Mother and boyfriend charged after murdered toddler's body 'kept in fridge then dumped in harbour'

The mother of a toddler found dead and wrapped in a rubbish bag has been charged following the girl's murder .

Two-year-old Bella Bond was kept in a fridge before the body was dumped in Boston Habour in the US, the New York Daily News Reports.  

Bella’s mother, 40-year-old Rachelle Bond has been charged with being an accessory after the fact while her boyfriend Michael McCarthy, 35, has been charged with murder.

Tragic: Police have arrested Bella Bond's mother Rachelle following the horrific discovery. 

“This child, whose very name means beauty, was murdered,” Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley said. “We have a very good idea about what happened to her, based on the evidence.”Prosecutors are awaiting the results of DNA testing to confirm the child’s identity, though they said they “are extremely confident in this identification”.

“We allege that McCarthy caused Bella’s death, that he did so intentionally, that he and Bond took specific steps to keep Bella’s death a secret and to avoid prosecution,” Conley said.

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Body: The two-year-old was found dead on a beach by a woman out walking her dog. 

Bond told cops McCarthy thought the defenseless girl was 'possessed' and punched her several times in the stomach, which led to her death, sources told FOX25.

The source also said the pair kept the girl’s body in a fridge for a month before dumping it by the harbor.

Prosecutors declined to provide further details on the cause of death, only saying that the girl died “by an act of violence in the very place that she should have felt safest, in her home.”

Bella was found on June 25 across the water from Boston’s Logan Airport, by a woman walking a dog.

Police Handout

Arrests: Michael Patrick McCarthy, the boyfriend of the victim's mother, has been charged with murder while the mother has been charged with accessory to murder after the fact. 

A week later, authorities released a computer-generated image of the child, using photographs of her remains.

Police were flooded with tips after the image went viral online.

Neighbours said they hadn’t seen Bella for some time, but they didn’t put two and two together until investigators arrived at the baby’s home this week.

Because Bond has had past trouble with the Department of Children and Families, they figured that little Bella had been taken into the state's custody.

Find: Bella's body was found on the beach with a zebra-striped blanket and polka-dot leggings. 

“She (the mother) tried to be responsible, but she was on drugs,” neighbor Yessiomora Torres told WMTW-TV. “She talked slurred, she’d come out and smoke a cigarette, her daughter would be crying.”

McCarthy, who is not biologically related to Bella, is in custody at a Boston-area hospital, where he’s been staying for reasons unrelated to the case, Conley said.

The child’s body will be returned to her biological father.