If we take away her "story", there are few facts to back up Rachelle's story. You're right. It's Rachelle's word against MM's word. I don't think little Bella's body revealed much from the autopsy~certainly not a conclusive cause of death. Unless the punching in the stomach was determined and that's a card the prosecution isn't playing yet. It will come out at MM's trial - JMO.
Sorry to go OT from the quote first, but I am under the impression that not only are females more likely to use 'comfort' items in the 'burial' of a child, aren't men also more likely to kill by doing things like throwing the child against a wall or heavy beating, while women would be more prone to things like suffocation, poison, medicine OD, etc?
To reply to the quoted post, the only facts we have so far are Bella's body and ID, but almost everything else is hearsay?
RB makes allegations, yet there's no facts with which to back them up (forensics on the fridge and mattress may help with checking some of her story).
Then there's stories from friends or acquaintances, some of which fit into our biases or into the story told by RB and some seem to contradict our biases or RB's story.
The other women from the women's hostel say she was a good mother, loved her baby and took great care of her. RB's sister says she was prone to violence.
JA says RB would never hurt Bella. Yet he also says that he and his mother called DCF and hoped to get custody of Bella (why, if not for abuse or maltreatment?)
RB claims she was held hostage by MM who injected her with heroin into her jugular. An ex-girlfriend of MM says she certainly didn't appear to be held hostage and that RB told her that she had to inject into the neck because all her other veins were collapsed.
There was no child stuff visible in the apartment. JA's stories said that he went to the door when he tried to find out where Bella was, not that he went inside. If he had gone inside, then I expect RB would have just said she'd tidied away the toys while Bella was in foster care, and it might not have seemed too suspicious to say that. But I only remember him saying he went to the door, not that she let him in.
A neighbor of MM's mother, while he lived with his mom prior to her death, said that MM played quite well with the neighbor's son (baseball or something in the street?). One of RB's neighbors says that MM didn't play very well with Bella, getting upset/annoyed when Bella threw a ball in his direction.
There seems to be consistency in MM's friends and acquaintances saying he was a fan of dark paranormal things, demons, etc. Books on related subjects were found in RB's apartment where MM was living for a few months (living or occasionally staying over, we're not sure). One of MM's ex-girlfriends new b/f claims MM was violent toward his ex-gf, but another ex-g/f went to visit him at RB's place.
The guy, MS whose sister called the cops about Bella and got her ID'd, he said both RB and MM were locking Bella into a closet and letting her scream. RB's sister claims they were both treated like this as children...RB might be under the impression that locking a screaming child in a closet is like sending a child to stand in the corner for misbehavior??? But MS, who says he 'moved out' from temporarily staying with RB and MM over their treatment of Bella, while he was there he doesn't say he did anything other than sit by and watch....so in that sense I believe him, cos he makes himself look nasty and isn't showing any preference for his supposed lifelong friend, MM, when he makes this accusation.
I think there are 20 or 30 other things we could list in a similar way that I've done with these few points.
Nothing, other than the hard facts of the dead body and the ID as Bella Bond, seems at all certain or evidence-based in this whole case. I just sincerely hope that doesn't mean both of them will walk away with little or no punishment.
