BOSTON (AP) - The biological father of a girl whose body was found inside a trash bag on a Boston Harbor island and who was dubbed Baby Doe as investigators searched for her family appeared in court Monday for the arraignments of her mother and the mother's boyfriend.
Joseph Amoroso said before court that he came to support 2-year-old Bella Bond, the daughter he never met.
Michael McCarthy, 35, is charged with murder. Bella's mother, Rachelle Bond, 40, is charged as an accessory after the fact. They are to be arraigned in Dorchester District Court in Boston.
Amoroso said Bond told him that McCarthy punched Bella in the stomach over and over again until she stopped breathing.
"She told me that Michael McCarthy had murdered our daughter, stuffed her in a trash bag and threw her in the ocean in South Boston," he said.
Millions viewed a composite image of a brown-eyed, chubby-cheeked girl when her body was found June 25 in a trash bag washed up on a Boston-area beach. Authorities released her name Friday.
Investigators have not publicly speculated on a motive or a cause of death in Bella's case, saying more will be disclosed at the arraignments.
McCarthy's attorney, Jonathan Shapiro, declined to comment Sunday on the case except to say that he expects McCarthy, who has been hospitalized, to be in court Monday. Repeated attempts to reach relatives of McCarthy have been unsuccessful.
Bond's attorney, Janice Bassil, did not return a message Sunday seeking comment.
Amoroso previously told The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald that Bond told him McCarthy believed the child was possessed by demons and that Bella had been dead several weeks before her body was found.
Amoroso said he has been in Florida for a couple of years and returned to Massachusetts in August hoping to meet his daughter. He said Bond told him last week what happened to their child and stayed with him in Lynn on Thursday night. He said he was questioned Friday. He has not been charged.