On Facebook, Baby Bella’s mom painted a picture of love and comfort
Rachelle Bond posted lots of photos of her toddler girl, Bella. But the posts stopped abruptly last Christmas.
On her Facebook page, Rachelle Bond was the picture of a doting mother. Birthday cakes and puzzles. New sneakers and smiling hugs.
“My love, my soul, my life. My heart beats because she’s in my world,’’ Bond wrote last August, not long after her daughter turned two.
But last winter, something changed. After Christmas, the pictures of little baby Bella abruptly stopped.
Police said Friday that the little girl Bond gushed over was the toddler whose body was found wrapped in a trash bag on the shore of Deer Island in June. Michael P. McCarthy, 35, has been arrested, and police are planning to charge him with Bella’s murder. Bond, 40, has also been arrested, and police are planning to charge her with accessory after the fact to murder.
Both will appear in court Monday morning.
Investigators haven’t said how the girl died or when, only that she was killed at her Dorchester home.
Bond’s Facebook account, which was deactivated Friday evening, looked much like any other mother’s social media page.
In her profile picture, she was smiling as she held her young daughter Bella, who was dressed in brightly colored footie pajamas, hair in pigtails.
Photos of “My Bella’’ and “Mama and Bella’’ smiling, eating pizza, and enjoying the toddler’s birthday filled her timeline.
One photo caption of a smiling Bella called her, “My little world.’’
But the photos stop in December 2014. The last photo of Bella was of the toddler opening Christmas presents with her mother. The photo was followed only by one other post, from April 25, to the weather channel for Boston’s forecast.
The last photo of Bella posted to her mother’s Facebook.
Investigators said Friday that Bella was about 2 1/2 when she was killed. She would have turned that age in February.
In one video, the mother wished her daughter a happy second birthday with a tiara, silly string, and a table full of presents. “My Bella loved her birthday party and all the awesome things she got. Broke the bank on it but it’s all worth it to see her happy and laughing and smiling. Love it,’’ she wrote in the caption.
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Bond spoke of how much her daughter meant to her in many of the captions, “I am on top of the world because of her,’’ she wrote. “My life is complete again and worth living. I give her the world and more if I can…’’
In April of 2014, Bond shared a photo from WCVB’s page asking for help finding two missing children who were believed to be abducted.
“Everyone please keep sharing so that they may find these babies before something bad happens to them,’’ she wrote. “And everyone pray for their well being and their safe return to their home. Poor babies. My heart breaks for them.’’
She was not one of the millions of people who shared the composite photo of Baby Doe.
Her about page said she lives in Boston, but she’s from Fitchburg. No places of work or schools were listed. She listed her current relationship status as single.
Attempts to reach Bond’s family members for comment were unsuccessful.
She’d had at least some trouble with the law. In 2010, before Bella was born, she was arrested on a prostitution offense. She pleaded guilty and was put on probation.
Bond had two other older children, but her parental rights were terminated between 2001 and 2006, according to the Department of Children and Families. They were adopted by Bond’s mother.
Sprinkled among the photos and posts about Bella were memes about loyalty and not messing with her. “I’m the sweetest girl you’ll meet,’’ one meme she posted read. “Unless you [f—] with me or mine.’’
In March 2014, she posted a meme about loyalty with the overlaid text, “I’m the kind of friend who will help you hide a dead body, but if you betray me, I KNOW HOW TO HIDE A DEAD BODY.’’
She listed her favorite quote, “Honesty is the best policy. I’d rather hear it from you then someone else. And don’t ask me questions you don’t want the honest answer to.’’
Photos from the Baby Doe case:
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