Part of a Burnaby, B.C., neighbourhood was behind police tape 24-hours after a woman's body was found inside a home.
The victim is 33-year-old Kimberly Lynn Hallgarth.
Her mother, Wendy Hallgarth, told CTV her daughter's life should not have ended in this way.
"[We are] flabbergasted, absolutely. It's so hard to fathom, that this could happen, that she's gone," she said. "I don't know who would, you know, because she was such a sweetheart of a person. It's so hard to realize that she's gone. It's going to take a bit. Your kids aren't supposed to go before you do."
Police haven't called it a homicide -- just a suspicious death -- but say that another person living inside the home is still unaccounted for.
Hallgarth grew up on Vancouver Island and then moved to Las Vegas when she was 18. She married a man there, but returned to B.C. when she gave birth to her daughter almost four years ago.
Hallgarth had been a renter the home where her body was found for about a year. Her daughter was not home at the time the body was found, but was safe with her nanny, and is now in the custody of the Ministry of Children and Family Services.
Burnaby RCMP investigators want to speak with anyone who knows Hallgarth and may be able to shed some light on her final days.
This all started Sunday night when a friend of Hallgarth's, who was trying to locate her, came by the home and discovered the body.
Police arrived around 7 p.m., but they weren't able to start an investigation inside until 10 a.m. because they needed a search warrant.
The cause of death is still a mystery.
CTV News learned that Hallgarth had testified at the assault trial of former B.C. Lion Josh Boden last summer.
At this point police say there's no indication that this case is gang or drug related. An autopsy will be carried out to determine cause of death.
With reports from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber and Jon Woodward.
