'It's a tragedy': Father and two kids among four killed as Queensland Police reveal details into fatal rural crash
Just before 11am on Sunday a Holden Commodore collided with a Toyota Hilux on the Capricorn Highway between Comet and Blackwater.
Four people inside the Commodore - father Shaun Ranger, seven-year-old Baylee, six-year-old Chandler, and another man - were killed in the crash.
Ranger's fiancé Renee and their youngest daughter Saphora, aged two, were travelling behind them as the tragedy unfolded.
The family is understood to have been returning from a camping trip.
Officers said the two vehicles collided at 'very high speed' on the Capricorn Highway before both cars caught fire.
'Initial investigations indicate a Holden Commodore travelling towards Blackwater with four occupants struck a Toyota Hilux utility containing two occupants travelling in the opposite direction,' the police said.
'The driver, a 28-year-old man, six-year-old boy, seven-year-old girl and 32-year-old man died as a result of the crash.'
Two men in the Hilux, believed to have been driving to work, were also injured.
Paramedics took a 28-year-old man to hospital in a serious but stable condition and flew a 27-year-old man to Brisbane for treatment for life-threatening injuries.
On Monday, Inspector Ben Wiltshire said the mother was at the scene of the crash when police arrived.
"It was a very high-speed crash with significant damage to both vehicles, fire was involved and the injuries to the people involved were horrific," Wiltshire said.
'It's a tragedy that reverberates not just through the families, but through the entire Central Highlands community.
'It's very early days in the investigation and it would be premature for me to speculate on who was at fault or the reasons for the crash at this stage.'
Inspector Wiltshire said Central Queensland have a larger proportion of people who are involved in crashes because of fatigue and the distances between town across the region.
'Every time you get into a vehicle, you are conducting a high-risk activity,' he said.
'It is this case, it's two young kids who aren't going to play ball or play an instrument ever again in their lives.
'It is about people. It's about families.'
The Central Highlands region, about 850km north of Brisbane, stretches from Rockhampton in the east to Emerald and Alpha in the west.
A GoFundMe has been started for the surviving members of the family by friend Chantel Semple.
"Shaun, Baylee and Chandler were cherished and loved by many and brought so much joy and light into our lives," Ms Semple said.
'Baylee, aged 7, had a cheeky smile, bubbly personality and a love for horses.
'Chandler, aged 6, was a sweet and kind-hearted little boy, full of life and loved the outdoors.
'Shaun a dedicated and selfless father, supportive friend and loving partner.'
Ms Semple said the family friends are still coming to terms with the 'unimaginable loss'.
'I hope to relieve the extra stress and heartache that this family already have to endure by raising much-needed funds to cover costs for funeral expenses and support Renee and little Saphora,' she said.
'We are all very heartbroken over this unexpected loss and want to give them the send off they deserve, a meaningful goodbye, surrounded by the people who love them.'
As of Monday afternoon, $34,036 from 453 donations has been raised from a $45,000 target.
Investigations into the incident are continuing.
Anyone with dashcam footage or information about the crash are encouraged to contact police.
The tragic crash has brought Queensland's road toll to 16 deaths in just seven days.
As of July 20, a total of 158 people have died due to road crashes this year in Queensland.
Central Queensland has so far recorded 25 deaths on the state's roads.

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The Advertiser
11 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Attempted murder charges against wife of celebrated chef after house fire
A woman accused of trying to murder two children in a house fire has been identified as the wife of an Australian-based, internationally acclaimed chef. Hyun Ju Ahn, 37, was arrested on July 17 and charged with two counts of attempted murder after a fire at the family's Chadstone home in Melbourne's southeast on the night of May 21. She is married to Jae Bang, the head chef and owner of the celebrated Freyja restaurant on Collins Street in Melbourne's CBD. The couple and their two children, aged eight and ten, have lived in Melbourne for three years. Emergency services were called to a two-storey home on Terrigal Street in Chadstone at 9.40pm on May 21. A woman and two girls were rescued from the fire and taken to the hospital in a critical condition, police said. Detectives from the Arson and Explosives Squad investigated the fire and charged the 37-year-old woman with attempted murder after a two-month probe. Her case remains before Melbourne Magistrates' Court. A fundraiser, started almost a week before the charges were laid, had raised more than $20,000 to support the family. The GoFundMe page, organised by fellow chefs, said that Mr Bang was away from Melbourne on May 21. It said that the family was "unconscious when the firefighters rescued them". "The family is recovering, but they have no home, no other family in the area, and have many expenses to cover from the fire rescue and hospital stays," it said. The family has moved around the world as opportunities to work abroad arose. Mr Bang worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Australia in 2022 to open the Nordic-inspired restaurant. He told this masthead in April that, with such a busy schedule at the restaurant, the family relished their time together on the weekend. He said they loved sharing a meal at their favourite Chinese restaurant, Tung Wo, when they had time. A woman accused of trying to murder two children in a house fire has been identified as the wife of an Australian-based, internationally acclaimed chef. Hyun Ju Ahn, 37, was arrested on July 17 and charged with two counts of attempted murder after a fire at the family's Chadstone home in Melbourne's southeast on the night of May 21. She is married to Jae Bang, the head chef and owner of the celebrated Freyja restaurant on Collins Street in Melbourne's CBD. The couple and their two children, aged eight and ten, have lived in Melbourne for three years. Emergency services were called to a two-storey home on Terrigal Street in Chadstone at 9.40pm on May 21. A woman and two girls were rescued from the fire and taken to the hospital in a critical condition, police said. Detectives from the Arson and Explosives Squad investigated the fire and charged the 37-year-old woman with attempted murder after a two-month probe. Her case remains before Melbourne Magistrates' Court. A fundraiser, started almost a week before the charges were laid, had raised more than $20,000 to support the family. The GoFundMe page, organised by fellow chefs, said that Mr Bang was away from Melbourne on May 21. It said that the family was "unconscious when the firefighters rescued them". "The family is recovering, but they have no home, no other family in the area, and have many expenses to cover from the fire rescue and hospital stays," it said. The family has moved around the world as opportunities to work abroad arose. Mr Bang worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Australia in 2022 to open the Nordic-inspired restaurant. He told this masthead in April that, with such a busy schedule at the restaurant, the family relished their time together on the weekend. He said they loved sharing a meal at their favourite Chinese restaurant, Tung Wo, when they had time. A woman accused of trying to murder two children in a house fire has been identified as the wife of an Australian-based, internationally acclaimed chef. Hyun Ju Ahn, 37, was arrested on July 17 and charged with two counts of attempted murder after a fire at the family's Chadstone home in Melbourne's southeast on the night of May 21. She is married to Jae Bang, the head chef and owner of the celebrated Freyja restaurant on Collins Street in Melbourne's CBD. The couple and their two children, aged eight and ten, have lived in Melbourne for three years. Emergency services were called to a two-storey home on Terrigal Street in Chadstone at 9.40pm on May 21. A woman and two girls were rescued from the fire and taken to the hospital in a critical condition, police said. Detectives from the Arson and Explosives Squad investigated the fire and charged the 37-year-old woman with attempted murder after a two-month probe. Her case remains before Melbourne Magistrates' Court. A fundraiser, started almost a week before the charges were laid, had raised more than $20,000 to support the family. The GoFundMe page, organised by fellow chefs, said that Mr Bang was away from Melbourne on May 21. It said that the family was "unconscious when the firefighters rescued them". "The family is recovering, but they have no home, no other family in the area, and have many expenses to cover from the fire rescue and hospital stays," it said. The family has moved around the world as opportunities to work abroad arose. Mr Bang worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Australia in 2022 to open the Nordic-inspired restaurant. He told this masthead in April that, with such a busy schedule at the restaurant, the family relished their time together on the weekend. He said they loved sharing a meal at their favourite Chinese restaurant, Tung Wo, when they had time. A woman accused of trying to murder two children in a house fire has been identified as the wife of an Australian-based, internationally acclaimed chef. Hyun Ju Ahn, 37, was arrested on July 17 and charged with two counts of attempted murder after a fire at the family's Chadstone home in Melbourne's southeast on the night of May 21. She is married to Jae Bang, the head chef and owner of the celebrated Freyja restaurant on Collins Street in Melbourne's CBD. The couple and their two children, aged eight and ten, have lived in Melbourne for three years. Emergency services were called to a two-storey home on Terrigal Street in Chadstone at 9.40pm on May 21. A woman and two girls were rescued from the fire and taken to the hospital in a critical condition, police said. Detectives from the Arson and Explosives Squad investigated the fire and charged the 37-year-old woman with attempted murder after a two-month probe. Her case remains before Melbourne Magistrates' Court. A fundraiser, started almost a week before the charges were laid, had raised more than $20,000 to support the family. The GoFundMe page, organised by fellow chefs, said that Mr Bang was away from Melbourne on May 21. It said that the family was "unconscious when the firefighters rescued them". "The family is recovering, but they have no home, no other family in the area, and have many expenses to cover from the fire rescue and hospital stays," it said. The family has moved around the world as opportunities to work abroad arose. Mr Bang worked his way through some of the most respected kitchens in the US, Europe and Asia before moving to Australia in 2022 to open the Nordic-inspired restaurant. He told this masthead in April that, with such a busy schedule at the restaurant, the family relished their time together on the weekend. He said they loved sharing a meal at their favourite Chinese restaurant, Tung Wo, when they had time.

Sydney Morning Herald
14 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
A feared crime family ruled Sydney's underworld. Now it's at war with itself
The first cracks in the facade of the Alameddine crime network started to show just over six months ago. On a February afternoon, one of the network's long-time members, Samimjan Azari, and two associates were shot at in the car park of a Brighton-Le-Sands restaurant, where gunmen ambushed them in a brazen assassination attempt. From the outside, it appeared the Alameddine network, which has for several years controlled Sydney's illicit drug market, was again at war with rivals staking their own claim on the lucrative trade. But rather than fighting off cross-town enemies making a play for its turf, police say the Alameddine network was entrenched in a conflict within its own ranks. In the months before, the feared network was fractured when one of its senior members defected to form his own criminal organisation, sparking a gangland war that spilt onto Sydney's streets that February day. By the time the first shots were fired, a chasm had long opened up within the powerful organisation, splitting it in two as once-loyal members defected to join the new organised crime network founded by the senior Alameddine figure. Since defecting, the former member, who the Herald cannot name for legal reasons, has bolstered his new network, turning other senior Alameddine figures against their long-time allies as shootings have plagued both sides of the conflict. This masthead does not suggest any of the individuals identified in this article are responsible for any of the shootings. 'There's been a division and that's the problem,' Detective Superintendent Jason Box said. 'It was one organised crime network working as a collective – there's now a division and that hasn't been accepted internally, hence the conflict.' At the centre of the conflict, Azari has become Sydney's most marked man after taking up a senior role in the new network alongside Joseph Vokai, the alleged head of KVT. A street gang with a membership of predominantly Fijian men, the KVT long acted as muscle for the Alameddine network in its multimillion-dollar drug-trafficking operations. But when the network fractured, Vokai turned his back on the gang's long-time employer, aligning himself with Azari. 'There's been a significant divide at the highest level of this organised crime network, resulting in, we believe, the Alameddine and KVT split,' Box said. Since he was targeted at Brighton-Le-Sands, Azari has survived three separate attempts on his life, the most recent last month when masked gunmen cornered him inside a Turkish restaurant in Auburn. Azari was shot twice, in the arm and the shoulder, but survived. An associate of Azari, a 25-year-old man, was shot in the face, while an innocent restaurant employee, a 47-year-old woman, was shot twice in the torso during the attack. Three weeks earlier, Azari survived an assassination attempt that killed his associate, Dawood Zakaria, when assailants opened fire on a Toyota HiLux the pair was travelling in with two other men in Granville. Zakaria, 32, who was with Azari when he was targeted in Brighton-Le-Sands and had been acting as a bodyguard for the 26-year-old since he took up his role at the head of the new network, was shot in the head and died in hospital several days later. Days after Zakaria was shot, police established Taskforce Falcon, made up of 100 detectives from various squads and 50 uniformed officers, to quell the violence linked to the conflict. Azari has dismissed repeated warnings from police to alter his movements, choosing instead to frequent public places, where he continues to be targeted. 'He's been told numerous times that he's at risk, and I think surely that he would be aware of that after four attempts on his life, and the movements for him is a matter for him to determine, but I hope that he makes the right decisions for his welfare,' said Box, the commander of Taskforce Falcon. Expanding on the Alameddine network's historic control of the drug trade, the new network has infiltrated Sydney's illicit tobacco market, with several members and associates allegedly involved in a number of thefts, or 'rips' of tobacco worth millions of dollars since last year. Several have been charged and remain before the courts. Police insist illicit tobacco is not the cause of the conflict, but rather the commodity of choice for the new network, which is largely comprised of defected Alameddine and KVT members. On the other side of the conflict, some members remain loyal to the Alameddine network and its patriarch, Rafat Alameddine, as they grapple to retain control of Sydney's underworld. Alameddine fled Australia for the safety of Lebanon, where he is a citizen, in November 2022. He remains wanted alongside fellow gangland figure John Ray Bayssari over an alleged criminal conspiracy to murder their underworld enemy Ibrahem Hamze in 2021. 'The Alameddine organised crime network is obviously still functioning and there are still representatives here and people are active; whether they're onshore or offshore, they're still active and still part of that network,' Box said. Alameddine's former bodyguard, Ali Elmoubayed, who police believe runs the crime family's operations in Australia, remains aligned with the kingpin, as does rapper Ay Huncho, whose real name is Ali Younes. In May, Younes posted a photo of himself alongside Alameddine to his Instagram. 'What's understood don't need to be explained,' the caption read. As shootings on both sides of the conflict continue, Younes' loyalty to Elmoubayed and Alameddine has sparked concerns he may be targeted. Last month, Younes successfully applied to vary his bail conditions, which now allow him to report to police by phone, in an attempt to make his movements less predictable for would-be assassins. A week after Younes varied his bail conditions, Elmoubayed himself narrowly escaped a shooting at his Merrylands home, which was peppered with bullets minutes after he left to front Parramatta Local Court. Hours later, a magistrate allowed Elmoubayed and his young family to relocate to an inner-city high-rise apartment building with security features that his lawyers argued would safeguard him from future attacks. Police say it is unclear exactly what led to the divide within the Alameddine network, with petty grievances between former allies likely to have added fuel to the conflict. 'There's a lot of reasons this could have happened, from the leadership down, to decisions that are being made, to who holds a certain amount of power, and if people aren't adhering to leaders' instructions,' Box said. Despite the targeting of leaders on each side of the divide, police have warned members of each network that they are in the firing line as the conflict continues. 'The reality is: anyone connected with this conflict is a potential target for retribution,' Box said.

Sky News AU
14 hours ago
- Sky News AU
'They have no home, no other family': Wife of top Melbourne chef revealed as mother accused of attempted murder of kids in Chadstone house fire
The wife of a top Melbourne chef has been revealed to be the mother accused of deliberately setting their home alight while two young girls were sleeping inside. Hyun Ju Ahn, 37, has been charged with two counts of attempted murder after a horror blaze engulfed a two-storey property on Terrigal Street in Chadstone on the morning of May 21, the Herald Sun reports. It has now been revealed she is the wife of Jae Bang, the executive chef at top Melbourne restaurant Freyja. The woman along with two girls, aged seven and eight at the time of the incident, were conveyed to hospital in a critical condition after firefighters forced entry into the home and found them unconscious on the first floor. Mr Bang was out of town when the incident unfolded with the Arson and Explosives Squad determining a gas cylinder had exploded inside the home which set it alight. "We believe [the fire] was from a gas cylinder … how that's come to explode is a matter for the investigation proper to unpack," Detective Inspector Chris Murray said. "Such an incident, where we have [an] explosion and fire, can be absolutely devastating." Following investigations, Ms Ahn was charged last week with two counts of attempt to commit murder and two counts of damage property by fire to endanger life. A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family cover ''many expenses'' with their home now lost to the tragic fire. "Chef Jae Bang (Freyja, Melbourne) lost his home to a fire while he was away. His wife and two daughters were sleeping when it happened, and they were unconscious when the firefighters rescued them," a post on GoFundMe reads. "They were seriously injured and have had extensive stays in the hospital. "The family is recovering, but they have no home, no other family in the area, and have many expenses to cover from the fire rescue and hospital stays." The fundraiser has collated more than $20,000 so far. Ms Ahn is currently recovering in hospital with burns to her hands, while the two girls were initially taken to hospital in a critical condition. Her husband, Mr Bang who is well known in the industry made his start in Seoul as a teenage dishy and trailblazed across the globe from San Sebastián to New York City to Stavanger – and now Melbourne. Previously Mr Bang said raising children while working in a restaurant is "a never-ending challenge, and it's not easy to manage". "Running a restaurant demands a significant amount of time, so my days off are crucial for dedicating my attention solely to my kids," he said. 'We prioritise spending quality time with each other. We do a lot of activities that I'm passionate about, such as camping in the wilderness, foraging in the mountains during peak season, skiing, rock climbing and, more recently, free diving.' A neighbour told the Herald Sun she remembered the family as being happy but largely keeping to themselves. Ms Ahn faced Melbourne Magistrates' Court last Friday.