The eight-year-old son of a Vietnamese woman kidnapped and found dead in a burnt-out car is making a miracle recovery.
Thi Kim Tram, 45, was stripped naked and forced into the back of a dark SUV at gunpoint out the front of her home in Bankstown, south-west Sydney on the night of April 17.
Her remains were later found in a torched car in the nearby suburb of Beverly Hills.
Police are also investigating whether Ms Tran was attacked due to her husband’s alleged links to a large-scale Victorian organised crime group.
The five-man gang that ripped Ms Tran from her home also bashed her youngest son with a baseball bat on their way out the door.
The eight-year-old was left in an induced coma for several days until last week, with police at the time saying he was likely to suffer suffer physical ‘complications’ for the rest of his life.
However, police sources close to the case told the Daily Telegraph the boy is making a recovery against all expectations and is ‘a lot better than his initial prognosis’.
Thi Kim Tram, 45, was stripped naked and kidnapped on April 17, in a harrowing home invasion that also saw her son beaten with a baseball bat
Ms Trams two sons (pictured above with Tung Nguyen) remain in hospital, the youngest is recovering from his beating, while her eldest is being treated for psychological injuries
The eight-year-old will is expected to spend several more weeks in the hospital alongside his 15-year-old brother, who witnessed the attacks and is undergoing treatment for psychological injuries.
Special detectives are desperately working to find Ms Tran’s killers.
Police believe her partner, Tung Nguyen, was murdered because her husband allegedly stole drugs from a crime network which he allegedly worked for.
Detective Superintendent Doueihi last week said the predominately Vietnamese network was producing a ‘significant amount’ of methamphetamine.
Ms Tran and her sons had no idea of Mr Nguyen’s alleged links, Det Sup Doueihi said.
Mr Nguyen had been on an interstate work trip on the night Ms Tran was killed, according to police. Neighbours said he had been gone for ‘a month’.
Last week, Detective Superintendent Doueihi labelled the offences ‘callous, brutal and against innocent people’.
Ms Tram’s kidnappers burst into the family home, before forcing the mother to an SUV at gunpoint
A police source said Ms Tran’s (above) son was doing better than previously expected in his recovery
Police previously said the harrowing attack was ‘callous, brutal and against innocent people’
‘These organised crime groups are breaking their own code of conduct by targeting innocent women and children,’ he said.
‘This level of violence against innocent family members is rare and unprecedented.’
Victoria Police raided a rural property near Ballarat on April 20, finding alleged evidence of drug manufacturing.
However, officers have not yet made any arrests nor laid any charges in relation to the raid.
NSW Police have been seen around Ms Tran’s former home in Bankstown and in Beverly Hills.
A neighbour told Daily Mail Australia she felt sad for Ms Tran’s children, before moving out from her home days after the chilling episode.
Others who knew Ms Tran said their beloved manicurist’s death had left them in shock.
One close friend said Ms Tran emigrated from Vietnam about a decade ago and ‘was always happy to see her friends and share meals’.
Fire crews discovered a body inside a burnt out SUV in Sydney’s south-west earlier in April
Investigations are continuing into the incident, as detectives piece together Ms Tram’s husband’s alleged links to organised crime
‘This is so awful… She didn’t deserve this… Everyone is in shock,’ she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
One of her customers, Amanda Wilson, said she had been excited to see Ms Tran after going on holiday.
However, when she arrived at the Rozelle salon Ms Tran worked, she connected a sombre note on the wall with news reports she had seen.
‘The news about a mother who had been brutally bashed … and then dragged into a car and allegedly burned alive six kilometres away, was Kim, my manicurist, who told me all about her sons, even Face-timed her youngest, who waved to me, as she did her diligent work,’ Ms Wilson said.
