THE DOUBLE-CROSS, THE SHOOTING AND THE SURVIVING WITNESS

A Toronto couple looking to escape 'the cocaine life' met a local man with death and prison in his past. Then came a shady business plan and a bloody ambush.

- NICOLE O'REILLY

In a three-part series, The Hamilton Spectator's Nicole O'Reilly brings us a story of greed and murder

It was late on a cold Sunday afternoon, the last day of February 2021, when the Audi Q5 pulled into 347 Arvin Ave. and stopped in front of the gate.

Like most businesses in the industrial area of Stoney Creek on the eastern edge of Hamilton, Colonial Pillars was closed for the weekend. The street was quiet, save for the odd passing car. The property was secured, the gate locked.

Oliver Karafa left his wife, Yun Lu (Lucy) Li, in the passenger seat, and approached the gate, returning once when someone walked by. Then it opened - with the padlock now cut - and the Audi disappeared around back.

There were no cameras to capture what happened next.

Just that morning, Karafa and Li had bought the white Audi. They paid Karafa's best friend Jaime Gutierrez about $18,000, using about $4,000 from Li's line of credit.

Karafa had already arranged for someone in Montreal to buy it, along with another vehicle: a Range Rover that didn't belong to them and was also destined for 347 Arvin that day.

From the surveillance cameras of businesses on Arvin, the Audi was unrecognizable, its rims crudely painted black, and untraceable to Karafa or Li.

Colonial Pillars had a for-sale sign out front. No arrangements had been made with a realtor to look at the property, but that is what Tyler Pratt and his pregnant girlfriend, Jordyn Romano, had been led to believe.

The couple thought they were meeting their friends to look at the property for a legal marijuana growing operation. They had already invested nearly a half a million dollars in another of Karafa's businesses and were anxious to see it returned.

"We considered them really good friends," Romano said.

But this Feb. 28 meeting was a ruse.