‘Baby Doe’ mother and boyfriend arrested in Boston

Police in the US believe that the 2-and-a-half-year-old girl whose remains were found on a Boston Harbor beach three months ago was murdered and arrested her mother and her mother's 35-year-old boyfriend on Friday.

A woman walking her dog found the unidentified body stuffed into a plastic bag in June, prompting police to launch a billboard campaign featuring a computer image of what the girl may have looked like. She quickly became known as “Baby Doe.”

“Her name was Bella,” Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel Conley told reporters on Friday. “This child, whose very name means beauty, was murdered.”

Michael Patrick McCarthy (35) has been arrested and charged with the girl’s murder, Mr Conley said. The girl’s mother, Rachelle Bond (40) was also arrested and charged as an accessory after the fact.

“We believe 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,” he said.

He declined to specify a cause of death.

McCarthy is currently hospitalised for an unrelated medical condition, Mr Conley said, adding that the two are due to enter pleas on Monday.

The child’s father has been identified, he said, but declined to disclose his name.

Massachusetts House Speaker Robert DeLeo, who represents the Boston neighborhood where the girl lived, said he had been told that the child's mother and her boyfriend had blamed each other for her death during questioning by police.

Governor of Massachusetts Charlie Baker told reporters he had been briefed on the matter and that state child welfare workers had had contact with the family before the girl's disappearance.

"Something like this hits us all hard," said Boston Police Commissioner William Evans, adding that a tip called into police investigators had led to the arrest.

“To learn today that the young Baby Doe was not even three- years-old breaks everybody’s heart.”

Reuters