Police identify mystery body at Homebush, release CCTV in fresh appeal

HE walks into a service station on a Friday night. Two weeks later, his bound and gagged body is found dumped near Sydney Olympic Park

Wachira 'Mario' Phetmang seen at a petrol station two weeks before his body was discovered. Picture: NSW Police

HIS body was wrapped up and dumped near Sydney’s Olympic Park earlier this month.

Police have now released CCTV footage of the last known movements of the mystery man they have now identified as Wachira “Mario” Phetmang in a bid to unravel what happened to him.

His bound, gagged and plastic-wrapped body was found on Homebush Bay Drive by a passing truck driver who pulled over due to bad weather on the morning of June 6.

A post mortem examination revealed he had been seriously assaulted, and his cause of death was blunt-force trauma.

The CCTV footage shows the 33-year-old Thai man who at a nearby petrol station two weeks before a truckie made the gruesome discovery.

Police hope the vision of Mr Phetmang, seen entering the service station store wearing a purple baseball cap with a red peak, a striped shirt, and long black coat, might jog someone’s memory as they attempt to piece together his last movements.

Detectives from the State Crime Command’s Homicide Squad have established Strike

Force Sinder to investigate the murder.

On Wednesday they said he was last seen at a South Hurstville service station on King Georges Road, about 16km from Homebush, at about 7.30pm on May 25.

He was driving a silver 2004 Hyundai Terracan, with Victorian registration URK109.

Mr Phetmang, who had been in Australia for about a decade, was living in Hurstville in the city’s south.

The 33-year-old’s body was discovered on the side of the road at Sydney Olympic Park earlier this month.

Homicide Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Scott Cook said they were eager to speak to anyone who saw Mr Phetmang on the Friday night he was seen at the service station.

“At this stage, we do not know where Mario went after leaving the service station, and we are appealing for information about his movements from then until his body was located almost two weeks later,” he said.

“We are particularly appealing to motorists who have dash cameras to review their footage to see if they may have filmed the vehicle during that time.

“This includes a re-appeal to motorists who travelled in the Sydney Olympic Park area during that time to double check their vision for anything that may assist with our inquiries,” Det Supt Cook said.

Police believe the murder could be linked to organised crime and or drugs but are not ruling anything in or out at this stage.

He said police were talking to Mr Phetmang’s friends and associates but had “no firm suspect at this stage”.

Mr Phetmang, worked at Starbucks in the city and a Thai restaurant.

He had been using a number of dating websites before his murder and police urge anyone who had contact with him to let them know.