When Dr. Allyson Koffman got a frantic Facebook message from the mother of her friend Dr. Elana Fric, she knew something was wrong.

It was shortly after 8 p.m. on Dec. 1, and Fric's mother told Koffman she couldn't reach her daughter.

She later told Koffman by phone that Fric's husband, Dr. Mohammed Shamji, said his wife had left their home in Vaughan, Ont. with a suitcase.

"Left? Just left? In her pyjamas? It was so weird," Koffman said in an emotional interview with CBC Toronto. "That was the story he had."

He also said he'd taken their children to school that day, and didn't give an explanation for his wife's departure, said Koffman, who lives across the street from the couple and previously worked with Fric.

It wasn't like Fric — a 40-year-old mother of three — to leave abruptly and not respond to her mother's calls, Koffman said.

And it wasn't like Shamji — a husband who was "always the boss of the family" and "has never taken care of the kids" — to drop his children off at school.

Koffman told Fric's mother to call the police.

A 'controlling' husband

That same day, Fric's body was discovered in a suitcase near an underpass in Vaughan, Ont.

She died from strangulation and blunt-force trauma, and Shamji is facing a first-degree murder charge in her death.

Colleagues are remembering Fric as a vibrant, dedicated family physician at The Scarborough Hospital — an up-and-coming health care leader who juggled being an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Toronto and a member of the health policy committee at the Ontario Medical Association.

Dr. Allyson Koffman looks at photos of her with Dr. Elana Fric, her friend since 2012, whose body was found in Vaughan on Dec. 1. (CBC)

While previous CBC stories referred to Fric's last name as "Fric-Shamji," the use of Fric is her family's preference.

Accounts from friends and patients in recent days paint her husband as a polite, intelligent man who was a respected Toronto neurosurgeon.

But Koffman said there was another side to him.

Shamji was "controlling over [his wife] and the kids," she said, and would "never do anything domestic."

Fric would check in with him regularly, Koffman recalled, and she often broke down privately at work while the two friends were both physicians at Earl Bales Walk-in Clinic & Family Practice in North York.

Toronto neurosurgeon Dr. Mohammed Shamji, 40, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of his wife, family physician Dr. Elana Fric, 40. (Toronto Police Service)

She also remembers Fric telling her about a 2005 incident in Ottawa, where the couple previously lived.

Shamji "threatened" Fric and the couple's now-eldest daughter, who was an only child at the time, Koffman said.

The daughter would have been around one year old.

Shamji was charged with one count of assault and two counts of uttering death threats in May that year, court documents show.

"There was an abusive event," Koffman said. "[Fric] was afraid for her daughter. She was afraid for herself."

Court documents obtained by the CBC News reveal the crown agreed to withdraw the charges in July 2005 in return for a peace bond with various conditions, including for Shamji to not communicate or associate with his wife, and to not be within 200 metres of her home, unless with her consent — which could be "withdrawn at any time."

The peace bond also stipulated Shamji "not possess any weapons" and "continue counseling and treatment" with a psychiatrist.

The documents also stated that Fric feared Shamji would "cause personal injury to her."

It's not clear what led to the couple's reconciliation, or when exactly it happened.

Fric planned to divorce Shamji

The couple moved to Toronto in 2012, and were recently having "tough times," Koffman said.

She knew Fric was planning to divorce her husband, something the physician also announced to colleagues at an Ontario Medical Association dinner held less than a week before her death.

In a recent statement put out through the OMA, Fric's family expressed their "deepest gratitude for the outpouring of support and prayers at this difficult time."

"We miss her greatly," the statement read.

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Through her work with the OMA and as a family physician, Koffman said Fric wanted to do great things.

"She aspired to be a physician leader — somebody important — because she was so pushed down by her husband," Koffman said.

"He was so controlling," she added. "He was the one in the spotlight."

Shamji's next court appearance is on Dec. 20.