The Danielle Bertolini Story: Revisited
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This story is one that's close to my heart. It was the first interview I ever did for Murder, She Told, and the first time I dipped my toes into advocacy work beyond using my voice. In March of 2021, I released a two-part episode that, to this day, still means a lot to me. It was about my childhood friend, Daniel Bertolini.

Danielle grew up in and around my tiny hometown of Newport, Maine, and as an adult, moved to California in search of healing. When I released this episode, I also created a petition calling for the DA to prioritize this case. There hasn't been a public update since 2019. I'm going to be completely honest with you. I was naive.

I thought it would be easy to get people to sign the petition. I see petitions all the time for 20, 50, even 100,000 plus signatures. I thought maybe I could do that too. Okay, maybe not that high, but I thought that maybe I could reach a number that would make a big impact. So far, we've had almost 2,000 incredible people take a moment to sign. Thank

Thank you to those who've shared the petition and shared Danielle's story. It really means a lot to me. But I know I can do better than this. I hope I can do better than this. But I can't do it alone. And I need your help. I really want to show the new DA that people like you care about Danielle and Sheila. And to show that office that these two women aren't forgotten with a number they can't ignore. And I know you listen to this show because you care about victims and their families.

My goal is to get 5,000 signatures. I will be sending off this petition in the mail whether I meet my goal or not, but I hope I do. The Murder, She Told community is so much bigger than when I first released an episode about Danielle. So if it's been a while or if you've never heard her story, keep listening. I have completely redone the original episodes about Danielle, so this should feel fresh, and I also included some updates.

To sign the petition, go to change.org slash Danielle and Sheila, or click the link in the show notes. This case is important to me, and I hope it sticks with you. Thank you for caring about Danielle Bertolini and Sheila Franks. I'm Kristen Sevey. This is Murder, She Told.

I was born in Bangor, 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 in 1989. I got pregnant with Danielle and I had her in March of 1990. And she was born in Oregon.

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, back in October of 97. That's Danielle's mom, Billie Jo.

I asked her to paint a picture for me of what Danielle was like as a child. Danielle was like night and day compared to Danielle's younger siblings. You could carry on a conversation at 18 months old because she had quite the vocabulary. When she was older, her younger sister Mariah and her spent so much time together. They were almost inseparable.

She was a people person. When she was in about the 6th or 7th 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 of Justin Timberlake and all of those guys. Backstreet Boys. Oh, yeah. I remember having to go to Burger King when they...

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. 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.

For some reason, that memory sticks out the most to me. Wasn't that the one where she peed? 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 her as spunky and unapologetic. I remember our cheerleading team at Sebastica 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, 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 also remember her as 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 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 friends and classmates 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 her 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 light-hearted 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 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. They're like rolly potatoes.

Yeah, like the roly-poly type bugs. 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 OK. And I turned around. Mom says, what is OK?

And the look on Mariah's face after she chomped on it, it was priceless. And Danielle laughed and laughed. 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.

Danielle grew up hunting and camping and fishing and 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. So we were always near the water or always in the woods.

High school is where my memories of Danielle taper off. You no longer go from class to class with the same people. Circles change, responsibility changes, extracurricular activities take over your life.

You're no longer a kid having fun in school. You're a young adult in training, with a high level of expectation. Even though just one 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 hardship 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 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. 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 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 Danielle's grandfather and I were in talking with Danielle and asked her, you know, do you want to hold your son? What do you want to do? You know, it's totally up to you. Do you want that picture? Do you? And, you know, we were trying to get arrangements going for his service for Celebration of Life. And the doctor came in and said, well, she's going to go to surgery within the hour and 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. 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 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 never really think that it's going to happen to you it's 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 15th, 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 a mountain out there where marijuana grows and a lot of dealing, a lot of heroin, a lot of meth, a lot of everything, violence, bad up there. And when she finally left there, she called the last time that I talked to her. She called to let me know that

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 a 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 move to get off the grid, and 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. As soon as you reach that county line from Del Norte to Humboldt, it's like you have a weight sitting on your shoulders and it just like takes the air out of everything. It's beautiful.

as far as Redwoods and, you know, the country, but not to me anymore. Danielle was a very beautiful young lady. She had a lot going for her. 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 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 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. 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, Maine does too. We have an opioid crisis just like everybody in the United States and 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. And that's what I've been doing. And

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, she was so young and I think every person can say a story from their life where they've made bad choices. But like the consequence and the way that the rest of your story is painted shouldn't be because of that bad choice that you maybe made at one point in time.

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.

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Did I hear you're shopping for a car? Because I've been at it for ages. Such a time suck, right? Not really. I bought it on Carvana. Super convenient. Oh, then comes all the financing, research. Am I right? Well, you can, but I got pre-qualified for a Carvana auto loan in like two minutes. Yeah, but then all the number crunching and terms, right? Nope. I saw real numbers as I shopped, found my dream car, and got it in a couple of days. Wait, like you already have it?

Yep. Go to Carvana.com to finance your car the convenient way. 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 Swainsflat 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.

Billy 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.

According to the report, 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 the last time that she saw Danielle.

I was in a fog, really. I mean, 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...

And she goes, I think you need to report her missing, Mom, because I hadn't heard from her. And at that point in time, 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. And Danielle had come up to see Mariah and her nephew at the hospital and stayed with us up there. And so 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. 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. There's a smoking section out at the children's hospital that the people would go. 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 about

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, 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. 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 the ways that she's trying to cope with that trauma, whether they be healthy or not, that 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. And that's the way it was for them. And Danielle was always looking out for her baby sister and baby brother. She was always that way. And then

Growing up when Danielle was in trouble, Mariah, I need your help. 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. So Danielle had quite the people in her corner.

Shannon Dick, Danielle's lifelong stepdad, wrote on Facebook the following January of 2015 that he hoped the tragic nightmare would soon be over, that she would turn up. Little did he know, it was only the beginning of a journey that's now pushing a decade. Over the past year of trying to find her daughter, Billie Joe went to California several times to search for her.

Local Californians volunteered to help her, and they, along with Billy Joe's own network of friends and allies, formed a support system to get justice for Danielle, known as Nellie'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. It's a moment that still haunts her.

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 for hours. I sat there and talked to 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 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. 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. Danielle wore a size six and a half. She had tiny feet. She wasn't very tall, five two, and 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 don't think I could take it. And 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.

They're spiders. Did she hate spiders? I did. But no, she actually, she didn't mind them. She loved them all. She didn't care. And then I hear my younger sister said, Billy Joe, 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. So I cried and I said, I'm staying here. Somebody's got to go to where we can get self-service and call law enforcement and have them have a crime unit come out here. I took pictures of tire tracks and the clothing, the articles of clothing and broken tree trunks and

All of that stuff, because that's what we're taught. Looking for people, you got to look for things that aren't obvious. And come to find out that the big tree stump, that where we found Danielle's shirt was where she was killed. That's where her last breath was taken, 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 tree.

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 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 deal with that. And I mean, I'm so sorry. Thank you. But I have no choice. I know. I have to. 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.

On March 9, 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 throughout 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.

One of the ladies that I've met when I went to Humboldt, her name is Shauna English. She is an amazing lady. She sent me a picture 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, take a closer look. And as much as it pained me, I could tell by where her eye teeth were.

because 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 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.

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.

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 Daniel Bertolini in 2014. There is no evidence that connects all five cases together, except for Danielle and Sheila.

Sheila Franks was 37 when she disappeared on February 2, 2014. She was last seen by her boyfriend, a man by the name of James Eugene Jones. On February 9, 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.

Sheila personally. I knew that she knew of Sheila because she used to hang around with Sheila's ex-boyfriend. And as far as I know now, Danielle did not know Jimmy. But

But she knew this other person who I cannot mention. 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. 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. At the time of Danielle's disappearance, she was staying on Bob's couch at his house in Fortuna and called him to pick her up in the Swainsflat area, which is about 30 minutes away, to bring her back. But Bob sent Jim Jones instead, and she was never seen alive again.

You definitely think he did it? Oh, yes. We've got to be able to prove beyond reasonable doubt. And as of right now, we're waiting on the DA. We just need really somebody to come forward.

I mean, because with what we have for evidence, I myself would think that we have enough. And the law enforcement believes that they have enough, but I'm not sure what the DA's holdup is. I mean, my personal opinion, you don't really want to know what my personal opinion is because it probably wouldn't be too pleasant to say on air. 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 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 my first conversation with Billy Joe in August of 2020, a photo popped up on my Facebook feed. It was of Billy Joe, her daughter Mariah, and her son Tristan hugging each other in a parking lot in California. This was the first time Billy 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 to visit with Danielle's skull. The power of this photo is stunning. They stand together, sharing an intimate moment and remembering Danielle. When I first saw the photo in August of 2020, it absolutely broke my heart. Anne steeled my resolve to tell her story. That photo is why I do this.

I asked Billy Joe to tell me about that day, to help people understand why it was 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. 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 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 think it's what her sister needed too, even though 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 Danielle had a new baby niece that was just born, and she was named Eternity Danielle. So she was named after Danielle. But 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. 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. 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 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, 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. Her daughter is evidence. And unless something changes and the medical examiner releases her, the only way she can take Danielle home and out of that basement locker is when this case is officially closed. Until then, she waits. I asked her if there was anything she wanted people to know about Danielle as an adult.

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 die.

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.

Billy Joe broke my heart over and over again while working on this episode. And in a way, I hope she broke yours too. And I hope it inspires you to take action. Go to change.org slash Danielle and Sheila, or click the link in the show notes. 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,

Sending money direct to her bank account is super fast, and Aunt Tina gets more time to be the bingo queen. Western Union. Send money in-store directly to their bank accounts in the Philippines. Services offered by Western Union Financial Services, Inc., NMLS number 906983, or Western Union International Services, LLC, NMLS number 906985. Licensed as money transmitters by the New York State Department of Financial Services. See terms for details.

This case, like many others, isn't going to be closed by just sitting and hoping that somebody walks into the station to confess. I still talk to Billy Joe on a regular basis, and Nellie's army is still fighting for justice. I wanted you to hear the human side of this story first, the part that makes an impact. I wanted you to care about Danielle as a person.

Now that you know Danielle and the people who care about her, I'm going to circle back and dive a little deeper into the investigation, the suspect, and the people working hard to close this case behind the scenes. This is Detective Brian Taylor of the Fortuna Police Department. He is still the lead on Danielle's case, and he's been a part of the investigation since day one.

My name is Ryan 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 call the courtesy report. They take just the information and then they'll forward that to whatever agency jurisdiction that that person went missing from. And so it came to me on February 19th of 2014.

Detective Taylor and Billy Joe have a unique relationship. I asked him what it was like working with her on her daughter's case. She's an amazing woman, and she's tough. She is tough. 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 I said, I completely understand that coming from a mother who's wanting answers. To be fair, I asked Billy Joe the same question. In the beginning, it was not easy.

About the first nine, ten months, you know, they thought that Danielle was voluntarily missing. Again, because of what she did. She was a pot trimmer. 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, then I think 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...

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. The first 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 they shared. She never came back home. If he could do that to his girlfriend, imagine what he could do to, well, I know what he does 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.

Melissa said that she and her sister Sheila knew Jim growing up in Humboldt County and went to school with him. Sheila, who was a divorced mother of two, reconnected with Jim after her marriage dissolved. But Melissa said that Sheila told her multiple times that she wanted to leave Jim, but couldn't because she was afraid 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.

One week later, Danielle went missing. When you're the last person to be seen with two women who go missing within one week of each other and whose remains are later found in a close proximity, that is not a coincidence.

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 Flat area and gave her a ride supposedly back to town that she has never been seen since.

In 2017, Jim Jones spent about a month in jail for charges of assault. The reference code associated with this arrest states that this charge is someone who inflicts corporal injury resulting in a traumatic condition. This is a severe assault and results in a felony. This is not the first arrest for Jones under this code. He was also arrested in 2015 for the same felony assault charges.

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. His mother also allegedly had a restraining order against him. On June 4, 2020, Jim was arrested by the California Highway Patrol heading north on popular Route 101, just south of Willits, which is halfway between San Francisco and Fortuna.

It's a mountainous area and sparsely populated. He was driving a white 2018 Chevy Silverado pickup truck, and it was registered to a man named Michael in Ukiah. It's not clear from the court records why he was pulled over, but it appears that as soon as the officer flashed their lights, he tried to flee.

He was charged with at least three felonies after he was ultimately stopped. Reckless driving while evading a police officer, theft of a vehicle, and an automatic second-strike felony as a result of his previous record. He was also charged with driving under suspension, a DUI for being under the influence of drugs, a methamphetamine possession charge, and an animal abuse charge.

He was scheduled to appear on June 26, 2020, at 9 a.m., but he didn't show. The judge issued a bench warrant, and there was another arraignment on July 21, at 9 a.m., but again, he failed to appear. He was eventually arrested and held in jail until trial. On October 13, 2020, after about three months in jail, he agreed to a plea bargain with the state. Under the agreement, he pled guilty to three felonies—

reckless driving while evading an officer, theft of a vehicle, and the second strike felony. The remaining charges appear to have been dismissed as part of the deal. He remained in jail until his sentencing on February 26, 2021, when he was sentenced to four years plus eight months.

He had already served 227 days prior to sentencing and was given a two-time bonus for that time. So that was a credit of 454 days off, leaving about 1,100 days to serve. With credit for good time, his earliest possible release would be about a year and six months, around September of 2022.

Sure enough, on September 18, 2022, Jim was released from the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown, California. Jim Jones is a free man.

After releasing the first part of the original 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 of people like Jim Jones. She also said that the locals of Humboldt County call him a serial killer and whispers around town. But 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 there is 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 County Five, Karen Mitchell, who was just 16 when she went missing in 1997.

They 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 spot 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.

In 2015, a year after Danielle went missing, her skull was found washed up on the banks of the Eel River.

You know, at first I was any time, 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 match dental records to the skull that was located and somehow the records that I had received from Billy, and 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 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...

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 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.

Sheila's femur was discovered in a location close to Danielle's in 2019. And though Sheila and Danielle are no longer missing, it's not clear what exactly happened to them. But somebody knows something. And like I mentioned earlier, 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 that the femur found that dune near the river belonged to Sheila Franks. What I can tell you is, yes, we presented a case to our local district attorney 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 hard 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 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

to come forth, I mean, it's hard to say how long this can drag out. This case is in a tough position because people are afraid to come forward. The drugs involved go beyond marijuana. There is a web of people who know things, and at least some of that stems from the house that Danielle was living at when she went missing, the house that belongs to the person I'm calling Bob.

The day that Danielle went missing, she called Bob for a ride back to the house, and Bob sent his good friend Jim Jones to pick her up. Bob was a known dealer.

The book Chase Darkness With Me talked about targeted social media ad campaigns to find more information surrounding this house, and the stories poured in of deadly overdoses and trade-ins that happened there. Kids would apparently line the block to trade in their Xboxes for drugs. One woman said that her daughter had died there, and that she knew Danielle was also at that house.

Our local district attorney's office, we work well with them. And I don't think that they're not going forth with it because they don't want to or whatever it may be. 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, we can't go after him down the road if something else 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 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? 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, to,

to get them that but I mean there's some of these cases are they're tough you know you don't you have so little amount of evidence you might have a lot of circumstantial evidence but you got to be able to follow that up with actual evidence it makes it a little bit complicated.

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. I asked Detective Taylor if he thought media attention helped him with the work he does on the case.

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, that may be the one thing that pushes them forward to come forth and tell us. 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. 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 truly believe somebody knows what happened. And whether or not they're just scared to come forth or not, I don't know. But I think you need to keep it fresh in everybody's mind and keep going until you get results. Detective Taylor has worked tirelessly on this case with one goal in mind. Justice. Justice for Danielle. And ultimately, justice for Sheila, too.

We're going on seven years. I'm hoping that we're getting close to where we could give Billy and her family some kind of closure. That seven years has now turned into nine. 2024 will mark one decade. 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. And they do deserve justice, and rightfully deserve the attention they've received.

But in the shadows of these famous cases are thousands of people like Danielle and Sheila, who don't get the People magazine specials dedicated to them. These are the people I want to fight for. These are the people I am fighting for. I made a promise to Billy Joe I would fight for Danielle, and that promise goes beyond one episode produced in 2021. It goes beyond this updated version too.

I know she's happy now because she's with her son. 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. Help me reach my goal on the petition. Sign it at change.org slash Danielle and Sheila and share it with your friends. The squeaky wheel gets the grease. Let's be the squeaky wheel. ♪

If you know anything 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. Thank you so much for listening. If you are loving Murder, She Told, I want to encourage you to share it with a friend. If you want to support the show in another way, there's a link in the show notes with options. Follow Murder, She Told on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Head to MurderSheTold.com for a detailed list of sources and photos from this episode and more. A very special thanks to Billy Joe for endlessly trusting me with Danielle's story and to Detective Brian Taylor of the Fortuna Police Department for taking the time to speak with me. If you have a case suggestion or a correction, feel free to email me at hello at MurderSheTold.com. I'm Kristen Seavey, and this is Murder She Told. Thank you for listening.