Nassau Bay residents awoke Tuesday to the news that another murder has occurred in their small town.

The latest incident happened shortly before 8 p.m. Monday on a houseboat at a marina, located at 3000 Nasa Road 1 in Nassau Bay.

Nassau Bay police told News2Houston that when they arrived at the boat they found the body of James Patterson, 51, who had been shot.

Investigators said that they questioned a resident on the boat, Foster Wade Drake, 72, who admitted to killing Paterson with a firearm.

Drake was charged with murder and is being held at the Harris County Jail in downtown Houston.

Nassau Bay police said that the shooting is not related to the case of Clara Harris.

Harris is a Houston-area dentist accused of running over her orthodontist husband and killing him after suspecting him of cheating on her Wednesday near the marina at the Hilton Nasa Clear Lake.

According to the Nassau Bay Police Department's Web site, the city's crime rate was among the lowest in the country.

Police said that prior to Wednesday's killing the city of only 4,500 residents hadn't seen a murder in 20 years.

Some residents said that the recent murders may be tarnishing their city's low-crime image.

"I think it's terrible," resident Jaunita Dockery said. "I think that the more money people get, the less sense they use."

"The people are probably not from Nassau Bay," resident Thomas Brown said. "In Nassau Bay we have good, high morals and high values."

The department's two homicide detectives said that they are swamped, investigating the two cases.

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• July 25, 2002: Police: Wife Runs Over Cheating Husband