COPPELL, Texas -- When police arrived at a suburban Dallas mayor's sprawling upscale home, they quickly realized something was very wrong. Rather than attend a City Council meeting, Mayor Jayne Peters had apparently taped an envelope to the door with a key and an ominous note inside.

Something unpleasant awaited them, warned the typed missive.

Inside the two-story brick house, Coppell police found a horrific scene Tuesday night. Peters and her 19-year-old college-bound daughter were both dead of gunshot wounds to the head, an apparent murder-suicide committed by the mayor, investigators say.

Three other notes were found at the house. But they did not offer an explanation for the deaths, only instructions for managing family affairs, such as care for the dogs, Coppell Deputy Police Chief Steve Thomas said Wednesday.

Bob Mahalik, mayor pro tem who is now acting mayor of the city, said he had a gut feeling something was wrong when the usually prompt mayor didn't show up for the meeting Tuesday night.

"But nowhere in your wildest dreams did you think it would be that far not right," he said.

Thomas said a semiautomatic handgun was used in the shootings, and there were no signs of a struggle.

A small collection of flowers, wreaths and cards decorated the front porch of the Peters' 3,850 square-foot brick home, where the mayor and her daughter, Corrine, lived alone. A printed letter said: "Please know that you are loved no matter what happens. I know that God is with you and giving you comfort. You both are with Don, a wonderful husband and father. A family again."

The mayor's husband, Donald Peters, died of cancer in 2008 at the age of 58.

Jayne Peters was a contract software developer who served as mayor of Coppell, a city of about 40,000 located 15 miles northwest of Dallas, for the past year. Her term was to expire in 2012. She had been a council member since 1998.

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This story is odd anyway, but now we hear it's a typed note