Slain women at Northeast Philadelphia Kraft plant recalled as dependable workers

The Northeast Philadelphia plant that produced cookies and crackers for Kraft Foods gave LaTonya Brown and Tanya Wilson, two single mothers on the second shift, a way to provide their children with stable lives.

The women worked from 1 to 9 p.m., amid the din of flour blowing through hoses and the endless churning of 2,500 pounds of dough in a 10-by-8-foot mixer.

On Thursday, their lives abruptly ended in the same plant that had sustained them when a coworker beset by grievances, real or imagined, shot them near the end of their shift, authorities said.

"They were good employees," said John Lazar, president and business manager of Local 492 of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers International Union. "It was devastating for people at work. They cried in disbelief."

That devastation was amplified in North Philadelphia, where the women's relatives and friends coped Friday with their losses.

"What a horrible thing," said Bernadette Chappelle, a neighbor of Wilson, 47.

"She is my only child," Terral Brown said of LaTonya, 36, tears streaming down her face. "How am I supposed to get over this?"

Terral Brown said her daughter had told her she feared Yvonne Hiller, who has been charged in the killings as well as the wounding of Bryant Dalton, 39, also a worker at the plant.

"My daughter told me that she was scared because of Hiller, and that this girl was crazy," said Brown.

Jenine Harris said she was LaTonya's best friend.

"Just recently," Harris said, "she told me that there have been multiple complaints about this woman, Hiller, and that she was crazy."

Harris blamed the company. "What kind of security is this and why was this woman still at work after all these complaints?" she said. "This company should be sued."

Brown had been at Kraft for 11 years, and had been working a lot of overtime to pay the bills for herself and her four children, 6 to 22.

Wilson had two children in their 20s; a 15-year-old son, Mark; and two grandchildren, neighbors said.

Known to work double shifts, Wilson, employed at Kraft for 13 years, seemed to be at the plant "all the time," according to neighbor David Brown, 27.

Her prime preoccupation was Mark, whom she doted on and kept out of trouble.

"His mom stayed on top of him," said David Brown, who called Wilson "Erykah Badu" because her dreadlocks resembled the singer's.

"Tonya wouldn't let Mark take the bus until very recently," he said. "She got him a babysitter for when she worked at night. She was very attentive."