Attorney Murdered on Yacht: Whose Pink Fingernails Found Broken Off In His Chest

Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan

CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime

4.8 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 26 February 2025

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Joseph Donohue's son can't get in touch with the Boston attorney and after two days failing to connect, reaches out to police asking for a welfare check. When Police arrive at the yacht in Boston Harbor, they can see a woman inside running around. When she finally answers the door, the 24-year-old Nora Nelson lies to police - giving them a false name and telling them Donohue was at a "Strip Club". Nelson tries to keep the officers from entering the houseboat but they are insistent, and once inside they find the body of the attorney wrapped in a rug with weights tied to his hands. Joseph Scott Morgan and Dave Mack break down the forensic evidence that will be used in court and get into the background of the case of a 65-year-old Attorney dead on his houseboat and the 24-year-old woman with warrants in other states who lies to police from the beginning.

Transcript Highlights
00:04.29 Introduction

02:01.09 Living and sleeping on a houseboat

04:49.17 Son calls police asking for a "welfare check" of his father

10:36.80 Female on the boat lies to police

15:01.19 Victim had two dogs living with him

20:11.93 Nora claims blood on boat was from her "period"

25:37.41 What do police do when they find what appears to be a body wrapped in carpet?

30:22.56 Going through crime scene photos prior to trial

35:13.75 Explaining bone density of skull in different places

40:20.98 Looking for "defects" in the skull

44:09.96 Matching the blade of knife with tip part broken off

46:15.65 Conclusion

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Body Facts with Joseph Scott Moore.
0:05.7	I don't know if this happens to everyone.
0:10.5	And speaking as a man, I would like to think that maybe a couple of my male brother and out there have had the same thought.
0:23.6	That at some point in time when you're single in your life, you envision yourself as living perhaps in a cabin somewhere by yourself having to live off the land or maybe,
0:41.1	just maybe you're traveling around the world by yourself,
0:45.2	just drinking things in and absorbing things.
0:48.5	Or maybe something that I know that a lot of my friends have thought about doing, living on a boat.
0:59.0	Now, I own a boat now, and it's certainly not a boat you could live on.
1:02.0	It's just an old pontoon.
1:04.0	I enjoy the piece of the water, but I've often wondered, what would it be like?
1:09.0	Even if the boat is moored in a harbor or maybe somewhere
1:14.8	in a boat slip. And every night you go to sleep to the sound of lapping outside of your window
1:24.8	or maybe the boat is gently rocking.
1:28.7	And it might get to the point where you can't sleep anywhere else because it's almost like being cradled.
1:37.5	You're sequestered.
1:39.3	It's quiet.
1:40.8	It's peaceful.
1:42.9	Today, I want to talk about a fellow who lived that life.
1:48.5	He was in his 60s, successful attorney in the Boston area, and he lived on a boat with his
1:57.7	dogs.
1:59.3	But there was something or someone who visited him.
2:05.3	That as it turned out, there were nothing but pure evil.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -32 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of CrimeOnline and iHeartPodcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.