Laundry worker killed by robber who took less than $200

A robber who stabbed to death a woman working at her family's North Philadelphia coin laundry Wednesday evening escaped with less than $200, police said.

"She lost her life for that," said Capt. James Clark, commander of the Homicide Unit. "Everyone we talked to loved her."

Huan Mo, 53, lay in the laundry office for several hours before her husband and teenage son discovered her body around 11:30 p.m.

Clark said Mo apparently put up a "fierce struggle" against her attacker, who was armed with either a knife or a screwdriver.

He said Mo was last seen alive around 6:30 p.m. Typically, she closed the laundry around 8, he said.

Between those times, detectives think, the assailant forced Mo into the office, intent on robbing the business, Clark said. The attacker escaped with $100 to $200, he said.

When Mo did not return to her South Philadelphia home at her normal hour, family members began calling her cell phone and the laundry's land line.

Her husband and son eventually drove to the laundry, in the 4700 block of North 15th Street in the Logan section, to find the doors wide open and a blood trail leading to the office.

"Inside the office area, quite frankly, was very gruesome," Clark said. "It appears she fought back for her life."

Mo was pronounced dead at the scene. Her family has owned the business for about a year, Clark said.

There were no surveillance cameras inside the laundry, but detectives were scouring the area for any nearby cameras that might have caught footage of the attacker.

The laundry was closed Thursday, and two police officers remained there in the afternoon.

The laundry is in an island of stores and auto shops. Workers at nearby businesses said they were not aware of what had happened.

"This woman was killed for a hundred bucks?" said a mechanic, who didn't want to give his name. "It's getting a mess around here."

At the victim's home on Dickinson Street, the shutters were closed Thursday. Neighbors said Mo had lived there for 30 years but did not know where her husband and son were.

"She has been just a friendly woman going to work every day and taking care of her family," said Ling Han, 45, who works in a nearby market.

Others, confronted with the incident, reacted with frustration.

"The city is getting worse," said Sunyun Johnson, who lives in the neighborhood and owns a cleaners on South Street. "It's always like this. When the economy gets tough, the criminals get out on the streets again."

Anyone with information on Mo's slaying is being asked to call the Homicide Unit at 215-686-3334 or -3335.