The Boston murder trial of Michael P. McCarthy continues today. He’s accused of killing a two-year-old girl first known only as “Baby Doe.” A passer-by found the body of the girl, later identified as Bella Bond, on the shore of an island in Boston Harbor on June 25, 2015. Prosecutors allege McCarthy threw the girl’s body into what’s known as the Reserve Channel, a docking area leading out of the harbor, and that the girl’s body washed up on the shore of the island several weeks later.
Prosecutors rested their case late last week. Defense attorneys are expected to call witnesses for two days. The jury could get the case tomorrow.
The defense claims Rachelle Bond, the girl’s mother, is the real killer.
On Friday, defense attorneys called Nicole Marquis, a friend of Rachelle Bond’s, to the stand. Marquis testified that she called police in July 2015 because she believed “Baby Doe” was the daughter of Rachelle Bond. She identified Rachelle Bond and the daughter as “Bella,” but said she wasn’t at that time sure the daughter had the same last name as the mother. Marquis even saved Facebook screen shots as proof. It took another two months for another tip to officially identify “Baby Doe” as Bella Bond. Police have refused to say how or whether they acted upon the tip from Marquis.
Marquis also testified that Rachelle Bond thought her parents were demonic. Defense attorneys have repeatedly argued that Rachelle Bond, not Michael McCarthy, has an obsession with demons and the occult.
Rachelle Bond faced five days of intense questioning on the witness stand, much of it by defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro.
On Thursday, the jury heard the details of a police interview with the defendant. During the interview, the defendant claimed not to know Bella Bond was dead and described the girl’s mother as a good mother. Despite this, McCarthy claimed during the interview that Rachelle Bond told him that social services workers had taken Bella away.
The defense has argued that Rachelle Bond is the real killer and that she lied on the witness stand to cover up her own involvement in the case.