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Harpaljit Sandhu faced financial ruin.
He was losing his rented home and his taxi service was being dissolved.
Friends say he had been drinking heavily in recent weeks. But no one was prepared for what happened this week.
Sandhu stands accused of the second-degree murder of his wife and attempted murder of his daughter Tuesday night in the family's Surrey home.
The 53-year-old co-owner of Penticton Taxi and Limo Services Ltd. was charged Wednesday in the double shooting. Police have not released the women's names but family members have identified his wife as Manjit, 45, and his daughter as Sabrina, 23.
Sandhu was in custody and appeared Wednesday afternoon in Surrey Provincial Court.
The shootings rocked Surrey's Indo-Canadian community and Sandhu's family members, who say he was a nice guy who was turning more frequently to the bottle in recent weeks.
"They were a very happy couple," Manjit's cousin Parmjit Badesha said Wednesday. "I don't know what happened."
According to documents from the B.C. Companies Registry, Sandhu's company, Penticton Taxi and Limo Services, is "in the process of being dissolved" and "not in good standing."
Sandhu travelled to Penticton once a week and came home on weekends to be with his family.
The family had lived in the Surrey home for two years and had planned to move to Penticton at the end of the month after being evicted. Their landlords, Atwal and Shawinder Mangat, told the family they wanted to return to Metro Vancouver from Alberta and live in the Surrey home.
Shawinder Mangat said Wednesday the family always paid their rent on time and there were never any problems.
Until now.
Kamal Badesha, 12, said the last time he saw his best friend Sukhman -- the Sandhus' youngest son, who is also 12 -- was on Tuesday night.
"He came out on the deck and he was crying. That got me really upset," Kamal Badesha said.
Sukhman and his older brother, identified as Manraj, 19, were taken to their aunt's home after the shootings.
Kamal Badesha said he enjoyed spending time with Sukhman and Manjit, who he said dressed in more traditional Punjabi garb and was consistently kind, often taking both boys out for Slurpees.
"I went over there every day. We played Wii and he had a PSP," he said.
He added that Sukhman often gushed that his mother would take him out to a movie as a surprise. And when the boy's father had returned from Penticton, where he spent a week or more at a time, he always gave his son's friends a warm welcome, said Kamal Badesha.
"When I went over there he would shake my hand and say, 'Hello, how are you?'" he said.
"The father made lots of jokes and he played basketball. ... But now there's nothing left of their family."
Kamaljit Sekhon, who has known Manjit since 1983 and considered her a best friend, said that while she noticed that Harpaljit was drinking a lot, Manjit -- or Jeety as she was known -- never alluded to anything being wrong when she spoke to her last week.
"I've never seen such a nice lady in my life," Sekhon said. "She was a good mother and a good wife."
Parmjit Badesha said later Wednesday the shock was starting to sink in.
"She is my best friend," she said. "I feel so sad for her."
Both Badesha and Sekhon described Manjit as a beautiful woman who liked to go shopping, have manicures or just sit and visit when she had time off from her job as a housekeeper at Peace Arch Hospital.
Sabrina, she said, was a "good kid." Badesha said she worked part-time at Revenue Canada while studying at Simon Fraser University.
She remained in serious condition in hospital after the shooting, which came just days after the Sandhu family had gathered at their home to celebrate Rakhri, or Raksha Bandhan.
The Indian ritual is marked by the tying of a rakhi, or holy thread, by the sister on the wrist of her brother. The brother in turn promises to love and protect his sister for life.
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