Blacktown Hasan Dastan murder: $1 million reward in cold case
The savage murder of a Turkish businessmen in Blacktown has remained a mystery for more than two decades. Police are now offering a $1 million reward to help catch the killer.
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A $1 million reward has been offered to help solve the murder of a Turkish businessman in Blacktown more than two decades ago
Hasan Dastan was found dead in a pool of blood at a car wrecking workshop on Tattersall Rd on the morning of December 11, 1995.
The 52-year-old father of three suffered extensive head injuries after being savagely bashed with a sledgehammer and run over by a car at his Esy Auto Dismantlers workshop.
He was found by a colleague lying under a car he was trying to sell.
A post mortem examination found he died of severe blunt force trauma to the head and face.
Almost 25 years on, police are yet to charge anyone with Mr Hasan’s murder.
Detectives relaunched an investigation into the cold case in 2018 and today will announce a $1 million reward to help catch those responsible.
Mr Dastan was a well-known businessman in the western Sydney community. He moved to Australia from Turkey in the 1970s and owned his Blacktown auto workshop for six years before his murder.
During that time, he employed local youths to train them in mechanics and only two months before his death was believed to have been looking for a new business partner.
Police at the time said robbery had been ruled out as a motive.
Editor of the Turkish newspaper Dunya, Dursum Candemir, told The Daily Telegraph at the time that Mr Dastan was well-respected in the community.
“He was one of the community’s earliest settlers in Sydney and he was a very nice man who I couldn’t imagine having any enemies,” Mr Candemir said.