Woman Held in Fatal Shooting of Male Friend : Crime: The victim, whose name was not released, was a longtime acquaintance of the suspect, Newport Beach police said. A motive has not yet been established.

Police arrested a woman in connection with the shooting death of a longtime male acquaintance whose body was found Tuesday morning in an upstairs bedroom of her Newport Beach condominium.

Helen S. Parser, 49, also known as Susan Parson, was booked on suspicion of murder after police received a call about 6:30 a.m. saying that a man had been killed in Parser’s Escapade Court townhouse, located on a high bluff above Coast Highway, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Andy Gonis said.

Parser was being held in Newport Beach Jail with her bail set at $250,000, the officer added.

The identity of the victim, who was shot an unknown number of times, was withheld pending notification of his relatives. An autopsy was scheduled for today, a coroner’s official said.

Parser, who reportedly had an “on-again, off-again” relationship with the victim for the last nine years, is suspected of shooting him sometime during the night after an altercation, Gonis said.

The man was not living with Parser, Gonis added, and it was not known if the couple were still romantically involved.

Gonis said that someone who knew the couple tipped off police to the shooting by calling 911. He would not identify the caller, calling the person a potential witness.

When police arrived, they surrounded the Newport Crest condominium complex and ordered Parser out of her two-story, tan-colored townhouse, Gonis said. She surrendered without incident.

“The victim was found lying on the floor fully clothed, and there were some areas that were in disarray,” Gonis said. Investigators, he added, had not determined if there had been a struggle.

Detectives obtained a warrant to search the townhouse and seized a pistol and other personal belongings.

Detectives have not established a motive in the slaying, Gonis said.

“They had some type of relationship that goes back approximately nine years,” Gonis said of the couple. “It has been termed as on-again and off-again.”

Jim Fluet, who lives next door to Parser, said he heard what sounded like a gunshot in the middle of the night.

“I thought it sounded like a gunshot and then thought, ‘No, I could be hearing things,’ ” he said. About two hours later, he added, he heard the sound of glass shattering.

“This is strange for this community,” he said. “It’s a pretty private community.”

As detectives gathered evidence, Parser’s garage door was left open, revealing stacks of half-packed boxes. Her 1986 silver Pontiac Fiero was parked in the driveway.

Neighbors said Parser generally kept to herself. Neither police nor neighbors could say what she did for a living.

According to neighbors, Parser bought the townhouse last year for $270,000, moving from Pasadena. She was trying to sell it for $299,500, they said.

Tuesday morning was not the first time that police had been called to Parser’s home. Gonis said that on May 28, police arrested her on suspicion of public drunkenness after being called by a neighbor. He said he did not know if the victim in the shooting was at Parser’s residence at that time.

Todd Keeler, 30, the neighbor who called the police that day, said he was sitting in his townhouse drinking coffee when he heard loud noises coming from a front porch that he and Parser shared.

“She came charging in my house, screaming, ‘Help me, help me, call the police,’ ” Keeler related. “She really looked intoxicated.”

Keeler said that a man whom Parser had been living with came into his house and dragged her out.

Keeler said that on Tuesday, as he was preparing to take his wife to the airport about 6:30 a.m., he saw a police officer standing behind the mailboxes out front, pointing a shotgun toward Parser’s townhouse.

“It really hit close to home,” he said.