Missing man Raphael Joseph suspected of involvement in a 2002 strip club shooting

HOMICIDE detectives are investigating the disappearance of a man suspected of involvement in a shooting at a western Sydney strip club more than 10 years ago.

HOMICIDE detectives are investigating the disappearance of a man suspected of involvement in a shooting at a western Sydney strip club more than 10 years ago.

Raphael Joseph, who was previously known as Rafi Tooma and known as “Huss” or “Hussany” to his family and friends, was suspected by police of involvement in the shooting of Dimitri Debaz at the Sefton Playhouse in 2002.

Joseph fled to America, went underground and was not publicly sighted until US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers arrested him by chance in San Diego in October 2006 on the suspicion he was an illegal immigrant to the US.

He filed a plea in 2008 to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice fighting extradition claiming he would be “tortured or killed” by rival Sydney gang members.

Joseph said a $100,000 contract had been placed on his life by an Australian crime family and that members of Sydney’s Bronx Boys gang wanted to kill him.

The body of Dimitri Debaz in the Sefton Playhouse car park in 2002. Picture: Bill Hearne.

Joseph was last seen getting into the back seat of a late-model, silver sedan in Auburn just after midnight on Friday morning, March 21. It is believed at least two other men were in the car at the time.

In the afternoon before he was kidnapped Mr Joseph was seen at the Star Casino. At the time, Mr Joseph was wearing a grey t-shirt, khaki pants and dark shoes.

“We don’t know where Mr Joseph is at present but we believe there are a number of people out there in the community who do,” said Detective Superintendent Mick Willing, head of the NSW Homicide Squad.

“We have spoken to many of Mr Joseph’s friends and associates, and have searched a number of private properties, as well as public bushland, in a bid to find evidence that could lead us to Mr Joseph’s whereabouts.

Family photo of missing man Raphael Joseph. Picture: Police Media

Family photo of missing man Raphael Joseph. Picture: Police Media

“His poor family are worried sick and are desperate to know what has happened to him.”

Mr Joseph’s family reported him as missing to police on the evening of Saturday, March 22, 2014.

Detective Superintendent Mick Willing said investigators need the assistance of the public to help them locate Mr Joseph and the people responsible

“If you have any information that could help us find Raphael Joseph, please do the right thing and contact Crime Stoppers.

“Contact can be made anonymously. We don’t need to know who you are; we just need to know where Mr Joseph is.”

Police said Mr Joseph was a man of some means and believe he may have been kidnapped for financial gain.

We don't know where Mr Joseph is at present, but we believe there are a number of people out there in the community who do

“Extortion is one possibility for his kidnapp,” said Detective Willing today who said there had been no demands made of his family but may have been of his associates.

But he added Mr Joseph was well known to police and there could be other motives for his kidnap and probable murder.

Working on the likelihood of murder the police have been searching bushland at Flemington.

Members of his family withdrew from a planned press conference today because they were frightened.

To date, police inquiries have revealed that during the afternoon of Thursday, March 20, Mr Joseph spent time at his apartment in Chiswick and a casino in Pyrmont.

He may also have met someone at a fast food restaurant on Dartbrook Road in Auburn, close to the location where he later went missing.

It is believed Mr Joseph travelled to Auburn in a white 2009 E350 Mercedes.

Joseph was charged with murder in 2008 but the case did not progress from the local court and the defendant was discharged.

A white E350 Mercedes similar to the car that Raphael Joseph travelled to Auburn in on the night of his disappearance.