Payback warning rocks Sydney’s underworld over the botched kidnapping of Chris Baghsarian – as the real targets flee their home

Major underworld figures have pledged to kill the ‘fools’ responsible for the kidnapping and murder of an innocent 85-year-old man, a legal source has revealed.

Chris Baghsarian’s remains were uncovered near a golf course in Sydney’s north-west on Tuesday – 11 days after he was forced into a vehicle at 5am by a group of thugs in a tragic case of mistaken identity.

The alleged intended target of the kidnapping was one-time criminal Dimitri Stepanyan, a Sydney businessman and associate of the Alameddine crime family.

Now a legal source with knowledge of some of the major players in Sydney’s underworld has told the Daily Mail those responsible for the botched abduction would be killed.

‘I’m told the fools who did this will be eliminated – for killing the wrong guy, but (also) for having the audacity to plan the abduction of the real target,’ the source said.

‘They won’t survive. These blokes are going to end up dead regardless of where they are. Even Supermax can’t keep them safe.’

Separately, they also said Mr Stepanyan was ‘incensed’ his family had been publicly identified as the real target of the kidnapping, and is ‘on the warpath’ to find out who leaked his name.

Daily Mail can reveal that Mr Stepanyan’s parents, who lived just three doors up from Mr Baghsarian’s home on Northcott Avenue, suddenly left their home on the day of the kidnapping.

Neighbours say they returned to the home for a couple of hours on Monday, shortly before they were publicly identified, to pack some belongings before leaving again.

Locals now suspect they will never return again after they were outed as the alleged real target for the kidnapping and torture ordeal endured by Mr Baghsarian. 

Texts appears to show an exchange between the kidnappers and Mr Stepanyan.

In the texts, Mr Stepanyan allegedly says the kidnapping was a ‘dumb dumb error. How did use get the wrong house? Dumb. God was with you. My old man would of blown your head off.

‘Good luck next time. You f**n dopes.’

It is not suggested Mr Stepanyan would seek to kill those responsible for the botched abduction.

Neighbours on Northcott Avenue said Mr Stepanyan lived overseas and had not been residing with his parents ‘for years’ and that the house was ‘known to police’ when he lived there.

‘I’m surprised they got the wrong house. Everyone knows that house,’ one neighbour said.

Both Mr Baghsarian and the Stepanyans are believed to be of Armenian descent.

Mr Baghsarian was asleep when two men smashed in his front window and forced him into a vehicle.

They reportedly severed his finger during his time in captivity, and later dumped his body in scrub on the perimeter of a gold course in Pitt Town.

Police swarmed the scene after his body was uncovered on Tuesday morning, believed to be on a disused turf farm between a golf course and vegetable farms.

A 400m stretch of road was blocked off from around 10am, preventing farm workers and golf course staff from entering.

Golfers continued to play on the country club property, just 50m away.

When he was first kidnapped, it’s understood Mr Baghsarian was taken to a property in Dural, about 20km from North Ryde, and beaten as he appeared on a video sent to a gangland figure.

No ransom demands were made to Mr Baghsarian’s family, who last week described the 85-year-old as a ‘deeply loved and devoted father, brother, uncle and grandfather’. 

‘The kindest person we know – someone who would never hurt a fly,’ the family said in a statement released by NSW Police last Tuesday.

‘Chris’s kidnapping feels surreal, and we are struggling to make sense of the fact that he has been taken, and that our family has been caught up in something that has nothing to do with us.

‘We are living through a nightmare we never thought possible,’ they said.