Texas Mayor Jayne Peters Had Covered Up Financial Issues Before Murder-Suicide

COPPELL, Texas (CBS/AP) Friends of Jayne Peters, the Dallas area mayor who authorities believe killed her daughter and herself, said they had no idea how bad things were for the mayor since her husband had passed away, because Peters was very good at keeping up a facade.

PICTURES: Texas Mayor and Daughter Murder-Suicide

Friends described her as a doting, highly organized and loving mother to her only daughter, Corinne, and say she was very proud of her daughter for getting in to the University of Texas at Austin. She had even recently bought her a 2011 Hyundai Sonata, the Dallas Morning News reported.

But all that was a lie, according to investigators, created by Peters to hide the fact that she was financially destitute. The family home had almost been foreclosed on twice and Peters was facing an investigation into allegations that she had misused a city credit card for personal charges and had not reimbursed the city.

After Peters' body was found along with that of her daughter in the house they shared, investigators discovered that, despite what Corinne had told friends and posted on her Facebook, the University of Texas had no record of her even applying.

But her friends say they don't think Corinne knew that. They say Corinne wouldn't have doubted her mother if she had said everything was taken care of.

PICTURES: Texas Mayor and Daughter Murder-Suicide

"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."

And the brand-new car, believed to have been a graduation gift? A rental, allegedly rented on the city-issued credit card that Peters is accused of misusing for personal expenses. Here too friends believe Corinne was none-the-wiser.

So what happened that would turn a caring friend and mother, who took the non-paying position as mayor of the Dallas suburb and who, according to friends, talked about being a good steward for the taxpayers' money, into a deceitful manipulator and possible embezzler?

Maybe the grief over the devastating loss of her husband to cancer in 2008, in addition to the financial pressures she had been under since his death, said one long-time friend, Doug Stover.

"I think that the weight of it all became too much for her," Stover, who preceded Peters as mayor, told CNN Sunday. "She felt, unfortunately for her, this was the only option she had."

Complete Coverage of Texas Mayor's Murder-Suicide at Crimesider.