CHIANG MAI, Thailand -- Sentencing in the bizarre murder of a con man with cult-like appeal, killed by his lover of nearly 30 years, was inexplicably delayed yesterday.

Observers in the northern Thailand courtroom looked as confused as court officials when sentencing proceedings for former Victoria resident Margaret Crane were delayed. Crane was convicted Feb. 29, but details about the proceedings are sketchy, including what plea she entered.

Crane was convicted in the July 2006 shooting death of Daniel George Dubie, the father of her six children, in a restaurant in Chiang Mai.

Yesterday, court officials first directed people to a tiny courtroom for Crane's sentencing, but neither judge nor prisoner were present. Then it emerged that Crane's sentencing had been postponed to March 20.

The court office gave no other information. It's not known where Crane is currently being held.

The tumultuous relationship between Dubie and Crane -- the two were never married -- reached its end in Thailand when, after 28 years of following Dubie around the world and submitting to the con man's schemes, Crane shot him. She could face a firing squad.

Angel Crane, the couple's eldest daughter, who is 23 and has custody of her five siblings, aged five to 15, said in an earlier interview that Dubie "really sort of did a number" on her mother.