A countdown to murder: Inside the shocking killing of Bankstown mother Thi Kim Tran
The previously unknown story of what police believe happened to Thi Kim Tran can now be exposed, with the revelation that a group of men had been pursuing her husband for weeks before they turned on his loved ones.
NSW
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A Sydney mother was shot dead execution style by members of a Vietnamese drug cartel who issued her husband a horrific countdown to murder by sending him ransom messages 20 minutes, 10 minutes and five minutes, before they killed her.
Thi Kim Tran was murdered after being kidnapped from her Bankstown home on April 17, with the brutal late attack – which included an eight-year-old boy being hit over the head with a baseball bat – shocking the city.
The inside story of what police believe happened to the 45-year-old that night can now be revealed, including how a group of men had been pursuing Ms Tran’s husband Tung Nguyen for a number of weeks before they turned on his loved ones.
Police are investigating if Ms Tran’s kidnapping was ultimately part of a ploy to get Nguyen to pay a drug debt he owed them.
“There are conflicting reports as to how much was owed, anywhere between seven kilograms (worth roughly $1.2 million) and 70 kilograms (worth as much as $8 million),” a police source said.
In the hour after they hit the young boy with a baseball bat – he has since emerged from a coma and is expected to make a full recovery – stripped the innocent Ms Tran naked and dragged her from her home, the men counted down to the moment they would kill her.
They messaged Nguyen a 20 minute, 10 minute and finally a five minute warning, but he could not be contacted.
“It’s unclear if he was out of service range or what, but he didn’t receive them,” a police source said.
Ms Tran was kidnapped from her Edward St home in Bankstown about 10.30pm and bundled into the middle back seat of an SUV.
About an hour later emergency crews were called to a car fire on Welfare Ave in Beverly Hills, where her body was found in the back seat.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal Ms Tran is thought to have likely been shot in the head in the moments before the SUV was set alight.
Police sources said investigators discovered a bullet casing on the floor while combing through the burnt out vehicle, but in an unusual twist, when examining Ms Tran’s charred body forensic pathologists could not confirm any bullet wounds.
“You’d expect we’d be able to say definitively one way or the other, but we can’t,” the source said.
NSW Police Homicide Squad commander Detective Superintendent Joe Doueihi said at a press conference in the wake of Ms Tran’s death it was believed a “conflict” between Nguyen and “upper echelons” of the organised crime network he was associated with was what led to his wife being targeted.
He said Nguyen had been assisting investigators and has not been charged with any wrongdoing in relation to Ms Tran’s death.
“This woman and her children were in no means involved or had knowledge of what their partner or their father was up to,” he said.
Det Supt Doueihi said police believe Nguyen had worked for the group for “several months” before the attack and was known to police for minor drug-related offences.
He said that crime network had been involved in manufacturing methamphetamine.
One of the key properties allegedly used by the group was a rural farmhouse in Springdallah, a rural community in Victoria.
In the weeks before Ms Tran was killed, a group of men burst into the farmhouse where drugs were allegedly being manufactured, looking for Nguyen.
“They broke in and beat up the workers who were there, so they’d been looking for him for some time,” a source said.
Two days after Ms Tran was murdered, as the NSW Police Homicide Squad formed Strike Force Bushfield, they were assisted by their counterparts from Victoria Police who raided the alleged drug lab in Springdallah.
It is understood that in the weeks since Ms Tran’s murder, an associate of her husband’s who also had links to the organised crime group he was allegedly linked to, has committed suicide.
Police sources said the man’s death at a home in Balmain was likely due to personal relationship issues, rather than the Bankstown killing playing on his conscience.
Ms Tran had appeared “happy and normal” when she finished work on the day of her death, colleagues at the Rozelle nail salon where she worked previously said.
With the Easter long weekend approaching she was looking forward to extra days off with her kids.
But those days off never eventuated.
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