The killing by stran­gu­la­tion of Japan­ese-born steel­band play­er Asa­mi Na­gakiya has stunned her fam­i­ly, friends and the en­tire steel­band com­mu­ni­ty.

A PCS Ni­tro­gen Sil­ver Stars tenor pan play­er since 2012, Na­gakiya was found dead, still clad in her yel­low two-piece Car­ni­val cos­tume, on Ash Wednes­day morn­ing. Her body was found wedged among the roots of a tree on the west­ern end of the Queen's Park Sa­van­nah, not far from Queen's Roy­al Col­lege.

She was wear­ing a "Lega­cy" ID band and some jew­ellery. An au­top­sy yes­ter­day as­cer­tained she had been stran­gled.

Yes­ter­day, busi­ness­man Lar­ry Lai, a col­league who knew her for sev­en years, said she spoke Eng­lish very well and had ar­rived in T&T with the abil­i­ty to play pan, hav­ing learned the in­stru­ment while in Japan.

"She was a per­son who used to take the art of pan all over Asia. She fell in love with pan but we re­alised she had al­so fall­en in love with T&T. She told me she used to work all year to save up to come to T&T to play for Car­ni­val," Lai told the T&T Guardian.

He said Na­gakiya worked in the med­ical field and would al­ways stay with friends when she came to T&T. Lai added: "This (death) is great shock to us since she was no stranger to T&T."

Japan­ese col­leagues based in T&T said Na­gakiya was a pro­fes­sion­al mu­si­cian who was very friend­ly and trust­ing and had made many lo­cal friends over the years.

Among the fi­nal pic­tures of her dur­ing Car­ni­val Tues­day, which sur­faced on so­cial me­dia yes­ter­day, were sev­er­al of her flash­ing a bright smile in her full yel­low be­jew­elled cos­tume with an­oth­er fe­male Japan­ese mas­quer­ad­er (from the same sec­tion) and a man who ap­pears to be a T&T na­tion­al. The man al­so ap­pears at her side in an­oth­er pho­to.

Sev­er­al Sil­ver Stars band mem­bers said yes­ter­day she played with groups of oth­er Japan­ese na­tion­als who of­ten played with the band. One added that she had "passed through" the pa­n­yard on Car­ni­val Tues­day.

The band's Face­book page dis­played pic­tures of a smil­ing Asa­mi with col­leagues, friends and play­ing in the band in a fit­ting trib­ute yes­ter­day and band­mates and friends held a prayer ser­vice in her mem­o­ry at the pa­n­yard, Tra­garete Road, Port-of-Spain last night.

PCS Ni­tro­gen's hu­man re­sources di­vi­sion yes­ter­day told the T&T Guardian the sit­u­a­tion had sad­dened every­one.

In a state­ment, Sil­ver Stars mem­bers and its Port-of-Spain man­age­ment team, said: "We are tru­ly heart­bro­ken to have lost a mem­ber of our PCS Ni­tro­gen Sil­ver Stars fam­i­ly, one of our bright stars, and a lov­ing friend.

"Asa­mi Na­gakiya was a tru­ly beau­ti­ful and gen­tle soul. We had the plea­sure of Asa­mi join­ing our steel­band fam­i­ly in 2012. She fell in love with us and we loved her in re­turn.

"She was warm, friend­ly and al­ways greet­ed you with her sig­na­ture broad smile and a hug. Every­one loved Asa­mi and there is not one per­son that has any­thing neg­a­tive to say about her."

It added: "Asa­mi was one of our most ded­i­cat­ed play­ers. She would prac­tise dili­gent­ly from ear­ly in the af­ter­noon and re­mained at prac­tice un­til it end­ed in or­der to per­fect the tune.

"Her tal­ent and hard work made her the ex­cel­lent tenor play­er that she was. Asa­mi would al­so be re­mem­bered for her gen­eros­i­ty with craft and jew­ellery-mak­ing and the Japan­ese treats that she al­ways brought back for every­one when she re­turned to Trinidad.

"Asa­mi had a spe­cial re­la­tion­ship with each and every per­son in the band. We al­ways an­tic­i­pat­ed her ar­rival for every Car­ni­val sea­son and just be­fore you know it that bright smile en­tered the pa­n­yard.

"There are so many great mem­o­ries over the years that we will cher­ish. We love and miss you Asa­mi, it will nev­er be the same with­out you. We will like to ex­tend our con­do­lences to the fam­i­ly and friends of Asa­mi Na­gakiya in Japan, T&T and the rest of the world."

Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley at a con­stituen­cy event yes­ter­day al­so con­firmed Na­gakiya's death was a ma­jor prob­lem for T&T's im­age.