CANYON LAKE, Texas -- Nancy Shields suffered long and hard before she was killed last Friday, her daughter said one day after her mother's boyfriend was arrested and charged in connection with her death.

Shields, 53, moved to Canyon Lake in the Hill Country for peace and quiet, but Kathleen Shields said her mother's life changed drastically when she met 40-year-old Robert Smith.

"Automatically, I felt a rock drop to the bottom of my stomach," she said. "I had a bad feeling about him."

Kathleen Shields said Smith bragged about getting out of prison when they met, but she said her family couldn't do anything about it because Smith would keep her mother away from family and friends.

Smith allegedly stabbed Nancy Shields inside her home last week, according to Comal County sheriff's investigators. Nancy Shields was found alive and taken to Brooke Army Medical Center, where she later died.

"I'm grateful he's in jail and can't terrorize the neighborhood anymore," Kathleen Shields said. "I'm grateful he can't torture my mother anymore."

Smith is in the Comal County Jail on $500,000 bond.