Two more charged over alleged kidnap murder of Sydney grandfather Chris Baghsarian
By The Times of Australia
Two more men have been charged over the alleged kidnapping and murder of 85-year-old Sydney grandfather Chris Baghsarian, the North Ryde case that has kept detectives digging for months because of one brutal police allegation: the wrong man was taken.
NSW Police said Robbery and Serious Crime Squad detectives arrested a 19-year-old man at Shalvey about 7.15am on Tuesday, after a search warrant was carried out with help from the Northwest Metropolitan Operations Support Group. A short time later, strike force detectives arrested a 21-year-old man at Silverwater.
Both men were taken to Mt Druitt Police Station and charged with murder and take or detain in company with intent to ransom occasioning actual bodily harm. Police said the 19-year-old was also charged with failing to comply with a digital evidence access order direction.
They were refused bail and listed to face Mt Druitt Local Court on Wednesday, 17 June.
The charges bring the number of people before the courts over Mr Baghsarian’s death to six. Four people had already been charged as part of Strike Force Chabot, the investigation set up after the elderly man was allegedly abducted from his North Ryde home in the early hours of Friday, 13 February.
Police say officers from Ryde Police Area Command were first called just after 5am that morning after a report that an 85-year-old man had been kidnapped. Local police attended, then State Crime Command’s Robbery and Serious Crime Squad took carriage of the recovery operation.
Early inquiries, police say, established Mr Baghsarian was not the intended target. That is the hard edge of this case. Not a gangland figure taken in a calculated hit. Not a man police say was mixed up in the dispute. An 85-year-old grandfather allegedly dragged into somebody else’s criminal business by mistake.
Eleven days later, about 8am on Tuesday, 24 February, Mr Baghsarian’s remains were found near a golf club at Pitt Town, on Sydney’s north-western fringe.
Wednesday’s development matters because Strike Force Chabot has not slowed with the first wave of arrests. Police are still working through who allegedly planned, carried out, assisted or covered up the kidnapping. The latest arrests suggest detectives believe the chain is longer than the people already in custody.
The New Daily, citing NSW Police and court developments, reported the two men as Brendan Gorman, 19, and Codi Fuller, 21, and said they did not apply for bail when they appeared in court on Wednesday. The outlet also reported NSW Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon saying investigators believed there could still be others involved.
The alleged killing has become one of Sydney’s starkest recent examples of violent organised crime spilling out of its own lane and into an ordinary suburban house. The facts alleged by police are stripped of any underworld theatre: an elderly man taken before dawn, a family waiting for news, a body found near a golf club, and detectives now trying to account for every hand in it.
Strike Force Chabot inquiries are continuing. Anyone with information that may assist police has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or at nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.
Sources: NSW Police Force media release, Wednesday 17 June 2026; The New Daily, updated Wednesday 17 June 2026.