Murder Mountain, Part Two: The Danielle Bertolini Investigation
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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 Zevey. You can connect with me and suggest your hometown crime at murdershetold.com and follow me on Instagram at murdershetoldpodcast.

If you haven't listened to part one and heard Danielle's mother, Billie Jo, tell her daughter's story, please go back and start there. Danielle was a childhood friend of mine, and this case became really important to me. The way Billie Jo tells her story is so incredibly powerful and heartbreaking, and understanding it from her perspective is necessary for continuing the conversation.

I also want to thank you for your support on this episode, and thank you for sharing the episode and the petition. It truly means the world to me. If you haven't signed the petition, it's linked in the show notes and on the blog at MurderSheTold.com. This week on Murder She Told, we will be digging into the investigation of Danielle's case, and joining me are two very special guests who are both close to this case and fighting for justice in different ways.

This is Detective Brian Taylor of the Fortuna Police Department. He is currently the lead on Danielle's case, and he's been a part of the investigation since day one.

My name is Brian Taylor. I've been with the Fortuna Police Department for about 12 years. My current duties now are detective, but however, when I took this case, I was still working patrol. We're kind of a smaller agency. We only have about 21 sworn. And so we just recently in the past three years have had an investigation unit. And so

Back then on patrol, you basically, when you received such as a missing persons report, you kept the report and you followed through to the end with it.

I ended up getting this case on February 19th of 2014. Billy had actually reached out to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department to make the initial missing persons report, and they did what they called the courtesy report. They take just the information, and then they'll forward that to whatever agency's jurisdiction that that person went missing from.

And so it came to me on February 19th of 2014. And this is the murder squad's Billy Jensen, a familiar voice among fellow murderinos and the author of Chase Darkness with me. My name is Billy Jensen. I'm an investigative journalist. My relationship with the case is that I initially, you know, the Humboldt Five have been, you know, a collection of women that have been sort of brought together as, you know, five women who have either gone missing and murdered in Humboldt County.

before they even had a name, I had done a story on their first victim, potential victim, because she's missing, which is Jennifer Wilmer. And when I went back in to look at that case, as I do, I go back and look in, you know, I had written about her maybe

god, 20 years ago. And I saw that there were these other four women and I started trying to dig into that case. With Danielle, I had talked to people up there, I talked to Billy Joe and then in particular, when Mariah went missing. And then I was like, how much more can this woman go through? Because the last time one of her daughters went missing, a few years later, they found her skeleton. So

I kind of jumped into action and was able to help track her down. I speak with Billy Joe, you know, off and on, on, on Facebook and, you know, really,

have looked into the case and it seems like, you know, we've got some good suspects and they just, you know, the police just don't have enough to make an arrest. This incident with Mariah, which Billy Jensen wrote about in Chase Darkness With Me, forged a bond between him and Billy Joe. Just those connections are the reasons why, you know, Danielle's case kind of got to the forefront of that chapter. I think probably some of it was talking with Billy Joe and, you know,

you know, getting a relationship with her. And then when I was, when me and her were working together that one night and try and track down Mariah, I got that much more connected with the case. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, she's just, Billy Joe is somebody that you want to fight for. I mean, she's spent so much. Yeah. Yeah. No, anything I can to, to try and fix this case and get it as close to her resolution as possible. I'll do because it's a, it's a case that's very close to me.

Speaking of Billie Joe... Billie, she's an amazing woman and she's tough. She is tough.

I asked Detective Taylor what it was like working with Billie Joe on her daughter's case. You know, at the beginning, and I completely understand as I'm a parent also, you know, as a parent, you're concerned for your child's well-being and where they're at. And at that point, I mean, I don't think that...

she quite understood the process. And so it, we had some, some hard times, but, you know, we were able to work through it and talk. And now me and her actually, we communicate very well. We, we keep in touch. You know, she'll come over here and, and we'll meet up, go, you know, get something to eat and talk about it. And so, I mean, throughout the years, our, our relationship's been great at the beginning. It was a little rocky, but like,

Like I said, I completely understand that coming from a mother who's wanting answers as to where her child is. To be fair, I asked Billy Joe the same question. In the beginning, it was not easy. About the first nine, ten months, they thought that Danielle was voluntarily missing. Again, because of what she did. She was a pot trimmer.

you know, she'd go to the grows up on Murder Mountain or wherever and they didn't take it too seriously. And also that she was 23 years old, you know, but when things started coming back from Department of Justice and things were starting to pan out the way I knew they would, you know, then I think

with the officers knowing that I'm not going to give up and that I'm not going to go away and I would be a miserable person for them if they weren't going to listen to me, you know, which I kind of have been. And I feel bad and I've apologized a couple of different times because, boy, I've given Detective Taylor a run for his money in the beginning. I wasn't a very pleasant person, but I

In my state of mind, I don't think anybody would have been because I would do anything I got to do for my child. I don't think anyone would fault you for that. I don't think so. But, you know, there are a lot of people that do because you're still in the public's eye. You still, you know, you got to hold some kind of composure. You don't want to lose all composure because then you lose yourself in trying to find what happened, you know, and that's not what I wanted to do.

The first of the two to go missing was Sheila Franks. She was 37 years old and had two children. At the time of her disappearance, Sheila had only been dating Jim Jones for a few months. Sheila's sister, Melissa, told Crime Watch Daily that when questioned by police on her whereabouts, Jim said that she decided to go for a walk, and the last time he saw her was when she was at the end of the road after she left the house that they shared. She never came back home.

I have been working with the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department investigators on Sheila's case. It's their actual case, but because we have the same person of interest for Sheila and Danielle, basically, Danielle was reported, I believe, before Sheila, but it was determined through the investigation that

Melissa said that she and her sister Sheila knew Jim growing up in Humboldt County and went to school with him. Sheila, who was recently divorced, reconnected with Jim after her marriage dissolved.

But Melissa told Crime Watch Daily that Sheila told her multiple times that she wanted to leave Jim, but she couldn't because she was afraid that he would hurt her family. She had also found all of Sheila's belongings in a storage unit, including her purse with the money still inside. If he could do that to his girlfriend, imagine what he could do to, well, I know what he done to other people, you know, but it's just hard to fathom.

that you're supposed to love somebody, but yet you take their life? That doesn't seem like love to me. One week later, Danielle went missing. Through our investigation with Danielle, we were able to determine that she had been living in Fortuna. She had went out to a place called Swain's Flat, which is in the county, and had been staying with some people there.

They were able, we were able to determine that it was about February 9th was the last time that she had been seen and that she had received a ride from a male subject that came and picked her up. And that was the last time anybody had seen her or heard from her. In case you forgot, that male subject was Jim Jones, and he was the last person to see Sheila alive one week earlier.

Sheila and Danielle, the connection would be the same person of interest for both cases. So we have a person of interest. It's well known. His name is James Jones. He was actually, at the time Sheila went missing, was Sheila's boyfriend. And he was the subject that had gone out and picked up Danielle from the Swain's Flat area and

gave her a ride supposedly back to town that she has never been seen since. Kim Jones needs to be brought in and needs to be talked to because, you know, you don't, you're not the last person seen with two women who go missing and then are murdered. And you're not scot-free. And, you know, this guy is, uh,

I worked on a story on Crime Watch Daily. We knocked on his door. He wouldn't talk to us. I've spoken with the police and the main detective on it. It's one of those deals where they just don't have enough to pin him down.

In 2017, Jim Jones spent about a month in jail for charges of assault. The reference code associated with his arrest states that this charge is, quote, someone who inflicts corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition, end quote.

This is a severe assault, and it results in a felony. This is not the first arrest for Jones under this code. He was also arrested in 2015 for the same assault charges resulting in a felony. In a post on the Seeking Justice for Sheila and Danielle Facebook page, comments were made about this one being done in front of children, though I couldn't verify any further details. He also has a couple of drug possession charges.

In 2014, police found evidence of Jim and an associate of his burglarizing cars in a neighborhood. When a homeowner went to take a photo of the license plate of the truck that they were using, Jim got into a fight with him. The homeowner's wife came out and fired a warning shot into the air, and when the fight continued, she took aim and put one in Jim's leg.

His mother also allegedly had a restraining order against him. You know, the last person they were seen with was this Jim Jones guy. And, you know, from what I've been able to discern is that this guy has been, you know, there's an all in humble. You know, the reason why they call it the Emerald Triangle, the reason why they call it, you know, Murder Mountain is that, you know, people might stumble upon somebody's grow. But apparently the drugs that we're talking about with this particular case,

are more about pills or heroin as opposed to marijuana. And there's been uncovering things of who Jim Jones has dealt with in the past that lead you down a path of like, all right, maybe this is one of the reasons why. But I think we all, if we were betting men and we were going to put money on it, we know where that money should go.

After last week's episode, I received an email from a Humboldt local named Meg, who said that despite its reputation, Humboldt is defined by its community. It's truly beautiful, and there's a deep and unbreakable sense of community amongst the locals. But Meg was also pretty candid, and said that as a young woman living in the area, she's fearful that Jim Jones is currently a free man.

She also said that the locals of Humboldt County call him a serial killer in whispers around town. She did note that a lot of the stories around town are rumors, and therefore these local whispers should be taken as such. Nothing has ever been proven. I asked Detective Taylor on his thoughts about the other girls from the Humboldt County Five. I would say that anything's possible, but the Humboldt Five...

There is no evidence to tie him in to the other three girls. You know, just based on the reason we're able to tie him in

And the two is because he was dating one when she went missing and he picked up Danielle and she went missing. So the other three, I mean, like I said, anything's possible, but there's no evidence to support that he had anything to do with those other three girls.

But according to Crime Watch Daily, Jim Jones does have a possible connection to another one of the Humboldt Five, Karen Mitchell, who was 16 when she went missing in 1997. Crime Watch Daily reported that Karen most likely knew Jim. At the time of her disappearance, she was babysitting for a man who owned a junkyard, which was a frequent hangout for Jim and his friends.

In 1997, Jim would have been 18 years old, making the connection not out of the realm of possibility. Though it's important to note that he is only a person of interest in the cases of Danielle and Sheila, and this connection to Karen is only alleged. I'm sending my Aunt Tina money directly to her bank account in the Philippines with Western Union. She's the self-proclaimed bingo queen of Manila, and I know better to interrupt her on bingo night, even to pick up cash. Hey!

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You know, at first I was anytime, any part of a skull or any bones or whatever. I mean, initially you think, oh man, is this Danielle or Sheila? And when they originally tried to figure out, you know, match dental records to the skull that was located and somehow the records that I had received from Billy, I didn't

I believe in, I mean, don't quote me, but I believe they were the dental records from her other daughter, Mariah. They didn't match up with the skull. So I had

I was like, okay, it's not Danielle. And I had reached out the belly and talked to her and said that it wasn't. And then we were able to do DNA from retrieving DNA from her and her ex-husband. And it was a match to the skull. So it was kind of hard. I had to turn around and call her later on and say that it actually was Danielle's skull that was located. So, yeah.

So it's one of those things, I mean, as an investigator, you know, you hope that maybe there's something that skull will tell you or that, you know, you may get evidence from that skull or whatnot. But, you know, as a parent, it's probably the worst thing that you can hear that your daughter's skull was located because you kind of lose that hope that maybe they are still alive, you know.

Sheila's femur was discovered in a location close to Danielle's in 2019. Though Sheila and Danielle are no longer missing, it's not clear what exactly happened to them. But somebody knows something, and it's not a coincidence that Jim Jones was the last person to be seen with both of them. Those are the only two parts of both of their remains to be found.

Obviously, at some point, she was either put in the river or was buried near the river in the high water or an animal. You know, it's hard to say. I believe there's a couple different things that could have happened just through, you know, rumors and all that. But I know her remains are out there somewhere, and that I don't know where, though.

The last public update on this case was the September 2019 press release confirming the femur found that June belonged to Sheila Franks. What I can tell you is, yes, we have come to, you know, we presented a case to our local district attorney. And with the evidence that we had, they, you know,

are looking for more because they want to make sure that it's a solid case. It's for it to continue to, I mean, it's a, it's an ongoing investigation. So, I mean, every day there's that chance or the potential of somebody has that missing link that we, that we need. And so, you know, until we get a little more, I, and I, and it could be simply as somebody that, you know, he talked to or somebody that may potentially been with him.

to come forth. I mean, it's hard to say how long this can drag out. You know, I've spoken to the main detective. He seems like a good guy. He seems like he has his hands tied, though. Listen, anytime you're going to try and charge somebody with murder, you have to remember this. Are you going to be able to get 12 strangers in a room to say that this person killed somebody? Do you have enough beyond a reasonable doubt? That's a hard thing to do.

So I understand, and he really is trying, and I was trying to come up with other things of what potentially we could do to pin some of these people to the wall, because it opens up into people that have sold drugs, that people have died in other people's residences from overdosing. Can we utilize that in order to drag some people in, you know? And, you know, I don't want to pin it just on the police, but there's definitely a failure between

the police and the district attorney's office of really putting the pressure on. It's almost like they're waiting for somebody to just come in and admit what happened or confess. And that's not, that's not what's going to happen. And, um,

You know, it's just, it's a tough one because you know, you know, so many of the cases that I work on, it's a needle in a haystack. You don't know who might've killed this person or that person, but we have a pretty clear pathway into finding out who did this. And the police feel like they're at a roadblock and they can't, they can't move up that road in order to try and figure it out, which, which is incredibly frustrating for the families.

I asked Billy what he thought it was going to take to move that roadblock. I think it's probably somebody in the DA's office to say, hey, we've got these cases here. We've got this guy and then this guy that this circle of people that is around him.

where people are dying at their residence. You know, when I did a, I did a social media campaign trying to get information about this case. Yeah. So I did a geo-targeted ad campaign, like the kind of things I talk about and chase darkness with me. And I had people coming to me saying my child died at this house, that kind of stuff. And there's kids that are lining up outside of this house, just trading in their Nintendo DSs and their iPads for drugs.

And, you know, it's going to take somebody in that DA's office to be like, all right, this is a priority. These are bad people. We need to do something. And we just haven't seen that yet.

If you listened to last week's episode, you'll remember me mentioning the house that Danielle was living at when she went missing. For the sake of the episode, I called this person Bob because his name hasn't been released. The day she went missing, she called Bob for a ride back to the house, and Bob sent his good friend Jim Jones to pick her up. This is the same house that Billy just mentioned. According to Billy Joe, Danielle was crashing on his couch.

In Chase Darkness With Me, Billy Jensen also talks about these targeted social media ads and the stories that poured in of deadly overdoses and trade-ins that happened there. One woman told him her daughter had died there and that she knew Danielle was also at that house.

He called these ads with the victims' photos a telltale heart campaign, writing that, quote, "...anytime these two individuals, the drug dealer and the last man to see both women alive, would go on Facebook or Twitter or even Google themselves, they might see a picture of Danielle. Her heart would beat under the floorboards. Maybe one day it would beat loud enough for them to stop being cowards and tell the truth about what happened to her." End quote.

I don't think that, like our local district attorney's office, we work well with them. And I don't think that they're, you know, not going forth with it because, you know, they don't want to or whatever it may be. You know, they want a case built because if we take him –

to court and we charge him with that and we don't have a solid enough case to convict him of it you know there's a thing called double jeopardy we can't go after him down the road if something else comes comes forward he can't be charged for it again and so i think that i think we're real close i think we have enough that it's not going to take much for this case to go go to court

And I'm currently have a few things going on with the case that I'm just waiting to get some information back. And hopefully that will be enough for our DA to look at that and say, Hey, you know what? I think we can go forth with this case now. But I, I mean, I can't guarantee anything, you know? Yeah. I mean,

I mean, that would be fantastic. Absolutely. I'd love to see Billy and her family get closure on this. And, you know, we're doing everything we can to get them that. But, I mean, some of these cases are tough. You know, you have so little amount of evidence. You might have a lot of circumstantial evidence, but you've got to be able to follow that up with actual evidence. It makes it a little bit complicated.

But in most cases, evidence doesn't just walk into the station and confess. Last week, I also talked about being a squeaky wheel for Danielle. Billie wrote that when a police department has an ever-growing mountain of unsolved cases, the ones that scream the loudest are going to get the most attention.

That's the thing that you have to do. I say this every day is that you have to get loud or else they're just going to be like, oh, well, this young woman who was a free spirit, because a lot of these women were, she went to the mountains and she's gone. And we don't know where she went. She might have left or whatever. That's what they do. They throw their hands up to police. And you need to get loud and you need to constantly...

If your family members or friends constantly call them and say, and then, and also go to the media and say, you know, it's something needs to be done here and continuously be such a, a, a, a mosquito buzzing around in their face that they have to say, I've got to take care of this thing and take it seriously. Unfortunately, that's some of the things that families have to do because they just don't, especially with missing person cases and especially obviously up there.

I asked Detective Taylor if he thought media attention helped him with the work he does on the case. I think it does. And one aspect, I mean, it puts it out there and maybe that one person that knows something will finally, you know, see that and, you know, see it on TV or hear the podcast. And, you know, that may be the one thing that pushes them forward to come forth and tell us. I think obviously, you know, and

The, it being out there and it being, you know, you guys talking about it, I think it puts pressure on our DA, on us. And I think it helps. Let me just say that. I honestly think it helps out. I don't want to go into too much and say things that, you know what I mean? Yeah. I got to be careful.

I also asked both of them what are some of the best ways that could help move this case forward.

I think, you know, and I've talked to Billy about it, is keep going. Keep going forth and keep talking about it. You know, put it like this, a podcast, the media, TV, you know, every time you're here in Humble, put up pictures so people don't forget. And I truly believe somebody knows what happened. And whether or not they're just scared to come forth or not, I don't know. But

keep it fresh in everybody's mind. And I think, you know, what you're doing and, uh, crime watch it came here, but Billy's done for seven years. Um, it was very helpful. And, and I think you, you know, I can't say that. I think you got, you need to keep it fresh in everybody's mind and keep going until, you know, you get results.

You know, I would say probably maybe doing some petitions, maybe doing a letter writing campaign to whatever town council or congresspeople are from there. Whenever you start to bring the politicians into play, they're going to care more about the people that vote in their district. So you're going to want to get people from that area involved.

to want to hold their feet to the fire. And, you know, just continuing just working with the media and trying to get the media to write more about it. And when the media writes about it, have those reporters ask the tough questions to the people in the DA's office, not just the police department, you know, and also to the politicians as well.

Both Detective Taylor and Billy Jensen have worked tirelessly on this case as an advocate for Danielle with one goal in mind.

Justice. Justice for Danielle and ultimately justice for Sheila, too. I am still actually working on warrants and things of that nature. I'm waiting to get stuff back from different places. And hopefully that maybe that's one last that small little piece that we need to go forth with this case. But other than that, I mean, this is

We're going on, I believe, seven years. I'm hoping that we're getting close to where, like I said, we could give Billy and her family some kind of closure. It's just going to be a matter of the DA's office or a particular, you know, if there's a change in the regime of some of the people in the police department to just say, yeah, we need to do something. We need to do something now. We need to put resources behind it because right now I don't see anything that's going on.

So, but yes, there's definitely, you know, I'll never say that a case can never get justice, but I think this one is a hell of a lot closer than most. I want nothing more than to be able to see Billy Joe and her family and the family of Sheila Franks get this closure. Every day, hundreds of people and media outlets talk about unsolved cases like JonBenet Ramsey and the Zodiac, both tragic cases the entire world would love to solve.

the media will never stop talking about them, even if they do get the justice they too deserve. But in the shadows of these famous cases are the people like Danielle and Sheila, who don't get the People magazine specials dedicated to them and whose names don't pop up regularly on podcasts or Oxygen specials. Billie wrote, quote, "'The Murders in the Shadows' adds up to a hell of a lot more than the murders in the spotlight."

The Blood of the Forgotten is just as red as its famous victims." These are the people who I want to fight for. These are the people who I am fighting for. This is my white whale case, and I'm not going to stop fighting for it until the end. Until then, we have to continue getting loud for them. And I hope you'll join me. The petition is still active, but I need a lot more signatures before I can send in my letter.

If you enjoyed these two episodes, if anything that was said in them struck a chord with you, please sign it and please share. Ask five of your true crime friends to sign and share as well.

I cannot wait for the day I can pop a surprise mini episode in your feed saying we got him. And even more, for the day those prison doors close on a man who will never have the opportunity to hurt another person again. I really do appreciate you covering this case and anything that we can get, you know, to put this in the spotlight and put some pressure on these people is a good thing. So thank you. Thank you.

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 707-268-2539. I want to thank Detective Brian Taylor of the Fortuna Police Department and Billy Jensen for taking the time to talk about this case with me.

And a special thanks to you for listening. I'm so grateful that you chose to be here and I couldn't do this without you. If you loved these episodes, please consider sharing it with a friend and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. It's the best way to support an indie podcast. Be sure to connect with me on Instagram at MurderSheToldPodcast.

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 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 another episode.

Thank you for listening.