Violent Deaths of 2 Officials Jolt San Diego School System

The San Diego city school system has been jolted by the deaths during the weekend of two district administrators, including a top-ranking one, in what police have termed a murder-suicide.

Associates of one of the victims, meanwhile, contend that the police made their judgment too quickly and are demanding further investigation.

The victims were George Frey, 57, an assistant school superintendent in charge of the district’s community relations and integration programs, and Elizabeth Tomblin, 43, who directed the district’s program evaluations department. Police believe Frey shot Tomblin while she was visiting him at his San Diego home, then shot himself.

Several colleagues of the pair, all of whom asked for anonymity, said Frey and Tomblin had been romantically involved. Frey had been divorced three times; Tomblin was married.

Police spokesman Dave Cohen said, “It’s a murder-suicide; all the evidence available to us indicates that very strongly.”

But some of those who knew Frey are skeptical of that conclusion.

“This is not an effort to defend anyone, but we do not believe that anyone can tell immediately what the circumstances were,” said Herb Cawthorne, chief executive officer of the Black Federation, a group that runs social service programs in San Diego. “We think the conclusion of the police was premature.”

The bodies of Frey and Tomblin were found early Sunday morning along a short stairway leading to a sunken first-floor bedroom in Frey’s home. Frey, shot in the head, was found on top of Tomblin, who had also been shot in the head as well as a thigh, according to the county coroner’s office.

A high-ranking police official familiar with the case said Frey was “going with (Tomblin) for a couple of years” and that the two may have been breaking up.

Frey’s house showed no signs of being burglarized, police said. According to the official familiar with the case, a .22-caliber pistol was found by the bodies “where (Frey) would have dropped it.” There was no suicide note, the official said.

Tomblin’s husband, Douglas, a Bonita veterinarian who lives in La Mesa, had notified police Friday night that his wife was missing, police spokesman Cohen said. He filed another missing-person report Saturday morning.

Police discovered the bodies after a co-worker of Tomblin’s saw the woman’s car parked outside Frey’s house late Saturday, yelled into the house and then called authorities.

Walter Kudumu, a community activist who had known Frey for 20 years, was among those questioning the murder-suicide scenario. “It just doesn’t fit,” said Kudumu. “I know George as a person who runs every day. He fashioned his lifestyle around longevity.”

Dorothy Smith, Frey’s longtime neighbor and a former school board president, agreed. “I don’t believe that George Frey killed Betty Tomblin. And it would be impossible for him to commit suicide,” she said.

Frey, who was appointed assistant school superintendent in 1983, is credited with propelling the integration of San Diego’s school system to national acclaim, San Diego Unified School District Supt. Tom Payzant and others said. Driven by what he saw as an imperative to improve the plight of minority students, he designed a number of innovative and effective programs, the school officials said.

Frey previously was a principal at San Diego’s Morse High School.

Tomblin was a reserved, poised woman who was meticulous about her work, colleagues say.

“She was very polished, very mannered--just like a lady from another era,” school board President Kay Davis said.