Jennifer Schipsi, the 29-year-old real-estate agent whose body was found in a burning house on Addison Avenue last week, reported she was facing threats from two brothers in the weeks leading up to her death, court documents show.

Schipsi, an agent in the Palo Alto branch of Alain Pinel Realtors, moved from San Jose to Palo Alto a little over a month ago and was living at 969 Addison Ave. with her boyfriend, Paul Zumot, 36. Her burned body was found in the bedroom of the one-story home shortly after neighbors and firefighters doused the flames on the evening of Oct. 15.

Palo Alto police wouldn't comment on whether Schipsi died under suspicious circumstances and would not identify her as the victim Monday. But in court records, she alleged that she and Zumot were recently threatened by brothers Tony Ghanma, 46, and Hisham Ghanma, 42.

According to a restraining order application Schipsi filed on Sept. 19 with the Santa Clara County Superior Court, she was worried about both her and Zumot's safety just weeks before their house burned down. [Note: The application for a temporary restraining order was denied and a hearing was scheduled for early October, but was postponed because the brothers were not served, according to their attorney, Robert Cummings of Redwood City. The brothers contest the allegations in the application, he said.

Schipsi knew both brothers through Zumot, who according to her declaration was once close friends with Hisham Ghanma. But Zumot and the Ghanmas appeared to have a falling out after Zumot witnessed Tony Ghanma kissing Schipsi on the lips. Zumot allegedly became angry and went to talk to Hisham about the incidence. That's when, according to Schipsi's declaration, "this whole thing got stirred up."

"This case is not about the kiss anymore," Schipsi wrote in her declaration. "It's about my safety and the safety of Mr. Zumot.

"I am now afraid for Mr. Zumot's safety and my own. I am afraid because what they are doing, by going after Mr. Zumot, is so wrong. I now think that they will do anything to prevail."

According to the declaration, the two brothers allegedly offered Schipsi $5,000 to testify against Zumot and offered to help move her out of Zumot's house. They also told Schipsi that Zumot was a liar who was seeing other women.

The brothers also allegedly threatened to "take care of" Zumot, which Schipsi interpreted as a threat to kill him. She wrote that she had seen Hisham Ghanma display a shotgun during a camping trip to Lake Comanche that she, Zumot, Hisham's family and one of Ghanma's employees took in early July of this year.

"I have seen Hisham Ghanma with a firearm," Schipsi wrote in a declaration supporting Zumot's request for a restraining order against the two brothers. "I am worried he has ignored a Court Order that he turn it in.

"He could be armed and I want to confirm that he is not ignoring the Court Order and he is no longer in possession of a firearm."

She also stated that Hisham Ghanma had threatened her directly and wrote that she was "afraid of what Tony Ghanma might do."

She reported in an Oct. 1 request for orders to stop harassment against Hisham Ghama that as recently as Sept. 24 she received a life-threatening phone call from Ghanma's cell phone.

"I have been getting many phone calls from blocked numbers," she wrote. "I cannot sleep and have been very stressful (sic)."

Paul Zumot could not be reached Monday afternoon. His attorney, John Perrott from the San Jose-based firm Thomas Chase Stutzman, said he would not comment on any of the cases involving Zumot unless he received his client's permission.

But court records show that Zumot and Schipsi themselves were involved in a series of heated arguments in February 2008, arguments that prompted Schipsi to apply for a restraining order against Zumot, whom she started dating in October 2007.

On March 20, 2008, Schipsi filed a declaration with the Santa Clara County Superior Court accusing Zumot of throwing objects at her, kicking her car door, shouting obscenities at her on the street and spitting in her face. On Feb. 7, according to her declaration, Zumot grabbed her arm so tightly that it was "sore for several days" and screamed profanities at her for 10 minutes.

She also filed a police report on March 17, saying she does not feel safe with Zumot.

"This man drives (by) my house every day," she wrote. "I keep my curtains closed and do not answer my door. I need him to leave me alone."

She also stated that she "noticed signs of extreme anger and controlling characteristics" as they dated. She said she had been sleeping over at a friend's house to avoid seeing Zumot.

One e-mail allegedly from Zumot, which Schipsi submitted to the court in March 2008, reads: "Even though I did the ugliest thing ever to u, but I am gonna win u back at any cost. You will be my wife some day, mark my word."

But their feud appeared to have cooled by the end of the year. In October 2008, Schipsi asked the court to reduce her restraining order to "peaceful conduct" and to delete the "stay-away order," attributing her earlier filing to a "misunderstanding."

On Monday, the couple's landlord John Eckland described Schipsi and Zumot as "very private" people and described Schipsi's personality as "friendly" and "pleasant." Eckland, whose house stands behind the burned building, said he hadn't seen Schipsi since Sunday, Oct. 11, four days before the fire. Her vehicle, he said, hadn't been parked in the driveway throughout the week leading up to the fire.

Eckland said he was getting ready to have dinner with his father, Herb, and three friends at about 6:30 p.m. last Thursday when a man who was walking a dog knocked on the door and said the house in front of Eckland's is burning. Another person who was driving by the fire also banged on Eckland's door to report the fire, said Herb Eckland.

John Eckland and a friend then went into the burning building and used garden hoses to dowse the flames. Firefighters then arrived to extinguish what was left of the fire, containing it to the bedroom.

Eckland said Schipsi and Zumot seemed like a happy couple. He said the two seemed to really like their new home on Addison Avenue, between Fife and Channing avenues.

"They found their place," Eckland said.

On Monday, the house was surrounded with caution tape. A charred box spring from the burned bedroom leaned against the fence on the driveway. Several flower bouquets stood near the front of the house, in memory of the victim.

Eckland said he and his friend had no idea, when they went into the bedroom to battle the flames, that there was an occupant in the bedroom. They didn't learn about Schipsi's death until Friday.

"We didn't know there was someone in there until the following day, when police called and said, 'We found the remains of a human being,'" Eckland said.