The woman found at the scene of a death at a Charlestown houseboat over the weekend and arrested on previous warrants is now considered a “person of interest” in the man’s death.
That’s how prosecutor Amelia Singh described 24-year-old Nora Nelson during her arraignment at Boston Municipal Court’s central courthouse Tuesday on a medley of domestic violence and assault and battery charges.
The allegations are well documented in a series of police reports regarding her alleged abuse of her cancer-stricken ex-boyfriend, who’s 40 years older than her.
Nelson, who goes by “Andi,” was arraigned in Boston Municipal Court’s central courthouse on charges stemming from those alleged incidents.
BMC Judge Steven Key ordered Nelson held on $7,500 cash bail. Nelson will have to submit to GPS monitoring if she’s able to post bail.
Singh requested more bail — $100,000 — since Nelson failed to appear on charges before and is now considered a “person of interest” in the death at the houseboat, though that man has not been identified. While authorities consider the death suspicious, formal charges won’t be filed until an autopsy is completed.
Police responded late Sunday night to a houseboat on Shipway Place in Charlestown where, according to multiple media reports, a man in his 60s was found dead. Nelson was also found at the scene and was arrested on warrants stemming from 2023 domestic violence charges.
Police ask anyone with information on the incident to contact homicide detectives or to submit information anonymously through the CrimeStoppers tip line at 1-800-494-TIPS (8477) or by texting the word TIP to CRIME (27463).
Nelson had been dating a man, now 64, and moved into his 300-block Commonwealth Avenue apartment beginning in July 2023, the man told police on Oct. 7, 2023. That was the second time they had visited his apartment under similar circumstances, according to their report.
By that time, the man told police, the pair had broken up within her first six weeks of living there and she had refused to move out.
The first police visit came Sept. 8, 2023, and ended with police arresting Nelson for alleged assault and battery on a person over 60, threatening to commit a crime, and malicious destruction of property.
Police say she threw a TV remote at the man, and she allegedly threatened to destroy the house.
When police arrived, the man asked officers to remove Nelson from the house “as she is not on a lease and he does not want her there.”
Nelson, from Dallas, Texas, said her father has been sending her money so she could pay her ex-boyfriend rent and that “she was under the impression that nothing was wrong and that there had been no altercations between” the pair. The man countered that she owes him $300,000.
Not a month later, the man called police back and they arrived to find Nelson asleep on her bed with the lights on.
“Broken glass was scattered throughout the entire bedroom floor,” police said. “Vomit was on the bed next to Nelson.” Police called EMS.
Nelson stood up from the bed and screamed at officers to leave the house, “then abruptly ran out of the bedroom door heading in the direction of (the man) who was on the first floor.”
She was intoxicated with “an unsteady gait” and “kicked and at one point attempted to bite one of the Officers” as they tried to restrain her.
The night ended with Nelson being arrested and charged with both assault and battery on the man and assault and battery on a police officer, whose wounds were treated at Tufts Medical Center.