“They have the wrong man” - The Kidnapping of Chris Baghsarian

0:00The Crime Desk, the Ristic Podcasts. Grave fears this morning for the innocent grandfather kidnapped from his Sydney home, bound and gagged, dragged from his North-Ride property in the middle of the night, the agey five-year-old bundled into a getaway vehicle. I'm aware of the videos and photos that have been circulating. They have the wrong men, two of those that are responsible. Please release Mr. Bags aren't. Let us know where he is. In the family's worst fears have tonight been confirmed. Police finding the body of kidnapped grandfather Chris Bagsari in a pit town in Sydney's Northwest, 11 days after he was abducted from his North-Ride home in a shocking case of mistaken identity. Hello and welcome to the trial Australia, I'm Wayne Flour.

1:01Today we're talking about a kidnapping and a possible case of mistaken identity that has shocked the nation. Police say an 85-year-old grandfather Chris Bagsarian was kidnapped from his home in the Sydney suburb of North-Ride. However, investigators believe he was not the intended target. Instead, they suspect it may have been a case of mistaken identity. According to authorities, Bagsarian was taken from his house on a Friday in February of 11 days later he was found dead. Police believe the kidnapping may have been linked to organised crime, with the abductors possibly intending to target someone else connected to a criminal network. True men have since been charged with murder and kidnapping. Investigators say the pair were already known to police for lesser offences and they have now been refused bail ahead of a court appearance. But authorities also believe more people may have been involved and more arrests could be made.

2:02As part of the investigation, police found two burnt out vehicles and searched an abandoned property before tracing the case to the area where Bagsarian's remains were eventually discovered. The Bagsarian's family, the case has been devastating. The elderly widower reportedly required daily medication and then the days after his disappearance police had appealed for anyone responsible to return him safely. Instead, the search ended in tragedy. Now I'm going to be joined by Paul Shapiro, he's a friend of the trial Australia podcast and he has been all across this case. We'll be back with that in view after this. The finding great candidates to hire can be like, well, trying to find a needle in a haystack. Sure, you can post your job to some job board, but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along.

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4:10Formerly moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest, best-selling, busiest or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests. Like Grammy Award-winning singer Alicia Keys, critically acclaimed author Judy Bloom, an Academy Award-winning screenwriter, John Irving. Every single day. With totally booked, you aren't just listening, you're part of the story. So don't miss out. Follow Totally Booked with Zibi on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening now. Ecast helps creators launch, grow, and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Ecast.com Welcome again to Paul Shapiro, our gun reporter here for the Daily Mail.

5:22Now, Paul, you've been all over this case from the get-go, and what a bizarre and really horrific case this is. You personally have seen some pretty traumatic footage. But I guess just take us through it, Paul, where did the begin, when did you get involved, and what North has gone on here? First of all, I just want to acknowledge that this whole case is just an absolutely needless tragedy to a poor grandfather in his retirement days. And commiserations to his family, but I mean, I think where I got on board, and I think a lot of the media interest came after the alleged kidnappers released video or video of them. With their victim, 85 year old grandfather Chris Baxarian, that kind of got leaked through to us via underworld sources and was doing the rounds. As you know, Wayne, usually these videos don't kind of come out, maybe until later down the track during after a court hearing perhaps, but not this. I mean, this video came out while the grandfather was still missing while he after he'd been allegedly kidnapped.

6:26Yeah, well, let's go back. So it was about February 13th. I think where Chris has been abducted from, it was from his home, was it was in North, right? So what happened? He's just going out of his business. And police have been clear from the start, haven't they, Paul, that this bloke Chris Baxarian. He has got nothing to do with any sort of crime. The allegation is that he's completely innocent. He's mistaken identity. Well, yeah, the allegations are that these two and perhaps a third person kidnapped Mr. Baxarian because they believed they were actually after unperseable name of Kara Stepanion. Kara Stepanion is a father of the Metri Stepanion, who's apparently a wealthy property developer. Kind of, he's in, he's based around Vegas and Monaco. So the idea was they'll kidnap this guy and yeah, they demanded a ransom of $50 million, but they've taken the wrong guy. Within hours of what, of what happened, they'll CCTV footage.

7:26I think there was demands made. The video was circulating. Police were very clearly put, put a statement saying, this man is not the man you think he is. He has done nothing wrong. He's not linked to organized crime. He's never heard of fly and he's in his life. He lived a good life. He was a widower. You know, he was a father and a grandfather, a brother. And yeah, you're right, Wayne, police were just, they made it abundantly clear. He's not the right man and let him go. And then they even said, we will give you terms. Opportunity to let him go and they didn't want to see him harm. The allegation is that he was abducted. It was, it was the dead of night wasn't it was about 5 a.m. or something. Or Mr. Baxarian is, he's fast asleep. Yeah, they've come into the house armed with belief firearms. There's video footage, CCTV footage of them arriving in the car, forcing entry to the North right home. So he's been kidnapped. There's a demand made pretty much, they were asking Mr. Baxarian where they were, you know,

8:27get it, put us on the Demi and Don and make the call. We want 50 mil or you're going to cop it. Yeah, they're asking for phone numbers of two they believed with the children of the man they had. So they had a lot of money, what they were talking about, you know, he obviously couldn't cooperate because he didn't know what was going on. The allegation is that some video was taken while Mr. Baxarian was being assaulted by the abductors. Yeah. Of course, two people have been charged, they're allegations. You've obtained this video, Paul, it was going around underworld sources, it was being passed about. It's coming in our possession. You doing your job, you had to sit there and watch this video and I understand it's pretty traumatic viewing. Yeah, it's not a violent video, it's not a gory, it's not like that. But it's just seeing this poor man, this poor fellow, you know, a widower in, you know, he should be living the twilight years of his life, just tied up bound, whimpering, crying, begging for, you know, his life, being humiliated by obviously someone a lot younger and a lot stronger.

9:31And just do think how scared and sorry, I just feel sick thinking about what I saw in that video. And then obviously they found his body a few days later and it was just absolutely just a tragic story. In the footage, Paul, when they masked up, they, I believe they were wearing high viz sort of gear and gloves. High viz surgical gloves and also COVID mask on those little masks that people wore during COVID. And you couldn't see the guy's face. He seemed to be heavy, said it to me. He had a bit of an accent. So he's been kidnapped. The allegation is some videos being made. And then we get to this was a Friday, early, early hours of Friday. By the next day, on Saturday, police are moving pretty fast and they find a burned out vehicle. Because they found his body quite quickly, didn't they? Yeah, they found the body dumped in a golf course in pit town. And then it wasn't very long after that when they made the arrests, but it was, I think it was a couple of days at least two or three days possibly between when the kidnap video was released when the body was found.

10:34It was in the news for a while. Like there was still hope that they'd find this man alive. Yes. And they find his body. He's wrapped in like layers of carpet allegedly that's come from one of the charge man's home. Darryl. Yeah. And then they find a burn out car Toyota, which they believe is the getaway car. Things in West Me, their forensics goes through it. Mr. Backsyrian was missing for about 11 days. Police kicked down some doors. Who are these two individuals? And I believe one was has been reportedly is comes from a wealthy family and the others like a tradie. Yeah. So the two men that have been arrested, Jared Andrews, 29 Daniel Stevens, 24. So Andrews that was a from a rich family. He attended an $18,000 a year school. He was apparently studying a cybersecurity degree at the time of the kidnapping. I think he was caught in a Gucci teacher and he's he had some designer genes that actually fell down when he got arrested and the police released photos of that.

11:36No, no major criminal history, no allegations. And then same with the younger man, Stevens, 24. He was a former carpenter. He lost his job to drink driving. You know, he lived in Castle Hall as well. I think that was up around the area where the house where they held him was in Darryl, which was near to these locations. And I think pit town was probably another 30 minutes away. So yeah, they were kind of from from those areas. Like I said earlier, they just don't fit the bill. You got to ask yourself how do these two get into a situation like this? Well, yeah, they look like there's just a couple of clean cut looking young men. It is bizarre. Now Paul, when police carried out the raids on these two gentlemen's homes, they found allegedly found some interesting items, including clothes that they claim were used when they were commissioning this crime. Apparently, these clothes were bought from Kmart. But more disturbingly, one of the other items that police found in one of the homes was a handsaw.

12:36Now, the allegation is Paul that this handsaw was used in a pretty sickening way. Yeah, we know the alleged perpetrators used a handsaw to cut off Mr. Bakes Aaron's fingers. And we're not sure whether that occurred before or after he was killed, but the blood stained handsaw as well as carpet from the address where Mr. Bakes Aaron was held. And a cigarette, but we've donated a literally matched Andrews was found in the burnt out car. I mean, I don't think there's very many smart criminals. If any, but I mean these guys are just if they are found to have done it. I mean, they've just made a blunder off their bond, but it's thing you say that Paul, they peed in court on the 26th of February a black town local court there and bail was of course refused. But Andrews lawyer actually told the court during that hearing that that his client was no mastermind, which I guess is our understatement of the year. I mean, it's very it's very early stages of the court process. I mean, this will drag on as listeners of this podcast will know that the wheels of justice turn slowly in this country. So it's a very early days.

13:49Yeah, it's very early days. I think there's a lot more to come out of it, you know, but obviously it's just just what happened to this man was just an absolute tragedy. We'll take a quick break there and we'll be back in a second. Finding great candidates to hire can be like, well, trying to find a needle in a haystack. Sure, you can post your job to some job board, but then all you can do is hope the right person comes along, which is why you should try zip recruiter for free. Add zip recruiter dot com slash zip zip recruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. It's powerful technology identifies people with the right experience and actively invites them to apply to your job. You get qualified candidates fast. So while other companies might deliver a lot of hey zip recruiter finds you what you're looking for the needle in the haystack.

14:52See why four out of five employers who post a job on zip recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day zip recruiter the smartest way to hire and right now you can try zip recruiter for free. That's right free at zip recruiter dot com slash zip that zip recruiter dot com slash zip zip recruiter dot com slash zip. Welcome back. You're listening to the trial Australia. I'm still here with Paul Shapiro now Paul what has been the reaction from well for starters, he's family and I guess from the from the community in general. Well, look, the family are clearly traumatized. They've come out and you know, they've they've paid tribute to Mr. Backzarian. Obviously he's he lost his wife, but he still had children and grandchildren, you know, and they just devastated. You don't expect your grandfather or someone a lower-biting citizen to go out in such a manner. I mean, he was probably enjoying his days with with grandchildren and you know, doing all the stuff that you know, you know, our grandparents did and and do and

16:05Yeah, if he's fine on moment, they just they must be really struggling and and the community rightly so does outrage in the community how this can happen to another violent senseless incident in Sydney and it's just, you know, you could throw him what's happening in Melbourne at the same time and just what's going on? What Paul, because of course the police is claiming that that it was mistaken identity. What can you tell us about the individuals who police believe the offenders were trying to get? Yeah, so there's been some allegations. I mean, there's there's a run proven and I'm not making any comment whatsoever, but there's been some allegations that perhaps Mr. Backzarian was mistaken for the grandfather or a father of an organized crime figure. Demetri Stepaniam. Now, I obviously, I'm not saying anything about that. It's as far as I can certainly use a property developer, but that's for some reason that these people have believed that if they kidnapped him, they might have gotten themselves 50 million dollars. I mean, it just seemed so far fetched.

17:08But then Kara Stepaniam, who was the father, he did live on the same street where Mr. Backzarian died. I've been apparently there. They have actually moved now from the area after this was revealed. And, you know, like if this guy is an alleged crime bias or organized crime figure, I would assume that there would be repercussions coming from outside the authorities. And are the kids any any one of note these people who were having the screws turned on them? Well, you know, I mean, like I said, you know, there's allegations that Demetri is a bit of a crime figure to ledge. He's got links to cities underworld. He's a convicted armed robber. At the least indicated that there might be some more arrests forthcoming over this. There's possibly there's a third person that they're looking at are so called mastermind, but yeah, investigations are ongoing. And, you know, there could be others as well, you know, that we don't know of. I think maybe these guys may be handled, you know, maybe there was different people operating different sections of the alleged

18:11abduction and subsequent murder. It's extraordinary stuff, Paul. I mean, we we down here in Melbourne, we hear things of mistaken identities. But it's often it's a case where they're normally bumbling bikies have a habit of going about and, you know, shooting the wrong person. I mean, have you ever seen or heard of anything quite like this? Well, no, and you're right, Wayne, we've had how many did we had about probably five in a row in Melbourne with the wrong identity? And, you know, even you shoot and kill someone, you know, like afterwards you might go, that was the wrong guy. But I mean, if kidnapped this man, he's still alive. It's in the news that everyone said you've got the wrong guy. Why don't they just let him go? Like, I don't understand. They get the wrong house. They get the wrong guy. Do I answer a question I haven't heard of a abduction like this before, except in the movies? Yeah, you know, the allegations are that these people, these two charged are involved. But whatever the case, you're right, Paul, that this police said whoever's got this man, you've mucked up.

19:15This is the wrong guy. And he had a finger removed, roughed up, tortured and killed. Yeah, and body found 11 days after you got kidnapped. I mean, like, we had the video within hours the next day. I guess the question is, you know, when did the victim die? I believe it might have been within a couple of days of the kidnapping, but the body wasn't found till later on. But still, I think, I think the police were trying to get the message out very quickly that they had the wrong person and let him go. I think they even persisted on afterwards. I possibly, I haven't reported that myself, but I've, I've read somewhere that they still tried to get some ransom even after they realized that they dropped their figure down. And it's just like, well, who are you getting your ransom off? It's madness, but I mean, as I said, it's, it's very early days. It's going to be a long drawn out process through courts. And it's going to be a pretty horrendous trial if, if it indeed ever does go to trial, if, you know, the allegations are there's video out there.

20:17We've seen some, yeah, is there more video, the stuff of horror movies. And they might go to trial, but we'll have to wait and see. Thanks, Paul Shapiro for taking us through that just absolutely horrific story. I'm sure you'll be keeping it across it as it goes through the motions. You know, thanks again. I mean, I feel for you that, you know, this is a shocker, but yeah, thanks again for joining us. Thanks for having me. Always a pleasure. So that's it for today. We'll be back next Thursday with a new episode. Crime desks subscribers can listen ad free, get early access to new shows, full access to the archives, and the member alley podcast, the trial plus. To find out more, visit thecrimedesk.com. The link is in the show notes. In the meantime, you can follow us on TikTok at Daily Mail Crime. Or you can email us the trial at DailyMail.com. Leave a comment on Apple podcasts or Spotify or even send us a voice note on WhatsApp.

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