CALGARY -- Friends of a man found dead on a rural road near Springbank Airport last weekend say they are grieving the loss of Kasif Hirani.
RCMP were called last Sunday morning after a body was discovered off a rural road near at the airport west of Calgary. An autopsy performed Tuesday confirmed Hirani as the victim and determined he had been murdered.
"It was unexpected, and he was just like my brother, so it was sad news for all of us," said Adnan Bawa, close friend and former mortgage broker for Hirani.
According to Bawa, Hirani came to Canada from India several years ago to attend college in Toronto. He moved to Calgary and married his wife in 2016.
"He was a very kind person, kind, honest, friendly, easy-going."
Hirani is survived by his brother and parents.
Two arrested in Edmonton: RCMP
"I came to know from his family that he went out at 10 in the night on Saturday (Dec. 28) to drive Uber. And then he never came back home," said Bawa.
CTV News asked Uber to confirm if Hirani drove for them and have not yet heard back.
RCMP said a bronze-coloured 2013 Kia Optima with license plate E22 149 was stolen and asked for the public's help earlier in the week in finding two suspects who may have it.
Bawa told CTV News the Kia Optima was Hirani's vehicle.
Robert Gordon Daignault, 51, and Trista Nadene Tinkler, 34, have each been charged with possession of property obtained by crime, theft of credit card and failure to comply with appearance notice or promise to appear.
Daignault is also charged and resisting or obstructing a peace officer.
Both were arrested in Edmonton on Jan. 3, RCMP said on Saturday. The vehicle remains missing.
Bawa said he's not sure what happened in the lead up to his friend's death.
"He's not (the type of) person that he's going to put his life in danger for that. So even we are looking for answers of what went wrong that day."
Anyone with information is asked to contact Cochrane RCMP at 403-851-8000 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
