Third Victim in Gilbertsville Shooting Dead

A third victim in Saturday's shooting is dead.

Monica Shay, 58, died Thursday, said Paul Hoffman, Deputy Coroner for Lehigh Valley County. The exact cause of her death is undetermined, he said. An autopsy will be conducted at 8 a.m. on Friday.

Shay was shot in the head at a Renninger Road, Gilbertsville, Douglass Township house she owned with her husband Paul Shay, 64.

On Sunday, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman and Douglass Township Police Chief Barry L. Templin Jr. identified the victims in the shooting as Paul Shay and his wife, Monica, Joseph Shay, Kathryn Erdmann and her son, Gregory.

Joseph Shay, 43, of Yarmouth, MA, and New York, NY, and Gregory, 2, were shot in the head and killed. 

Kathryn Erdmann, 37, of Fall River, MA, was also shot in the head.

"Despite their extensive injuries, (Erdmann) and (Paul Shay) were able to speak to investigators," Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Kevin Steele said in a news release on Monday. "Both are expected to survive."

The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office last week conducted autopsies on Joseph Shay and Gregory and concluded both victims died of gunshot wounds to the head.

The alleged shooter, Mark Richard Geisenheyner, led police on a manhunt after the shootings through Monday. That day, after a six-hour standoff with police, a SWAT team shot and killed Geisenheyner in a Trainer, Delaware County house, Ferman said.

The shootings could be the result of a plan concocted nearly three months ago by Geisenheyner, who sought revenge against Paul Shay, she said.

"We are investigating reports that (Geisenheyner) was involved in an insurance fraud scheme with one of the victims, and that was the motive for the murder," Ferman said on Monday.

Statements made by “multiple people” to the district attorney’s office uncover Geisenheyner’s plan to kill Paul Shay.

"The killer told people from the time he got out of prison 15 months ago that he had been involved in a scheme with Paul Shay and was seeking revenge against him," said Ferman.

A background search on Geisenheyner shows he lived on Hanover Street in Pottstown at some point, as well as several other Pennsylvania spots, including Downingtown, Wallingford and Philadelphia.