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Charlestown murder house an Airbnb with complaints called into 311; victim shot point blank in the head

Live Boston reports that when police responded to a Mystic Place home early this morning for what turned out to be a murder, it was the second time in less than four hours they had been called there.

Live Boston runs down the details of the house and the crime, from its purchase by Canadian hockey player Brandon Yip to the women who said they'd rented the place for the night's birthday festivities, fled after the murder, then returned 45 minutes later to try to retrieve their belongings, to the neighbor who complained about frequent rowdy parties there of late but never called police, because that's just not the Charlestown way.

If Yip were not living in the house, he would be violating the city's short-term rental ordinance, which only allows Airbnb and similar rentals in owner-occupied homes. But even if he were, he still would be in violation of the ordinance because the house has an open ISD citation, from March 8, according to the city's short-term-rental and ISD violations databases.

The March 8 citation stems from an apparent party thrown the night before, which ended with large amounts of trash dumped in front of a neighboring house. Several residents filed 311 complaints, including this one:

Good afternoon, new neighbors (renters) have decided to leave all of their disgusting trash out after a huge party on Sunday. This trash was just thrown out by the renters and left outside against the adjacent property. It belongs to 6 Mystic Place - please help ; it's disgusting and is unfair to longtime residents who pay taxes and live in this formerly nice neighborhood.

Neighbors also filed 311 complaints about the fatal party before it turned fatal, including this one filed around 12:40 a.m.:

Huge House party at this address. Loud and excessive noise and dozens of people partying. Loud bass music makes it hard to sleep and I cannot interact with them because I am high risk of Covid 19. I tried calling Boston Party Line but there was no answer.

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Comments

So much detail on this one. Rare exposition.

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When it’s not a gang crime there’s usually lots of cooperative people. Because like 90%-95% of murders in Boston are gang related, the ones that aren’t jump out

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According to City of Boston property records this individual is claiming residential exemption. The City should seek legal action for this.

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The city refuses to crack down on illegal AirBNB. There’s a bunch in Dorchester that they call executive suites to get around AirBNB’s rental registration number requirement. But when you go direct to the owner or find them at stayloom.com, they’ll rent it to you by the night and one of them is advertised as sleeping 28 guests.
It’s been reported a number of times and ISD just closes the 311 case with no investigation or reason why. It’s beyond frustrating and just a matter of time before another party gets out of control.

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Invisible in plain sight. As census workers came to find out.

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The responsiveness and effectiveness have really deteriorated over the last year. Forget about anything that involves ISD. Even abandoned cars can take months.

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So much pearl-clutching. Stuff happens when you live in a city. You can always move to Brookline if you don't like how city departments work.

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::reactionary comment that troll account so desires::

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CTOWN home of the original Boston yuppie circa 1987.

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And not the electronic circular file that is Boston311.

Act panicked and give the address. Tell them there's a huge fight. Say people are screaming, and you thought you saw a gun. Then just hang up.*

City Hall only gives af about cops and developers, and only when the BPD starts complaining about wasting resources being the "Party Patrol", you'll see a change.

*(Cops can't prove you're lying about thinking "you saw a gun")

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Calling 911 and telling them you “saw a gun” when you in fact did not see a gun is incredibly dangerous for the cops and the people you are calling about, and incredibly immoral.

Do not ever do this.

- a Boston Cop

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These two quotes jumped out at me as an indication that "The Code" in Charlestown might be evolving....

Thankfully for investigators, many neighbors were awake as a result of the party’s noise, and were willing to assist police in what they witnessed.

When asked why she hadn’t called 911 more often she curtly chirped, “it’s Charlestown, we don’t do that here.”

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That neighborhood is mostly well educated professionals with families. Those people trust police, and will freely assist them in their investigation. The chirper is almost certainly a long time resident who predates the gentrification.

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They’re a sunk cost. Give ‘em a holler.

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"Let's now talk about school busing and the problems it brought to Charlestown."

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And the next mayor better do something about it. Many complaints of rowdy AirBnb’s to 311 ends with the response to call 911. How about you lazy add city workers who field these complaints forward them to the police?

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Three-one-one's a joke in yo town!

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They don't even tow reported cars in emergency tow zones...

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It’s no more effort to 311 than 911. And you can do both if you want to both report a party and report an AIRBNB.

But I think I agree with you that 311 is very slow to get action on property issues. The quasi AirBNB at Essex and Washington, the Liberty Tree Building, has a busted gutter that gushes rainwater onto the Essex St sidewalk and dangles icicle daggers in freezing weather. The problem for the city may be that the ownership of the building is indeterminate. But at least the city could provide a covered passage so people aren’t forced into the street.

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I didn't know they started filming "The Town 2: Shipping Back to Boston" already (don't worry it's going straight to HBO Max).

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