EDMONTON - A 23-year-old bikini model's recent switch in boyfriends may have led to her death Sa... Accused killer among 3 vict

EDMONTON - A 23-year-old bikini model's recent switch in boyfriends may have led to her death Saturday night when bullets tore into her car, killing her and wounding the man beside her, accused killer Steven Anthony Pillon, the woman's friends say.

Lily Tran was killed when a bullet struck her in the head as she sat behind the steering wheel of a late-model Mercedes Benz sedan while waiting at a stoplight at 76th Avenue and Argyll Road.

The shots were fired from an older-model black van that pulled up beside the Mercedes, then sped away after the shooting. According to police, the shooting was gang-related.

One of Tran's friend's said Monday the young woman recently began dating Pillon, who was charged with second-degree murder last year for the May 15, 2005, stabbing death of 20-year-old Kenyon Joseph Gardiner at a west-end house party.

It took police two months to track down Pillon and Brandon Neil Prevey in Vancouver, arrest them and charge them with second-degree murder in connection with Gardiner's death.

On April 21, Pillon was released on bail pending his Dec. 4 trial on charges of second-degree murder and possession of a weapon dangerous to the public.

Tran was a waitress in that restaurant's lounge until last year. She supplemented her income with prizes from bikini contests and earnings from modelling jobs, such as car shows. Tran promoted herself extensively on the Internet with photos showing her wearing bikinis or lingerie.

"She had been at it for awhile," said a local photographer who shot one of Tran's online portfolios. "She seemed like a very sweet young lady, very friendly but quite quiet."

For the past six months Tran had been employed as a server in the lounge of the west-side Sawmill restaurant at 9504 170 St., working Mondays to Fridays.

"Her sister phoned here because she was getting worried," said another worker at the west-end restaurant. "She was four days late getting back."

By most accounts, Tran led a good life. A few months ago, when she came in for another photo shoot with another local photographer, she proudly showed him a car she had just bought -- a late-model white Mercedes convertible.

Tran grew up in Edmonton. One Asian employee at the downtown Sawmill knew her as Lily Duong when the two girls met in kindergarten. Duong was Tran's mother's name, and it was the name Lily used at the west-end Sawmill restaurant, one of that restaurant's supervisors said. At some point, Tran's parents divorced and her father moved to Vancouver.

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