http://www.northescambia.com/?p=27921Missing Children’s Day: Search Continues In North Escambia CaseSeptember 13, 2010
A girl that was last seen nine years ago in North Escambia is among those that will be remembered today on the 12 annual Florida Missing Children’s Day.
Danielle Arion Bell, 14, was last seen at a party on September 30, 2001, near Cantonment. The teenager is believed to be an endangered runaway, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Danielle has a scar on her right forearm and blue eyes. She had brown hair at the time of her disappearance. She is now 22 years old.
Danielle is one of 25 missing children and adults being featured in a statewide billboard campaign this week. Two other Pensacola children are being featured on the billboards — Tavia Bailey, missing from Pensacola since January 24, 1986, and Preston Mills, missing from Pensacola since June 25, 2010.
“The Florida Department of Law Enforcement appreciates our outdoor advertisers for partnering with us once again to broadcast the photos of missing children and adults,” said Commissioner Gerald Bailey. “It is our hope that someone, somewhere in our state will recognize one of these faces and provide us with information that will reunite them with their families.”
Danielle attended Tate High School where she was a member of the Aggies cheerleading squad. The popular teen enjoyed dancing and drawing.
She was seen at a party on Cedar Tree Lane in Cantonment. Witnesses told authorities that she left the party that night shortly after a man that was in his mid-twenties at the time. Escambia County deputies later questioned that man and searched his home, but he was never charged in connection with the case.
During the summer of 2007, Alfredo Gomez Sanchez, Jr. was charged with providing law enforcement with false information about his whereabouts at the time Bell disappeared. He was not implicated in her disappearance.
Anyone with information about Bell is asked to call FDLE’s Missing and Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse at 1-888-FL MISSING or the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 436-9630.
Each year, approximately 50,000 incidents of missing children are reported to Florida law enforcement agencies. While many children are located within hours or days, some children are recovered months or even years after being reported missing.
“We count on the public to be vigilant at all times,” said Special Agent Supervisor Lee Condon of FDLE’s Missing Endangered Persons Information Clearinghouse. “If something doesn’t seem right in a child’s situation, it’s probably not. We count on tips from citizens to provide those small pieces of information which may not seem significant at the time, but could ultimately make the difference in saving a child’s life whether the child is 5 or 17. A missing child is always a child in danger no matter what their age.”
The FDLE encourages the public to sign up to receive free Missing Child Alerts and Amber Alerts via personal computer, cell phone or text message by visiting
www.missingchildrenalert.com.
