Jeanna Dale North was 11 years old when she was last seen in Fargo, North Dakota, on June 28, 1993. Public missing-person records list her as missing from Fargo, in Cass County, with the Fargo Police Department as the investigating agency and NCMEC case number 781241. At the time she disappeared, Jeanna was described as a White female child, about 4 feet 3 inches tall and 55 pounds, with light brown or blond hair and blue eyes.
She had pierced ears and was also reported to have significant dental issues related to recent repair or rebuilding work.
On the evening she vanished, Jeanna was rollerblading with a friend in her Fargo neighborhood. Accounts reported by missing-person sources say a police officer saw the two girls at a local convenience store at about 10:30 p.m. Afterward, they headed back toward their homes. Jeanna’s friend said she reached her own residence and then watched Jeanna continue on rollerblades toward the corner of North 15th Avenue and North 4th Street. That was the last reported sighting of Jeanna. She was only a short distance from home, making the suddenness of her disappearance especially devastating for her family and community.
Jeanna was reportedly wearing a blue T-shirt with white or gold-and-white mime masks printed on the front, turquoise shorts, and black Rollerblades with neon green wheels. Those details have remained important because they preserve a clear picture of a child on a summer night doing something ordinary and joyful before she disappeared. Her case drew concern quickly, and over time it became one of Fargo’s most painful and widely remembered child-disappearance cases.
The investigation eventually focused on Kyle Kenneth Bell, a neighbor who lived near Jeanna. Authorities later connected evidence from Bell’s truck to Jeanna, including hairs that were reported to match her through DNA testing. Searches of the Sheyenne River produced a rope and cinder block that investigators believed could have been connected to the disposal of Jeanna’s remains, though Jeanna herself was never recovered.
In August 1999, a jury found Bell guilty of murdering Jeanna, and on September 24, 1999, he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Court records state that Bell appealed, but his appeal was dismissed after he escaped from custody while being transported; later records continued to identify the conviction as a murder conviction connected to Jeanna’s death. Federal and state sources also describe Bell as having abducted and murdered an 11-year-old neighbor girl in Fargo, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office later referred to Jeanna’s case in connection with “Jeanna’s Act,” which addressed prisoner transport issues after Bell’s escape.
Although a murder conviction was secured, Jeanna’s remains have not been found. That absence has left her loved ones without the full measure of closure that recovery might provide. Public records and reporting continue to preserve her name, her description, the place she was last seen, and the details of the investigation, honoring Jeanna not only as a victim in a criminal case but as a child whose life mattered deeply to her family, friends, and the Fargo community.Last Seen: Jun 28, 1993
