Death of 2 School Officials Called Murder-Suicide : Shootings: An assistant superintendent apparently shot a fellow administrator, then turned the gun on himself, police say.

Police Sunday called the deaths of two San Diego school district officials an apparent murder-suicide.

Dead were George Frey, an assistant superintendent, and Elizabeth Tomblin, a district administrator. Police said Frey apparently shot Tomblin and then turned the gun on himself.

San Diego police spokesman Dave Cohen said the bodies of Frey, 57, and Tomblin, 43, were discovered at 12:20 a.m. Sunday in a hallway at Frey’s home in the 2700 block of Blackton Drive in the Oak Park neighborhood.

The San Diego Sheriff’s Department had listed Tomblin, who lived in La Mesa, as a missing person on Friday. She was married to Douglas Tomblin, a veterinarian.

San Diego Schools Supt. Tom Payzant said he was shocked by news of the shootings.

“I was really devastated by the information. I worked very closely with both of them and they were both fine people with strong professional reputations. It is a shock and difficult to believe and accept,” Payzant said Sunday night.

Frey was appointed to his post in February, 1983, and formerly was a principal at Morse High School in Southeast San Diego. He was in charge of the school district’s community relations and integration programs.

Tomblin, who had worked for the district since 1982, directed program evaluations. Her department did internal evaluations of the district’s various programs, including the magnet and science programs.

According to Cohen, police received a tip Saturday night that the missing woman’s car was in front of Frey’s house.

An officer sent to the scene located the car and found the front door of Frey’s house ajar. The officer entered the house and discovered the bodies, lying on a stairway leading from a first-floor bedroom to a hallway.

A pistol, believed to be the fatal weapon, was found at the scene.

A spokesman for the coroner’s office said that Frey apparently shot Tomblin then turned the gun on himself. An autopsy is scheduled today for both victims to determine the time and cause of death. Police are continuing their investigation.

It could not be determined Sunday who reported Tomblin missing, or what she was doing in Frey’s home. The coroner’s office reported that Frey was divorced.

In a move that generated a great deal of controversy at the time, Frey replaced Edward S. Fletcher, who headed the district’s integration program between 1978 and 1983.

Fletcher later complained that he had been given a token position under former superintendent Tom Goodman.