they have someone come to them they're very rarely going out and seeking the answers.

20:13They're waiting for the answers to come back to them. This episode of Voices for Justice is sponsored by Quince. Does anyone else feel like August is the Sunday of summer? It's the perfect time to hit reset before the autumn rush. And for me, that always starts with my wardrobe. Quince proves you don't need a crowded closet to look incredible. You just need the right pieces. Quince specializes in effortless, high-quality essentials, like ultra soft organic cotton and premium Mongolian cashmere sweaters. They are beautifully tailored, built to last, and transition seamlessly from morning meetings to dinner.

20:49I just got back from a week-long trip, and let me tell you about half my suitcase was quince. I keep reaching for their linen pants and dresses, especially in the warmer weather. But I can tell you that it's not just apparel. I've tried their jewelry, their candles, and most recently the Supergoop sunscreen and their collagen powder. Both are amazing. Quince really does have a little bit of everything for everyone. Upgrade your everyday. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com slash justice. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK too.

21:27That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash justice.

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23:03oh yeah a thousand percent they're just like waiting for it to fall in their laps which drives me insane um have you talked to danielle's detectives about this um so the last time i talked to the detectives was 2024 and they made me several promises that didn't follow through. My dad joined me in my fight. He calls them every week now because they don't want to talk to me. So I, you know, I'm a pain in the ass to them. So they don't want to, they don't want to talk to me and they very rarely respond to him appropriately, but he's pretty, he's, I mean, I get my vigilance from somewhere. I mean, let's be real.

23:54This is the one time I think, not the one time, but I think it's a very appropriate scenario where you can be very forward and very not aggressive. Aggressive is not the right word. I think just insistent about ensuring that your missing daughter is the top priority. I don't think that's a crazy thing to do. No, neither do I. I mean, you know, and of course, we feel like we shouldn't have to go through those efforts and we have our moments. He and I, you know, get a report from the private investigator every Friday. They deliver mine by email and they call him. And then he and I usually talk afterwards and we vent out our frustrations.

24:36And yeah, I mean, it's so it's, it's nice to have that camaraderie with him and feel like we have other people on our team, the private investigators, Gary and Tamela Martin. So if you do have information in the Danielle Bell case, you will want to contact them at 850-758-0004. They're fantastic. But, you know, it's just a matter of applying common sense, like you said on a lot of these things. Well, and I feel like the public may not know that in these long-term cases like you and I are experiencing, right, with our sisters, you can go years without hearing from detectives. If you aren't on top of it, they'll just forget about it or, you know, just not communicate with you in some instances.

25:21So I see nothing wrong with reaching out, you know, weekly and saying, what's the latest? It's their job. Yeah, I mean, and, you know, we do have to do that. And sometimes, you know, it's exhausting and we just push through in hopes that it makes a difference. You know, we're thankful that one search was done. but we're not you know we're not backing down we're not backing off he's still calling I'm still gonna post on social media we're still gonna go on national news we're still gonna keep pushing for answers and that's just the way it's gonna be yeah no I love it well and I know that you've said that Danielle you know thought about going into law so I feel like this is kind of perfect you know in a way well really directly her legacy is going to help children and I think that that's incredible.

26:14Right. And that's, you know, where I'm moving towards is like, how can I do that for her? And I'm so glad to have the space to do that now and not taking in all of those leads anymore because that, like I said earlier, was taxing. And so I would love to see a Scamia County Sheriff's Office actually take a look at this petition and see what of these practices they could implement without a law being implemented, you know, being a leader of change. Yeah, they have the greatest opportunity to do that, right? And I've seen it. It's not unheard of. I've spoken to law enforcement who are totally on board with this and just as frustrated with this runaway label and the processes they have to adhere to as the families are.

27:09So I think that it's not like it used to be where it felt like all of law enforcement was against families at one point. You know what I mean? I think some of these officers and people in positions of power are coming around, thank goodness. Yeah, I can see change starting to happen in a lot of places, And it gives me hope. And I hope in my lifetime that we see it happen in every state, every city, every county where these cases are handled appropriately. and that we're putting children at the forefront of when we think about protection and care and justice and those that, you know, can't do it for themselves.

28:01I mean, we see that in minorities, you know, such as the MMIW movement, missing and murdered Indigenous women and how hard they've had to work to make change too. And it's just when you start looking at these populations of the most vulnerable, it's concerning. It's concerning. Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, we know that, you know, there's a certain demographic, especially a certain income level too, where you just get more resources in these cases. And it's so frustrating because it feels like, you know, why do we have police departments if they're not going to protect and try to solve cases regarding children, no matter their economic status or skin color.