A pregnant 23-year-old East Maitland woman, formerly a student in the Hunter Valley, has been charged over the alleged murder of a Sydney man who was shot dead at Canterbury in 2023.
Ferenc 'David' Stemler was found dead, shot several times, on Broughton Street after police were called to the southwest Sydney neighbourhood in the small hours of Thursday, July 27.
Burwood Police and the state's homicide squad opened investigations into Mr Stemler's death, but the matter was quickly handed to Task Force Magnus, which NSW Police set up to investigate links between organised criminal activity in Sydney last year.
After months of inquiries, officers arrested 23-year-old expectant mother Rhylee Peta Stig in Wetherill Park last Wednesday morning about 7am.
Ms Stig and a 27-year-old man, Sione Langi, who was transferred from Parklea Correctional Centre, have both been charged with murder.
They remain in custody after Ms Stig was refused bail in Fairfield Local Court on Wednesday and Mr Langi, who was arrested in November over another shooting in Sydney, was similarly refused bail in Blacktown Local Court on Thursday.
Mr Langi was allegedly involved with two other men in a daylight shooting at an inner-west hair salon at Marrickville on July 7 last year, which wounded two men aged 20 and 33.
Police allege that Ms Stig, who was unknown to police until her arrest, was a "lackey" who helped orchestrate the bloody hit on Mr Stemler, who investigators say had associations with organised crime in Sydney's underworld but was not a "major player".
"We are not making any suggestion about Stemler's involvement in organised crime," Detective Inspector Virginia Gorman, of the state's homicide squad, said last week. "He was known to police. He was a local man and grew up with a number of people in the area who have also been victims of these crimes, so there are associations, but that doesn't make him a major player in organised crime.
"My understanding is that Stemler and the victims of the Marrickville shooting went to school together."
While Ms Stig had no known association with Mr Stemler, police allege that she was connected to Langi via "other associates".
Officers have alleged that Ms Stig was part of a "greater criminal enterprise" and that she knew about the July 27 hit and helped the shooter before and after Mr Stemler was gunned down.
"I wouldn't say [she was] a 'mastermind'," Inspector Gorman said. "More like a lackey doing tasks."
Inspector Gorman said there would likely be further arrests over Mr Stemler's death, adding that Ms Stig and Mr Langi were not the only people who were allegedly involved.
Task Force Magnus was created in July to investigate six organised crime killings in Sydney in 2023, which police say were all linked to the supply or importation of drugs into the city. Assistant Commissioner Michael Fitzgerald said the arrests are significant for the task force, adding that Magnus officers had successfully solved all the cases it was established to investigate.
"While the work is never truly done, this is a huge feat for our command, who was given the difficult job of circuit-breaking the brazen violence we saw unfolding on our streets," he said.
"The safety of our wider community has - and always will be - our number one priority, and the people of NSW our motivation for crafting such a significant response, one that has evidently had noteworthy success."
