Liberty Village. A filmmaker. A barbecue dispute. A body decomposing in the underground parking garage. The trial started this month and the details are worse than you think.
You need to sit down for this one.
A couple in Liberty Village allegedly murdered their upstairs neighbour because his barbecue smoke drifted into their unit. Then they allegedly put his body in the garbage compactor in the underground parking garage of their condo building.
The victim was Reeyaz Habib, a 53-year-old filmmaker who lived in the townhouse directly above Khoa Tran and Quynh (Isabelle) Nguyen in a Liberty Village condo complex. The dispute? Smoke from the couple's patio barbecue was rising into Habib's unit, and he did not like it.
That argument apparently escalated to murder.
According to Crown prosecutors, in the early morning hours of June 6, 2023, neighbours throughout the condo complex were woken up by screams for help. Linh Hua, a friend visiting from Vietnam who was staying with the couple, testified that she heard the screams and thought they were coming from the unit above.
Two days later, Habib's decomposing body was found in a garbage compactor in the building's underground parking garage.
Hua also testified that the couple told her not to speak to police.
The Crown alleges that Tran killed Habib, and that Nguyen helped dispose of the body. In the weeks leading up to the killing, neighbours and Habib's own nephew had noticed escalating tension over the barbecue smoke.
Khoa Tran, 36, is charged with second-degree murder. His wife Quynh Nguyen, 30, is charged with being an accessory after the fact and doing an indignity to a body. Both have pleaded not guilty. The trial began in early May 2026 at the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
This story is horrifying on its face. But it is also a very specific kind of Toronto horror. The density. The proximity. The thin walls and shared patios and stacked units where your neighbour's life choices become your daily experience. Liberty Village is one of the most densely packed condo neighbourhoods in the city. The buildings were sold as "urban lifestyle" and "community living." The reality is that you can hear your neighbour's alarm clock and smell their dinner and if you complain about either, things can escalate in ways nobody anticipated.
This case will be closely watched. Not because it's common. But because every person who has ever fantasized about confronting their neighbour over noise or smoke or garbage is now quietly rethinking that impulse.
The accused have pleaded not guilty. The trial is ongoing.