SUSPECTS IN KIDNAP-MURDER OF INNOCENT ARMENIAN ARRESTED
From Arthur Hagopian in Sydney
Police have arrested two men, aged 24 and 29, who they believe are involved in the kidnapping and murder of 85-year-old Armenian widower, Chris Baghsarian.
The arrest came after police identified human remains they had discovered near a golf course some 50 kms from where Baghsarian lived in a Sydney suburb, as being his.
While the announcement of the catch brings some closure to the family, friends and relatives of the innocent man, the pain and the outrage will linger.
Baghsarian was asleep when two men broke into his house at 5 am on Friday, Feb 13, gagged and bundled him before dragging him to a waiting car.
They were deaf to his pleas, and dumped him unceremoniously into a Toyota SUV and drove off.
Neighbors who heard the noise alerted police but by the time they arrived, the perpetrators had fled.
Police believe Baghsarian was not the intended victim of the snatch, but another man “related to a Sydney crime family” who lived on the same street.
It was a case of mistakenly identity, they said.
Robbery and Serious Crimes Squad Commander Andrew Marks alleged “the men participated in a joint criminal enterprise with other persons to kidnap Mr. Baghsarian, and ultimately, where he was held hostage and where he came to his death.”
He expected there would be more arrests in the coming days as police sift through a mass of material they have seized, while “still looking for more people responsible for Mr. Bagsharian’s death.”
My cousin Chris was a gentle, amiable family man.
We grew up together in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
His family lived a brisk 5-minutes’ walk from us, and there was not a day we did not exchange visits. Often, I would sleep-in at their place, sharing a mattress with his father.
No phones. No messages. Just walk in and don’t even bother to knock on the door or gate.
