Several of you have contacted me about getting ahold of Donnelle. This article was sent to me late last night and it holds evidence of her whereabouts. According to this article she is in the Federal Prison in Bryan. So you might try contacting them and seeing what is involved in contacting her. Hope this helps all of those who have wanted to support her at this terrible time. Whatever you do keep her in your prayers.
Posted on Tue, Nov. 22, 2005
Woman facing prison time discovered dead in Irving
By BRYON OKADA
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER
Daryla Julian, 60, the elder of a mother-daughter team convicted of trafficking thousands of pounds of marijuana throughout the country, was found dead in Irving on Saturday after apparently committing suicide by inhaling helium gas.
Julian, of Springtown, was using the money to fund a lavish horse ranch on the border of Parker and Wise counties. She had been ordered to surrender to authorities Friday morning to serve nine years in federal prison.
Her body was found in the 4700 block of Plaza Drive in Irving. The cause of her death is listed by the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office as "suffocation due to inhalation of helium gas," and is considered a suicide.
Julian and her daughter, Donelle Kvenild, 39, were well-known in barrel racing circles. Kvenild was sentenced to six years in federal prison for her lesser role in the drug trafficking.
The Star-Telegram does not typically report suicides, but Julian's story had recently been front-page news. Also, she had been interviewed by the Star-Telegram after her Oct. 28 sentencing and was in contact with a reporter until shortly before her death for a feature story about how she was putting her affairs in order before going to prison.
Kvenild had never agreed to directly participate in the story. Officials with the U.S. Marshal's Office and the minimum-security women's federal prison camp in Bryan confirmed that Kvenild reported as ordered.
Julian said she agreed to be interviewed because she wanted to explain that at a financially desperate moment in her life she had become mixed up in a conspiracy involving unsavory people. To support her clothing business in 1997, she started distributing drugs.
"I'm not going to tell you I was unwilling, because I desperately needed the money," she said.
When the time came, colleagues cut deals and threw her to the wolves.
Mostly she wanted to say that her daughter is not a drug dealer and that her own guilt was over her daughter getting caught up in her mess. She said she cooperated with prosecutors in the belief that it would reduce her daughter's sentence to a fine.
"I wouldn't be here if it was just about me," she said. "I broke the law. I appreciate that."
In her last days, Julian had been carrying around photographs of two of her horses, Brandy and Myra. Brandy had been in the family for years. Myra was a former champion. While 35 other horses were moved to Addington, Okla., to the care of friends, Brandy and Myra were too old for the move. Julian had called the vet to euthanize them.
"I've always taken care of my horses and now I had to do this," she said.
Julian had been in women's rodeo since she was a little girl. Kvenild had competed since she was 13.
Last week Julian told a reporter that she had to delay a key interview. She said she would call when things "cleared up."
Apparently they never did.
IN THE KNOW
What came before
Since 1997, Daryla Julian, 60, had distributed an estimated 11,000 pounds of marijuana in Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia and Oklahoma.
Prosecutors said that Julian and her daughter, Donelle Kvenild, 39, spent nearly $1 million on the No Name Ranch in Springtown and that the ranch and equipment are likely to be worth more than that in a forfeiture, which is a separate, pending case.
Kvenild was convicted of just one 50-pound delivery to Oklahoma in 1998. Julian says Kvenild only "rode along" with a boyfriend.
Almost all the purchases for the ranch were made with drug cash hidden in two floor safes in a bedroom closet.
District Judge John McBryde imposed prison sentences slightly below federal sentencing guidelines, taking into consideration that Julian and Kvenild had quit the drug business before getting caught. Julian was to serve nine years in prison, Kvenild six years.
There is no parole from federal prison.
SOURCE: Star-Telegram archives
