The salon was bustling on Tuesday morning, with the three workers asking several customers to return later due to high demand.
It would have appeared business as usual, if not for a sombre note on the wall.
“We are deeply saddened to share that our beloved team member Kim has recently passed away unexpectedly,” the note read, adding they would not be sharing any details out of respect for Tran’s family.
Amanda Wilson, who had her nails done by Tran for many years, described her as “patient, full of good humour, full of life, full of love for her children”.
Having recently returned from a “life-changing trip” to South Africa involving a safari, she looked at her “gnarled hands” and thought, “Kim will fix it”.
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Walking into the salon, it hit her.
“The news about a mother who had been brutally bashed … and then dragged into a car and allegedly burned alive six kilometres away, was Kim, my manicurist, who told me all about her sons, even facetimed her youngest, who waved to me, as she did her diligent work,” Wilson said.
Only two months ago, Tran told Wilson she should get red nail polish to bring her good luck for Chinese New Year.
“She tried to teach me some Vietnamese. I thought I’d be a natural as I speak passable Cantonese. Not so.”
Earlier this week, Tran’s close friend, who also asked to remain anonymous, said Tran migrated from Vietnam about a decade ago and “was always happy to see her friends and share meals”.
“This is so awful … She didn’t deserve this … Everyone is in shock,” she said.
Thi Kim Tran was allegedly murdered over her husband’s organised crime links.Credit: Facebook
The eight-year-old boy who was assaulted with the baseball bat remains in an induced coma. Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi, commander of NSW Police’s homicide squad, said while he was expected to survive, he could suffer lifelong consequences.
Police believe Tran was murdered because her husband allegedly stole drugs from a Victorian organised crime network linked to large-scale methamphetamine manufacturing, which he allegedly worked for.
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Doueihi on Tuesday also revealed police raided a drug lab at a rural property west of Melbourne, which is tied to the criminal group. He said the group was made up of predominantly Vietnamese males, but there was no evidence suggesting its leaders were linked to South-East Asia organised crime groups.
No one was at the property at the time of the raid and no arrests have been made.
Doueihi said this degree of violence targeted at “innocent family members” of organised crime networks was “rare”.
Tran’s husband, who was interstate at the time of her death, has not been charged over his alleged involvement with the criminal group.
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