{"id":11909,"date":"2026-05-15T07:52:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:52:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/11909\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:52:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:52:15","slug":"body-found-in-tarneit-believed-to-be-of-man-kidnapped-during-south-morang-home-invasion-police-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/11909\/","title":{"rendered":"Body found in Tarneit believed to be of man kidnapped during South Morang home invasion, police say"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police believe a man found dead in Melbourne’s west was kidnapped by machete-wielding intruders this morning.<\/p>\n

Homicide Squad detectives were called at 4:30am after a body was found beside a children’s playground in Bruny Drive in Tarneit.<\/p>\n

Formal identification is yet to occur but police believe it is the body of a 30-year-old man who was forced out of his South Morang home, in Melbourne’s north, during a home invasion.<\/p>\n

Police say a number of male offenders got out of a dark-coloured vehicle on Darius Terrace at about 3am and forced their way into the home, where a second man and two children were also present.<\/p>\n

Police were told the victim was assaulted by the men, who were armed with machetes, and that he was dragged out of the house and into the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

The man’s body was found just metres from the playground at the Tarneit park. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

The Homicide Squad’s Detective Inspector Dean Thomas said the victim was known to police.<\/p>\n

But he said investigators would keep an open mind about whether there were any links to bikie gangs or organised crime and what the motive was for the attack.<\/p>\n

“It appears at this point in time that the offending is somewhat targeted,” Inspector Thomas said.<\/p>\n

He said it would have been confronting for the children at the home.<\/p>\n

“Those children are safe and with family,” he said.<\/p>\n

“To be home, in your house and to have something like this happen \u2026 it is very, very frightening.<\/p>\n

“But I assure the community that we have a large number of Homicide Squad detectives working on this investigation and we will piece it together and we will determine what has happened and we will identify those responsible.”<\/p>\n

\"Multiple<\/p>\n

Police remained in the Tarneit neighbourhood for much of the day. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Inspector Thomas said police were investigating whether a car that was destroyed by fire in Eynesbury, west of Melbourne, was linked to the kidnapping and death.<\/p>\n

“It’s too early to say that this is related to bikies,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’re always concerned about retaliation but we work closely with, in this case, the deceased’s family and associates, but we keep an open mind to everything.”<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Police want to speak to anyone who was in the area near the Tarneit park in the early hours of Friday. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

A local woman said she was on her morning walk when she came across the police at the park.<\/p>\n

“I was here last night and usually I don’t feel unsafe in this area, I come here very often,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Now I think I would think twice about going out if it’s dark or if I’m alone at the park.”<\/p>\n

A shift worker who lives nearby said he normally drove past the park in the early hours but did not this morning.<\/p>\n

He said he brought his children to the park every afternoon.<\/p>\n

“It’s a bit scary,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I’ve got two boys and one girl and they’re all like, ‘Dad, what’s going on?'”<\/p>\n

Police said they wanted to speak to anyone who was in the South Morang area in the early hours, as well as anyone driving between South Morang and Tarneit who has dash cam footage or saw anything suspicious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police believe a man found dead in Melbourne’s west was kidnapped by machete-wielding intruders this morning. Homicide Squad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1053,22,21,3791,12698,8188,4839,846,12695,12696,12697,1373],"class_list":{"0":"post-11909","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-alleged-murder","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-austrlia","11":"tag-body","12":"tag-dean-thomas","13":"tag-home-invasion","14":"tag-homicide-squad","15":"tag-kidnapping","16":"tag-machete","17":"tag-park","18":"tag-playground","19":"tag-victoria-police"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}