University student Jamie Gao’s mystery meeting with his assassins

UNI student Jamie Gao had been talking excitedly about a mystery meeting which police now believe led to his kidnapping and murder.

The Commander of the Robbery and serious Crime Squad, Detective Superintendent Luke Moore

FOR days young Sydney university student Jamie Gao had been talking excitedly about a mystery meeting which police now believe led to his kidnapping and murder.

Family and friends said the 20-year-old was vague about what the meeting was about except that it was of great significance to him.

“Jamie told friends the meeting was really important, was excited about it but wouldn’t say much else,’’ Detective Superintendent Luke Moore, head of the Robbery and Serious Crime Squad, said yesterday.

“And when he talked to friends he indicated he would be seeing them later in the day.’’

The Hurstville resident was last seen getting into a white car on Arab Rd, Padstow, near a McDonald’s about 1.40pm last Tuesday after chatting to two men.

“What that meeting was about, we don’t know,’’ Supt Moore said.

He has not been heard from since and his phone, keys and wallet were found near his white Nissan Silvia sedan, which was abandoned in Stuart St, Padstow, on the afternoon of that mysterious meeting.

There was nothing in Mr Gao’s background to suggest he was involved in drugs or any other criminal activity.

“But that is not to say he may not have gotten involved in something way above his head,’’ Supt Moore said.

At first police treated Mr Gao’s disappearance as a possible kidnapping for ransom but released details after the investigation led them to believe the motive was related to something else.

Police established there had not been any contact with family members and that Mr Gao’s family did not seem to have the sort of money normally associated with ransoms.

His mother, a Hurstville business owner who was on an overseas holidays at the time, has flown back from Hong Kong to Sydney.

“Jamie is an only child and his mother is extremely distraught.”

Mr Gao was born in Sydney and was completing a business degree at the University of Technology, where he was a capable and good student.

Police investigations of friends, family and associates paint a picture of a fairly normal young man who didn’t have lots of money or a lavish lifestyle.

Police are trying to establish what happened and are not ruling out that it could be a gang-related abduction.

Supt Moore said there are people who must know what happened to Mr Gao. He is urgently asking the public to come forward.

Jessica Yun is one of several devastated friends who has taken to social media to help spread the word about her missing friend. “He hasn’t contacted us or anything, me and my friends are worried sick,” she said.

The Commander of the Robbery and serious Crime Squad, Detective Superintendent Luke Moore / Picture: Matthew Sullivan