BOSTON (WHDH) — A woman called to the stand on Friday told prosecutors she recognized “Baby Doe” on one of the flyers searching for the little girl.
Nicole Marquis said she knew Bella’s mother, Rachelle Bond, from a clinic they both added. She said months earlier, Bond told her that her parents were demons and when she was a child, they “tried to pull her soul out of her body.”
On July 13, 2015, Marquis said she recognized the composite picture on the Baby Doe poster as Bella. She said she called the Suffolk County District Attorney Detectives Unit and spoke to an officer.
“I had told them that I thought that Baby Doe resembled a girl named Rachelle Bond’s daughter,” said Marquis. “I wasn’t sure where she lived, I just told them that Rachelle Bond had a Facebook and that you could see the picture on the Facebook.”
Bella was not officially identified as Baby Doe until September 2015. The Suffolk County DA’s office said it cannot comment on witness testimony during the trial.
Ingrid Perlera, who works at the company that manages Bond’s apartment, also testified Friday. She said Bond told her Bella was still living with her weeks after she had been killed. Perlera said when she asked Bond where Bella was, she told her the toddler was with her grandmother.
Also on the stand Friday was Terry Belotti-Palmaeri, daughter of former Attorney General Frank Bellotti. She said she frequently saw suspect Michael McCarthy in church with his father.
McCarthy is accused of murdering 2-year-old Bella in June 2015 and dumping her body in Boston Harbor. Her body washed up inside a garbage bag on the beach on Deer Island shortly afterwards. McCarthy’s defense attorneys contend that Bond is the actual killer.
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