BEDFORD, Ind. | A church trustee who neighbors said was bitter over his recent divorce told his ex-wife he had their daughter "and you're not going to get her" shortly before the small plane he was piloting crashed into his former mother-in-law's house, killing him and his 8-year-old daughter.

Police said Eric Johnson, a student pilot who had soloed before, strapped daughter Emily into the passenger seat of a leased, single-engine Cessna on Monday morning. Less than two hours later, the plane smashed into the home of Vivian Pace, the girl's grandmother.

Pace told reporters outside her damaged home Tuesday that her daughter, Beth Johnson, reached her husband on his cell phone shortly before the crash.

He told his ex-wife: "I've got her, and you're not going to get her," she said.

"She could hear Emily in the background: 'Mommy, come get me, come get me,"' Pace said.

Pace, who was home but uninjured, said she believed the crash was deliberate.

"That was the only way he could hurt Beth. That was the only way he could get to her," she said.

Police also believe it was deliberate, investigating the case as a suicide and homicide.

State Police 1st Sgt. Dave Bursten said eyewitness accounts of the plane's movements just before the crash and the fact that the home belonged to his ex-wife's mother raised serious questions.

"All of those things together lead us in the direction that this was done intentionally," Bursten said.

Andrew Todd Fox of the National Transportation Safety Board declined to say if Johnson, 47, said anything over the plane's radio before the crash in the community about 20 miles south of Bloomington in southern Indiana. The airport has no controller on duty, so no recording was available of any communication, he said.

Fox said investigators would look at the plane to see if mechanical failure was a factor.

Eric Johnson obtained his pilot's license in November, the same month the couple divorced after 12 years of marriage.

Court records showed Beth Johnson had obtained a restraining order against her husband on July 14, 2006, but police would not disclose the reasons. Pace said Eric Johnson threatened his wife with a gun last summer, while Emily was in Iowa with relatives, in an effort to change her mind about the divorce. Bedford police said they never received a complaint about the alleged incident.

Mary Webb, who lived across from the Johnsons for about 12 years, said police cars were parked outside the home for several weeks last summer. Eric Johnson told her they were there to protect his wife and daughter.

"He said, 'I wouldn't hurt her, I wouldn't do that,' and I took his word for it," Webb said. "He didn't seem like that type of person at all."

Webb said Johnson moved out in the fall under police supervision and was "very bitter about the divorce."

"He was wanting custody of (Emily), but he said I'll settle for visitation," she said.

The couple shared custody of Emily, alternating weekends, according to court records. Eric Johnson was supposed to take Emily to school Monday after a week's vacation together in Cancun.

When she didn't arrive, Beth Johnson went to the Bedford Police Department to file a missing person report, unaware of the crash at her mother's home. Police had not yet identified the crash victims when she filed her report, police Maj. Dennis Parsley said Tuesday.

Parsley said police searched Eric's home and seized two computers, a briefcase and day planner. There were no notes indicating what his plans had been, he said.

Lawrence County coroner John Sherrill said both died from blunt force trauma. Results of toxicology tests on Eric Johnson were pending.

A man who identified himself as Eric Johnson's brother declined to comment when reached in Iowa.

Johnson had worked 20 years for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and managed more than 18,000 acres of forest, said Mark Farmer, a conservation and public information officer.

"By all accounts, he was a good employee, generally well-liked," Farmer said.

At Parkview Primary School in Bedford, where Emily was a first-grader, counselors were called in to help the students, Principal Sari Wood said.

"We're all grieving over this," Wood said. She described Emily as a "dear little girl" who "got a kick out of things and enjoyed life."

"She just was one of those really friendly, really open little kids," Wood said.

Pastor Paul Neuman of the Calvary Lutheran Church in Bedford said Eric and Emily Johnson were regular attendees at the church, where Eric was a member of the board of trustees and helped with remodeling and landscaping.

Neuman said he talked with Johnson "on a number of occasions" about his family situation but declined to elaborate.

Johnson and his daughter had attended service Sunday morning and there was "absolutely no indication" anything was wrong, Neuman said.

"Everything seemed normal."