A prosecutor has told jurors that a man accused of beating a 2-year-old girl to death showed no sign of concern for the child when he was interviewed by police.
Opening statements were made Tuesday in the trial of 37-year-old Michael McCarthy, who is charged in the death of his former girlfriend's daughter.
Bella Bond was known for months only as "Baby Doe" as authorities struggled to identify her after her body washed up on a Boston Harbor island in June 2015. A composite image of the girl was shared by millions on social media.
The woman who found Bella's body while walking her dog was among those who testified on Tuesday. Bonnie Flynn described to jurors the awful moment when she came upon a plastic bag washed ashore on Deer Island. She said she used a seashell to cut the bag open.
"I took a deep breath and I continued to cut," Flynn said.
Through tears, Flynn explained that she ran for help when she saw what looked like a child's legs and a blanket inside.
It would be months before the child was identified.
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The girl's mother, Rachelle Bond, pleaded guilty in February to being an accessory after the fact for helping McCarthy dispose of her body. She is expected to testify against him.
Prosecutor David Deakin said Bond saw McCarthy hitting Bella in the abdomen and tried to perform CPR on her the night she died. When Bond tried to get help, he said McCarthy strangled her until she was unconscious, later sticking a syringe filled with heroin into her neck to sedate her.
"He grabbed her around the neck and said to her, 'If you tell anyone what happened, I will kill you,'" Deakin said.
According to prosecutors, McCarthy said that Bella was a demon. Deakin said Bond was afraid of McCarthy, and eventually that guilt fueled her own drug addiction.
McCarthy's defense attempted to poke holes into Bond's story, saying that if she had been strangled unconscious, she wouldn't have been able to perform CPR.
The defense also argued that it was Bond, and not McCarthy, who had an obsession with demons and spirituality. The defense added that Bond's testimony should not be believed because she had lied about her daughter's whereabouts after her death.
"She knew Bella had died because she was responsible for Bella's death," defense attorney Jonathan Shapiro said. "She knew how and where Bella's body had been dumped into the harbor because she had disposed of Bella's body."
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McCarthy has denied killing the girl.
Bella's biological father, as well as McCarthy's father and brother, were in court Tuesday.
The judge expects this trial to last several weeks. Testimony ended for the day around 1 p.m. Tuesday.
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