Hours after her shift at the nail salon, Thi Kim Tran was dead

Thi Kim Tran finished work at a Rozelle nail salon on Thursday, and headed home to prepare for a trip to the Royal Easter Show and the long weekend. At 10pm, all hell broke loose.

A Sydney mother murdered over her husband’s alleged drug debt worked a shift at a nail salon in Rozelle, and just hours later was dead.

Thi Kim Tran, 45, left the Darling St business last Thursday, and headed home to Bankstown to prepare for a trip to the Royal Easter Show and the long-weekend, colleagues revealed.

But just after 10pm, a group of masked men stormed the Edward St home and kidnapped Ms Tran, dragged her into a waiting vehicle and set it alight.

Her body was found in the burnt out car just before midnight.

At the salon where Ms Tran had worked since 2021, a sign on the wall hinted at the tragedy.

“We are deeply saddened to share that our beloved team member Kim has recently passed away unexpectedly,” it read.

Thi Kim Tran, 45, was kidnapped from her Bankstown home before her body was found burnt in the back of a car in Beverly Hills. Photo: Facebook

“We sincerely appreciate your understanding and support during this difficult time.”

Colleagues said Kim, who seemed “happy and normal” when she finished work last Thursday, told them she was looking forward to an extra day off with her kids, and had planned a special day out.

A sign in the Rozelle nail salon where murdered Bankstown mum Thi Kim Tran worked. Picture: Supplied

“We (were) not open Good Friday, so she (was) planning to go with her kids to Easter Show,” a colleague said.

But they never got to the show. An interstate manhunt is now underway to find the people responsible for the brutal killing of Ms Tran, and the sickening attack on her eight-year-old son who was bashed with a baseball bat and may never fully recover, police said on Tuesday.

“Her youngest boy, he’s very sick … he’s in a coma still,” the colleague said.

Ms Tran didn’t speak much at work about her personal life, colleagues said, but she had told them her husband worked interstate.

“He was in Melbourne a lot … she mind the children on her own a lot”.

“We didn’t meet him, just her children”.