After Canadian police discovered Betty Yan's bullet-riddled body slumped at the wheel of her Mercedes-Benz in April, the initial public shock over yet another murder in the Vancouver area turned to intrigue and outrage when details of the victim's identity emerged.
Police acknowledged the 39-year-old Guangdong native was known for her criminal connections, while local media later revealed she had earned the nickname 'Big Sister' Betty within the criminal underworld for her involvement in a ruthless and violent loan shark operation.
Yet while Yan's murder pointed to a further escalation of violence in Vancouver's gang wars, what sparked the strongest reaction - particularly from the city's upper crust - was the revelation that Yan had lived something of a double life.
On the surface, her lifestyle seemed typical of other wealthy suburbanites. She and her husband owned a lavish home in the city of Richmond, on the outskirts of Vancouver. And Yan was known as a dutiful mother who organised play dates and participated in carpools to drive her three young children to their prestigious private school, West Point Grey Academy.
When other parents at West Point Grey realised their own children had been visiting a suspected loan shark's home for parties, they were horrified.
'This women put the lives of our children in danger every single day!' one parent commented on a blog run by The Vancouver Sun newspaper. 'We now have a school where the children are scared ... the children are asking: 'Why where [Yan's children] at our school?' and yes, why were they?'