Bones found in Illawarra bush confirmed as Paul Nguyen
THE bones police were led to by a convicted killer in bushland south of Sydney last month have been confirmed as the skeletal remains of a missing Bakers Delight franchise owner who vanished four years ago.
NSW
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The bones police were led to by a convicted killer in bushland south of Sydney last month have been confirmed as the skeletal remains of a missing Bakers Delight franchise owner who vanished from the Hilton Hotel in Sydney’s CBD in May 2014.
The man who killed Minh Phuoc “Paul” Nguyen gave police information they needed to locate the bones in a small area of bushland at Cordeaux in the state’s Illawarra.
NSW Police confirmed this morning the remains belonged to Mr Nguyen and his family had been notified.
The man awaiting sentence for Mr Nguyen’s death - Zulfukar Aljubouri - remains in custody.
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Detectives and public order and riot squad officers spent days last week searching the area of bushland off Mount Keira Road.
It is understood the area of bushland had previously been searched by police who were investigating the suspected murder of Illawarra underworld figure Goran Nikolovski.
Police investigating Mr Nguyen’s death first searched the area three weeks ago before locating a number of bones on Monday last week.
The bones were examined by a forensic pathologist anthropologist and underwent DNA testing before being formally identified.
In 2015 homicide detectives charged Aljubouri with the murder of Mr Nguyen after finding his blood on carpet of a Bankstown unit and his rental car agreement dumped in a bin at a Casula hotel.
The murder charge has since been dismissed and Aljubouri pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and unlawful disposal of a corpse.
Late on May 1, 2014 Mr Nguyen took some distressing phone calls and told family he needed to sort out a business “complication”.
Police say this “complication” somehow involved Zulfukar Aljubouri - most probably over drugs.
Court documents reveal Aljubouri killed Mr Nguyen inside a unit on Dudley Street, Bankstown some time between May 1 and May 3 in 2014.
It was previously been reported that police believed the Vietnamese businessman may have been associating with the same criminal underworld figures who have been linked to slain drug dealer Jamie Gao and a high roller Peter Hoang who was shot outside a McDonald’s in Sydney’s inner west.
Police were able to gather crucial evidence which led to an arrest after a group of cannabis-smoking hotel guests unwittingly gave police a few extra clues.
The group set off the fire alarms at the Fountainbleau Motel in Casula on the Hume Highway after smoking heavily inside about three days after Mr Nguyen’s disappearance.
As a result police later located a rental car agreement belonging to Mr Nguyen, an empty mobile phone box and the stub of a boarding pass in a bin within the hotel room.
Police also discovered business cards belonging to Mr Nguyen’s friends and associates.
Mr Nguyen’s brother, Tony Nguyen, has previously spoken about his strange behavior in the lead up to his disappearance and how he had told his sister-in-law that he had to meet with someone which might be “complicated”.
Tony Nguyen has said his brother was a loving father and successful businessman who had owned two Bakers Delight stores at Carlingford; a Bread Top shop at Chatswood and a Parramatta pizzeria before his death.