May 2, 2009
Man tells sheriff he’s killed 17 people
By BURTON SPEAKMAN
GLASGOW — Nancy Daddysman left her Bowling Green house on a Friday night in 1998 looking to hitch a ride to Indianapolis. She thought she found one when she met David M. Bell.
What she found was a murderer, according to Bell.
The 35-year-old Monticello native has confessed to killing Daddysman on that night and dumping her body near Park City, said Barren County Sheriff’s Detective Rusty Anderson.
Bell is an inmate at Indiana State Prison in Michigan City, Ind., who could be classified as a serial killer and rapist if all of the 17 murders he has confessed to committing are true.
Daddysman met friends at the Waffle House on Three Springs Road in Bowling Green on Sept. 4, 1998, and told them she was going to get a ride to Indiana.
“One of the last things she did was call a friend and tell them, ‘I’ve got my ride to Indianapolis,’” Anderson said.
When Daddysman got into the vehicle with Bell he had already picked up an “eight-ball” of meth-amphetamine and gotten high, Anderson said.
“He told us the only thing that was on his mind was killing, raping and eating her remains,” he said. “He couldn’t remember where he had gone and couldn’t tell us how he got there.”
Bell was able to describe the scene in vivid detail to Anderson and Barren County Sheriff Chris Eaton when the two visited Bell in the Indiana State Prison on Wednesday.
Somewhere between Bowling Green and where Daddysman’s body was dumped in an isolated area off Iron Mountain Road, Bell had hit Daddysman in the head with a pipe. Eaton said during Bell’s confession he stated he couldn’t remember where he was when he hit her. All he could remember was traffic was going by when the assault occurred.
When Bell got Daddysman out of his vehicle, she was regaining consciousness, Eaton said. At that point Bell stabbed and killed the 42-year-old woman.
Before her death, Daddysman attempted to fight Bell. Kentucky Forensic Anthropologist Emily Craig found a defensive wound on Daddysman’s arm, according to a previous Glasgow Daily Times story. Anderson said they will ask Craig to review the case to see if there is evidence that Bell ate any part of Daddysman, although he denies doing so.
Bell placed Daddysman in a cave where she wouldn’t be located until just over two years later when two young boys who were cave diving came across her remains on Sept. 21, 2000.
“He had intended to rape her and the only reason he said he didn’t was because he couldn’t because he was high,”Anderson said.
Killer’s methods
Throughout the four-hour interview with Anderson and Eaton, Bell was calm and clear.
“He did cry a lot. Specifically when he was shown the tarp that Daddysman was found wrapped in,”Eaton said.
Daddysman’s killing fits the motive of all the murders Bell told Anderson and Eaton he committed. Since returning from Michigan City, Anderson has been reviewing the evidence in the case.
He said Bell was living in Monticello at the time of Daddysman’s murder and that all of those murdered for which Bell has taken credit were women.
The method was not always the same. In some instances Bell said he hit the women with a blunt object, other times he stated he had stabbed the woman and on at least two occasions he had hit a woman with a vehicle. In one of the instances the woman survived, Anderson said.
“He said he liked to torture them,”Anderson said.
Bell told Anderson he had killed a total of 17 women and that he had sacrificed five infants to Satan by burning their bodies. He had conducted the alleged sacrifices each Halloween from 1995 to 1999.
It’s unclear if Bell used stillborns or fetuses for the sacrifices, Anderson said. Bell has also admitted to eating parts of at least some of his victims.
“He believed he was possessed by a demon. He stated he had always had thoughts about doing these type of things, but it was the drugs, the meth and cocaine, that gave him the ability to act on them,”Anderson said.
History of violence
Bell was convicted in Indiana in 2004 for the murder of Claire Ellis. He picked up Ellis in his car and later hit her in the head with a wrench. Bell then buried her in a shallow grave before taking his family to Arkansas, according to Indiana Supreme Court records.
Bell did not become a suspect in the case until five months after Ellis’ disappearance when law enforcement learned Bell had made a call to his nephew using Ellis’ phone. He pleaded guilty without a plea agreement. He is currently appealing his sentence to the Indiana Supreme Court as excessive. Bell was given the maximum allowable under Indiana law.
Bell received a 65-year sentence for the Ellis murder. The earliest he could be released from custody in Indiana is April 13, 2037, unless he wins his appeal.
The case records indicate Bell has a history of violence toward women as evidenced by his battery resulting in a bodily injury felony conviction involving his aunt, according to Indiana Supreme Court records. The record also states he previously had a number of misdemeanor convictions.
“There are a lot of parallels between the Ellis and Daddysman murders,”Eaton said.
Bell said the first person he killed was his mother in 1991 when he would have been 17 or 18 years old, according to Eaton.
“He stated she was taking a bath and he threw a hair dryer in the tub with her. The electrical outlet burned out pretty quickly and she was still alive. He stated that when she tried to get up she fell back and hit her head and that killed her. The coroner’s office ruled she had died from an aneurysm in the tub,”Eaton said.
Bell has also admitted to drugging multiple female relatives with sleeping pills before sexually assaulting them. He also told his former wife that he had mixed women’s body parts into food they had both consumed, Anderson said.
Bell’s former wife was the person who had helped authorities in Indiana to locate the body of Claire Ellis, according to Indiana Supreme Court records.
Investigation continues
Anderson is working with law enforcement in Arkansas and in Wayne County to continue with the investigation. He is also planning to speak with federal prosecutors about possibly combining all the cases for prosecution.
“That will depend on state laws. In some states Bell could be facing a more severe penalty at the state level than he could federally,”he said.
There is a chance that many of Bell’s alleged victims will never be found, Anderson said. Bell told the detective that many of his victims had been carefully hidden and would not be found.
“He told us that he wasn’t going to just confess to everything he had done, but if law enforcement came to him with a specific case he would admit to it if he had done it, Anderson said.
The sheriff’s detective is working with law enforcement in Arkansas and Kentucky and he plans to meet with officials in Bell’s home county of Wayne within the next few weeks.
There are other cases within the area that involve women who were either missing or whose bodies where found abandoned and deaths were unsolved that could be related, he said.
Law enforcement officials in Arkansas already have enough information to charge Bell with another count of murder, but they are still investigating another case in which he could have been responsible, Anderson said.
GLASGOW — Sheriff Chris Eaton is heading to Michigan City, Ind., to interview a man who claims to be responsible for a the death of a woman whose remains were found near Park City in 2000.
Nancy Daddysman, who was 42 at the time she disappeared, her body was located by two young boys on Sept. 21, 2000, off Iron Mountain Road near Park City. Her remains were identified through dental records.
Daddysman lived at 1050 Shive Lane in Bowling Green at the time of her disappearance and was supposed to meet friends at the Waffle House on Three Springs Road on Sept. 4, 1998, to get a ride to Indianapolis. She had been dropped off at the residence.
Eaton along with others will be interviewing David M. Bell, 35, on Wednesday morning. The contingency from the sheriff’s office will leave today, staying in Michigan City before interviewing Bell at the Indiana State Prison in Michigan City. Bell is originally from Monticello.
“I don’t know if this guy is a scam artist or if he is serious,” Eaton said.
The questioning hopefully will allow the sheriff’s office to determine if Bell was the person who actually killed Daddysman.
Bell has provided law enforcement with information about a woman’s death in Arkansas. He was able to lead law enforcement there to a truck containing a pair of the dead woman’s underwear, Eaton said.
“The man has been taking responsibility for a lot of things,” Eaton said. “He also claims to have killed his mother, but the autopsy report states his mother had died of an aneurysm.”
Bell was living in the area at the time of Daddysman’s disappearance, Eaton said.
Daddysman was found wrapped in a blanket; it appeared she had been in the same location since her disappearance and had not been moved. The boys were cave diving when they found her remains. She was found in a rocky, wooded area and the closest building is a Baptist church.
Eaton had stated previously the person who had left Daddysman’s body had to have been someone who knew the area well or lived in the area. Although the location isn’t far from Interstate 65, there are several other rural areas near the closest exit that are much more easily accessible for someone attempting to leave something in an isolated area.
There has never been a suggested motive for the killing. She didn’t have any enemies and her estranged ex-husband was living on a military base in Langley, Va., at the time of her disappearance.
“It would be good to get this case closed. It’s just been out there for a long time,”Eaton said.
According to the Indiana Department of Correction, Bell was sentenced to 63 years in prison for murder on Jan. 11, 2006. If he is convicted of no additional crimes the earliest that Bell could be released on parole from the Indiana Department of Corrections is April. 13, 2037.
Bell also has a prior Indiana conviction for battery from Feb. 2, 2001. He was released for the battery charge in 2004.
December 15, 2006
David Michael Bell appeals his sentence for murder, arguing that his sentence is inappropriate in light of the nature of his offense and his character. Finding that Bell’s sentence is not inappropriate, we affirm.
October 12, 2005
INDIANAPOLIS MAN CONFESSES TO MURDERING MISSING WOMAN
More Murdered Women--This time in the Indianapolis Area
A former Anderson man was arrested early Tuesday on a preliminary murder charge after confessing to killing an Indiana woman who disappeared in May, police said.
David M. Bell, 31, of Arkansas, went to the Anderson Police Department on Tuesday and confessed that he had fatally struck Claire Marie Ellis in the head after she had upset him, police said.
Police said they believe Bell had seen Ellis, 26, standing on a street corner in Anderson and offered her a ride on the early morning of May 8. Bell told investigators that Ellis upset him, and a struggle began, police said. "She said something he didn't like. Apparently there was drugs involved," Anderson police Detective Terry Sollars said. "He ended up assaulting her and continued assaulting her until she was dead."
Bell on Tuesday told detectives that he buried Ellis in the yard of the Anderson home where he lived at the time. Authorities said Bell moved to Arkansas after Ellis disappeared. A dog will be used to verify whether a body is in the yard, police said.
Vicki Davidson has lived on the property for four weeks. Police told her Tuesday that a body could be buried in her yard. "(It is) a little crazy," Davidson said. Ellis was reported missing May 10. Police said she had planned to visit her mother on Mother's Day, May 8, but failed to show.
Ellis' purse was found in a shed near East Lynn and Johnson streets in Anderson on the day she was reported missing. Authorities said she worked in Indianapolis-area nightclubs as an exotic dancer.
Police said Bell didn't know Ellis before May 8. Authorities said Bell had confessed to his wife that he killed Ellis. Police said they had recovered blood evidence from Bell's truck and were close to tracking him when he confessed.
