Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - DID MOM TRADE DAUGHTER, 14, FOR DRUGS? WHERE’S DANIELLE?

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

Danielle Bell is very outgoing, a cheerleader with lots of friends, and loves spending time with her older sister, Bonnie, taking pictures at the beach. Danielle's home life with her mother, Susan, is not strict and she often doesn't know where her daughter is or who she is hanging with most days.  Susan's older daughter, Bonnie, says Susan is a known to be struggling in her daily life, which is why plans were made for Danielle to move in with her father, Matt Bell. Danielle meets Alfredo Sanchez, and begins to change. Friends don't like Sanchez, he scares them, and they don't like the idea he is 24 and Danielle is just 14. Danielle begins to drift from her friends, spending more time with Sanchez and his much older friends. Danielle tells her mother and a few friends she is pregnant with Sanchez baby and also shares to not repeat because Sanchez says he will kill her if she tells anyone. On Friday night, September 28, Danielle is at Heritage Park in Cantonment near the Sanchez home, hanging out with Sanchez and some of his friends when they decide to go to a party at the home of Sanchez friend, Robert Bassett. Danielle gets in a white Lincoln town car with Sanchez younger brother, Alex, and drives to 588 Cedar Tree Lane. A missing person report is filed on the night of September 30th and investigators immediately begin searching. Danielle is seen getting into a White Lincoln Town Car around 11:30pm. Witnesses report seeing Danielle at the home of Robert Bassett and that sighting is allegely the last time Danielle was seen alive, ever.                See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Did mom trade her little girl just 14 for drugs? Tonight, where is Danielle? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us.

In September of 2001, Danielle vanished without a trace. leaving behind a mystery that has left her loved ones desperate for answers. As we all gather together this holiday season, whether it's around a manger scene, a Christmas tree, or a menorah, we're together as a family. Not everyone has that blessing, that luxury to be together during the holidays. Tonight, please help us bring them home for Christmas. People across our country missing, sometimes for days, sometimes for hours, sometimes for years. Won't you help us bring them home for Christmas? Did her mother exchange her?

That really doesn't even sound like the right verb for drugs. Tonight, where is 14-year-old Danielle? Let's start at the beginning. Listen. Danielle is outgoing and popular. a cheerleader with friends. Love spending time with her older sister, Bonnie. Danielle's home life with Mother Susan is less than straight.

Susan doesn't always know where her daughter is. Susan's older daughter, Bonnie, says Susan is a drug addict and plans have been made for Danielle to move in with her father, Matt Bell. That must be excruciating for a parent to have to let the child, the apple of their either heart, be with another. another parent that is a known drug addict, possibly worse, excruciating. So what does dad do? He launches a battle to get Danielle with him. Joining me, an incredible guest. Danielle's father, Matt, and another incredible guest, her sister, Bonnie. To Matt and Bonnie, I want to thank you for

being with us and apologize to you that you have somehow, I'm sure this wasn't your life plan to end up on national TV looking for Danielle. I cannot even imagine that. I thought I knew everything after my fiancé was murdered, everything about grief until I had children. And the thought of losing one of them is just, I can't take it. Matt Bell joining me. This is Danielle's father. When did you decide that you had to get Danielle with you full time? Well, I'd went over to Danielle and I bought her groceries

every week. I got her, you know, I always had her insurance and kept my thing paid for for whatever she needed. And she would call me and say, hey, I don't have any groceries. I mean, I tried to get her to come live with me, but she said, well, I'm, you know, I don't really want to leave mom. And I said, well, I said, when you get ready, you let me know. And you can come to my house. So the Friday before she came up missing, seen her, and she said she had had enough of her mom's mess and was ready to come live with me. And I said, pack your stuff. Let's go. And she said, well, I want to go spend time with Jennifer, which Jennifer was one of her best friends. And she was the sweetest little girl and said she wanted to spend time with her over the weekend and i said well

that's fine i said if that's what you want to do so i gave her some money and i said just ride home with your brother monday from school and then i got to call sunday night from my ex saying hey daniel didn't come home and uh she wanted you know if i thought she needed to call the police I said, really? I said, you call me Sunday night? You know, my daughter didn't show on? I'm sorry. And so I told her to call the police, and I was on my way.

And that's just when it all started. And I've, you know, heard some horrible things, and I don't, it's hard to even go back there with that. But just for anybody with any kind of. information for Danielle just please bring her home the not no one is the hardest part and bless Bonnie's heart man she's put in some time with podcasts and talking to everybody trying to get this solved and you know we went through all the investigators and we keep talking to them and talking to them and it just seems like you

know there's a new investigator every time we turn around so we always have to wait on them to get caught up with the case and you know We'd just like some closure, it's what we'd like. Matt, I don't understand the justice system. Sometimes it's like a kick in the teeth because I have been the justice system my whole legal career. Why does the system insist that the mother is the one that should have the children when she's clearly, I mean, I died in the wool drug addict, possibly worse, and I hear

what you're saying that Danielle said, I don't want to leave mom. That's the child feeling responsible for taking care of the mom when that's completely bass outwards, Matt. Right. Bonnie Bill joining us. This is Danielle's sister. Bonnie, what has this been like? Your struggle. And I mean struggle. It's like you're fighting your way through chewing gum to get to justice. What has it been like and what keeps you going trying to find Danielle? For me, what I want to say is that it does feel like an uphill battle, you know? For me, I have tried to take a common sense approach with this. There have been leads that I don't feel have been followed up on.

And you know, there are some days that's really, really difficult. I think for me, that keeps me going is the fact that my mom didn't give my sister a fair shot at life, right? And so I'm the one that has come out and said, I believe that my mom trafficked my sister to these two men. And it has not been something that's been easy to digest. And, you know, seeing our dad on here get so emotional is really hard for me as well. So I think all of, knowing that we have family and that Daniel House friends that want this solved. And I truly believe, like, we have an idea of what happened to her. Guess what? Bonnie Bell, I think you're absolutely right.

Guys, these two, the dad, Matt, and the sister Bonnie have done nothing but tried to find Danielle. If you know or think you know anything about this missing girl, please dial 850436-9620. Repeat. 850 436-9620. Listen. Danielle meets Alfredo Sanchez and she begins to change. Friends don't like that he is 24 and Danielle is just 14. Danielle begins to drift from her friends, spending more time with Sanchez and his older friends. This little girl is with a 24 year old man. What in the H-E-E-D-L, a 24-year-old man. Matt, did you have any idea that your little girl is with a grown man?

No. When I came back over to her house Monday after the weekend, she went missing, those two were actually at Susan's house, and she said, that's Danielle's friends. I said, that is not Danielle's friends. I said, she don't have friends like this. I said, y'all need to leave. Y'all don't need to be here. So I had no idea who these people even were.

God bless you, Matt, for throwing their bony asses out. Your daughter didn't need grown men as friends. Now, let me, this is something I didn't know. Matt, are you telling me when your daughter goes missing, the men, many people believe, are responsible for her disappearance were with your ex? They were with her?

Yes. All of them, but it was Alfredo and Roel. Robert wasn't there. And this is a struggle of parents that are forced crammed down their throat to let an unfit parent

take their child. They're stuck with it. There's nothing they can do. He comes over. Danielle is missing, and there's a grown man there, and that's her friend? What's a grown man doing with the little girl? Nothing good. On Friday, September 28th, Daniel is at Heritage Park near the Sanchez home hanging out with Sanchez when they decide to go to a party at the home of Sanchez's friend, Robert Bassett. Daniel gets into a white Lincoln town car with Sanchez's younger brother, Alex, and drive to 58 Cedar Tree Lane. Uh-uh. No. No. No. Uh-uh.

Bonnie Bell. This is Danielle's sister. When my twins go somewhere, I'm like, where are you going? I say it in a nice way. Like, hey, what are you doing? Where are you going? Where are you going? Leave your phone on. I've got you on Life 360. That's what I really mean. They don't walk out without knowing where they're going, here they're going with. They get a warning. If any of you, if any, anybody drinks or you see one joint, you have to leave. You don't have to attack the people, you don't have to say anything. You just have to leave. That's why you have a car. Leave. And, I mean, I say it in a nice way, but how in the world is your little sister, 14 years old, going to some party in a park with grown men? What was your mother doing? Hi? Oh, yeah, she was for sure. Hi. I mean, I have no doubt about that. And I think it's important to note that this wasn't an uncommon occurrence that we found out, you know, like my dad just told you, he came over on Monday, right?

Alfredo Sanchez was there. To all the listeners and viewers tonight, you think this can't happen to you? You think I would never let my child out with a grown man. You don't always know where they're going like, in this case, the mom knew. She was fraternizing. This was her friend that she was handing her daughter over to you on a silver platter. This was Mommy's friend. They were right up in Mommy's home after Danielle disappears.

What does that tell you? You think it can't happen? It can happen. You heard Bonnie just state, no national media has covered this case. let me tell you, you may think that you are far removed from this happening to you or your family and your nice home or you're a nice apartment with your well-behaved children. It's not your child. It's the issue. It's their friends and their friends' friends. That's who you have to worry about. Okay, you're hearing Bonnie and Matt talk about what happens the Sunday night after

she, Danielle, goes missing. Listen. Danielle's father, Matt, expects Daniel to move Monday, October 1st. He gets a call Sunday night from Daniel's mother, who tells Matt, Danielle hasn't come home. She asks Matt if she should call police. Susan also calls her mother asking if she should report Danielle missing. Her own mother and Daniel's father, furious, she hasn't already reported Danielle missing. Sunday night, I get a call about 9 o'clock. said, hey, Daniel never came home Friday.

Did you think I ought to call the law? I said, are you kidding me? I said, you call me on Sunday to let me know my daughter didn't come home for two days? I said, yes, you called the law. That from our friends at W-E-A-R-TV, straight to Matt Bell. Number one, what strikes me about what I just heard is you were this close, this close to having her full-time. She was to move in with you on Monday.

Sunday night, you get this call. Tell me what happened. I just went over there. She said that she tried to call all the friends that she was supposed to stay with a little Jennifer and all this. And nobody said she's seen her. She said she went to a party. I said, what party? I thought she was going to Jennifer's house.

And so she says, well, she ended up going to some party. And now nobody's seen her. And when you talk to the police, they're like, hey, this happens all the time. You know, kids are big kids. They said they'll go away for a couple of days and then they'll be back. And they never know that this is the one that's not going to come back. Okay, that's complete and total. B.S.

Some party. Okay, right there, mommy needs to be strung up. I'm just putting it out there. She went to some party? What party? Where? With who? Who's driving?

Are they wearing a seatbelt? Are they drunk? Are they high? I need to do. more than some party. And then for a cop to say, and believe me, I have been law enforcement in my whole life. So I don't like saying this. Happens all the time if my twins are not at the supper table with a home-cooked meal by me every night of the week, all H.E.W.L. going to break loose because

that will mean one thing and one thing only. They're missing. It does not happen, quote, all the time. That's not true. That's not true, Matt. Yeah, it's

thinking about it is, I go to work every day, and when I go to work, I go right by both of their roads, you go to their houses. So it's a constant reminder every day, you know, And it's just when I go by there, I say a little prayer every day, you know, that she'd come back to us. I just need some closure.

I need to bring her home. Me and Bonnie do. Wait to call police. Should Mommy call police? Yeah. This is what Sister Bonnie said. Danielle does not come home. Our mother does not call the police until Sunday, September 30th.

This is after she calls Danielle's dad and is like, should I call the cops? And my grandmother, my mom's mom, also said she had to encourage her to call the police. So you'll see reports that Danielle went missing on September 30th, which is actually inaccurate. The last time she was seen was September 28th. Bonnie, I can't tell you how it just burns me up on the inside that we didn't even have the right timeline, the beginning. of the timeline, because that's where you start, where you don't know where to start, you start tracking down, when was she last seen alive? What in the H-E-Double-L is wrong with the mother? Should I call police? 36 hours later? Yes, you should call police. Yeah, I mean,

and that was something that's always gotten me about what happened is that she didn't call the lease. I didn't find out that my sister was missing until Monday morning when I just happened to call because I had gotten into an argument with my sister like two weeks prior. And I called just to see how things were going early in the morning. And my mom is hysterical when she answers the phone. I can't make out what she's saying. My grandmother gets on the phone and says, you need to come over here. Your sister's been missing since Friday night. I'm like, what do you mean my sister's been missing since Friday night? No one bothered to tell me. And so my mom, looking back at everything, I'm not surprised. I wish I had answers as to why she was the way she was. But she just was the way she was, unfortunately, because my sister is no longer here because of her. It was not uncommon for our mom to let Danielle go off for an entire weekend, and she would be with Alfredo Sanchez. Am I the only one that finds it unusual, coincidental, or no, probative.

It proves something. At the weekend, Danielle goes missing. The two guys suspected in her disappearance, of course they're innocent until proven guilty, are at mommy's house. Daniel's gone, but they're there. And mommy delays reporting her little girl missing for 30, six. hours. Did she know that they were what? Sex trafficking the little girl, having their way with her before getting rid of her? Why were they at Mommy's house? Why does she let her

daughter go or did she send her daughter to be with them on weekends? Bonnie, did I just hear you state it's not uncommon for mom to let Danielle off for a whole weekend with a grown man, Sanchez? Uh, yeah, come to find out after the fact that it was not uncommon, you know, she, I had talked to some of the, her friends from school and they said that Danielle would come on Fridays with a duffel bag or a backpack of clothes and say that she was going to go hang out with her boyfriend for the weekend and that her mom didn't care. Well, let's hear what mommy Susan Bell has to say. I knew Friday something was not right when she did not come back or she didn't come home or I didn't hear from her I mean but by Sunday evening I knew and that's when I called 911 mm-hmm mm-hmm from our friends at WKRG let's analyze what we just heard by Sunday night she knew something was wrong she didn't know that at 3 a.m. on Friday night or 3 a.m. Saturday

morning that her daughter hadn't come home. The daughter would, mommy would send her to school on Fridays with a duffel bag and she would be sent to a grown man all weekend. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. 14-year-old little girl. This started when she was 13. Listen, a report finally filed. A missing person report filed the night of September 30th, and investigators immediately begin searching. A timeline of activity is built, starting with Danielle in Heritage Park with Sanchez, getting into a white Lincoln town car. Witnesses report Danielle at the home of Robert Bassett, the last time Danielle seen. I'm just getting chills down my spine, thinking of my little girl, alone and unshaprooned. Not with you.

her little friend boy from high school, but with a group of grown men and her at their home? No. What was Mommy thinking? Was it negligence? Did she just not care? Or is it more nefarious? Matt Bell, did your wife have a job? Off and on, just working at convenience stores and stuff like that. She worked at a VCR rental place, so she never really had a good staying job. But yet she had a place to live. She had a vehicle. She had food.

Where was she getting all? that was she compensated in any way for sending her daughter away on weekends to with grown men. Okay, let's pick it up at that party where she has seen last. Listen. At the party, Danielle's friend Tiffany is ready to go home. Sanchez drives the girls to Tiffany's between 1.30 and 2 a.m., but drops Tiffany off and takes Danielle back to the party. So let me understand, Bonnie. She goes to this so-called party in a park with grown men, and the little friend Tiffany doesn't like it and wants to go home. So the little friend goes home. I don't blame her, but Danielle is still at the party. It reminds me there is Danielle cheerleading, a little scrubbed in sunshine. Reminds

me of Natalie Holloway when Natalie left the bar, the casino, with Jorn van der Sloot and the Calpo brothers. Her friends were no longer with her and then she's alone. And tonight we learn making matters much worse. Prior to Daniel's disappearance, she reported to our mother and several of her friends that she thought she was pregnant.

She was allegedly pregnant by a grown man. Matt Bell, did you have any idea this was going on? No, I had no idea. A lot of this stuff I found out way after, it was weeks after, and months after, Danielle came up missing. The last sighting of Danielle was at a party with her 24-year-old boyfriend, amid whispers that she was pregnant with his child. After that, she was never heard from again. I don't know why people keep referring to him. as a 24-year-old boyfriend.

I mean, any relationship, any sex relationship they had is statutory rape. So, Bonnie, while this was happening, did Danielle's mom ever reveal to you what was going on or the nature of mommy's relationship with Sanchez? No. As a matter of fact, about two weeks before Danielle went missing, I had taken. her to Pensacola Beach to have photos made. When we got back to Mom's house, Danielle asked her if she could have a friend come over. And my mom said, yes.

I was there. I made a plate of food. I was eating. Next thing I know, my sister comes in from outside. I asked my mom. I said, what does she do in hanging out with this guy? because my sister additionally asked if they could go for a ride, and my mom can send it to that. It's Sunday night at like 8.39 o'clock.

So I asked my mom, why is she hanging out with this guy that's older than me? And my mom says she babysits for him. From there, my sister gets down at me. So your mom actively lied to you about who Sanchez was. She didn't say anything about her own relationship with Sanchez. nothing at all right and she actively lied about it okay go ahead right and so my sister gets mad at me and it's like bonnie you know mind your own business and stay out of it so i we didn't that's the last time i saw my sister i walked off the door and i didn't hear from my sister for

two weeks which was uncommon i mean we talked often and i saw her um you know at least twice a week or if it was ania was one of my friends that saw her and i didn't find out that my sister was involved in any way other than babysitting alfredo santa's until she goes missing and then that's when i find out that day my mom tells us that my sister told her she was pregnant. It hadn't been confirmed because she had a doctor's appointment the following week. And it was because Alfredo Sanchez had been giving her drugs and alcohol. And it was at that time, I'm like, I just saw you let her be with him two weeks prior to this. Comes to find out her timeline changes. It was two weeks before she went

missing that she found out, three weeks. And it just kept changing and it never added up. So the irony is this doctor appointment, doctor's appointment was just set just after she goes missing. So before the pregnancy could be confirmed by a doctor, she disappears. And it is literally, she's reported missing the night before she set to move in with her dad, which would have ended any relationship, sex relationship with the minor in exchange for drugs deal that was going on. I wonder, Matt Bell, how many times you play this over in your mind, woulda, coulda, shoulda, you asked her to move home with you, you gave them money, you gave them food, you, what keeps you up at night, Mr. Bell?

Failing my daughter. because a dad's supposed to protect their children, and I feel like I failed. You know, the last word she said to me when she walked away from my truck, and I told her just right home, Matthew, she just turned around and told me she loved me, and that was the last time I seen her. And I live that every day. So. Hmm.

It's the biggest regret I got. Bonnie, what memory, what vivid, the most vivid memory of Danielle keeps you awake at night? It was the last day that we spent together, and on the way home, she asked me if I would stop at a pay phone so she could call her friend. And I told her no, I'm taking you back where I got you. And I wish I would have not taken her back where I got her. I should have taken her with me. And she should have been with her dad, you know? And that's kind of, I wish I would have just taken her right then, which I never would have drove her to that house is what I wish I would have done.

Yeah. We know mom was negligent, if not worse, but now a very sinister allegation arises. It is my belief that our mother, Susan Bell, willingly let her daughter be involved with Alfredo Sanchez in exchange for free drugs. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Bonnie Bell, why do you believe mommy traded Danielle for drugs? Well, I think one, if we go through the timeline leading up to it, the inconsistencies and my mother's words and her just changes in the descriptions of the

relationship that she had or that my sister had with Alfredo Sanchez. You know, at that time, I didn't, it didn't dawn on me that she had, would have traded my sister for drugs. And I called my mom and I confronted her about it. And she basically told me she didn't know what I was talking about. She denied any wrong doing with my sister. That's why I believe it's, you know, at least, like you said, willful ignorance. I mean, possibly, but I don't think so. I don't think so. I think Bonnie is right because what we hear from mommy is this,

blaming everybody but herself. Listen. They have messed this case up from the very beginning. Literally messed this case up. They've lost evidence, they've lost paperwork. They've, it's just, it's been ongoing. been ongoing with them. You know, at the time, I could understand because they were scared. So you would be okay with somebody doing this to your kid is how I'm taking it.

So there she's blaming law enforcement for messing the case up that she messed up by not reporting her daughter missing and by allowing her basically sending her off, packing her off literally, on weekends with a group of grown men at just 13 to 14 years old. That sounds from WKRG, our friends there. This guy is no good. How can Mommy not know? He was charged with molesting another little girl. Listen.

After Danielle's disappearance, Sanchez denied knowing the team. Investigators uncover enough evidence to charge Sanchez with felony sexes. offense against a child after multiple people recount knowing about his relationship with Danielle and witnessing them together as a couple. Sanchez is tried and convicted of charges of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child, also of sexual battery on a child. There was some tremendous focus on some of those suspects and they were never eliminated from being possibly responsible for her disappearance. From W.E.A.R. TV. Matt Bell, what does that mean?

They were never eliminated. They just ended it there. Yeah, we have some suspects. They were never eliminated. Where's the investigation? What's happening now? It was a tough start. And whenever Marksmeister took over, he was the one who actually, he was the best.

He went after all of them. And he found all the evidence against them. One lead takes investigation. to a septic tank. The disappearance of Danielle Bell remains an open case and police have followed up on tips received. Police searched the septic tank

at Bassett's home where Danielle was last seen. Investigators did not reveal what led them to the septic tank. Nothing was found. Later, remains were recovered off a dirt road near the home of Sanchez but were determined to not be Danielle's. Bassett responded to a question on social media,

where is Danielle, that missing white girl you was last seen with. His reply was, quote, in the hog pen, blank, where your ugly blank need to be. To Bonnie Bell, where does the investigation and do your sister's disappearance stand now? Well, according to the ESCambia County Sheriff's Office, it is currently an active investigation. I have been challenging them to define what active means. And that's kind of where it sits, you know. I feel that there are several leads that have not been followed up on and that the ball has been drafted in a couple of different areas.

And so for me, I don't, I want them to show me what an active investigation means. And what are the next steps? I don't understand the stonewalling to Matt Bell. What does law enforcement tell you when you call begging for answers? your daughter could be alive right now and some hellhole of a hotel being used as a prostitute. We don't know where she is.

Like I was saying before, when I talked to investigator, there's a new one on there now, and it wasn't too long ago that there was another investigator on there. And it's like it changes so often that there's so much information. They tell you that this is the case that's got the most information on it.

any case that they have and so they have to go through everything to find out you know where what leads have been followed up on what leads have not been followed up on so when you give them something they need to research and see if that's already been done or not done I'm saying well this is new for me so it should be new for you you know so and there's a lot of things I mean there's some things that's in the works to wait towards wintertime when the ground's better to do some searches and stuff so We're just kind of in limbaugh right now, just kind of waiting on them to go through everything. Matt, if your daughter can hear you tonight, what is your message to, Danielle? Please come home.

We love you so much. We don't worry about what's happened. You're our precious gold, and we just want you back home. We'll deal with whatever problems there is. We just love you and miss you so much. Please come back. know or think you know anything about this case. Look at Danielle. Please, we are begging. Call 850-436-96-9-6-20. Repeat. 850-436-96-9-6-20. We wait as justice

unfolds. We remember an American hero, Deputy Sheriff Joshua Bashir's, Jackson County Sheriff's, Mississippi, killed in the line of duty after 21 years on the force, leaving behind two children without a dad. Deputy Sheriff Joshua Bashers. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye for it. This is an I-Heart podcast, Guaranteed Human.