Bella Bond

Rachelle Bond, the mother of 2-year-old Bella Bond, and Michael McCarthy appeared in court for an emotionally charged arraignment.

McCarthy is charged with killing Bella, whose body was found by a dog walker on Deer Island in June. Bond, who wore a gray zip-up sweater with the hood up in court, is charged as an accessory after the fact. Both are charged with unlawful disposal of human remains.

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.

The toddler was identified as Bella Bond on Friday, almost three months after her remains were found in a trash bag that washed up on a Boston Harbor beach.

At a news conference Friday, Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley said he authorized a murder charge for Michael McCarthy, 35, and the girl's mother, Rachelle Bond, 40, for accessory to murder after the fact.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop, said he has been briefed on the investigation into the death of a girl who came to be known as Baby Doe.

"They feel they have the perpetrators of this crime," DeLeo said during a news conference.

"It appears as though it was a situation of the boyfriend who was involved and apparently, I think, mother and boyfriend sort of blaming each other in terms of who harmed the child."