Terrorist attacks said to be factor in murder-suicide in New Albany

October 4, 2002

No mention of psychiatric drugs, but would anyone like to take bets?.......

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2002/10/03/ke100302s288139.htm

Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal

Thursday, October 3, 2002

Terrorist attacks said to be factor in murder-suicide in New Albany

Flight attendant unable to work much of past year

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By Harold J. and Meghan Hoyer

The authors can be reached at hadams@... or

mhoyer@...

The Courier-Journal

Ylonda Hunter shot her son, Cameron Hall, and herself Sunday night or

Monday.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were the ''major contributing factor''

in the emotional decline of a New Albany woman -- a flight attendant -- who

killed her son and then herself this week, Floyd County, Ind., Prosecutor

Stan Faith said yesterday.

His remarks constitute the first public explanation of the factors that

could have led Ylonda Hunter, 44, to shoot her 5-year-old son, Cameron Hall,

and then turn the gun on herself Sunday night or early Monday.

Hunter had been a flight attendant for Northwest Airlines for 15 years,

according to her union, Teamsters Local 2000.

In the aftermath of the murder-suicide, Faith said family members told him

that Hunter was shaken by last year's attacks, in which terrorists flew

three airplanes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, with a fourth

crashing in the Pennsylvania countryside.

''The terrorist attack in New York started the downward spiral in her

life,'' Faith said. ''It was the major contributing factor that started

this.''

The attacks sent Hunter into a state of depression, Faith said, causing her

to take a leave from work for several months.

''She worked very little during the year'' after the attacks. And when she

did, her son became worried that something might happen to her.

''She hated to leave him because he was so terrified of her not coming

back,'' Faith said.

In that regard, Hunter and her son weren't alone, said Dawn Deeks, a

spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants, which represents

50,000 attendants at 26 airlines, not including Northwest.

''I know of anecdotal stories of children who would hide their parents'

flight-attendant uniforms so they wouldn't be able to work,'' Deeks said.

''The response from the family of knowing what happened on Sept. 11, and not

being ready for that person to return to work, is very strong.''

Deeks said the impact on flight attendants has been traumatic across the

board.

''They watched their workplace being turned into a weapon of mass

destruction,'' she said.

The resulting trauma brought a corresponding increase in the use of

employee-assistance programs aimed at helping workers through difficult

times, Deeks said.

And this year's anniversary of the attacks dredged up many of the same

feelings all over again and led to more stress, she said.

Faith said the situation got the best of Hunter, even though she had a

strong family network in New Albany and Louisville. And, he said, no one in

the family had any idea how disturbed Hunter had become.

''Nobody expected anything like this,'' he said.

Faith said it is usually easier for a person to share such problems with a

mental-health professional, but ''tragically here that didn't occur.''

Barrow-West, assistant trustee with Teamsters Local 2000, said one

problem is that employers often don't have internal mechanisms to identify

people who are at risk. But after Sept. 11, he said, the union and Northwest

did work to make available extra resources for psychological help.

Counselors were at all Northwest sites to talk to flight attendants as they

checked in during the first few days after flights resumed in the wake of

the attacks.

''We talked to a lot of people during that time and referred some of them to

professional counselors,'' Barrow-West said.

But there was no requirement for flight attendants to make use of the

counseling, he said.

Members of Hunter's family couldn't be reached for comment yesterday. But a

brother, Robin Hunter, said in an interview Tuesday that his sister had

become apprehensive about flying after the terrorist attacks.

Northwest did not respond to a request for comment.

Riley of New Albany, who describes herself as Hunter's best friend,

also said that Sept. 11 had hung over Hunter's life for the last year.

She hadn't worked as much after the attacks and was worried about something

going wrong on one of her flights.

''The Sept. 11 thing was a huge, huge burden for her and Cameron,'' Riley

said. ''There was really a fear of, 'What if something happens and my baby's

going to be alone?' ''

Cameron, meanwhile, was afraid for Hunter to go anywhere, Riley said.

In recent months, Riley said, she and Hunter had talked about the flight

attendants on the hijacked Sept. 11 flights and how calm they stayed in the

face of danger.

She compared Hunter's internal struggles with the fear those flight

attendants faced.

''Ylonda had that calm control,'' Riley said. ''And she kept it up until the

end.''

In recent weeks Riley said, she didn't notice much in Hunter's demeanor to

suggest that anything was wrong.

She said Hunter once wished out loud for a guardian angel and had some bad

days. But Riley dismissed that as the response to normal day-to-day

pressures.

''In hindsight, you see things you wish you could've picked up on,'' she

said. ''I should've maybe known.''

Riley was apparently the last person who talked to Hunter on Sunday. The

women and their 5-year-old sons had spent the day at a touch football game

and then returned to Riley's house to fix her sink.

She said Hunter had talked recently about getting a part-time job while

Cameron was in school, but didn't mention having any financial problems.

Riley continued to struggle yesterday to comprehend her friend's death. She

lamented the lack of a note and said she wished Hunter had reached out to

her circle of friends and family.

''I don't understand,'' she said. ''And it's breaking my heart. I miss my

friend.''

October 4, 2002