Jamaica Plain neighbors grapple with slaying

One day after a 97-year-old woman was beaten to death inside her Jamaica Plain home, little was normal yesterday along the street where Gerda ''Gerry" Bissett lived for at least the last three decades.

Half of St. John Street was blocked as police continued to search Bissett's three-family house for evidence. Police also questioned Bissett's neighbors about other neighbors. Also, Police Commissioner Kathleen M. O'Toole met with about 15 residents of the neighborhood, off Jamaica Plain's main thoroughfare, Centre Street.

''We are all very concerned, and to have her come and meet with us . . . was incredibly meaningful," said Hillary Goodridge, who hosted O'Toole after she said she was contacted by Mayor Thomas M. Menino's staff yesterday morning.

Those who attended said O'Toole and other police officers provided crime-prevention tips, shared crime statistics, and promised to keep a heightened police presence over the next few days -- but did not share details about the investigation.

''There are no suspects at this time," O'Toole said in a later interview.

Last night, police officially ruled Bissett's death a homicide. An autopsy determined the cause of death to be ''blunt force trauma."

O'Toole said the neighborhood was safe and that Bissett's death did not seem to fit a crime pattern. ''We met with them just to provide some moral support," O'Toole said. ''It's a very close-knit neighborhood. It's a very safe neighborhood, so this tragedy has to be a shock to them."

Boston firefighters rushed to Bissett's house shortly before 4 a.m. Thursday. In her first-floor bedroom in the front of the house, they found Bissett dead. She had insisted to her family that she wanted to end her days living peacefully on St. John Street.

Bissett's son, William, did not return a telephone call yesterday.

In addition to quizzing neighbors about Bissett's relationships with others in the neighborhood, police questioned employees and subcontractors of Ethos, a Jamaica Plain agency that had been providing elder-care services to Bissett, said Dale Mitchell, executive director of Ethos.

Mitchell said Bissett was receiving home-delivered meals five days a week and was monitored by an Ethos case manager, who made a home visit last week. He said the case manager urged Bissett to wear her medical alarm button. Authorities said they were alerted to Bissett's trouble when her alarm was activated Thursday morning.

''The bad news is this is a horrible tragedy," Mitchell said. ''The good news is that the emergency system in place worked."

According to Sergeant Thomas Sexton, a police spokesman, there were 19 breaking-and-entering or robbery incidents in Jamaica Plain between Jan. 1 and April 30. In the area immediately around Bissett's home, there were two breaking-and-entering and attempted break-ins during the same four months, he said.

Several St. John Street residents, including John and Katharine Cipolla, said they mourned Bissett's death, and do not feel unsafe.

''We have lived here for so long, 30 years," said John Cipolla. ''It has been, over that 30-year period, an extremely safe and pleasant and agreeable place to live."

Added his wife, Katharine, ''This isn't a crime spree. I can't see that there is an issue for us to all barricade. . . . We are not an armed camp."

Goodridge said that she has long felt safe in her neighborhood and has no intention of living in fear. But she said, she will be practical. ''I'm going to be vigilant more so now than I was two days ago," said Goodridge.

Goodridge said that while residents want Bissett's killer caught, they will also be patient, given that some suspects have been wrongly convicted of murder in Suffolk County.

''We've all seen what happens when [investigations] are rushed or botched," she said.

John Ellement can be reached at ellement@globe.com. Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com.