- Published:
- Thursday 6 August 2026 at 11:00 am
| Det Ldg Sen Const Elise Jinks took on the job that would see her pursuing justice for the victims for the next two years. |
In the early hours of 23 February 2024, a stolen white Ford Ranger pulls up to an industrial area in Sunshine North, in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Two men exit the vehicle, one retrieving a red jerrycan full of petrol and the other jumping a fence to gain access to a nearby factory. The jerrycan is handed over the fence and the man pours out its contents at the main roller door of the factory before igniting a fire, which quickly takes hold of the property.
The men return to the vehicle and drive away into the night, leaving behind a factory engulfed in flames.
Little did the pair know that two men were asleep in the makeshift residences of an adjacent factory, to which the fire quickly spread. Those two men, Hai Minh Nguyen and Phuc Quoc Tran, tragically lost their lives.
Twenty minutes after the blaze started, Fire Rescue Victoria and local police officers from the Brimbank police service area attended. It took firefighters three hours to bring the inferno under control before they located the two deceased victims.
It was at this point Detective Leading Senior Constable Elise Jinks from the Arson and Explosives Squad took on the job that would see her pursuing justice for the victims for the next two years.
“As the fire was fatal and appeared suspicious, our squad rolled out to the scene that day to start the investigation,” Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said.
The targeted factory was home to an auto wrecker and repairs business where vehicles, hoists and flammable chemicals present proved to be a recipe for disaster when the fire started.
“It was an incredibly intense fire, there was so much structural damage that we weren’t able to get into the front factory at first,” Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said.
“We were able to lean on the expertise of the Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems Unit to fly drones through the site and feed that footage back live to our arson chemist, the late John Kelleher, so he could get an initial idea of where the fire had travelled.
“When we were able to access the sites, it became clear to the arson chemist that there was accelerant present at the scene, and that the fire had travelled through the targeted factory and over to the adjacent factory and residence where the victims were sleeping.
“There was only one entry and exit point to that adjacent factory where the men were found, and that had clearly been burned in the blaze.
“It blocked any possible path for them to get out.”
The investigation had quickly shifted from arson to arson causing death, and detectives were eager to track down those responsible.
Investigation heats up
Investigators were fortunate to have access to CCTV that captured the incident from start to finish, including a clear picture of the stolen vehicle used by the offenders.
“The Ford Ranger was quite distinctive with a dark dual cab on the back, and that allowed us to narrow down our search for the car’s registration,” Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said.
“The car had been detected by number plate recognition at a nearby service station an hour prior to the fire, which then gave us a clear registration and better visibility of the men in the car.”
While Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks and her colleagues were narrowing in on identifying persons of interest, they didn’t need to wait much longer for the next lead in the investigation.
In the early hours of the day after the factory fire, Fire Rescue Victoria and members from Melton Crime Investigation Unit attended the scene of an abandoned Ford Ranger that was set alight about 50km away at Coimadai, near Bacchus Marsh.
One of the vehicle’s registration plates was found at the scene, which matched those of the Ford Ranger driven by the arsonists from the Sunshine North fire.
And while the intent appeared to be to destroy evidence, the arsonists left behind another significant clue that would aid detectives in identifying the offenders.
“About 15 metres from the burnt-out car, attending members found a medical prescription with the name and address of a Melton South woman,” Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said.
“We made some enquiries and identified a person of interest who lived at the same address.”
Between the CCTV, intelligence about the burnt-out vehicle’s location in the leadup to both fires, and the dropped prescription at the scene of the car fire, detectives had zeroed in on three persons of interest. Atem Thon and Phoenix Tims were established as suspects responsible for the factory fire, while their associate Semaj Cigobia appeared to join them for the car fire the following night.
Listening in
While Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks continued to work through the initial available evidence, she knew the investigation would be far from straightforward.
“Arson investigations have their own challenges – fire tends to destroy your crime scene so it’s about trying to think outside the box to get to the bottom of what’s happened, to use the services that are available to you,” she said.
With the support of her managers in the Arson and Explosives Squad, Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks enlisted the expertise of Victoria Police’s Surveillance Services Division.
“We had the opportunity to use some covert methods to listen in on conversations that the offenders were having with one another and those close to them,” she said.
In those conversations, the trio spoke openly about their involvement in both fires and brazenly commented on ongoing media coverage of the matter.
In one discussion between Tims and his girlfriend, he said, “I did everything, I drove, I lit it up, I got out, I jumped a fence”.
Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said the content was confronting to hear.
“By that point I’d developed quite a close relationship with the families of the victims, so it did hurt to hear the offenders speak so blasé about killing two people and with such a lack of care and remorse,” she said.
“All three offenders sounded like they were coming up with a plan to try and get away with what they’d done and were not making any attempt to come forward to police.”
The motive behind the arson was also revealed in these exchanges. Tims stated he was tasked by a person who was in jail to set the Sunshine North factory alight.
“We came to find out that the arson was tasked with a promise of $4000, but that fee was never paid because the fire killed the two victims,” Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said.
It was during this period of surveillance and gathering more evidence that alarm bells began to ring louder for investigators.
“There were some suggestions that one of the persons of interest was planning further offending, so leaving him in the community was becoming too much of a risk,” Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said.
“But we also felt like we had everything we needed – we were very fortunate with the conversations we’d been able to capture and other evidence at our disposal.”
Time's up
On 16 July 2024, police conducted three simultaneous search warrants at the addresses of Thon, Tims and Cigobia.
All three were arrested after detectives searched their properties and seized various electronic devices for further analysis.
And while Thon and Tims were both hesitant to provide any information to detectives during interviews at Melton Police Station, Cigobia eventually gave admissions to some allegations and provided a written statement.
“I think once Cigobia caught on to how much we knew about the offending, that was the catalyst for him to just throw his hands in the air and say, ‘OK, I’ll tell you everything’,” Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks said.
“That statement was produced in court and presented with our brief of evidence.”
Thon and Tims were later charged with two counts of arson causing death, and Cigobia with assisting an offender and criminal damage by fire.
By June 2026, all three offenders had entered guilty pleas. Thon and Tims were both sentenced in the County Court to seven-and-a-half years’ imprisonment with non-parole periods of four years, and Cigobia received a two-year community corrections order.
Det Ldg Sen Const Jinks described this investigation as the most intense in her 19-year policing career, and a textbook example of the dangers of arson offending.
“We worked on this investigation for two years and there were so many different areas of Victoria Police involved to get the outcome we got, so it really cemented in my mind how we all play a part in the bigger picture,” she said.
“In this instance, being in a factory setting, I understand there may not have been intention to hurt anybody but, at the end of the day, two innocent people lost their lives because of this offending.
“It just proves that there’s always a risk that fire is going to spread. You have no control when it comes to fire.”
Editorial Cassandra Stanghi
Photography Danielle Ford and Jesse Wray-McCann
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