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Selma Alem had endured the pain of loss and heartache. An Eritrean who lived in Calgary for more than 30 years, she suffered through two bouts of cancer and lost a son after he was beaten to death with a meat cleaver.

On Monday morning, her lifeless body was discovered inside her Coventry Hills home, alongside the body of another woman, friends said.

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Homicide detectives are now investigating their deaths, a decade after one of Alem’s sons, Michael Kahsai, was found dead inside a Forest Lawn home. And like her son’s case, police do not believe the victims died from a random attack.

“We are very sad; the whole community is sad,” said Samuel Tedros, a longtime friend, referring to the Eritrean community in Calgary. “She survives cancer and now this happens.”

Police were called to a house in the 200 block of Coventry Close N.E. at about 10 a.m. Monday to check on the welfare of those inside after a friend reported being worried about one of them. Officers discovered the bodies of two women, one in her 50s, the other in her 20s.

Alem was a professional care-taker who looked after two clients with disabilities in the Coventry Hills home. She prepared meals, provided medication and took them to appointments, Tedros said.