Luana Luz Xavier (34) shot dead in front of her children on Beeckestijn in Amstelveen

Luana Luz Xavier (34), born in Brazil, lived on Beeckestijn in Amstelveen, the street where her business was also registered. She ran a clothing shop that was much used as a meeting place by Gwenette Martha and his circle. On the evening of Monday 8 December 2014 she was shot dead in front of her children by the passenger in a black BMW. According to police the attack had been very well prepared and was carried out by several men. Luz Xavier had two children with Najib 'Ziggy' Himmich, but that relationship had cooled by the end of 2014 and she was largely raising the children alone. Himmich had been missing since September 2014; police did not rule out that he too had been killed. According to prosecutors Luz Xavier posed a danger to the circle around Himmich because she knew too much through him. Her sister and mother pointed to an Amsterdam criminal to whom she was said to have told, shortly before her death, that she wanted to talk to the police. The investigation into her death later fed into the major contract-killing trials against the network around Ridouan Taghi and the man known as Rico de Chileen; the latter was sentenced on appeal to thirteen years in prison for leading a criminal organisation that had killings carried out.