Missing Person Michael Darnell Bell Jr. /// OFF THE RECORD | Forensic Files

[music] [music] [music] It's hard. It's hard to research some of these cases, Captain, because what
happens to me, and I know it happens to you, so don't pretend like it doesn't. I
will be like hunting down information on a case and I stumble across something else, like I read something along the
way, and I'm like, "Oh, that sounds interesting." Or that that tugged at the old heartstrings, and then I start
reading and investigating that. And then I have to remind myself, no, I need to get next week's case done.
>> Yeah. Well, and the other thing, too, is when you're trying to give out information and it's not just
opinion-based and you have a limited time to do it because some of this stuff you can you
could dive into like some of the hearsay stuff you could dive into for hours. >> Yeah. but it's not really responsible to
sit there and talk about, you know, something that might not be true, might not have anything to do with the case.
So, yeah, it's it's sometimes hard to keep on track. So, we did a California case recently and I came across this
when I was digging for information and this was from a um an article. Well, what brought this
story to my attention was a news article from the Fresno B, an article from 2017.
>> Uhhuh. >> And I'm not going to go through that article. It's it's a good one. I
recommend it if you if you can find it online, but it's about a missing person's case. And the individual that's
missing is Michael Darnell Bell, >> right? Uh, he has been missing since September 17th, 2011.
I'm sure if you look up his name, Michael Darnell Bell with Fresno B, you'll be able to find this this article
here. But the thing that got me here, one, this is a young man. And two, his mother does an interview for this
article. Her name is Deanna Mcnite Bell. And you can you I read her words and I can hear I can feel her heart is broken.
And I thought, you know, we uh this is one I at least want to throw his name out there and give a description of him.
Uh looking into this case, it didn't really it didn't fit our format of of long form format. Uh there's there's
little that I know about this case and I I'll look into it a little more. Maybe there is more out there, but
uh this individual went missing as said September 17th, 2011. Now, there is a page for him on the
Charlie Project. >> Yeah. >> And I do want to point out to everybody, I don't have I brought this up before.
The Charlie Project >> I don't know. >> We don't know what I'm about to say. >> Uh well, hear me now and uh get back to
me later. Um, the Charlie Project >> is when you go on there, >> they are now asking for donations. And
this can even be like a small donation. Uh, I think they're asking for $3. The Charlie Project, I want to give them
some kudos and I'm hoping people hearing this might be inspired to donate $3 to them to keep the Charlie Project around.
My understanding is the Charlie Project is run it's operated uh it's a a it's a woman that that runs it. It's a very
small operation. >> Yeah. >> Very small operation and they do not have advertising on their site. They do
not sell advertising space on the Charlie Project site. The thing that I love about their
website is I find that they are more accurate and more upto-date than some of the other bigger run sites that are that
are similar, you know, that are devoted to missing individuals or to these cold cases.
>> Yeah. >> Where you'll go on some of them and a person has been found and they just
didn't update it. And that's not the situation with the Charlie Project website. So, I donated a little bit of
money. The garage donated a little bit of money. I'm hoping that some people out there cuz there's a lot of people
especially in the true crime community that access these sites probably rather frequently
and if you want them to stay around at some point we got to help the people that are running these sites. So the
Charlie page for Michael Darnell Bell Jr. is what he's listed on here. Uh missing from Mandota, California. His
classification is endangered missing. He is an African-American male. He was born
January 26th, 1986. [snorts] So, he'd be 33 years old. Don't check the math on that. Um, missing, he
would have been about 25 when he went missing. He's 6' tall, 190 lb. He was last wearing a white shirt, black pants,
white sneakers, and a dark colored backpack. He has some very distinctive tattoos
on his person. So, he's one of these people that that should be easy to identify.
Um, it's he [snorts] went missing under suspicious circumstances. His t his tattoos are as follows. He has his
nickname, which is Mike, on one arm, his last name, Belle, on the other arm, along with a list of his father's
accomplishments. It doesn't state what the what that would be. And then on then he also has the names Ashant Ashante I'm
guessing and Shikina on tops on the tops of his wrist. >> Is that daughter's names or
>> um I I do not know. His ears are pierced as well. So, he was last seen in Menota,
California on the 17th of September in 2011 at approximately 3:15 a.m. The car he was driving, this was his his
mother's vehicle was, it's a blue 2002 Toyota Camry, it ran out of gas on the interstate on Interstate 5
>> near Russell Avenue about 4 hours north of Los Angeles, California. A highway
patrol officer dropped him off at the Chevron gas station. Uh, this is west of Pino Road. I'm going
to spell that just cuz I don't think I'm saying that right. P A N O C H E Road near Modota. And he was never heard from
again. This is after getting a ride, a helping ride from a highway patrol officer.
>> Yeah. Apparently, he was supposed to his hometown. >> Hold on. Because because of the
circumstances, you're going to >> immediately you start going, "Wait, wait. Law enforcement is involved. Law
enforcement is the last people, possibly the last person to see them." And then you get conspiracy theorists popping
their heads up like crazy right now. Not saying it's warranted. I'm just saying,
>> right? I don't think that's the situation here. Um, I think if that was the situation, we
have a family that's active and being active in the public looking for, >> right,
>> uh, their family member. I think they would be calling out >> law enforcement, which they're not.
>> Yeah. State Patrol and that doesn't seem to be the situation we and and >> but look, if you do something if you do
something to somebody and they are no longer around, you usually don't offer up information that you were the last
one to be, >> right? But that's that's why I wanted to be clear about it is that the family is
not saying anything. So just his last scene with him, you know. >> Yeah. As far as we know, like I said,
this is just one of those things you you come across this article, your heart breaks for his mother.
>> Yeah. >> Uh you see him and you think of yourself when you're 25 and you just you want to do something
about it. Um we don't know a lot of the details here. Uh but I I'll go through a
few of the details that we do know. Apparently, he was Michael Bell was supposed to take a trip to his hometown.
I guess he's from Cleveland, Ohio, but he never arrived and didn't answer his family's repeated calls to his cellular
phone. >> His loved ones checked his apartment in Los Angeles, and found his phone and
personal belongings there and food in the microwave. This is what's weird about this story. So his the vehicle
he's driving runs out of gas. State patrol officer drops him off at a gas station. That's the last report we have
of him being seen or heard from, but we have a situation where from this description he there's a chance he made
it back to his apartment at some point. >> Yeah. >> Uh Belle and his mother's car were
missing. His relatives reported him missing on September 22nd. The police found and located his car located the
car abandoned where he left it when it ran out of gas. So if he did go back to his apartment, he went there instead of
returning to the vehicle with gas. So investigators aren't sure where Bell was going when he ran out of gas on the
interstate, but he told this is where conspiracy theory is going to go again. Uh
>> yeah, but this some warrant warrant here. Go ahead. He told the officer he left a religious service that he didn't
like. He had gotten interested in the Church of Scientology and was studying it and reading about it, but as far as
his family knows, he wasn't attending any church regularly. They say his loved ones stated it was uncharacteristic of
him to leave without warning. And they describe him as good-hearted, giving, and outgoing. He was starting a
nonprofit organization to establish group homes for homeless children and planned to meet with others on the board
of the organization during his upcoming visit to Cleveland. Bel attended Michigan State University where he
played football. He left behind a young son. Both Fresno County and Los Angeles police are investigating Bell's case. It
remains unsolved. The circumstances of his disappearance are unclear. Uh let's see if we have a I know you want to
weigh in here. >> Well, I just want to say that when you have a a church like the Church of
Scientology, if you want to call it a church, um that's what the government recognizes them as, but when you have
the leader of that church where there is no sign, there's no evidence that his wife is still alive.
I mean, it's the one of the biggest So, if you just look it up about about five minutes in, you're
going to get pissed off. And anytime that somebody brings up the Church of Scientology, that's all you're going to
think about. Said there's a missing person, that their family has reached out to law enforcement to say, "We're
worried about this person. There's no evidence that she's even alive anymore." and they basically have done nothing to
try to find this individual because it's the head of church's Scientology and it's almost like they don't want to get
involved and it's pathetic. And so then when you see this situation, this guy leaves a meeting and then goes missing
and then maybe it has nothing to do with him going missing but >> but but according to the officer, it
sounds like he came from some kind of service that he didn't like is what the officer is saying,
>> right? And and and look to when I first heard that the head of the Church of Scientology's wife has been
missing for like 5 years and that nobody's seen her, I thought this has to be the biggest story I've ever
heard in my life. and go over to Google and there's like 60inute episodes on this and there's all these
news reports about this and it's almost like law enforcement hasn't done anything like they don't want to get
involved and so it's like >> are they are they being shut out though? >> Well, part partly they're probably being
shut out. So they're probably they probably know that it's a losing battle anyways. But it's like this person could
be dead. She could have been murdered and you are doing nothing about it because it's a church made up by a guy
that wrote science fiction. M, you know, it's it's it's baffles my brain that we're even going to consider
that a church and give them um, you know, the special uh, privileges that churches have. And then you're not going
to investigate this poor woman that's been missing for so long and nobody knows where she's at, if she's even
alive. Maybe she's being tortured. And we have all these other reports of people that had to escape from these
compounds of the Church of Scientology. Now you got this I mean this is a good-looking guy, you know, smart guy,
guy trying to do stuff good in his community and uh goes to a meeting, sees something
he doesn't like, hears something he doesn't like. Well, what was that, you know, and now he's missing and and
it it connects back to this so-called church. I mean, it's ridiculous. Sorry, that was my rant.
>> No, you're all right. Um, yeah. So, if anybody has any information or thinks they've seen Michael or know
anything about his disappearance, the investigating agencies, as we said, are the Los Angeles Police Department and
the Fresno County Sheriff's Office. The LA Police Department, their number that you would call with info would be
213-9961800 and Fresno County Sheriff's Office is 5594883111. So, in telling this story, we're hoping
to keep his story alive, keep it uh going, passing from ear to ear, and maybe we can spread the word and get
some information for his very this family's, you know, this is like eight years now that they're missing
their their son, their brother, um you know, missing Michael. >> Yeah. And >> and they got no answers. They got they
they got even I mean, they got nothing, right? That's that's the other heartbreaking part of this that that
that breaks your heart even more is we got a little bit of a story, >> right, >> from state patrol.
We go to his apartment and it all, you know, food in the microwave. >> Yeah. >> Um I'm forgetful, but I I don't usually
forget food in the microwave. That almost seems like he's there and something happens or somebody approaches
him, >> which Right. Right. Right. or he tries to return to the car and something
happened on the way to the car. >> It's just weird, man, when >> Tyler Davis and some of these other
individuals that we've talked about on our show before, it's like poof, vanish into thin air.
>> Yeah. Almost like there's like this >> no no trail of breadcrumbs or nothing.
>> Like this random portal that just opens up in the universe and they walk in and
it swallows them up. But again, there's a a website that's dedicated to cases like this, the Charlie Project. It's
charliepro.org. >> Yeah, >> you can donate. I just donated >> $100. >> God bless you.
>> Um, but but I've been to the site multiple times and I've sent people to the site multiple times and if
somebody's going to try to do good work and put out work and this is not for entertainment value. They're not doing
the Charlie Project for some entertainment value. they're putting this out there to try to help these
individuals and help these families. >> And even if they just help one family, which I'm sure they've helped many more,
it's it's worth it. And and we're not sponsored by them or anything like that. It's just
>> right. And and the lady that runs the Charlie Project, God bless her, she works very hard to keep all of these uh
cases up to date, as we said. Oh, >> here's what I found. I'm sorry. I'm I'm trolling around online uh looking up
stuff for this case. So, there are some other ways if you have information that you might feel more comfortable uh using
these methods. You could do missing persons.online. So, I'm guessing you could submit a tip
via email at missingpersonslapd.online. And tips can also be made anonymously. anonymously.
I'm making up new words here. >> Uhhuh. My mama's >> Yeah, don't look that one up because
I've I've not typed in the definition yet. Uh, you can make tips. And this is 1877-5273247.
So, you wouldn't even have to give your name there. Just give the information and help out.
>> Yeah. Anything you can do. Fight the good fight. [music] >> [music]

Missing Person Michael Darnell Bell Jr. /// OFF THE RECORD Episode: 81 Nic and the Captain discuss: Michael Darnell Bell Jr. www.TrueCrimeGarage.com

Brief Summary

Michael Darnell Bell went missing in 2011; hosts discuss his case and the importance of keeping his story alive.

Key points

The Case of Michael Darnell Bell. Michael Darnell Bell has been missing since September 17, 2011. His family is still searching for answers.
Support the Charlie Project. The Charlie Project is a vital resource for missing persons cases. Donations help keep it running.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

It's hard to research some of these cases, Captain.

Struggling with the emotional weight of case research.

0:23WatchFeb 24, 2026

Tension

45/ 100Some tension

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