It is the sort of thing for which there will be lots of controversy, many theories, and few answers.
People around these parts are still reeling from the news that a Dallas-area mayor last week killed her 19 year old, college-bound daughter, and then herself, in a tragedy born of tragedy.
Jayne Peters, 55, was the Mayor of the city of Coppell, a city outside Dallas. She was a former software developer. And since 2008, a widow. But apparently finances were getting away from her. She had apparently spun so many elaborate and convoluted lies that her life was completely out of control by June 12.
It is said that Peters was left with virtually no financial resources after her husband died. The Rev. Dennis Wilkinson said, “They had spent money for his treatment and surgeries and experimental stuff that they did to try and save him.” Her position as mayor was an unpaid position. She did contract software development work, but it wasn’t a fulltime job. She also received financial help from the church. But many people who knew her well said she kept much of this private.
She had given her only child, Corinne, a brand new Hyundai for graduation. One has to wonder if Corinne suspected it was a rental car. Friends and neighbors had been under the impression that Peters bought the car for her daughter.
Corinne was bound for the University of Texas this fall, and on her way to orientation. Or so she thought. Her mother told her she’d taken care of all the details for registration. Yet UT say they have no paperwork for Corinne Peters. Friends say Corinne truly believed she had been accepted to UT.
Lies built on lies apparently led Jayne Peters to leave notes in various places about her nearly 4000 square foot home, and outside on the door to warn first responders. She had allegedly been using city credit cards to pay personal bills. Her home had been up for auction and foreclosure several times over the past year. Yet no one knew of this spiraling out of control. Sadly, no one seemed to know.
Corinne could be seen about town in UT tee shirts. Her life was just beginning. After losing her father to cancer in 2008, she was about to embark on a new adventure toward adulthood. Friends say that Corinne wasn’t known as the best driver among her fellow classmates. They often teased her because she made a ritual of kissing her fingers and touching the dashboard of her car when she came to a yellow light.
The teen confessed to friends her worries about leaving her mom behind when she left home for college.
Corinne was found fatally shot in the laundry room downstairs, while her mother’s body was upstairs. One note was found on a kitchen island, next to her late father’s cremated remains. There were notes pertaining to the pets remaining in the home. The two dogs were to be kept together and given to relatives, or “put down,” wrote Mayor Peters. “Please ask my family to take care of the pets.”
She listed the other pets individually. “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.”
Corinne’s parents had bought her a Hyundai Sonata around her 16th birthday. But just after Donald Peters died in 2008 of colon cancer, she wrecked the car. Until recently she had been driving one of the family cars. Then she showed up with what friends said was a new car – the 2011 Hyundai Sonata.
The Hyundai had been taken back to the car rental agency before the business opened.
The last time anyone saw Peters was 12:30 p.m. that afternoon. She was walking south on MacArthur.
The typed note on the front door read: “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”
Mayor Jayne Peters seemed happy at the local July 4th parade, handing out candy along the parade route. Shaking hands and talking to constituents. Yet inwardly she had to be deeply troubled that the bank had tried to foreclose on her $422,780 home where they had lived for the past 17 years. As recently as February and March of 2010. She was in debt to her homeowners association who put liens on her home on three different occasions.
Mayor Jayne Peters always reached out to new neighbors. She was the one to organize the annual Halloween party. Corinne Peters was a member of the drill team, a 2010 Coppell High School graduate.
A neighbor who Corinne had babysat for the previous week said there was no indication of anything wrong at the house. But Corinne was upset that she had to cancel two different orientations to college because her mother was sick.
They say Corinne’s passion was dance. One friend said, “She had the best technique on the team. Beautiful pointed feet, and leaps and turns. Everything about her dancing was flawless.”
“DNR, please do not resuscitate under any circumstances,” read another note.
On the morning of the shooting, Corinne was seen at 6 a.m. loading up a vehicle in front of the home. Minutes later, Mayor Jayne Peters was seen unloading the car.
“Please, please, please, no funeral. No memorial – just cremate us both,” said yet another note.
The city manager discovered the two bodies on Thursday evening after the mayor failed to appear at a scheduled Council meeting.
It has been said that when women use a gun as a means to commit suicide, it shows they mean business. Corinne Peters was methodical in her actions. In her notes and her last deeds. It was her last piece of business.
Once I wrote an in-depth article about a 14 year old girl who committed suicide. She was angry because her father told her she could no longer see a boy she had been dating.
She came into the room where he sat one evening, and simply said, “Dad, do you want to see a trick?”
When he looked up, she held a gun up to her head and pulled the trigger.
Life, over just like that in a split second. So many conundrums to how such decisions are made. And no possibility of going back to alter plans.
This is such a painful story to read…that poor woman. That poor daughter. May they rest in peace…
Oh my gosh, this is so sad. The despair and pain she must have felt to drive her to this. I feel so terrible for her daughter, who never had a chance..
What will it take for people to notice when things are going wrong… before tragedy hits.
Gut wrenching! And for someone to see no other solution other than taking her own life and that of her children is beyond comprehension! So very, very sad!
Kat
So much sadness involved reading that story.How tragic.
Money can is powerful it can raise you up and bring you down just as fast.
What sadness for this extended family.
Diane
Very sad…been nothig but this on the news for days…sad that she couldn’t see any other way out of her problems.
What a sad story. That woman must have been so lonely I can’t even imagine.
A sad sad story, Brenda. I heard just a little bit about this. Had no idea about the daughter or anything else, but wondered what had happened.
This is so sad. One can never know what lies in people’s souls.
We spoke together about this yesterday. It is heartbreaking in every way. To feel such despair, to weave a more and more intricate web of lies – to feel there is no other choice – how truly awful that must be. I had seen a photo of the mother but not the daughter. Oh, how terribly, terribly sad.
xo
Claudia
WOW. Because I don’t live in your neck of the woods, I hadn’t heard this story. What I find rather tragic and peculiar, is that her beloved pets were spared, but not her daughter.
Suicide/homicide just leaves so much pain for those survivors – friends and family.
And yet this doesn’t seem like someone that was suffering from a mood disorder. No doubt she was suffering from some depression due to the loss of her husband and financial issues.
It just seemed like her thought process was, “I have spun too many lies and have dug too many holes and have way too much pride to admit that I am in way too deep.”
I just about lost my best friend to suicide 4 months ago. She was found in time and spent some time in the hospital. She was glad that she was not successful and has been getting the help and therapy she needs. I am there for her when she needs me.
What a sad, sad story.
So sad…the flip side to the coin we call “the American dream”.
What I find tragic is that family and friends probably had a “feeling” something was off but in our busy lives it is so easy to postpone stopping by and taking the time to chat with someone.
I am guilty myself of thinking I should give a friend a call ….tomorrow right after that “thing” I just have to get done, and sometimes tomorrow is too late.
Tina xo
This is such an incredibly sad story…that she felt she had to do this…and had no one to turn to. I guess sometimes we need to look beyond the smiles and the surface…
Wow! Such a tragedy. I guess we really never know what is going on in some people’s lives. Sad, that she felt she had no other options than to end both of their lives.
Heartbreaking. I just have no words. I don’t understand how she felt entitled to take the life of her child – part of whatever sickness was inside her I suppose. So very, very sad.
I read this with horror and sadness. Surely this woman had friends and family to help her out financially. To take the life of her innocent daughter as well is incomprehensible.
xoxo
Jane
The sadness is all this is in the words “no one seemed to know”. How sad to not have those near and dear involved in such a devastating situation. And why take the life of her child? We’ll never know. May they both rest in peace.
Best,
Bonnie
This is such a heartwrenching story Brenda. You have to wonder why she didn’t allow her daughter to live. There is always hope somewhere. It’s so sad she couldn’t have reached out to someone for help.
Cindy
Best said ~ May God lift their souls to His waiting arms.
Have a lovely summer’s eve ~
TTFN ~ Marydon
Brenda, this is just sad and senseless. Char
Brenda, this is just sad and senseless. Char
Brenda,
How sad and so very tragic. I had already heard of the story here in Illinois. Just tragic.
That is so sad…to think that you have no choices and to take her daughter away, too. Unbelievably sad!
So sad and so unnecessary…a permanent solution to a temporary problem and making that choice for her daughter was just wrong.
Oh my goodness..this is shocking, to say the least. I can’t imagine the horror of all of this…all those notes, the planning…why take your daughter down with you???
so very sad, so very very sad indeed!
carmelina
it really goes to show us though, that no matter how many smiles are thrown out our way, we never really know what goes on deep within a persons mind and heart…it is sad that she was truly and desperately troubled.
What a horrible thing. I cannot imagine how she could possibly rationalize killing her own child because of financial debt, no matter how great. It’s also clear she was in tremendous emotional pain and plagued with mental instability to be able to do so.
This is haunting. I am just heartbroken over this story…. seems ridiculously senseless to take her daughter’s life. So sad.
I had read a little of this story not long ago. It seems strange she’d be so concerned about the pets and yet kill her own daughter. Very sad.
Brenda, I had read this online a week or so ago. Unless one has depression they just can’t understand. This poor woman most likely had major depression and when someone is that bad, common sense thinking goes out the window.
I hope they both rest in peace..Truely tragic.
Barb
This truly is a tragedy. I have known several suicide victims as well as murder victims. One boy we went to church with killed most of his family at the dinner table. He had a psychotic episode. It’s just something that is so hard to understand. I can’t imagine the pain that lady was in to do something this desperate, and that poor young girl! How sad that no one knew how disturbed the mother was.
XO,
Sheila
Hi Brenda, what a tragic story. No one knows what goes on behind closed doors….Kathy
Sad and tragic. You never know what goes on in a person’s life. I understand what she’s going through. My house is in foreclosure. My husband retired 4 years ago, I work full time. We have a 33 year old son who lives with us with his 7 year old son. He hasn’t worked since August. We thought we had everything figured out. But no, life has other plans for us. I have faith though. God has never left me. We will get through this. We may lose everything that we have worked for 35 year for but one thing is for certain. I LOVE LIFE. I LOVE MY FAMILY. I LOVE MY GRANDS. I’ll go when God takes me.
Diane
The Library Lady
What a very sad story and it brings back alot of memories about my friend that took her own life this past March. Shooting herself in her car at our work. I was so lucky that I didn’t work that morning or I would have been the one to find her!
What a tragedy….
Penny
p.s. I link to your blog on my post today….not this post though. You inspired me to do something colorful.
I feel such compassion for this poor woman who must have been very depressed and felt she had no options. Although I don’t know the particulars of her situation, I find myself imagining several terrible possibilities, including the one where she had lived such a life of social grandeur that she could not fathom losing it AND that, in her depression, it seemed more fitting to kill her daughter than to disappoint her with the information that their lifestyle and her first choice of college were going to have to change.
Oh, so sad.
Very disturbing story.
As a ‘local’ – I live in the metroplex – I have been following this heart-breaking story. She was always there to lend a hand, yet never allowed herself to ask for help. A painful lesson for us all, I guess. Pride goeth before the fall. May they rest in peace. Thank you for this wonderful entry.
Okay, so I am having a different reaction to this story. How dare she? How dare she think that there was no help….how dare she think that it was her right to lie to her daughter, and how dare she take that child’s life…this honestly left me feeling irate. Thank you for telling this story Brenda, we did not see anything about it in New Jersey.
♥, Susan
I am having such a difficult time on emotions with this story. We live in a neighboring suburb from Coppell. I have pity for someone who feels so very lost that she feels she has no way out but to do this. I also feel an anger for taking her daughter’s life as well. I just don’t & maybe I don’t want to understand how a parent could do such a thing. Could she not just walk away? Become anonymous somewhere else for the sake of her daughter? I realize as a community figure that would be difficult to do, but the option she chose is devastating to so many others than just herself. I just pray that their family, friends and community can heal from this tragedy.
Oh, my…I have not heard this story. How tragic… How sad…
The saddest thing about this is that this woman was unable or unwilling to ask anyone for help. There are resources for people in financial trouble and so many people are too proud to reach out.
This is just such a terrible loss.
How very tragic!
How very tragic!
I had heard about this but not all the details. It is so very sad. This past week the son of a childhood friend of my brother’s killed himself, his wife, and his 14-year old son. Also shot his 11-year old daughter but she survived. No one yet can figure out a reason. They were both teachers and very well thought of in their small town. If only people like this would reach out for help. Our world is certainly a difficult place at times.
I hardly know what to say. What a tragedy. That poor woman must have been living with the reality of her situation and it was one she could not face. Why, why would she take her daughter’s life too? Such a terrible waste.
Susan and Bentley
xxoo
Very very sad and heart wrenching incident….i pray their soul finds peace ….
Extremely sensitive people who are always ready to help others n spreading smiles are often so troubled inside and cannot reach out for help , this is most troublesome.
Goose bumps
and a little
queasy over
here at P&H….
So sad that
the mayor didn’t
reach out for help.
No one is really
that alone. I
cannot even
wrap my mind
around the daughter.
What a tragedy.
xx Suzanne
So very sad that someone come to this decision.
This is really awful.. she must have felt so utterly lonely that she couldn’t see any other way out.
I feel so sad and shocked , I mean..why taking her beautiful daughter with her , why? May God forgive her.
Brenda, I followed this sad story in the news and find it almost unbearable to think that people reach this point of desperation. The point of no return. How alone she must have felt. I wish her story could have had a different ending. Makes me sad.
donna
Dear God, that was sad. The way you wrote it was perfect because the details were chilling. They needed nothing to make their points. So sad. As a mother of teens, it made me ponder yet again, why children die at their own hands and others.~~Dee
This is a very sad story. But I find it interesting that you felt the need to post it on your blog in such detail…seems rather sad on your part.
My boyfriend lives in Coppell in the same neighborhood as the Mayor Jayne Peters and her beautiful daughter. What a major shock to everyone! SO SAD*!
OMGosh! How absolutely horrible. I too was left with no money when my husband passed in 2008, but I was left with a strong belief in God, and He has taken care of me. My heart breaks for both these beautiful ladies, but it is beyond me how a mother could possibly take her own child’s life.
Brenda-I had not heard of this (even Nancy Grace didn’t report this). What a tortured life she must have been leading. So many people have a tough time letting go of “appearances”. It makes me so sad that this woman thought this was the only way out and that her daughter had no choice in the matter. The smiles in those pictures hide a lot of heart ache.
If someone decides to take his or her own life, so be it…, but to take someone else along that’s murder, isn’t it.
WOW! You just never know what people will do. How sad for her daughter. That poor woman saw no light at the end of the tunnel. How awful for the First Responders!
Hugs,Lisa
Someone has probably already mentioned this but I read a description of suicide once as a ‘permanent solution to a temporary problem’. I guess this poor woman felt that with her husband gone there was no reason to live. It’s so sad that she couldn’t have been honest with her daughter about things…between the two of them and with the help of others including family they could have overcome this. Her grief must have been very very deep and she must have felt so alone. It just goes to show that we just can’t judge people by what we see on the outside. Such a sad end to all 3 lives. I feel for the rest of the family and friends left behind. If we learn anything from this maybe it is to TALK about our feelings and our worries to others…don’t hold it in and try and hide it. And also to stay close to family and friends who loose loved ones or are ill…get them talking about their feelings and their fears. Maybe this is a wake up call we could all use. Thank you for sharing this…I hadn’t heard about it.
Dear Lord what a tragic event ~ I’m speechless ~ ♥Sharon
I’m not sure if you have heard or not, but an anonymous donor sent the city of Coppell $10,000.00. There was a note saying to please use this money to payback the money the mayor had used personally. The balance was in between $6,000 & $7,000. I can’t remember exactly. They instructed to donate the remaining amount to the city. It’s nice to hear that someone is thoughtful enough to do that for her. It’s just such a shame that it had to occur after such an act.