A Mom-of-2 Was Kidnapped by 5 Home Invaders. Police Believe They Just Found Her Body in a Burned-Out Car

• A 45-year-old woman was forcibly taken from her home at around 10:30 p.m. local time on Thursday, April 17
• Her 15-year-old son and 8-year-old son were injured by masked men holding firearms during the kidnapping incident
• Emergency services were then alerted to a body suspected to be the woman found in a burnt-out car at around 11:30 p.m.

Police in Australia believe that a body found inside a burned-out car is that of a 45-year-old woman who was kidnapped at gunpoint by a group of masked home invaders, according to multiple news reports.

On Thursday, April 17, police were alerted to a kidnapping at a family home in the Sydney suburb of Bankstown at around 10:30 p.m. local time. Around an hour later, the emergency services were called to a location in nearby Beverly Hills, following reports of a car fire, a police release stated on Friday, April. 18.

Fire and Rescue NSW crews extinguished the blaze, and after examining the vehicle, experts located a body. A formal identification is yet to take place, but police suspect the remains to be that of a 45-year-old woman who was forcibly taken from her home in the home invasion in front of her 15-year-old and 8-year-old sons. 

The unnamed woman was taken by up to five men, who arrived in a white sedan and a black SUV, 7 News, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and The Sydney Morning Herald reported. 

The woman’s youngest son reportedly suffered severe head injuries after being assaulted with a baseball bat during the invasion and had to be taken to the hospital, according to the ABC. He is currently in an induced coma, in a serious but stable condition after undergoing surgery, they added.

Meanwhile, her teenage son also had to be taken to the hospital for treatment, the ABC continued.

“I can only imagine what those children went through, seeing their mother dragged out of the home and forced into the back of the car,” Superintendent Rodney Hart said in a news conference, per the outlet. “This level of violence is horrendous, it is confronting, but we’re going to do our best day in and day out to bring this to justice.”

Hart added that the incident appeared to be a targeted attack and that the woman’s husband is returning to Sydney following an interstate business trip, according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

“We don’t know too much about the [victims] … they are not known to police [such] that we would consider them a high target in the organised crime network or world,” said Hart, according to the newspaper. “[It’s] very early in the investigation, it’s an extremely serious, violent, horrendous crime that we are throwing everything that we have at it to ensure that we bring these people to justice.”

A neighbor who did not want to be named said they heard screaming around the time of the kidnapping. “I’m in shock that this could have happened – she is just a sweet woman who keeps to herself,” they told The Sydney Morning Herald, adding that they saw multiple police cars arrive shortly after. 

Hart said the car fire occurred around 4 miles from where the kidnapping took place, according to the ABC. 

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Firefighters spent around 20 minutes extinguishing the “extremely hot, intense and rapid” blaze.

“Once the fire was extinguished and the steam and the smoke had disappeared, it was a pretty grisly sight for our firefighters,” Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Adam Dewberry told The Sydney Morning Herald. “We all take a little bit of these things with you; some of it we forget about and others come back when you don’t expect it, but we have excellent support systems in place.”

A resident of the neighborhood where the burning car was found told 7News the community has been shaken since its discovery in a quiet part of the cul-de-sac, bordering a park, highway and a handful of homes. 

They said the area is usually “friendly and quiet,” before adding that the incident is “very scary.”

PEOPLE has reached out to NSW Police Force and Fire and Rescue NSW for further details.