The search for a missing Sydney mother continues after her estranged son was charged with her alleged kidnapping and murder, with police revealing the pair had arranged to meet so he could ask her for money shortly before she vanished.
Sandra Popovic, 58, failed to return to her home in Sydney’s northwest on Tuesday. Family members told officers they last heard from her at around 4.50pm on Monday, when she said she was meeting her son, Ante Popovic, 33, in Winston Hills. Her car was found abandoned on Dodson Crescent at around 9.30am on Tuesday, identified by 7News.
Superintendent Barry Vincent said on Friday: “It’ll be alleged that they were meeting there to talk about perhaps borrowing some money. When the family were informed of the action taken by police yesterday, they were obviously shocked.” He said Ms Popovic had cared for her elderly parents and had been “estranged” from her son prior to her disappearance.
Two days after she went missing, detectives located and arrested Ante Popovic while he was sitting in a white Toyota Hilux in bushland along Parnell Fire Trail in Tomerong, south of Nowra. Superintendent Vincent said he allegedly had his mother’s phone in his possession at the time of his arrest.
Popovic was taken to Nowra Police Station, where he was charged with murder and remanded in custody. He did not apply for bail when he appeared in court on Friday, and the matter is set to return to Parramatta Court on 13 August.
Ms Popovic’s body has not yet been found. In a statement, NSW Police said: “The body of the woman has not yet been located. Investigations are ongoing.”
