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Her sister, Christina Wollenzien, 28, was outspoken and fun-loving, and she had no relationship beyond work with the man who shot her before killing himself, Heinecke said.
She couldn’t imagine what the shooter, Shadow Yang, 40, could have had against her sister.
“That’s why everybody is baffled,” she said.
Police and officials at Rockline Industries, where Yang once worked with Wollenzien, also said they knew of no relationship between the two beyond work.
But an expert on workplace violence said it would have been “extremely, extremely rare” for Yang to have chosen Wollenzien at random.
“Normally, it is by design, where the shooter blames one or more than one person for his lot in life,” said Paul Viollis, executive with Risk Control Strategies in New York. “Victims are very much targeted.”
Wollenzien had worked on the assembly line in Rockline’s coffee filter division for about nine years, said Kirk Engholt, vice president of human resources for Rockline.
She was at work when Yang broke a window on a door to get into the plant shortly before 4:30 a.m., police Lt. Jeff Johnston said.
He fired one shot, hitting her in the stomach, then, when she tried to get away, he shot her in the head, Engholt said.
He said Wollenzien was the first worker Yang encountered in the plant as she was working basically alone, walking to get some raw materials, about 25 to 50 yards from the door Yang had entered.
Yang then apparently shot himself either before or as police searched the building, police Lt. Michael Williams said. His body was found about 200 yards from the initial shooting.
As many as 130 other employees were in the factory near downtown Sheboygan at the time and quickly evacuated as officers cordoned off the area. About 20 tactical team officers searched the block-long building before finding Yang’s body.
Investigators were examining footage from the 20 to 25 security cameras encircling the outside of the building. There were no cameras inside and no security officers patrol the grounds.
Other employees who witnessed the shooting said it appeared Yang was targeting Wollenzien, Johnston said. He didn’t know how many people were in the area at the time but he said other employees did an impressive job of evacuating the plant.
Investigators found a single handgun and ammunition at the scene.
Williams said the only other time police interacted with Yang was for a minor traffic violation in 2001.
Yang had quit his job at Rockline 11 months earlier, after working there as a materials handler for about five years, Engholt said. He drove a forklift and would have come into contact with Wollenzien occasionally, he said.
Yang had a good work record until he missed a day without an excused absence and then left permanently in October 2006, Engholt said.
“No problems, no complaints,” he said. “That’s why we’re mystified by what happened here.”
The plant will remain closed until 5:30 a.m. Tuesday, Engholt said, adding that counselors would be on hand to work with employees.
Yang and Wollenzien both lived in Sheboygan.
Johnston said there was no evidence they were romantically involved. Yang was divorced and Wollenzien was single.
Her mother also worked at the Rockline plant, although on a different shift, Engholt said.
Heinecke, 25, said she learned of her sister’s death from her mother, who did not work Monday and called that morning with news of the shooting.
“She is someone we loved very much, she will be very much missed,” she said.
About 45 minutes before the shooting, firefighters were called to a fire at Yang’s duplex apartment, Williams said. The fire was intentionally set but it was unclear whether the fire was meant to destroy specific objects or evidence, he said.
It was minor, brought quickly under control and caused mostly smoke damage in the duplex’s upper unit, said Daniel Pitsch, a shift commander for the Sheboygan Fire Department.
Rockline Industries, a family-owned company headquartered in Sheboygan, makes items including coffee filters and baby wipes. It does business in more than 50 countries and has more than 1,800 employees worldwide.
