{"id":495651,"date":"2026-02-21T23:59:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495651\/"},"modified":"2026-02-21T23:59:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T23:59:10","slug":"police-searching-for-kidnapped-man-chris-baghsarian-investigate-suspicious-car-fires","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/495651\/","title":{"rendered":"Police searching for kidnapped man Chris Baghsarian investigate suspicious car fires"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suspicious car fires have triggered a fresh police appeal for information in the search for Chris Baghsarian, who police say was abducted in a case of mistaken identity nearly 10 days ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 85-year-old grandfather was kidnapped from his North Ryde home in Sydney’s north-west about 5am on February 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Chris<\/p>\n

Mr Baghsarian, 85, was taken from his North Ryde home on February 13. (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n

Emergency services later responded to two vehicle fires on Good Street at Westmead the following day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of the vehicles was a 2022 model Toyota Corolla, bearing Victorian registration 1UZ2BU, reported stolen from a Victorian address on January 13.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Suspicious car fires have been linked to the abduction of the Sydney grandfather. (Supplied: NSW Police)<\/p>\n

Police believe the car is linked to the crime scene in Dural on the outskirts of Sydney’s north-west,<\/a> which detectives identified as a base used by Mr Baghsarian’s captors.<\/p>\n

Images of the burnt-out white vehicle were released by police on Sunday in an appeal for new information.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Anyone who may have seen or heard suspicious activity in the Westmead area, or has CCTV images, since last Friday is urged to contact police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Detectives made several appeals for Mr Baghsarian’s safe release, with police sources previously telling the ABC the abductors may have been intending to target someone linked to the Alameddine crime family who lived nearby.<\/p>\n

NSW Police are also investigating a video that has emerged showing the 85-year-old with his hands tied and his face covered.<\/p>\n

In a statement on Tuesday, Mr Baghsarian’s family said they were “struggling” as they awaited “some form of closure or resolution”.<\/p>\n

“We are struggling to make sense of the fact that he has been taken and that our family has been caught up in something that has nothing to do with us,” the family said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Suspicious car fires have triggered a fresh police appeal for information in the search for Chris Baghsarian, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[184872,64,63,249746,243538,48,5315,56135,72540,44,2733,4277,249745,670],"class_list":{"0":"post-495651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-abduction","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-car-fires","12":"tag-chris-baghsarian","13":"tag-crime","14":"tag-investigation","15":"tag-kidnapping","16":"tag-manhunt","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nsw","19":"tag-nsw-police","20":"tag-police-appeal","21":"tag-sydney"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}