Horror crime scene: Body in burnt out car after woman’s kidnapping

Shocking footage has captured the moment masked killers brandishing a gun and baseball bat broke into a Sydney home, assaulted a child before kidnapping a woman and leaving her for dead in a burning car. See the vision.

Masked killers brandishing a gun and baseball bat broke into a Bankstown home, assaulted a child before kidnapping a woman and leaving her for dead in a burning car after a horror home invasion that has stunned the city’s most seasoned police.

Authorities were last night scrambling to piece together the series of events after a 45-year-old mother was found scorched in the back of a burnt out SUV in the nearby suburb of Beverly Hills.

Even seasoned detectives, confronted with the brutality of the gangland wars, were shocked by the savageness of the attack that also left two children in hospital.

Extraordinary CCTV captured five men in black hoodies and balaclavas descending on the Bankstown home, after repeatedly scoping out the property in a black SUV and white Mercedes.

As one woman in a nearby home put her child to bed around 10.30pm, she heard a “blood-curdling scream” come from outside and the sound of children wailing.

“It’s the kind of sound you hear and think ‘someone has just died’,” the resident said.

“I’ve never heard anything like it.”

It was the scream of 45-year-old Thi Kim Tran, and two boys, aged eight and 15, begging for help, after the men burst into the property.

They forced their way into the house, stripped Ms Tran of her clothes in front of the frightened children, before assaulting her.

As they bundled her up and threw her into the boot of the waiting car, the boys’ continued begging them to stop.

Police and Forensics are at the home. Photo: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

One of the unknown men pulled out a baseball bat and bashed the eight-year-old boy in the head, leaving him in a pool of blood with severe head injuries.

As they sped off with Ms Tran, the older boy called for help.

He and the younger boy were rushed to hospital for treatment, as police worked to track the group of men who had kidnapped Ms Tran from her living room.

At 11.30pm triple-0 was inundated with reports of a car exploding into flames on Welfare Ave North in Beverly Hills, just 10 minutes away.

It took firefighters almost 40 minutes to extinguish the blaze - and when they did - they were faced with a “gruesome sight” - a woman’s torched body in the back seat.

A view of the burnt out car being removed. Photo: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

A body has been found inside a car that was engulfed by flames in Sydney’s south. Photo: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

“Once the fire was extinguished and the steam and the smoke had disappeared, it was a pretty grisly sight for our firefighters,” Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry said.

While formally identifying the woman will take time, police are confident it is the body of Ms Tran.

Police are unsure whether Ms Tran was alive when the vehicle was set alight, but are confident she was conscious when she was thrown into the back of the SUV.

Why she was targeted, and by who, is now at the centre of a major police investigation named Strike Force Bushfield. However police sources say detectives are investigating links to large scale drug importation.

Police and Forensics are at the home, where a crime scene has been established after a 45-year-old woman was kidnapped from her home. Photo: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

Police and Detectives are seen talking at the home. Photo: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

Police said her husband was interstate at the time and is now home and assisting police in the hunt to find his wife’s killers.

On Friday, Superintendent Rodney Hart said the violent crime was out of the ordinary, labelling it an act of horrendous violence.

“This level of violence is unheard of,” he said.

“I can only imagine what those children went through seeing the woman dragged out of the home and forced into the back of the car.

Screenshot from a video of car fire at Beverly Hills last night where a body found in the back of the car. Pic Supplied.

Fire and Rescue NSW extinguished the blaze, but the car was destroyed, a crime scene has been established and an investigation is underway. Photo: Gaye Gerard / NewsWire

“It is very early in the investigation, it’s an extremely serious, violent, horrendous crime that we are throwing everything that we have at it to ensure that we bring these people to justice.”

Superintendent Hart said the younger boy had undergone surgery on his head, and was in an induced coma following the horror attack. The older boy is also in hospital suffering from shock.

Neighbours were clearly shaken on Friday, describing Ms Tran as a quiet woman, who kept to herself but was “always friendly”.

“To think such a thing could happen here is so scary,” one resident said as she pointed to the blood stained driveway.

“Who would do something like this.”

Originally published as Horror crime scene: Body in burnt out car after woman’s kidnapping