A glamorous princess who was considered the likely successor to her bloodthirsty dictator father as the leader of Uzbekistan until a "semi-naked" picture scandal is missing after her father had a stroke.
Gulnara Karimova was put under house arrest by President Islam Karimov when he turned his wrath on her two years ago.
The demise of Karimov, who is notorious for boiling his enemies, could plunge the repressive central Asian state into chaos with no visible blueprint for a succession in place.
But his daughter is nowhere to be seen and instead her sister Lola Karimova-Tllyaeva - branded "dim" by a former British ambassador to Tashkent - has been put in charge of informing the world about her father's condition.
Gulnara - who accrued a mega-fortune running into the billions to become the richest woman in the former Soviet Union country - was seen at the very least as a king-maker after her father's death.
At her height, she was a pop star, diplomat, oligarch and charity doyen, catwalk model, and, in her own words, a "poet, mezzo-soprano, designer and exotic Uzbekistan beauty".
Recently there has been unconfirmed speculation that Gulnara was allowed to slip out of Tashkent to Israel on condition that she stays silent and plays no role in the succession.
Other sources have dismissed this and believe she is still locked under house arrest in her homeland cut off from the outside world.
Calling for prayers for the despot, Paris-based Lola announced: "My father was hospitalised after suffering a cerebral haemorrhage on Saturday morning, and is now receiving treatment in an intensive care unit.
"His condition is considered stable. At the moment it is too early to make any predictions about his future health."
With rumours emerging in Russia last night that he has already died a two mile cordon of armed police was thrown around the government hospital where he is being cared for.
Lola admitted several years ago that she and Gulnara had not talked for well over a decade. Gulnara hit back accusing her sister of engaging in sorcery.
The family feud that pushed the once-untouchable Gulnara out of favour exploded into the open when ruthless secret service chief Rustam Inoyatov allegedly showed her iron-fisted father a dossier of compromising materials including "semi-naked pictures" of the Uzbek princess along with allegations of her monumental financial corruption in a bid to permanently discredit her.
The incandescent president hurled an ashtray and mobile phone across his desk at his intelligence boss, but also summoned his eldest daughter and slapped her in the face, it was reported.
Karimov was then seen wandering alone in the grounds of his Tashkent presidential palace weeping uncontrollably.
His daughter's rise and fall is the symbol of his rule, now drawing to its close, which has seen a tiny elite make untold wealth while the majority live in poverty.
Her house arrest and subsequent disappearance came after it emerged she was promoting Akbarali Abdullayev, then only 29, as a puppet ruler, obedient to her, in readiness for her father's death.
Inoyatov had Abdullayev arrested, causing an incandescent explosion from Gulnara who stormed into his office hurling "insults and obscenities".
"Kicking the door and furniture in his office, she scolded the head of the Uzbek security services and demanded the release of Akbarali Abdullayev," reported The Times of Central Asia.
She taunted the secret policeman: "Are you a man or not? Put a skirt on your fat ass. Understood?"
After the president was shown a dossier including allegations of Gulnara's business transgressions and personal abuse, "a mobile phone and ash tray were thrown into Inoyatov from Karimov's desk", it was claimed.
He was evidently shocked to see that his extravert daughter had posed in little more than peacock feathers in one of her glamorous photo-shoots.
After summoning Gulnara, Karmimov "first slapped her and then really started to beat Gulnara. He said that she disgraced the family in front of the whole world.
"The President's bodyguards tried to calm him down.
"Later, the President asked all his bodyguards and servants to leave him alone.
"He did not go into the building of the residence, but decided to have a walk in the garden. At night, while returning to the residence, some bodyguards noticed that he was crying."
Before being silenced she used Twitter to warn that Inoyatov "has started his struggle to become Uzbekistan's next president”.
Earlier, in 2005, a leaked US diplomatic telegram branded her a "robber baron" and "the single most hated person" in Uzbekistan.
Uzbek people viewed her "a greedy, power-hungry individual who uses her father to crush business people or anyone else who stands in her way".
Despite damning evidence against her, Gulnara has not been hauled into court over the corruption allegations that surfaced, but nor has she reappeared, let alone been rehabilitated.
She is also the subject of money laundering probes in several European countries and the US.
Former British ambassador Craig Murray, who saw the Karimov regime up close, and knew Gulnara, told of the torture that was endemic in the country.
"I'm talking of people being raped with broken bottles. I'm talking of people having their children tortured in front of them until they sign a confession," he said.
"I'm talking of people being boiled alive. And the intelligence from these torture sessions was being received by the CIA, and was being passed on."
A socialite in the West who sought out celebrities and royalty, such as Prince Michael of Kent, Mr Murray also once commented on Gulnara's former love of Moscow's glittering nightlife.
"On the dance floor, she may be mistaken for one of the cloud of models, prostitutes and mistresses, the courtesans of Putin's court who swirl around the small number of incredibly wealthy men in the secluded nightspots," he said.
"But look closer. Despite her highly toned body and fashion sense, Gulnara is different. That unsubtle crowd of bodyguards are is there to protect her.
“Her muscle-bound boyfriend walks respectfully behind her, head bowed. If you look very closely, you can make out that she is not 21 but 35. Gulnara Karimova is here as a billionaire among billionaires, a player in her own right.
"Richer than Paris Hilton, undeniably smarter and arguably sexier - and I've met both - Gulnara Karimova is one hell of a package. The CV is impressive. Harvard MBA, owner of scores of businesses, martial arts black belt, fluent in four languages, professional jewellery designer, poet and performer of a number one No 1 hit pop single. Oh, and loving mother of two. Is this Wonder Woman?"
He concluded she was more like a an "ultra-glamorous Bond villainess".
Russia, China and the West are competing for influence in the region, and in Uzbekistan, which lies on the Old Silk Road.
Karimov has survived since being appointed as a Communist apparatchik by last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1989 by playing these three power blocs off against each other.
Putin is "deeply grieved by the illness of the Uzbek president" and was being kept informed of his state through diplomatic channels, said his spokesman.
The Tashkent despot will miss the 25th anniversary of Uzbekistan's independence from the Soviet Union on Wednesday.
It was at a party for the country's Olympic stars on Friday night that the geriatric leader evidently enthusiastically joined in the vodka toasts.
Some accounts suggest he lost consciousness during the dinner, others that he was taken ill early next morning.
But there are real concerns about this country, in such a volatile region, not least the threat that Uzbeks - who have flooded to join Isis in Syria and Iraq - could return and stir up trouble in their mainly Muslim homeland.
If Karimov dies or is incapacitated, Nigmatulla Yuldashev, the chairman of the upper house of parliament, who take over on a temporary basis.
Among those vying for power are intelligence chief and grey cardinal Inoyatov, 72, who played such a crucial role in destroying Gulnara.
Yet he and first lady Tatyana Karimova, who also turned against daughter Gulnara, may end up as kingmakers.
A favourite is "thuggish" Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev, 58, seen as a "fist" not a "brain", who could be even more repressive than Karimov.
Another, better known in the West, is current finance minister Rustam Azimov, 56, seen as having the Tashkent clan's backing.
At one time, Gulnara would have been seen as either grabbing the presidency for herself or appointing her own placeman, but no longer after her fall from grace.