Medford — The body of a 61-year-old woman was found in a recycling bin in the backyard of her Massachusetts home.
Investigators are treating it as a suspicious death.
Barbara Hovey Novaes, 61, was reported missing by her son at around 6:40 a.m. Monday, according to Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan. The son, who is in his 20s, told officers that he last saw Novaes at 4:30 p.m. Sunday and believes she was leaving the house to get her nails done at the time.
When he woke up Monday morning in their Medford home, he found the front door open, officials said. The son managed to find his mother’s car keys, phone and purse inside the house while her car was still parked on the property, WCVB-TV Boston reported.
Police arrived at the house on Emery Street and found Novaes’ body at around 8:30 a.m. in the recycling container under the porch in the backyard.
“Based on the circumstances and the location of the body, this is being investigated as a suspicious death,” Ryan said.
Ryan noted that there were no obvious signs of trauma.
Novaes had requested a restraining order from her estranged husband earlier this month stating that her husband had put her in “fear of imminent serious physical harm,” according to Boston 25 News.
She filed an application for the restraining order on May 9 but requested to withdraw it on May 17, days before cops found her body. She said in the withdrawal requested that they had reached an agreement.
In her application for the restraining order, Novaes said her husband refused to move forward with a divorce and showed up at her house drunk at 5:00 p.m. on May 6. As per the application, he left the house at 11:30 p.m. after Novaes locked herself in her bedroom but returned at 6:30 a.m. the next morning and tried to open her locked bedroom.
Novaes wrote that she convinced her husband to leave before cops arrived and also had her locks changed that day. However, her husband later came back to the house and tried to get inside saying he wouldn’t hurt her.
Cops have been called to the house on other occasions as well.
Police were called twice for reports of suicidal threats on November 16, 2021, and a disturbance at the house this year on April 21.
The restraining order was never issued because both Novaes and her husband did not appear for the hearing in court.
Cops have made no arrests in the case so far. Investigators have also not revealed a suspect or person of interest.
Neighbors said they saw the deceased woman on her property over the weekend before her body was found.
“She cared about the neighborhood,” one neighbor told NBC10 Boston. “She took really good care of her property, she helped other people out in the winter clearing the snow, whatever anybody needed.”
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