Updated at 6:45 p.m.: Revised to include additional details throughout.





Dallas police suspect the deaths of a man, his two sons and a woman at a Far North Dallas hotel Tuesday were a murder-suicide.

Although police said Wednesday that they aren’t sure exactly what happened, the boys’ grandfather said he believes his former son-in-law is to blame.

His daughter had been in a long-running custody battle for the young boys, who attended Richardson ISD schools.

The staff at the Staybridge Suites near Keller Springs Road and the Dallas North Tollway called police about 3:10 p.m. after hearing a gunshot from the room where the four were staying. When officers arrived, they found the bodies of Charles Schoenfeld, 41, and his sons, 9-year-old Noah and 12-year-old Charlie, along with 31-year-old Brittany Howard.

Howard was not the boys’ mother, but police have not said 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,” wrote Schonfeld, who told a reporter he wasn’t 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 that because no one survived the shooting, they can’t yet definitively say the four people died in a murder-suicide.

Although police have “reason to believe” that is what happened, a spokesman said they are waiting on the results of autopsies.

The Dallas County medical examiner’s office said Wednesday that the causes of death for 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 with 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’s and father’s last names are similar. His last name was Schoenfeld, and her 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.

Elizabeth "Bethy" Schonfeld with her sons, Noah and Charlie Schoenfeld (Courtesy of Lonny Schonfeld)

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 planned to travel there and try to bring her children back to Texas with the help of police.

“They will be back, it’s just a longer process than I ever thought it would be,” she wrote, adding that she was “doing everything I can to get them back here and as quickly as possible.”

Noah and Charlie were 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,” said Chanda Ash, principal of Bowie Elementary, where Noah was a fourth-grader.

Charlie, the older of the two boys, was a seventh-grader 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 wrote.

Both schools had counselors available to help grieving students.

Rob Ellingson, whose son attended school with Noah, said this would have been his third season coaching the boy in flag football.

Noah worked harder than anyone, Ellingson said. He was a quiet boy who occasionally cracked jokes 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.

Lonny Schonfeld with his grandsons, Charlie and Noah Schoenfeld (Courtesy of Lonny Schonfeld)

Noah and his brother, Charlie, often arrived at the field on game days before Ellingson — and he’s always early, he said. Charlie helped prepare Noah for the game as they played catch.

Ellingson’s wife, Krista Ellingson, has 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 more than $8,000 by Wednesday evening. A third has been organized by Charlie and Noah’s grandfather.