COPPELL - Police have given new details at a press conference in the murder suicide of Coppell Mayor Jayne Peters and her daughter, including where the mayor got the gun and contents of four suicide notes.
The mayor of Cedar Hill, Rob Franke, gave the gun to Peters. The two were friends. He called investigators in Coppell three hours after Peters and her daughter were found dead inside their home to tell them the gun used could belong to him.
Peters and Franke went to the Bullseye Range and Guns in Duncanville on July 8th. They practiced shooting the gun.
They went ahead and did some familiarization with the firearm, did some practice shooting, and she left the range that day in possession of that firearm, said Coppell's deputy police chief, Steve Thomas.
Investigators say Franke is not expected to face any charges.
I showed her the pistol and how to shoot it and that's whyI let her borrow it, said Franke.
She told me she was taking a concealed handgun license course and needed to have a pistol for the course, he continued.
He said he was very sad when he heard of Peters' suicide.
I was very shocked. Very hurt... We were friends and we would talk from time to time, he said.
I pray for the family. I have to deal with a lot of emotion on this but I really choose to try and remember Jayne as a friend. Can't imagine how she can get to a such spot in her life where she couldn't reach out to friends, Franke added.
The amount of the questionable charges on Jayne Peters' city-issued credit card amounted to between $4,000 and $6,000, according to the city manager. The charges were for groceries, clothing and pet supplies. Just this week, the city had ordered an investigation into the charges.
She very clearly understood that she had some things to take care of, said Coppell city manager, Clay Phillips.
The bank had tried to foreclose on her $400,000 home four times since 2001, as recently as in February and March of 2010. She was also in debt to her homeowners association who put liens on her home three different times.
But she managed to hide her problems from those closest to her at council.
The question we've got from everyone else is could you have seen something, did you see something, should you have seen something? Those are the same questions we're asking ourselves. Could we have missed something? But she was the same happy go lucky person at the July 4th parade, which is the last time I saw her, when she was handing out candy along the parade route and shaking hands and talking to constituents, as she was any other time, said mayor pro tem Bob Mahalik.
Details of the suicide notes have been released.
Typed note on the door:
To our first responders:
Here is the key for the front door. I am so very sorry for what you are about to discover. Please forgive me. Jayne
Typed note the on kitchen island, next to her husband s cremated remains:
O grace of God, please forgive me and have mercy on my eternal soul. My sweet, sweet Corinne had grown completely inconsolable. She had learned to hide her feelings from her friends, but the two of us were lost, alone and afraid. Corinne just kept on asking,
Why won t God just let me die. We hadn t slept at all and neither one of us could stop crying when we were together.
Please ask my family to take care of my pets. The dogs, Hope and Lucy, should be kept together or put down. There are four cats: Mystic the black cat 9 years old
Sassy Siamese 11 years old
Snowflake Siamese 11 years old
Reno brown Abyssinian 6 years old
Another sheet contained contained contact information of relatives and ended with this note:
Please, please, please, no funeral, no memorial just cremate us both.
On a handwritten note on the door to the room where she was found:
DNR, Do not recesitate (sic) under any circumstances.
Jayne Peters
Police have confirmed that Corinne Peters was not enrolled at the University of Texas or at TCU, as she had been telling her friends over the summer.
We have also learned that on the morning of the shooting, July 12th, Peters' daughter, Corinne, was seen at 6 a.m., loading up a vehicle in front of the home.
Minutes later, the mayor was seen unloading the car.
The last time anyone saw Peters was 12:30 p.m.that afternoon.
She was walking south on MacArthur.
E-mail: mdiaz@wfaa.comand ccviale@wfaa.com
