Murder Mountain, Part One: The Danielle Bertolini Story
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This is Murder, She Told, true crime stories from Maine, New England, and small town USA. I'm your host, Kristen Seavey. You can connect with me and suggest your hometown crime at MurderSheTold.com and follow me on Instagram at MurderSheToldPodcast. ♪

The story I have for you this week is the story of my childhood friend, Danielle Bertolini. She and I grew up together in my small hometown of Newport, Maine. We were friends in elementary school and junior high. I remember her as unapologetic and spunky. At 23 years old in 2014, she went missing in Humboldt County, California.

For years, I followed her case on Facebook through the family's updates, seeing and sharing their pain. This is a story that's been in my heart for a long time, I just didn't know how to tell it right. But when I reached out to Danielle's mother to talk to me on the record, she agreed. We sat down at my dining room table and had a surprisingly intimate and tough conversation about Danielle's life and her death.

This is Danielle's mother, Billie Jo Dick, and there are a lot of things she wants you to understand about her daughter. She started by telling me a little about herself. I was born in Bangor in 1971, moved to LA when I was two, lived out in Southern California for about seven, eight years, and then we moved to Northern California, Oregon border.

and I grew up there and went to school at a little school called Redwood Elementary and met some wonderful people. I met Danielle's father there at Redwood and we grew up together for a while and then we left and

moved to Oregon and in 1989 I got pregnant with Danielle and I had her in March of 1990 and she was born in Oregon and

I moved to get away from certain situations out there. It got to be really bad, you know, the kids having to walk through metal detectors in the kindergarten and first grade. I just didn't want that for them. So we moved back here to Maine in Aetna when Danielle was seven, almost eight, back in October of 97.

and lived here since. I asked Billy Jo to paint a picture for me of what Danielle was like as a child. When she was little, she was a little outgoing in the very beginning of her early years, and then she got to be once she could start walking and talking. Danielle took her first step at 13 months old, but you could carry on a conversation at 18 months old because she had quite the vocabulary, but

But once she got to about kindergarten, first grade, she was a little shy and a little standoffish. I mean, she made friends easy, but it took her a little while to actually get close to them. When she was older, her younger sister, Mariah, and her spent so much time together. They were almost inseparable. And then growing up, Danielle, she...

I mean, it was just is different with Danielle than it was with my other kids because Danielle was like night and day compared to Danielle's younger siblings. Danielle grew up hunting and camping and fishing and, you know, she loved all of that stuff. She loved the water.

She was a people person. When she grew up and she was in about the sixth or seventh grade, she started having a voice and no filter. She was boy crazy back in the day. I remember she had her room all plastered with all of these different half-naked posters. All the boy bands. You know, Justin Timberlake and, you know, all of those guys. Backstreet Boys. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

I remember having to go to Burger King when they'd have the NSYNC and Backstreet Boys CDs. You know, they'd give a couple songs out. Mom, we need to go. We need to go, she'd say.

That is so funny. Yeah, it was quite comical. Do you remember the play that we did in fourth grade, the wizard one, It Takes a Wizard? Yes. And I remember Mrs. Monette cast me as Robin Hood, and I remember she was one of my merry men. She wanted like merry ladies instead of merry men. So for some reason, that memory sticks out the most to me. Wasn't that the one where she peed?

I can't remember. There was one of the plays that I think she was laughing so hard towards the end that she ended up peeing her pants. Oh my gosh. But it was a long time ago. I don't even remember which one that was.

Childhood Danielle. This early 2000s period is the most vivid of my memories. I remember our cheerleading team at the Sebastacook Community Center and the routine we did to Mambo No. 5. I remember summertime birthday parties where we'd tie-dye t-shirts and stay up late scaring ourselves silly watching Nightmare on Elm Street, which felt extra creepy being in a house on Elm Street.

I remember going over to her house for a sleepover and watching the Tigger movie and cooking eggs in the morning. And I remember our middle school class trip to the brand new space center in Bangor. We were interviewed by the Bangor Daily News, and when asked about the robotics arm she was testing out inside the Mach space station, Danielle was quoted as saying, this is awesome, rock on. I told Billy Joe what I remembered about Danielle's personality.

I also remember her as like

very friendly and outgoing and like the kind of person that if there was a kid that was being picked on or something, she would stand up for them, whether she got in trouble for it or not. Yeah, she was in trouble a lot for it. Her and her sister both, they were just like that. I mean, they had a heart of gold. They didn't like to see anybody picked on. And she would make you laugh again, even if it was at her own expense, if she could like make you laugh and make your day better. I feel like that was worth it to her. It was. She was always good like that.

And she knew that you were having a bad day. She would do something stupid just to get you to laugh. I asked some other classmates and friends what they remembered about Danielle. Almost all of them mentioned something about her being kind and outgoing and always smiling. She was helpful and tenacious and full of life. She loved telling people how the world worked on the bus and trying new hairstyles. Memories surfaced of singing on the phone to Eminem and riding bikes.

Danielle was a free spirit, and I think everyone admired her for that. She was also a goof, and she loved to play lighthearted pranks. When Danielle's younger sister, Mariah, was about nine months old, we were sitting out on the porch in Crescent City, California, at her grandmother Terry's house, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we were sitting there, and we

We were sitting there playing in the little gravel and they had, I don't know what y'all call them here, but back home we call them potato bugs. They roll up into a little ball. Are they like roly-poly? Yeah, like the roly-poly type bugs. I don't know what they're called really, but Danielle and Mariah were playing in the dirt right there and Danielle says, here, Raya, eat this. Oh no. Eat this, Raya. It's good for you. Mom said it's okay. And I turned around, mom says, what is okay?

And the look on Mariah's face after she chomped on it, it was priceless. And Danielle laughed and laughed. And I mean, that was a good time. That's such a big sister thing to do. Oh, yeah. She was always doing stuff like that. Here, Mariah, hold this frog. Or here, Mariah. And the frog would be peeing all over the place. Here, Mariah, hold the frog. Oh, it was so cute. And...

There was one day that Danielle was being a little sassy and she was four years old. I don't think she really understood the meaning of things quite yet, you know. I turned around and looked at her and I said, Danielle, cut that out. And then she looked at me with this look. I said, oh my God, Danielle, you look like you're a spitting image of your grandma Terry. Oh mom, I didn't spit on my grandma Terry. I'm telling on you. That was pretty cute.

But there's so many memories. I mean, Danielle's favorite holiday was 4th of July. You know, she loved to go camping and she loved to fish. She couldn't wait for fishing. She was constantly, can we go wet a line, mom? Let's go wet a line. Come on, dad, let's go camping, you know. So we were always...

always near the water or always in the woods. And it was much easier to raise kids that way instead of having all the gangs and, you know, all the big city violence that growing up in Oregon and Northern California brought.

High school is where my memories of Danielle taper off. You no longer go from class to class with the same people. Circles change. Responsibilities change. Extracurricular activities take over your life. You're no longer a kid having fun in school. You're an adult in training with a higher level of expectation.

Even though, just a year ago, you were surreptitiously goofing off and passing notes with your buddies when you were supposed to be reading The Giver instead. I didn't know adult Danielle, and I certainly didn't know the hardships she went through shortly after high school. If losing a child at birth is a trigger for you, I suggest skipping ahead five minutes.

Back in 2010, Danielle found out that she was pregnant and she was six and a half months along when they did her first ultrasound. And the ultrasound told her that she was having a boy. So she named him Xavier David. She went into labor at six and a half months along. When they did the amniocentesis, they told her

that her baby had Edwards syndrome, which is a form of trisomy 18. He had an extra Y chromosome, and they told her that he had two tumors on his brain and one kidney, and that he probably wouldn't even take his first breath when he was born, if they even made it full term.

The doctor wanted to send Danielle to Boston to have a late-term abortion because the pregnancy was very dangerous and Danielle could end up losing her life. And Danielle had told the doctor, she said, "Under any circumstances, no, I do not want to have an abortion. I will take my chances. I was pregnant for a reason.

this is what God's life chose for me. So I will be a mom and I will do everything that I can to make sure that my son gets what he needs. And then two days after they gave her all of that news, her water broke and she drove from Ellsworth to Calais because that's where she was living. And, uh,

I got out of work. I worked in the emergency department in Bangor and I drove when I got out of work at 7 o'clock in the morning to Calais because Danielle was in labor and the doctor had said that he's been this type of specialty doctor for 30 plus years and in all of those years he said

This case that Danielle had was his third worst case that he's ever had in his whole career. And he was one of those doctors that was blunt to the point, had no bedside manners, but a very good doctor.

And so when we were in discussing with Danielle, Danielle's grandfather and I were in talking with Danielle and asked her, you know, do you want to hold your son? You know, do you, what do you want to do? You know, it's totally up to you. You know, do you want that picture? Do you, and you know, we were trying to get arrangements going for his service and

for celebration of life and the doctor came in and said well she's gonna go to surgery within the hour we have to take him out piece by piece and I looked at the doctor and I escorted him out of the room and I went up one side of him and down the other you know as a mother would do of anybody that hurt her child because Danielle started screaming you know and they had to sedate her pretty well for that

But he says, Danielle needs to dilate to three and she's not even at one and she's been in labor for 30 hours. So we're taking the baby. And so I went and held Danielle as she cried and I cried myself, you know, but trying to keep it together in front of her was, I think, the hardest watching her go. It's devastating.

through losing a child, you know, you never really think that it's going to happen to you. It always happens to other people. You know, it don't ever happen to the ones that we care about, but it does. She went into surgery. She hemorrhaged quite a bit. We wasn't really sure if she was going to make it there for a while, but she did. She pulled through. She was never the same after that. And

about two months because Xavier was born May 10th and or May 15th, excuse me of 2010 and

Two months after that, Danielle went back out to California. Her biological father lives out there, and a lot of her relatives, most of my family live out there. And she just met up with the wrong people. I asked Billie Jo where in California Danielle moved to, and this is what she said. She went to go work for people on Murder Mountain, which is...

mountain out there where it's marijuana grows and a lot of a lot of dealing a lot of heroin a lot of meth you know it's a lot of everything violence bad up there and when she finally left there she she she called

The last time that I talked to her, she called to let me know that she was ready to leave. She was wanting to tell the stories of the things that she has seen. And she was going to go to law enforcement, but she never made it that far. And that was January 29th.

of 2014. Murder Mountain. This is the nickname for the Rancho Sequoia area in Humboldt County, a super rural county that shepherds the few remaining gorgeous redwood forests and borders California's northern coast. Danielle was living in Fortuna, its only sizable town, population 12,000.

Murder Mountain initially earned its nickname in the early 1980s after serial killer couple James and Susan Carson found refuge there, working off the grid as marijuana workers and hiding out while authorities tried to nab the perpetrator of their crimes. But the name stuck, even after they were caught, because of the many people who still go missing in the area. Netflix even made a documentary series on it called Murder Mountain.

Humboldt County is part of the infamous Emerald Triangle, a cluster of three counties that together make up the largest producer of marijuana in the country. It's also an area where people go to move off the grid, and also an area that's easy to make somebody disappear.

Murder Mountain isn't just known for its illegal production of marijuana, but also for its meth and heroin production, according to an article from The Rolling Stone. A dark corner of sunny California, Chris Hansen described Humboldt County for Crime Watch Daily in 2016 as "a lonely stretch of foggy California coastline that some think of as a doorway to heaven on earth, others as a gateway to hell."

Every time that I've gone out there, and because I've done six searches out there for her and for the gal that went missing six days prior to Danielle. But as soon as you reach that county line from Del Norte to Humboldt, it's like you have a weight sitting on your shoulders because it's so evil and it just like takes the air out of everything there. It's...

as far as Redwoods and, you know, the country, but not to me anymore. Do you think that because she went missing initially in Humboldt County that that kind of painted a picture in people's minds about, like, why she went missing or just in general? Uh,

You know, Danielle was a very beautiful young lady. She had a lot going for her. Perfect little height, perfect little figure. You know, she's just beautiful. Had a mouth on her that wouldn't stop. And she had a heart of gold. But, you know, when you get involved with the people that she did out there, there's no way of getting out of that. There's only one way you leave and it ain't breathing. Danielle got involved with some pretty scary people out there and they

I feel that that's the reason why her case is still unsolved now is because people are scared to say what actually happened. I think that I could agree with you on that. And then I also feel like, you know, cases like that, that do involve something possibly nefarious, that the media just doesn't treat it the same.

which is why people aren't talking about this story as much as they should be. I mean, people should be talking about this a lot, especially with like the number of young women and even men that have gone missing in that area. Like, I don't understand why.

this isn't more national news. Yeah, I don't understand that myself either, because they have a lot of missing people there. But they also have a lot of issues with the drugs. Like anywhere, you know, Maine does too. We have an opioid crisis, just like everybody in the United States and, you know, everywhere else too, probably for that matter. But

Once you're there and sucked in with them people, you don't ever leave. And people consider you a junkie. Straight up. That's what I've had her referred to, to me as a junkie. Well, she may be a junkie to you, but she's still my child. You know, she was my child and I will fight for that junkie no matter what the outcome is, you know, and that's what I've been doing. And I

People still look at her as just being another junkie that was murdered and wrong place, wrong time. And, you know, and other people, I just don't think they know what to think anymore because it happens all the time there. I think it's an incredibly unfair label to place on somebody and then to justify that that label is the reason why something bad happened to them. Because I mean, like she was so young and, um,

You just, you get like wrapped up. I think every person can say a story from their life where they've maybe made bad choices, but like the consequence and the way that like the rest of your story is painted shouldn't be because of that like bad choice that you maybe made at one point in time. Exactly, exactly. Danielle was three weeks away from her 24th birthday. And on her 24th birthday, we were holding a candlelight vigil in Ronan Park in Fortuna, California for her.

January 29th, 2014 was the last time Billie Joe spoke with her daughter. A week and a half later, on February 9th, Danielle was seen in Bridgeville, near the Swains Flat area of Highway 36, getting into the car of an unknown male who was supposedly giving her a ride into town. She was never seen alive again.

Billie Joe filed a missing persons report with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office on February 19th after Danielle hadn't been in contact with her family for over two weeks, something that wasn't normal for her. She and her sister Mariah were close and spoke almost every day. Danielle was initially considered voluntarily missing because of her age and the fact that Humboldt County attracts a lot of young free spirits.

I asked Billie Jo what she remembered about this time and of the last time she saw Danielle. I was in a fog, really. I mean, I had to work for the first, the day that I reported her missing because I did live-in shifts for the job that I work at. I do home health care and

Then I was doing 96 hours at a time. Of course, not working all of that, but working those hours. That's my shift to be there. And my bosses were on vacation in Cancun. So trying, you know, to make sure I had to work my shift last minute, trying to figure out how I'm going to do things, how I'm going to

go try to track the last place that she's been. And then I said, oh yeah, I work with search and rescue. You know, when I was working in the ER, one of the emergency room docs, you know, he is the medical director for search and rescue here in Maine. And so I called and

And I told him who I was and he says, you sound familiar to me. And I said, I do. And he says, oh, you're one of ours. And I said, yes, I work with Bob. And he goes, Bob is my twin brother. And he says, get a white piece of paper out. And Richard Bowie talked to me step by step on the things that I needed to do as soon as I got my boots on the ground out there.

And so before I went out, I went out six days after I reported her missing on February 19th. My daughter Mariah called me first thing in the morning before I left to go to work and she said, "Mom, I just feel like something's wrong." And I said, "You do too?" I said, "I've been feeling like that for a while now." You know, and she goes, "I think you need to report her missing, Mom." Because I hadn't heard from her.

At that point in time when Danielle had gone missing, like the last time that I seen Danielle was in October of 2013 because Mariah's oldest boy, Eli, was on life support in the Seattle Children's Hospital a week after he was born for, I believe it was almost five to six weeks.

Danielle had come up to see Mariah and her nephew at the hospital and stayed with us up there and so when she went missing and Danielle was using bad then and I really didn't understand how bad it was until I seen her and it about broke me because you never want to wish something like that upon your child or anybody else's child for that matter you know and

But to watch her after she already lost her own son, to be there for her baby sister while her son was ill, you know, it kind of touches your heart. And Danielle wrote this big, long letter for all the people. There's a smoking section out at the children's hospital that the people would go to.

And they have the walls plastered in there of all the experiences from the other parents for the children that were there. And Danielle wrote this three-page letter, and she hung it up there for everybody. And I took a picture of it because it just, it still brings tears to my eyes, you know, talking about her own son and

Xavier's death, you know, and how she was trying to deal with that and the dark places that she's gone and, you know, and talked about God and stuff. So, you know, I knew she was in there. She was just struggling to get back to where she was. And that was the last time I'd seen her.

And so, yeah. It's really special, though, that she could find the energy to step up and support her sister despite all of this trauma that she went through and, you know, the ways that she's trying to cope with that trauma, whether they be healthy or not, that, you know, she still has that part of her that's like, I need to step up for my sister because she needs me right now. And that's more important than like my trauma or the way that I feel. Yeah.

And that's the way it was for them, you know. And Danielle was always looking out for her baby sister and baby brother, you know. She was always that way. And then growing up when Danielle was in trouble, Mariah, I need your help, you know. And Mariah being a lot like Danielle in that aspect would, I will kick anybody's butt that goes to hurt you. Just you let them know that, you know. So Danielle had quite the...

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Shannon Dick, Danielle's lifelong stepdad, wrote in January 2015 on his Facebook that he hoped the tragic nightmare would soon be over, that Danielle would soon turn up. Little did he know, this tragic nightmare was only just beginning.

On March 9th, 2015, a little over a year after Danielle went missing, an ATV rider spotted a human skull while cutting a new path along the Eel River, very close to its intersection with a small tributary called Howe Creek, just south of Fortuna.

The Eel River is a 196-mile river known for fishing that flows through Northern California and empties into the Pacific Ocean. Fortuna is very close to the mouth of the river. The skull was reported to the coroner's office.

The police department wasn't sure whose skull it was. I asked Billie Jo how she knew right away that it was Danielle's. One of the ladies that I've met when I went to Humboldt, her name is Shawna English. She is an amazing lady. She has gone to the searches with me. She's done everything known to man with me through down there.

She had sent me a picture of the skull. Private messaged me of the skull that was found on the Eel River. As soon as I opened it up, I threw up. So that right there told me, you know, take a closer look. And as much as it pained me, I could tell by where her eye teeth were.

because Danielle growing up, her mouth was too small for all the teeth that she had. So she had two sets of eye teeth and they had to pull a set out before they could put her braces on. And the other eye teeth that she had were so far up into her sinus cavity that it looked like her holes where the roots for her teeth were like up in her nose is what it looked like. And

there was only five teeth left in this skull. And I knew as soon as I looked at it and, you know, looked at her eye teeth, I said, "It's her." And within the hour, I called. He was Officer Brian Taylor at the time. Now he's Detective Taylor.

And I said, that's Danielle. And he says, well, we don't know that for sure. You know, we're, we're going to do the mitochondrial DNA thing, you know? And I said, okay. So that's what he did. And May 27th, it came back positive for Danielle.

Over the past year of trying to find her daughter, Billie Joe went to California several times to search for her. Some local Californians volunteered to help her and they, along with Billie Joe's own network of friends and allies, formed a support system to help get justice for Danielle, known as Nelly's Army.

Nellie was a nickname for Danielle. She told me about the first time she went down to search for Danielle in 2014, one year before her skull was found. Before I got to go down there, I had two friends of mine, Mindy Kelly and Kenneth Robertson. They went down to Humboldt to do some digging around the first few days before I even got there.

And they are the two that found out that, you know, where Danielle was last seen alive and the people that she hung out with, you know, they weren't scared to get their feet wet. And that's what I needed. And they took me out to places where Danielle was last seen. And I went and actually spoke to these people in great length.

for hours I sat there and talked to these people and let them talk about some of the horrible things that Danielle has done due to the heroin and the meth and then some of the wonderful things you know that they said about her and as we were getting ready to leave this man stood up and said to me I feel that

harm came to her as he had tears coming out of his eyes. And so after leaving his driveway, we were driving about, I don't know, a quarter of a mile, maybe eighth of a mile down their road from the main road. And I said, you guys got to stop. I don't want to get sick in the car, you know. So we stopped and I got out and just started taking a walk through the woods and

looked like little feet marks. You know, Danielle wore a size six and a half. She had tiny feet. She wasn't very tall, five two and, uh, real thin, looked like drag marks to me, you know? So I was walking and the whole time praying, you know, if I find her, just don't let it be gruesome. I

came to this culvert and just said, "Please don't let her be in there." You know, I don't want her to be in there. Not that I wanted to find her anywhere out there, but I didn't want to find her in there. There's spiders. - Did she hate spiders? - I did. But no, she actually, she didn't mind them. She, you know, I had a snake and she liked snakes and she loved them all. She didn't matter to her. She, it didn't care. She didn't care.

And then I hear my younger sister said, "Billy Jo, you need to come here." And she said, "I found this." And I looked down and I dropped to my knees. I said, "Don't touch it." It was a shirt that I gave Danielle back in October of 2013 when she was in Seattle with us because she absolutely adored the shirt. And so I cried and I said, "I'm staying here."

Somebody has got to go to where we can get cell service and call law enforcement and have them have a crime unit come out here. There were a few things. I took a lot of pictures. I took pictures of tire tracks and the clothing, the articles of clothing, and, you know, broken tree trunks and all of that stuff because that's what we're taught. You know, looking for people, you've got to look for...

things that aren't obvious you know and come to find out that the big tree stump that where we found Danielle sure was where she was killed that's where her last breath was taking according to our dog team from here went to California with me and he tracked Danielle's live scent from the last place

that I went and spoke with these people clear down to the end of the road where we were and then tracked her cadaver scent up the road a little ways and then lost scent and the dog hit on the big tree that was out there and it was hollowed out it was probably a nine foot by 12 feet around I guess hollowed out redwood tree that

Cadaver was in the tree, and she was probably left there until dark time to where he could do what he did with her and then dump her like a piece of trash.

off the side of a mountain. I can't, I can't imagine. I mean, that is, it's the absolute worst nightmare, especially for a mom. I mean, you are such a strong person to have to, to have to deal with that. And I'm, I mean, I'm so sorry. Thank you. I have no choice. I know. I have to, I, she deserves justice. They all do. And I won't give up on my child.

I promised her that I promised her I would, I would get her justice. And that's what we're trying to do. Well, you have a good team that will fight for you. I will fight for you in the ways that I can. Thank you.

Danielle Bertolini isn't the only woman to go missing in Humboldt County, California. In fact, she's more famously known as one of the Humboldt County Five, a group of young women who went missing and whose stories seemed similar or possibly related.

Billy Jensen, who is also a fierce advocate for Danielle and wrote about her in his book "Chase Darkness With Me," described the Humboldt County Five as "five women who went missing in what is considered one of the most dangerous swaths of land in America, filled with marijuana crops and biker gangs, where the drugs are plentiful, the trees hide secrets, and the locals distrust any semblance of authority."

The women who make up the Humboldt County Five are Jennifer Wilmer, who disappeared in 1993, Karen Mitchell in 1997, Christine Walters in 2008, and Sheila Franks and Danielle Bertolini in 2014.

These are just five of the names that are missing or murdered in Humboldt County. There is no evidence that connects all five cases together, except for Danielle and Sheila. Sheila Franks was 37 years old when she disappeared on February 2nd, 2014. She was last seen by her boyfriend, a man by the name of James Eugene Jones.

On February 9th, Danielle was last seen getting into a car at a friend's house to get a ride into town. The driver of that car? James Eugene Jones.

So there's a person of interest in this case, Jim Jones. He's been named as a person of interest, but not necessarily a suspect, even though it's pretty suspicious. Yes. Did she have any connections with him or the other girl that went missing who was also the last to be seen with him? She didn't.

know Sheila personally. I knew that she knew of Sheila because she used to hang around with Sheila's ex-boyfriend. And then as far as I know now is that Danielle did not know Jimmy, but she knew this other person who I cannot mention. It's fine. Um,

that was very good friends of Jimmy. And Danielle was couch surfing on this person's couch. So she had called him for a ride and he sent Jimmy. And she never made it home after. I'm just curious as to like why he would want to hurt her. But I mean, if she knows too much, that's exactly why somebody would want to hurt another person. For the sake of this story, we'll call this person Bob, whose house she was staying at.

Bob has never been publicly named. I'll get more into this house and Jim Jones in next week's episode, but for clarity, at the time of Danielle's disappearance, she was staying on Bob's couch at his house in Fortuna and called him to come pick her up in the Swains Flat area, which is about a 30-minute drive away. But Bob sent Jim Jones instead, and Danielle was never seen alive again. You definitely think he did it? Oh, yes. And...

I can't really speak. I mean, I know what I've been told from law enforcement. If it's something that you can't tell me, that's fine. The DA's office, we've had conversations before, and they also believe, but they, you know, we've got to be able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt. And as of right now, we're waiting on the DA. Okay.

We just need really somebody to come forward. You know, I mean, because with what we have for evidence, I myself would think that we have enough. And, you know, the law enforcement believes that they have enough, but I'm not sure what the DA's holdup is. I mean, my personal opinion, I don't.

you don't really want to know what my personal opinion is because it probably wouldn't be too pleasant to say on air. Yeah, that's got to be so incredibly frustrating. And I've seen other investigators talk about like why they can't move forward with certain cases because they're like, well, you know, if we don't have that one thing that we know for sure is going to convict somebody, then it might end up backfiring. But still, like as a person that just really wants justice and wants to see this person pay, like it's just...

the worst position to be in but I want him I I want us to be able to bring justice for her and if there's not enough evidence right now then so be it I don't want him to be acquitted or you know hung jury or whatever I want him found guilty and I want him to spend the rest of his life behind bars I don't want him to get the death penalty that's too easy

I want him to suffer waking up every day behind bars knowing that the reason why he's there is because he chose to take my daughter's life. And now his life is going to be lived behind bars. I can't see it any other way. In the beginning, I thought I wanted him to die. But, you know, I'd be no better than he if that's the way I kept looking at it. Because I can't heal having so much hate and anger in me right now.

About a week after our first conversation in August of 2020, a photo popped up on my Facebook feed. It was of Billie Joe and her daughter Mariah and her son Tristan hugging each other in the parking lot in California. This was the first time Billie Joe had seen her daughter since October 2013.

at the Children's Hospital in Seattle. Except instead of hugging her, she was holding what was left of her in glove-covered hands. The medical examiner's office had allowed the family time with Danielle's skull. The power of this photo is stunning. The family is still visibly in pain, visibly grieving their senseless loss.

They stand together, sharing an intimate moment and remembering Danielle. When I first saw the photo back in August, it steeled my resolve to tell her story. I asked Billie Joe to tell me about that day, to help people understand why this moment is so important. I didn't get to say goodbye to Danielle. And...

When I spoke to the ME's office out there, I said, you know, I'd like to come see her. Is that possible? I know she's evidence, you know, and he said, absolutely, you know. And when I went in, my son didn't want to go in. He doesn't want to remember Danielle like that. He wants to remember how beautiful she was and he didn't want to have that image. But my younger daughter, Mariah, and Daniel,

Both my sisters went in with me to go say goodbye to Danielle. It was humbling for me. And I know it sounds morbid to some people, but just to be able to hold her again and to kiss her and just to feel her next to me, to tell her that I will never give up and that I love her so much.

Meant more to me than anything because I can't bring her home She's in lockup. I don't even know when I'll get to bring her home You know, she's sitting in a cage in a storage shed somewhere. You know what I mean? but just being able just to hold her was what I needed and I I think it's what her sister needed too, even though I

I tried to keep it together as much as I could, you know, but then watching Mariah hold her sister and tell her everything about her nephews and her niece and, you know, Danielle had a new baby niece that was just born and she was named Eternity Danielle. So she was named after Danielle. Watching her sister hold on to Danielle and

Trying to part Danielle's bangs at the base of Danielle's skull and just talking to her, it about broke me. You know, watching her cry and knowing that there wasn't anything that I could do to take her pain away. And then listening to my sisters be in our support, but trying to keep it together, but you could still hear them cry. You know, that was hard.

But we made it through it, you know. And that picture was when Mariah and I came out from seeing Danielle. And my son gave us a hug. And he says, it's going to be all right, Mom. We'll get him. You wait. We'll get him. It's a very powerful photo. It is. And...

One that I would hope nobody would have to take, you know, because it's a pain that I wouldn't want to wish upon anybody, not even Jimmy. You know, and he's the one that took my child's life, in my opinion, you know. But I wouldn't even want him to suffer the horrible tragedy that we have. I mean, cutting Danielle's life short changed so many people's lives forever.

Forever, you know? I mean, I think that that shows a lot about who you are as a person that, like, you wouldn't even want to wish that upon the person who caused this in the first place. No, I wouldn't. I wouldn't. Her daughter is evidence. And the only way she can take Danielle home and out of the medical examiner's basement locker is when this case is officially closed. Until then, she waits.

I noticed that Billie Joe had a tattoo on her forearm that said Nellie's Army, which is the name of the group that advocates for Danielle. I asked her to tell me about it. One of the birds is my grandson, and the other one is Danielle's, and Danielle loved the ocean, and we always called her Nellie for nicknames. We went camping one day, and back in 2000, we went, I want to say, West Sebago Lake, and

They were swimming on the boat dock landing. Danielle was, I don't know, 10 maybe. And we're swimming along. And I said, all right, guys, it's 630. Time to get out. We need to go get something to eat. And Danielle went to go pull her swimsuit out of her hiney. And there was a leech.

And she screamed. And so we were calling her, whoa, Nellie, with the leech up her hiney. It was so funny. I know that sounds disgusting, but it was really funny. And we've started calling her Nellie ever since then. That's cute. I mean, I remember hating leeches as a kid. She didn't like them.

They're terrifying. I mean, I remember having like a complete meltdown because there was one on my foot. I can't imagine having any leech like up further than that. She she didn't like it. She screamed and I thought that was the funniest thing ever was watching her jump out of the water trying to get it out of her bikini bottoms. I asked her if there was anything that she wanted people to know about Danielle as an adult that they might not otherwise know.

Danielle was bipolar. She didn't take meds. She, in the beginning, didn't really understand it herself and didn't want to be diagnosed, but couldn't understand why she was having all the mood swings and everything, you know. And I think a lot of that, along with the death of her son, Xavier, put her in a place that people didn't recognize. And she was trying to get out of that place and

She was a beautiful soul regardless of the dark place that she was in. And I just want people to know that she was a happy person regardless and that she loved with her whole heart. We have a big family and we love big. I mean, Danielle had a big heart.

And we'll give you the shirt off her back for anybody. My grandfather had bipolar and he wasn't diagnosed until he was like in the nursing home with Alzheimer's. So I know how difficult that can be, especially when it's like undiagnosed or somebody isn't being treated for it. Yeah, it's just it's hard. It is hard because you don't know from one day to the next what their life is going to be like or what.

type of swing they'll have for the day. Billie Joe's honesty and vulnerability never ceases to amaze me. It's one of the reasons she's found such widespread support on social media. I asked her how social media has played a role in sharing her daughter's story.

In the beginning when all of this, you know, social media was our best word of mouth. I mean, yes, I did some news conferences, press conferences, and, you know, you've got to get the word out there regardless if it's by mouth or radio or TV or social media. But we had a lot of help from the community here opposed to,

only some help from the community there. A lot of people are scared, but if I never looked, thought twice about a missing poster or a missing child poster or anything having to do with the missing until Danielle went missing and now I share every single one that I can that comes across me. I

especially the young kids. I mean, they, that's what tugs at my heartstrings, you know, because it doesn't matter if you're older or younger because you're somebody's child or somebody's parent, but the children are what get me. And if we continue to share and keep getting it out that way, I mean, that's about really all that we're going to be able to do. I mean, because I'm 3,753 miles away from my daughter, you know,

from where everything happened. So it's hard for me. When she first moved out there, what were your feelings about her being in California in the first place? Because it is literally the opposite side of the country. I didn't want her to go, but I know that she needed to get away from here and what had hurt her so, so badly here.

I've asked her to come home many, many times, but she just couldn't. I mean, she couldn't. They wouldn't let her leave. I didn't like the idea of her going, but I couldn't stop her. She was an adult. And I love my child, and I just want, I know she's happy now because she's with her son now. And I see them every once in a while in my dreams, you know, in a field of flowers and

That's how I want to try to remember things, but I have my days. I've always considered myself a victim's advocate, but working on Danielle's story, I knew I needed to do something more. I knew I needed to take action. This case, like many others, isn't going to be closed just sitting and hoping that somebody walks into the station to confess.

"Billy Jo broke my heart over and over while working on this episode. And in a way, I hope she broke yours too. And I hope that you transform that heartache into resolve to take action."

I have never done this before, but I've talked to a lot of people about how to move this case forward, and with their help, I created a petition to ask the Humboldt County District Attorney to prioritize this case, to re-interview people connected to it, and provide us with an update.

You can go to the petition right now and add your name to the letter I'll be sending. All of the info will be linked in the show notes and can be found at MurderSheTold.com. And please share this petition with your friends. You know what happens to cases that are seven years old with no one pushing for answers? Nothing. They get dusty and forgotten, buried under hundreds of new cases rolling in every day. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.

Let's be the squeaky wheel. Welcome to Nellie's Army. Join me next week on Murder, She Told as I continue the conversation about Danielle and dive a little bit deeper into the investigation joined by two very special guests.

I want to thank you so much for listening. I am so grateful that you chose to tune in and I couldn't be here without you. You can follow Murder, She Told on Instagram at Murder, She Told Podcast for key photos from this episode and more.

I also want to thank Billy Joe Dick for trusting me and for taking the time to open up to tell Danielle's story in such a beautifully intimate way. If you or someone you know is holding on to any information about the murders of Danielle Bertolini and Sheila Franks, I urge you to call the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office anonymous tip line at 707-268-2537.

My sources for this episode include the book Chase Darkness With Me by Billy Jensen, Crime Watch Daily, and articles from The Rolling Stone, North Coast Journal, Bustle, and KimKemp.com.

All links for sources and media, as well as the petition and more, can be found at MurderSheTold.com. A very special thanks to Pauline Parkhurst and Byron Willis for their support on this episode. Murder She Told is co-produced by AKA Studio Productions. If you loved this episode, please consider sharing it with a friend and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to support an indie podcast.

If you haven't already joined the Murder, She Told secret Facebook group, you can join right now by signing up for the newsletter on MurderSheTold.com. If you have a story that needs to be told or would like to suggest one, I would love to hear from you. You're more than welcome to reach out to me at MurderSheToldPod at gmail.com.

My only hope is that I've honored your stories in keeping the names of your family and friends alive. Murder, She Told will be back next week with two very special guests to continue the conversation about Daniel Bertolini. Thank you for listening.