Baby Bella's Relatives Plan Public Burial
BOSTON (CBS) - Baby Bella Bond's relatives say they're planning a public burial in Winthrop, a couple miles from where the child washed up on the shore of Deer Island.
"It's been public from day one when they found the body, so let's keep it that way. It feels right," said her biological father, Joe Amoroso. He and his mother spent Tuesday making burial arrangements, which he said his relatives from Winthrop are paying for.
"She will be buried with my family," said Amoroso. "We have a family plot." He plans to bury her next to her great grandmother Lola Amoroso, whose birthday happens to be the very day Bella's body was discovered by a woman walking her dog June 25th.
Joe Amoroso has been criticized by the public for not being in his daughter's life. His mother Patricia Quinn, said she did know the toddler.
"I watched her have birth and everything," she said. Quinn said she called the State Department of Children and Families to report her concerns that Bella was neglected, and wanted to ask Bella's mother, Rachelle Bond, if she could have custody of the girl. "I tried. She was avoiding me."
Rachelle Bond's boyfriend is accused of punching the baby to death in their Dorchester apartment in May. Rachelle Bond is accused of helping him throw her body into the Boston Harbor. Police spent three months trying to identify the baby's body before a family friend finally called with a tip that lead to the arrests.
Joe Amoroso said he regularly spoke with the girl on the phone, and when he couldn't get a hold of her, came to Boston to track her down. It was too late, he said. "She was a beautiful angel from heaven just like her name says."