Pratt Professor Dies in Alleged Revenge Shooting

A third person has died after being shot in a rural Pennsylvania home last weekend in what authorities call a revenge killing carried out by an ex-convict.

Monica Shay, who lived in the East Village and worked as the head of the arts and cultural management department of Pratt Institute, was pronounced dead Thursday.

Shay, 58, was one of five people shot in the Montgomery County house last Saturday night. Also shot were husband Paul Shay, 64, nephew Joseph Shay, 43, his girlfriend Kathryn Erdmann and Erdmann’s 2-year-old son Gregory.

The toddler and Joseph Shay died immediately. Paul Shay and Kathryn Erdmann are expected to survive the execution-style shootings.

The presumed murderer, 51-year-old Mark Richard Geisenheyner, died Monday after a six-hour standoff with police.  Authorities say he had a lengthy rap sheet in both New York and Massachusetts.

According to authorities, Geisenheyner had been planning to kill Paul Shay, an East Village plumber, for 15 months.  Geisenheyner followed the couple to the house in rural Pennsylvania but when he broke in, he apparently found more people than expected, law enforcement officials said. 

It is unclear why he shot them all.

Geisenheyner was holding a grudge against Shay for allegedly stiffing him out of money in an insurance fraud scam, the suspect's friends have told police.

There has been no indication that such a scam was carried out.



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