Live testimony resumes today in the murder trial of Michael P. McCarthy.
McCarthy stands 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 is expected to continue to testify on Thursday. It will be her fifth day on the witness stand. Without Bond, the state’s case-in-chief unravels quickly: despite her long criminal record involving drugs and prostitution, and despite the hammering over inconsistent statements she’s received from the defense, without her testimony, there is scant evidence to link defendant McCarthy to the murder of Bella Bond.
On Wednesday, defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro continued to needle Rachelle Bond over her daughter’s death. Rachelle Bond sent text messages referring to McCarthy as “sweetie,” despite claiming she feared he would kill her during the time after Bella’s death. She also had shared Internet memes indicating she knew how to hide dead bodies.
Prosecutor David Deakin attempted to rehabilitate Rachelle Bond by having her read a social services report which indicated her toxicology screens were clean for drugs in the months before Bella died. Bond claims McCarthy got her back into drugs. She also said her memory of Bella’s death is better now than it was initially due to therapy and due to currently being off drugs.
McCarthy claims he was not involved with the little girl’s disappearance or death. He claims that Bella simply wasn’t there one day, and that Rachelle Bond told him that social services workers had taken Bella away. McCarthy didn’t suspect anything suspicious. Social services workers had already taken away Rachelle Bond’s two other children.
Joseph Amoroso, Bella’s father, was living in Florida when the girl disappeared.
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