Closing arguments in the murder trial of Michael McCarthy were set to wrap up Tuesday. McCarthy was accused of killing 2-year-old Bella Bond, otherwise known as ‘Baby Doe.’ A look back at the case since its beginning shows everything we know so far.
Bella Bond’s body was found in July 2015 washed up on a Massachusetts beach wrapped in trash bags. Authorities couldn’t identify her from her remains and so produced a composite image of her to try and ascertain her identity, earning her the name ‘Baby Doe.’
For months, Bella was known only as ‘Baby Doe’ as no conclusive evidence of her identity could be found.
Bella’s mother, Rachelle Bond, reportedly told friends and family that her daughter had been taken away by Massachusetts Department of Children and Families to explain her absence.
Rachelle eventually admitted to a friend named Michael Sprinsky that her daughter was dead. Sprinsky made the connection between Rachelle and ‘Baby Doe,’ who had been all over the news, and went to the police.
Rachelle told police that she had seen McCarthy, her boyfriend at the time, kill Bella by punching her repeatedly in the stomach.
Rachelle also said she was intimidated into keeping quiet by McCarthy, who threatened her and made her dispose of Bella’s body with him. The two wrapped her body in trash bags loaded with weights and dropped her in the water. Rachelle said she was “trapped by [McCarthy’s] abusive behavior and her own drug abuse,” as the couple was addicted to heroin and binged on the drug after Bella’s death.
Rachelle was charged with accessory for helping McCarthy dispose of the body, but agreed to testify against him in exchange for a guilty plea. She was expected to walk free after the trial concluded.
Prosecutors argued McCarthy was obsessed with demons and the occult and killed Bella because he thought she was a demon. “She just died,” McCarthy said, according to prosecutors. “It was her time. She was a demon.”
McCarthy pleaded not guilty to the charges. He also denied killing her in a recorded interview with police, which was shown to jurors during the trial.
McCarthy’s defense team argued that it was Rachelle who killed Bella and not McCarthy and that she was the one obsessed with the occult.
In the apartment McCarthy and Rachelle shared, Massachusetts police found books about demonology.
No physical evidence linked McCarthy to Bella’s death. “His DNA was not found,” Defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro said during closing arguments Tuesday. “His fingerprints were not found. His hair was not found. Each of the forensic scientists who testified agreed that he or she did not find any link between Mr. McCarthy and this crime. Nothing, nothing, nothing.”
The defense quoted one of Rachelle’s diary entries as evidence that she was obsessed with the occult. In the entry, Rachelle discussed why many missing children were never found. “That’s because the leaders of every country get together and torture and rape and kill these innocent children every year just so they can drink their blood and eat their flesh, so these reptilian demons can have a moment’s clarity.”
The case against McCarthy relied mainly on Rachelle’s testimony, a fact the defense seized on in closing arguments. “The story she told was clearly made up to cover her own guilt,” said Shapiro. “It was a web of lies, a changing web of lies, you know that.”
After closing arguments Tuesday, the jury would be allowed to consider involuntary manslaughter, first and second-degree murder.
Shapiro: Prosecutors made a deal with the devil, the only devil in the case. (They made a deal w Rachelle to testify against McCarthy). #WBZpic.twitter.com/jzwaWjUj1s
