by Alison Storm | 07/23/10

Authorities believe a Dallas-area mayor killed her daughter and turned the gun on herself earlier this week. According to reports, Jayne Peters served as mayor of Coppell since May 2009, an unpaid job that friends say the organized and caring mother was a good fit for. However, according to CBS News, recent promises and purchases Jayne made for her 19-year-old daughter Corinne were lies.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Jayne had recently purchased her daughter a 2011 Hyundai Sonata, but it turns out the car was a rental, according to investigators. Also, Corinne was believed to be enrolled at the University of Texas, and even told friends she was. But according to documents, there was no record that she even applied to the school. "In general, she's one of the most gullible people I've met," Friend Erin Barlow told the Morning News. "That's what makes her her, and I can see how it wouldn't be all that hard to make her believe something that she wanted to believe so bad."

Investigators believe the lies got out of control as financial burdens became too much for the widow to handle. Her home faced foreclosure twice this year and authorities were preparing to investigate allegations that Jayne had misused government credit cards without reimbursing the city. Authorities say Jayne may have used city credit cards to rent that car she told her daughter was a graduation gift. According to KVUE, questionable charges seem to total between $4,000 and $6,000 and include nearly $600 at a Kroger grocery store, $270 at gas stations, $360 at two Plano clothing stores, $700 at restaurants and $1600 at Enterprise Rent-A-Car.

Some say they believe Jayne's hardships escalated when her husband died of cancer in 2008. Financial pressures and grief became too much for her to handle. "I think that the weight of it all became too much for her," Doug Stover, who preceded Peters as mayor, told CNN Sunday. "She felt, unfortunately for her, this was the only option she had."