COVINGTON, Ga. — Cortney Bell, the mother accused alongside father Christopher McNabb of murdering their 2-week-old daughter, told police that when she heard the child was found the father “started acting crazy” even though she didn’t tell him about the infant’s condition.
“I’m like, how do you know she’s not still alive?” Bell told investigators.
The trial against the two entered its fourth day Friday morning. The jury is reviewing Bell’s interview with detectives at the Newton County Sheriff’s Department. It reviewed McNabb’s interview Thursday.
The couple’s 2-week-old daughter, Caliyah, was found dead not far from their home in Oct. 2017.
Two other women who were with the couple when they found out the child was found -- Bell’s mother Pamela Hamby and an acquaintance, Lauren Mackey -- testified that McNabb frantically left the car they were in when they heard the news.
Portions of the transcripts from a police interview with Bell, conducted after Caliyah was found dead, show her reaction as well.
“I think he just kept saying, ‘They’re going to think I done this, I’ve got to go, I’ve got to go get out at Marathon, stop at Marathon,” Bell said.
“Did you ask him if he did do it?” she was asked.
“No. I was scared of his answer,” Bell said. “And I just – I wanted him to get out. I didn’t want him beside me no more. I didn’t want – I don’t know.”
She said she was beaten frequently by McNabb, with whom she also has a 2-year-old daughter, Clarissa.
“I lied to y'all yesterday when I said he hadn't hit me,” Bell told investigators. “I have bruises on my back and my sides. I have had bruises everywhere, all over my arms and legs. I still do.”
“When did he hit you?” she was asked.
“He hits me all the time.”
She maintained, however, that she “never thought he’d hurt the baby” because “he was good” with the children.”
“I just saw something in his eyes when she was born because he didn’t get to see that with Clarissa,” Bell said. “And I could see the change and how he felt as a father. I don’t understand.”
She also said she believed her child had been kidnapped in part because of the frequent visitors McNabb brought into their home. The two have been painted by prosecutors as negligent parents who did drugs and brought seedy people around their children.
“I really believed someone came into my home and took my baby because of all the people he had in and out of there, that I was definitely trying to put a stop to,” Bell said.
Transcripts from the interviews shown to the court Thursday revealed that when the two were alone in the interrogation room the day the girl went missing, McNabb spoke of Caliyah in the past tense, even though she had not yet been found dead.
McNabb: “I loved – I love her. She was my baby."
Bell: “Calm down. Why did you just do that?”
McNabb: “Do what?”
Bell: “Why did you just do that?”
McNabb: “Why did I just do what?”
Bell: “You just said loved.”
McNabb: “I don’t know, Cortney. Where is she? You think I had something to do with this s---?”
Bell: “In my heart, no. I just hope you haven’t. My heart tells me no.”
In her later interview, after Caliyah was found dead, Bell pleaded with investigators to figure out what happened.
"Thank you. Thank y'all for finding my baby. I'm juust - I'm sorry that it was this way. Please find out what happened to her," she said. "I have to know what happened."
PHOTOS: 2-week-old baby found dead after being missing
BACKGROUND:
THE TRIAL:
DAY 1:
DAY 2:
'Some things were overlooked': Attorneys spar over evidence on Day 2 in trial of 2-week-old's murder
DAY 3: