Teresita Allen

Her friends and teachers at West Philadelphia High School knew her as Terri. She wasn’t outstanding for her academic talent or athletic skill or extra-curricular activity, but it wasn’t easy to stand out from 465 others in the class of 1981. She didn’t have her portrait in the yearbook wearing her cap and gown, but neither did 60 percent of her classmates. 

The only other information found there was her aspiration to be a teacher and her address, 27 South Millick Street. Walter and Warline Bailey were her parents, both from Virginia and married in 1951. They may have raised six other children in the home, which was between 60th and 61st St. just south of Market Street.

Eleven years after graduating, Terri was living in an apartment near 47th and Pine Street. A former tenant from her building, Daniel McNeil, had been in a halfway house in hopes of kicking his addiction to drugs, but had given up. The 32-year-old school crossing guard returned to his old address where he knew Terri was selling, so he bought $40 worth of cocaine.

On June 4, 1992 he returned to complain that she sold him “bad” drugs and wanted his money back. She refused, which led to a struggle. Daniel testified that his drug dealer attacked him with a knife and he fought back in self-defense.

Terri wasn’t available to give her side of the story because she was stabbed 17 times in the chest, back, and neck. Just three of them would have been fatal, according to police, who did find packaged cocaine and marijuana in her apartment.

Her attacker was convicted of third-degree murder, which carried a possible 10-20 year sentence. It was most likely her mother who had her buried here at Mount Moriah and left these last words on her gravestone.