‘Level of violence unheard of’: police suspect body in burnt-out car in Sydney was allegedly kidnapped woman

Police fear a body in a burnt-out car in Sydney’s south overnight is that of a Bankstown woman allegedly abducted from a home on Thursday, in what they have called a “horrendous” crime of “unprecedented” violence. Emergency services attended a residential street in Beverly Hills at about 11.30pm on Thursday night, after reports of a car fire. Fire crews put out the blaze, but when police examined the destroyed vehicle, they located a body in the back seat. While the body had not been formally identified, police said on Friday morning that they suspected it belonged to a 45-year-old Bankstown woman whom they were told had been kidnapped just hours before the discovery. Sign up for the Afternoon Update: Election 2025 email newsletter Supt Rodney Hart, commander of Bankstown police area command, said it was a “horrendous” and “confronting” crime. “The level of violence is unheard of, but I want to reassure the community that we strongly believe that this is a targeted incident and that this is not a random kidnapping.” “We’re only 12 hours in,” he added. “We don’t know what the motive is.” At about 10.30pm on Thursday police attended a home in Bankstown after reports that a woman had been kidnapped and a young boy assaulted. Upon arrival at the home, Bankstown police were told a group of up to five men, dressed in black with their faces covered, had arrived in a white sedan and a dark coloured SUV, forced their way into the house and seriously assaulted a 45-year-old woman and one of her two sons, who was in the house with her. The alleged kidnappers had carried a firearm and during the invasion assaulted the woman’s 8-year-old son with a baseball bat. They then forced the woman into the back seat of the SUV and drove away with her, police were told. The boy was treated for serious head injuries by attending paramedics from NSW Ambulance before being taken to hospital for further treatment. He underwent surgery this morning for serious head wounds and was in an induced coma in intensive care, police said, in what they described as a serious but stable condition. The woman’s other son, a 15-year-old who was also present at the time, was taken to hospital for assessment. Hart said the welfare and security of the two boys was “paramount”, and a detective was with them in hospital. He said police had made contact with their father, the victim’s husband, who police understood had been interstate for business at the time of the incident. Hart said on Friday morning the man was “on his way back to Sydney now to support his two children and to assist police with their inquiries”. The body in the car was “extremely burnt” and not able to visually identified, Hart said, so a postmortem and forensic examination would need to occur in order to formally identify the victim and determine the cause of death. The family was “not well known to police at all”, Hart said. “We don’t know if it’s organised crime. We don’t know if it’s gang related … [but] they are not known to police [such] that we would consider them a high target.” A crime scene was established in both the Bankstown and Beverly Hills locations and officers from Bankstown police area command commenced Strike Force Bushfield to investigate, with assistance from Campsie police and the state homicide squad. Hart said police had already spoken to “a number of witnesses”, and “implored” anyone with information to come forward. “Detectives will be working night and day to make sure we have every available evidence, but like I said, I need the community to help us out.”