Dallas Community Shaken by Bizarre Killings of Mother and Two Children

Did revenge killers murder a mom and her two children? Or was it murder-suicide?

ByABC News
December 22, 2008, 4:48 PM

Dec. 23, 2008— -- Police know a Dallas mother and her two young children each died from a single gunshot wound to the head. And they know that she reported two bizarre attacks in the days before the deaths.

But the circumstances of how Jeanmarie Geis and her children were killed is a mystery that apparently has police stumped as speculation in the community rises.

Dallas Police Sr. Cpl. Kevin Janse called the last week "quite the maze of events" for the family. Among the theories circulating around the police department and local media -- Geis killed her children and then herself or the family was killed by men getting revenge for one of the high-profile cases Geis' father, a state district judge, presided over.

Just days before the killings, Dallas police already investigated two reported assaults on Geis, 49.

They were first called to the posh Blairview Drive home of Jeanmarie and Frank Geis on Dec. 13, three hours after Jeanmarie reported that two men in ski masks broke into the home at about 8:30 a.m. and attacked her husband before attempting to rape her, Janse said.

According to the police report, Geis first saw her husband Frank that morning walk in from the garage, wearing only a sweatshirt. He then said to her, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," according to the report.

Geis told police that she then saw the two assailants break in through a rear patio door. One then hit Frank in the right side of the head with a hammer or "mallet-type" instrument, Janse said, and she was put into a car.

She was then driven away from her home, but was able to jump out of the car into an alley and escape, according to the police reports. Frank was taken to the hospital and reported that he had no recall of anything that happened before 12:30 p.m. that day.

But the call to police didn't come until 11:30 a.m. that day, three hours after Jeanmarie told them the home invasion occurred. When asked about the time lapse, Janse responded, "that's the million-dollar question."

"There's a bunch of million-dollar questions in this whole week of events," he said.