DALLAS _ Dallas police suspect the deaths of a man, his two sons and a woman at a hotel in Far North Dallas on Tuesday were a murder-suicide, authorities said Wednesday. Police say aren't yet sure what exactly happened inside the hotel room, but the boys' grandfather said he believes his former son-in-law killed them.
Hotel management called police around 3:10 p.m. Tuesday after hearing a gunshot from the room where the four were staying. When officers arrived, they found Charles Schoenfeld, 41, and his sons, 9-year-old Noah and 12-year-old Charlie, shot to death along with 31-year-old Brittany Howard. Police said Howard was not the boys' mother but didn't say how she was connected to Schoenfeld.
The boys' grandfather, Lonny Schonfeld, wrote in a Facebook post that Schoenfeld, his daughter's ex-husband, killed the boys.
"My entire family is beyond devastation. My heart is ripped to shreds," said Schonfeld, who said he wasn't yet ready to talk about what happened. "Those two boys were my life. I loved them with every ounce of my being. I know that my entire life has changed forever."
Police said because there were no living witnesses to the shooting, detectives can't yet definitively say the four people were killed in a murder-suicide. Though police have "reason to believe" that is what happened, authorities are waiting on the results of autopsies by the Dallas County medical examiner's office, a police spokesman said.
The medical examiner's office said Wednesday the causes of death all four are pending.
The children had been at the center of a custody battle between Schoenfeld and his ex-wife, Elizabeth Schonfeld, who said when she filed for divorce in 2009 that he had been violent toward her, according to court records. She sought sole custody of Charlie and asked the court to allow him to stay with his maternal grandparents temporarily. Noah was not yet born.
(The mother and father's names are similar. His last name was Schoenfeld and hers and her father's last name is Schonfeld.)
The divorce was finalized in 2013, and the parents had a joint-custody arrangement, according to court records.
The children had been with their father in Florida during a holiday break, but their mother said in court documents that he didn't return them in January as the court required. Records show Schoenfeld tried in January to transfer the custody case to Florida and modify the custody arrangement there. But a judge said no.
In early January, the mother wrote on social media that Schoenfeld still had the children in Florida. She wrote that she had plans to travel there and, with the help of the police, try to bring her children back to Texas.
"They will be back, it's just a longer process than I ever thought it would be," she wrote in a post, adding that she was "doing everything I can to get them back here and as quickly as possible."
Noah and Charlie were both Richardson ISD students, according to letters sent to parents at the boys' schools. Noah was a fourth grader at Bowie Elementary.
"We will remember Noah as a wonderful, happy child who was well liked by his classmates and teachers, and he will be greatly missed by our Bowie family," Principal Chanda Ash wrote in the letter.
Charlie, the older of the two boys, was in seventh grade and was on the track team at Parkhill Junior High.
"Charlie was a kind, respectful and valued member of our Parkhill family, and he'll be fondly remembered and missed by his classmates and teachers," Principal Farrah Smock said in a letter to parents.
A track meet scheduled for Thursday will continue as scheduled, according to the letter, but Charlie's classmates can decide not to participate. Both schools had counselors to help grieving students.
Rob Ellingson, whose son attended school with Noah, said this would have been his third season coaching Noah in flag football.
Noah worked harder than anyone, Ellingson said. He was a quiet boy who would occasionally crack a joke with his teammates. But on the field, he was "reserved and down to business," Ellingson said.
Noah was quick to give other kids on the team a chance to shine. But that wasn't because he lacked self-confidence, Ellingson said.
"It just came from a place of putting someone else first," he said.
Noah and his brother would often arrive at the field on game days before Ellingson _ and he's always early, he said.
The boys were all smiles together, Ellingson said. Charlie would prep Noah for the game as they played catch, he recalled.
Ellingson's wife, Krista Ellingson, set up a GoFundMe fundraiser for the boys' mother.
"Knowing that there's no words that can obviously heal this sweet mom right now, we just wanted to pour out in some sort of way and obviously just wanted to ease the burden of the funeral expenses," she said.
Krista Ellingson said she is working to coordinate a vigil for the boys.
She said the boys' mother was moved by the support from the community when she checked on her Wednesday to tell her that the fundraiser had surpassed its $10,000 goal.
"She's just still in shock by everything, but she feels so loved on by everybody," Krista Ellingson said.
Another GoFundMe campaign for the mother had raised over $8,000 by Wednesday evening. A third was organized by Charlie and Noah's grandpa and has a goal of $25,000.
