Live testimony resumes today in the murder trial of Michael P. McCarthy. He’s accused of murdering his girlfriend’s two-year-old child, hiding the little girl’s body in a refrigerator, and then dumping her body in a channel which connects to Boston Harbor. A woman out walking a dog eventually found the badly decomposed body of the girl, who was first known to authorities as “Baby Doe” on billboards and posters. Later, Michael Sprinsky, a lifelong friend of the defendant’s, made the connection: Baby Doe was really Bella Bond. He testified that Rachelle Bond, the girl’s mother, told him that the defendant murdered Bella. McCarthy and Rachelle Bond were living together at the time.
Rachelle Bond, Bella’s mother, will continue to testify today. It will be her fourth day on the witness stand.
Defense Attorney Jonathan Shapiro has continued to chip away at Bond’s version of events, bringing up inconsistencies between her police interview and her testimony on the stand. Shapiro also at times chastised Bond’s parenting style and openly questioned repeatedly whether her story was completely made up.
Shapiro also needled Rachelle Bond over “getting away” with Bella’s death.
Rachelle Bond testified that she only saw Bella’s body in a duffle bag. She said she heard through news reports that the girl was in a plastic bag as well.
Shapiro repeatedly hammered Bond by telling her that it was hard to keep a false story straight.
Bond attempted to explain the differences between her testimony and her police interview as resulting from her being scared of the police due to prior drug and prostitution arrests. She also said her testimony delved deeper than her police interview.
Bond maintained that she did not run away from Michael McCarthy because she was afraid of him, despite claiming that he was the man who killed her daughter.
McCarthy has claimed he had no involvement with the little girl’s disappearance. He claims that when he stopped seeing Bella, Rachelle Bond told him the little girl was taken away by child services officials, just as her other two children had.
Joseph Amoroso, Bella’s father, was living in Florida when the girl disappeared.