Unsolved Disappearance
Jeanna Dale North, 11, went missing from Fargo, North Dakota, on June 28, 1993.
Jeanna was rollerblading with a friend in her neighborhood in the evening hours. A police officer saw them at a local convenience store at about 10:30 p.m.
According to Jeanna's friend, they head home right after stopping at the store. Jeanna's friend arrived at home and watched Jeanna rollerblade around the corner.
Jeanna never arrived home, which was only 100 feet from the corner. Initially, Jeanna's mother, Sue North, was not concerned, thinking her daughter was with relatives. Earlier that day, Jeanna had been at Island Park Pool with friends and picked up by her father at 9:00 p.m. Sue assumed she was with him. Sue reported Jeanna missing the following afternoon.
An extensive search ensued but authorities found nothing.. Sue North enlisted several missing children agencies, including the Polly Klass Foundation in California, the Nation's Missing Children Organization in New York, and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Jeanna was even profiled on America's Most Wanted. Police followed up on thousands of leads.
In 1995, Jeanna's neighbor Kyle Kenneth Bell, confessed to sexually assaulting and then murdering Jeanna when she stopped at his house while he was working on his truck's headlights that fateful evening. When initially questioned by police right after Jeanna vanished Bell had told police that he had not seen her.
He admitted he had molested Jeanna in his garage that night. Jeanna threatened to tell her parents so Bell hit her. He claimed her death was an accident. He told authorities she slipped on her rollerblades after he hit her and died as a result of a mishap.
Bell, who was a sexual offender already, stated he put Jeanna's body in the Sheyenne River after her death. A search of the river turned up nothing. In May 1995, Bell then recanted his confession stating authorities had coerced him.
Police did not stop searching the Sheyenne River. In 1996, they found a cinder block and rope. These materials matched items police found at Bell's residence and police believe they were used to dispose of Jeanna's remains.
Authorities also tested several hairs they found in Bell's truck and they matched Jeanna's DNA. Bell was convicted of Jeanna's murder in 1999 and sentenced to life in prison. Less than a month later, in October 1999, Bell escaped from a transport van in New Mexico.
Bell remained a fugitive until January 9th, 2000, after America's Most Wanted aired him on the show. A viewer recognized him as "Christopher Larson," an alias Bell used. He was rearrested and currently serving out his life sentence.
Jeanna remains missing. Her mother, Sue North, passed away in 2009.
If you have any information that can assist authorities locate Jeanna's remains, please contact Fargo Police Department at 701-241-1437.
Sentenced to life in prison.
Missing June 28, 1993.
Sentenced to life in prison.