Advertisement

Toronto body parts case: Who was Hua Guang Liu?

On Tuesday, Peel Regional Police identified remains recovered from a river in Mississauga and a creek in Scarborough as those of 41-year-old Hua Guang Liu.

Liu, 41, was reported missing on August 11th.

The media has been scrambling to piece together her story. Who was Hua Guang Liu? And how did she meet such a horrific fate?

This is what we know so far:

Liu was a Canadian citizen of Chinese descent.

She was mother of three. Her two youngest children live with Liu's ex-husband in China, while she lived with her adult son, Danny, in a townhouse she purchased in Scarborough in 2008.

Acquaintances told reporters she had a boyfriend named Ken.

According to the National Post, she lived a quiet life, rarely entertaining guests or getting to know her neighbours. Some of her neighbours didn't even recognize her picture in the news.

[ Related: Body-parts slaying clue may lie in security tapes ]

Jean, Liu's next door neighbour, knew Liu as "Heather." Jean claims Liu was renting out her basement to a male tenant who only speaks Chinese.

The Toronto Star reports that Liu worked at Asia Studios, a body rub parlour, until April of this year. The owner says Liu, who was licensed as a body rub practitioner, left to start her own business.

Jean's story differs from original reports that Liu worked in a massage parlour before opening her own spa. Jean claims Liu told her she worked in a restaurant before going into the spa business.

Liu had been operating the Forget-Me-Not spa in a Scarborough mall since May, when she took it over from a Chinese woman named Mona. When residents complained about the spa earlier in the summer, officials found nothing improper, CBC News reports, but did have trouble tracking Liu down.

"When our officers were able to speak to her she did inform them that she was in the process of selling her business," Toronto Councillor Michael Thompson said.

The building manager of the complex where the spa was located insisted that Liu was very professional and ran a legitimate business. Others claims the spa business never seemed open.

[ Related: Toronto collects nearly $1M a year from body rub studios ]

"I never saw anyone get in or get out," Jong Soon Suh, owner of a drycleaning business in the same complex, told the Toronto Star, adding that the only sign anyone was entering the spa was the curtain which sometimes got caught in the door.

Suh called her property manager about a month ago to ask about Liu only to learn that Liu was planning on following her former husband and children to China.

A pharmacist who works next door to Forget-Me-Not told CBC News that police have requested access to video recorded by on-site security cameras.

Peel inspector George Koekkoek said that investigators have searched Liu's home as well as a motel in Scarborough that may be linked to her death.

An employee at the Scarborough Inn told the National Post that police searched Room 39 on Monday. The inn is located near West Highland Creek where Liu's arm, thigh and calves were found. An unidentified man checked in on August 11.

"We are working on suspect information," Koekkoek told CBC News.

Police insist the horrific murder is "an isolated case."