Island Woman Has Child Rape Charges Dismissed

Gretchen Gelder, 42, of Nantucket, had April 26, 2023 charges of indecent assault & battery on a child under 14 and aggravated rape of a child (five-year age difference, two counts) dismissed after the alleged victim in the case declined to cooperate with prosecutors. Gelder was originally scheduled for a bench trial last Wednesday in Nantucket District Court.

In the police report, Nantucket police officer Keith Mansfield said that the alleged victim completed a forensic interview with the state police in which the alleged victim disclosed that two incidents occurred between August 15, 2022 and April 16, 2023.

Police were first made aware of the incidents after the mother of the alleged victim reported to police that they had happened. According to the report, Gelder was dating the alleged victim’s father at the time.

After police received the report, that is when a forensic interview was set up. Since that time, there have been several pretrial hearings in which prosecutors told the court they were having trouble reaching the alleged victim and after little to no cooperation from the side making the allegations, the case was ultimately disposed of.