In January 1923, Smith obtained a position taking care of the newborn daughter of Frederick and Doreen Baker.
In May 1924, they moved into the house of Frederick's brother, Richard Plunkett Baker, at 3851 Osler, in the exclusive Shaughnessy Heights neighborhood.
A Chinese houseboy, Wong Foon Sing, between 25 and 27 years of age (who had arrived in Canada in 1913, leaving his family in Hong Kong), soon became infatuated with Smith and gave her presents, such as a silk nightdress.
This was the first time this undertaker had embalmed a victim of a violent death without having conducted a postmortem, however, he did make a note of unexplained burns on Smith's right side.
[2] Smith's friends contacted the recently formed United Council of Scottish Societies, which pressured the provincial government and Attorney General Alexander Malcolm Manson to reopen the case.
Suspicion immediately fell on Wong, the only other person in the house (other than the Bakers' baby, Rosemary) at the time when the crime had supposedly been committed.
He called for legislation to "preserve white girls of impressionable youth from the unnecessary wiles and villainies of low caste yellow men."
The Vancouver Province pointed out such a rule would violate the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1911 (which prohibited discriminatory legislation against the Japanese) and that the British Columbia legislature did not have the authority to pass it.
Interest gradually died down until, on 20 March 1925, Wong Foon Sing was kidnapped[3] by a group of men dressed in Ku Klux Klan robes.
Among several other theories which gained popularity at the time was a rumor that Smith had been raped and murdered during a wild party at the Baker house by wealthy playboys, who then bribed the authorities to cover it all up.