MONTREAL -- The woman murdered this weekend in Laval was a music lover and onetime radio host who moved to Quebec less than four years ago from her native Haiti, a friend says.

Marly Edouard, 32, was the victim of the murder announced this weekend, police confirmed Monday.

“Marly was a visionary, a really kind and friendly person,” said Djimy Ducasse, who began a music promotion business with Edouard after she moved to Quebec and wanted to continue supporting Haitian artists.

Her death came as “a huge shock,” he said, after having spoken with her just three days ago.

The same day—Friday—Edouard reported that she’d received death threats, police said, though she never mentioned it to Ducasse.

Her body was discovered early Sunday by a neighbour in the Laval parking lot of a condo building on Des Châteaux St., in the neighbourhood of Chomedey.

A source told CTV that she was shot in the head and that a gun was found nearby. But police haven’t said her cause of death, confirming only there were signs of violence on her body and they’re treating it as a homicide.

The case has now been turned over to provincial police, who are also working with Quebec's independent police watchdog agency, the BEI, to investigate the alleged death threats and how Laval police handled them.

According to investigators, Edouard called her local police on Friday to report the threats threats. Laval police then came to the condo building, still on Friday, to meet with her. 

Police didn’t elaborate Monday on the nature of the threats. When asked if they believe Edouard was murdered by someone she knew, the Surete du Quebec said they aren’t ruling that out. 

Ducasse said that he first met Edouard in 2013, but she didn’t move to Quebec until 2017. 

At home in Haiti, she was a radio host and was involved in other ways in the music scene.

In 2018, after moving to Canada, she founded a company with Ducasse called Symbiose. They held musical events and always had projects on the go, he said—they spoke almost every day, “about everything and nothing,” and became close.

On Friday, she was in touch to ask him if he could do a few work-related things, Ducasse said. She never mentioned having received death threats or about any problems in her relationships, he said, though they hadn’t talked much about their personal lives in recent months.

He completed the tasks and called her on Sunday, and when she didn’t respond, he felt something was amiss since it was the first time she ever failed to pick up, he said.

He only learned of her death by reading the news on Monday and was “deeply sorry,” he said.

Monday afternoon, police asked the public to come forward with any information about the case, directing them to a command post set up nearby, at 3240 des Châteaux. 

“People who have witnessed or have information related to this case are invited to come to the mobile command post to meet the investigators,” said police in a release.

A phone number is also available for the same purpose, and all calls are confidential: 1-800-659-4264.

--With files from Angela Mackenzie