Man, woman found dead in burning North Philly rowhome

NORTH PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Police are investigating after a man and a woman were found dead inside a burning North Philadelphia rowhome early Wednesday morning.

Firefighters responded to the 2700 block of North 9th Street around 1:45 a.m. The blaze was out about 15 minutes later.

Crews soon found the man on the home's first floor, while the woman was found on the second floor, who has been identified as 37-year-old Tahisa Goode. Family members have identified the man who died in the fire as 33-year-old Steven Coles Tomoney. He was a father to two daughters, including a 6-year-old who lived in the home next door with the victim's father and grandmother.

Family and neighbors gathered under awnings along the North 9th Wednesday to remember the victims.

"He was a good person period--everyone knows him as that," Tomoney's sister Kevina Roby said.

"Why did you go to police station and take my niece? Why didn't you get my niece out of that house. I can't understand why did she stay there," Stacey Stephens said.

The loss of life and the uncertain circumstances of the deaths have those who knew the pair livid. They say Tomoney had stepped in to stop a street fight Tuesday night involving a resident of the now burned home. It lead to a threat Marvin Edwards says he heard.

"You said you going to burn my mother's --- down, I'm going to burn your s--- down and you won't live there anymore," Marvin Edwards said

Neighbors say Tomoney and Goode were simply spending the night in a friend's home while he left to report the fight and a theft of cash to police.

"You knew somebody put that threat on the house why didn't you take my niece why didn't you say come on lets go," Stephens said.

Marvin Edwards believes he knows who caused all this pain.

"You think the guy who makes the threat comes back and lights this place up?" FOX 29's Jeff Cole asked. Edwards responded and said, 'In the a.m. hours, it had to be."