A Whitehorse memorial is being planned for a former Yukoner who was found murdered last Wednesday at her farm in Costa Rica.

Kim Blackwell built her Whitehorse log home on Squatters Row in the early 1980s. She lived there while working as a seasonal camp cook until she moved to Costa Rica in 1993.

It was in Costa Rica that she eventually began farming and started up Samaritan Xocolata, an organic chocolate factory she ran out of her home using cacao trees grown on her farm.

For Blackwell, establishing the business was a means of reducing poaching pressure on wildlife by providing local employment opportunities for women in particular, Costa Rica's Tico Times reported last the weekend.

In the article about her violent death, the Times suggested poachers are the primary suspects in the 53-year-old's murder, though no charges nor arrest warrants had been issued as of Saturday.

Her family in Canada has hired a lawyer to investigate her death.

As well, the officials with the Canadian consulate are assisting in the official investigation, The Canadian Press reported over the weekend.

Long-time Whitehorse resident Eric Epstein said Monday a memorial will be held probably some time in March.

It will take place at Blackwell's former home on Squatters Row or next-door, at an old neighbour's who has already volunteered to host the gathering.

"She was a pretty remarkable woman,” Epstein said of his close friend. He first met her in 1989, when he was artistic director for the annual Frostbite Music Festival and Blackwell was in charge of hospitality.

She was a real "hippie, dippie type, total Yukon woman,” he said, adding she could bring out the silly side of people.

Epstein said she could be fierce, and stood her ground when she had to, but was also delicate.

"It was an amazing combination.”

He said it was her tenacious passion for the wildlife on and around her farm that likely got her killed.

Blackwell was frequently chasing off poachers hunting tepesquintles, a dog-sized rodent favoured for its meat, though a protected species.

Friction between the poachers and Blackwell escalated recently. At one point, she shot a poacher in the arm with her BB gun to chase him off.

"I think there was a long-time battle going on,” Epstein said. "And it escalated, hugely.”

Park rangers who often stopped by to visit found Blackwell beaten and shot.

Barbara Chamberlin of Whitehorse said Monday when she received the e-mail last Wednesday telling her of the murder, she was in shock, and had trouble accepting the friend she just visited over the past Christmas was killed.

Blackwell, said Chamberlin, had been farming for the last six years and was doing well.

Her organic chocolate was a tasty success, and the former Yukoner was well-liked and established in her community, she said.

Chamberlin said she received an e-mail telling her of the nice memorial they had for Blackwell in Costa Rica last Sunday, with some 100 friends in attendance.

"She was the chocolate fairy, and that's what she liked to be called.”