Phouvong Phommaviset, a 26-year-old Asian man, was found dead on January 2, 2002, near the Fraser River in Richmond at Number 8 Road and River Road. Firefighters responding to a call around 7 a.m. encountered badly burned remains; the victim was barefoot and his wrists appeared to have been bound with duct tape. Because of the state of the body, identification came later through forensic testing, confirming it was Phommaviset.

Accounts differ on the precise timeline but agree he had been abducted before his death. One contemporary-based account says he was taken from his East Vancouver home roughly two weeks earlier after gunfire at the residence; another describes four masked gunmen seizing him from his Vancouver apartment. At the time he was also a person of interest in the October 9, 2001 disappearance of Narinder Ned Singh Mander. Investigators treated the killing as part of a wave of gang-related violence in the Lower Mainland, and Richmond police sought inter-agency cooperation to examine several related murders in that period. No publicly identified suspect has been charged, and the identities of those who abducted and killed him remain unknown; published accounts do not establish his precise cause of death before the burning.

Did anyone know Phouvong Phommaviset or have information about his abduction and death?