Australian Crime Rate
BREAKINGBelconnen, Australian Capital Territory

Man charged with murder following May arson incident

ACT Policing·

Where: Osborne Place, Belconnen, the street the release names · See the street on the map

Man charged with murder following May arson incident
Belconnen, Australian Capital Territory · ACT Policing

The release

A 27-year-old man has been charged with murder following the discovery of a woman's body in a house fire in Belconnen in May.

About 6:40am on 18 May (2026), police and emergency services were called to a fire at Osborne Place in Belconnen.

On arrival, 46-year-old Kylee McHugh (who was the resident of the unit) was located inside. She was declared deceased at the scene.

Following an extensive investigation by ACT Homicide Squad Detectives, a 27-year-old man was arrested yesterday in relation to this incident.

Police will allege he murdered Ms McHugh and then set the residence on fire.

He is expected to face the ACT Magistrates Court today (Tuesday, 8 September 2026) charged with murder and arson.

Detectives believe there are people within the community who have information regarding Kylee’s murder. We ask that they come forward and speak with us.

Anyone who has information that can assist is urged to contact Crime Stoppers via the Crime Stoppers ACT website . Please quote 8389127. Information can be provided anonymously.

— ACT Policing
This report is from ACT Policing. Read their full release: police.act.gov.au/news/2026-media-releases/september/man-c…

Crime in the Unincorporated ACT council area

Unincorporated ACT is a council area in Australian Capital Territory with about 484,630 residents. It has a Crime Score 42 out of 100 (moderate), 233rd of 362 councils nationally.

The score blends national percentile ranks for each published offence category with fixed severity weights; here it is driven most by homicide (58th percentile), robbery (64th percentile), assault (32nd percentile). Five years earlier the same basis gave 58.

Violent
—
Property
—
Break-ins
—
Theft
—

See the full Unincorporated ACT crime profile

2015-16: 790 per 100,0002016-17: 930 per 100,0002017-18: 836 per 100,0002018-19: 866 per 100,0002019-20: 816 per 100,0002020-21: 805 per 100,0002021-22: 777 per 100,0002022-23: 942 per 100,0002023-24: 860 per 100,0002024-25: 806 per 100,0002015-162020-212024-25
Recorded violent offences per 100,000 residents in Unincorporated ACT, 2015-16 to 2024-25 — little changed over the period. Source: recorded crime published for Australian Capital Territory.

More from Australian Capital Territory and around Australia