Yanfei Bao: Court hears possible motive in agent’s murder

Warning: This story discusses details of sexual violence.

The High Court has been told that there may have been a sexual element to the attack on a Christchurch real estate agent, whose body was found just over a year after she went missing.

Tingjun Cao, 53, a Chinese national, is charged with the murder of Yanfei Bao on 19 July 2023, the day she went missing.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Bao went missing in July last year and her body was found in farmland near Christchurch just over a year later.

The Crown opened its case this afternoon.

Crown Prosecutor Cameron Stuart told the court that Tingjun Cao met Bao when his relative bought a house off Yanfei Bao several months before her disappearance.

Cao paid part of the money towards the property and had dealings with Bao.

After that the two stayed in contact, and Bao tried to assist him to find work.

On the day Bao went missing the Crown said Tingjun Cao contacted Bao saying he had a friend interested in buying a house.

She said she had properties which could be of interest and she arranged to met Cao, and his friend, later that day at a Hornby property.

Stuart said that the Crown case is that Cao stabbed Bao multiple times at that house, and dragged her body through the house and put it in the boot of his car.

He said a photo retrieved from Cao’s phone had an image which the Crown said is Bao’s dead body, which shows her naked from the waist down and blood on her body.

Stuart said the Crown does not need to prove motive, but that this photo may suggest a sexual element to the offending.

Defence opening statements

In his opening address, Cao’s defence lawyer, Joshua McLeod, said the Crown’s evidence is not enough to prove the murder charge.

“This case is not simple, the evidence is not simple, and more importantly what you make of the evidence is not simple, and what the evidence tells you is not simple.”

McLeod said the only thing that is simple is Cao’s position, which is that he is not guilty.

He said Cao does not speak English, so will need the evidence translated for him, and he asked for the jury’s patience.

McLeod said that the Crown’s evidence is much muddier than they want it to appear.

“That lack of clarity will can only result in the erosion of their case. You will need to look at the police investigation as a whole.

“How did they approach this case, how did it develop, and when. Who were they looking at and why, and how wide a net did they cast? What evidence can you actually rely on?”

The trial is expected to hear from over 70 witnesses over the next five to six weeks, including from Yanfei Bao’s partner Paul Gooch who is expected to speak tomorrow.

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Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao murder trial: Devastated partner describes horror of her not returning home from work

The partner of slain Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao has spoken of his mounting fear as he discovered she never came home from work that day, something that was “completely out of character”.

Tingjun Cao, 53, denies killing 44-year-old Yanfei Bao on July 19 last year and is standing trial in the High Court at Christchurch.

Lawyers for Cao, who came to New Zealand months before the alleged killing, told the opening day of the trial yesterday the case was far from simple and the evidence cannot sustain a guilty verdict in any way.

The Crown claims Cao had arranged to meet Bao at a house she was marketing in Trevor St, Hornby, claiming he had a Chinese buyer after a $650,000 three-bedroom house.

But when she arrived, the Crown alleges he attacked, stabbing her multiple times, dragging her body out of the house and into a car before dumping her in a shallow grave on a farm outside town. He was then caught at Christchurch International Airport trying to flee for Shanghai, the Crown said. It took police 12 months to find Bao’s remains.

This afternoon, laboratory technician Gooch, who brought a small blue cuddly toy into the witness box with him, spoke about how July 19 last year unfolded.

Gooch, who was in a relationship with Yanfei for five years, kissed her forehead as she was still sleeping before he left for work on his motorbike, about 7.45am.

They didn’t communicate during the day, with Gooch saying they were both busy professional people.

After work, about 4.30pm, Gooch texted Bao to say he was heading to a central city gym: ‘Hi honey, I’m just heading to Les Mills now. I will catch up with you when I get home later’.

Bao had the car and would normally pick up her 9-year-old daughter from an after-school programme about 5.30pm.

But after gym, and looking at his phone for the first time as he stopped for Chinese takeaways, he found several missed calls from the after-school programme staff to say Bao not not picked up the child.

When he got home, he found a neighbour in his driveway.

“I obviously knew something was going on,” Gooch told the court.

The neighbour said after-school programme people had visited the house and found nobody home. The girl had been taken to Christchurch central police station and the neighbour offered to drive Gooch there.

At the police station, Gooch made sure the girl was okay and spoke to a police officer and said he had grave concerns for Bao, saying her disappearance was “completely out of character”.

He told the jury that Bao had “never … never disappeared the whole time I knew her, ever”.

As they drove home, he tried ringing her phones several times again and although they rang out, they were not answered. He said he was continually getting more and more concerned.

He also phoned friends but they hadn’t heard from her either.

By about 10.30pm, he decided not to wait until the morning to officially report her missing as he knew there was “something seriously wrong”.

The Trevor St house was later forensically examined. The Crown says blood found at the back entry and in the front bedroom matched Bao’s DNA, while blood discovered in the boot and rear footwell of Cao’s car also matched Bao, the Crown told the jury.

CCTV from various cameras, along with phone polling and geolocation data, also traced the murder accused’s movements across the city after the attack, the Crown alleges.

Forensic pathologist Dr Leslie Anderson conducted an autopsy on Bao’s body, which was in an “advanced state of decomposition” by the time she was found.

Anderson concluded she had died in a violent attack, with two distinct stab wounds around her abdomen.

The trial, before Justice Lisa Preston, continues.

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Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao murder trial: Partner gives evidence

The partner of murdered real estate agent Yanfei Bao has told the High Court when he returned home and found she hadn’t been home during the day he realised that something unusual had happened.

Tingjun Cao, 53, a Chinese national, is charged with the murder of Yanfei Bao on 19 July 2023, the day she went missing.

He has pleaded not guilty.

Bao went missing in July last year and her body was found in farmland near Christchurch just over a year later.

Bao’s partner Paul Gooch was the second witness to give evidence in the trial.

Crown prosecutor Pip Currie asked Gooch when he realised Bao was missing.

Gooch said when he came home from the gym in the evening he was met by his neighbour who told him that someone from their daughter’s afterschool care had been to the house as no one had gone to pick up their daughter.

He was told the afterschool care worker had then taken their daughter into the central police station.

Gooch said he then went inside to check the dishwasher.

Yanfei usually came home during the day for lunch and left her dishes in the dishwasher, he said.

On this occasion it was clear she had not put any dishes in the dishwasher.

Gooch became emotional as he said it was very unusual for her to not come home for lunch.

He was asked about Yanfei’s departure from the house in the morning, as shown on cctv footage from the house.

He said she could be seen rushing out to her car, first with no shoes on, returning to the house, and then back to the car with shoes on and leaving.

With a slight laugh, Gooch said she was always running late.

Gooch said he didn’t know much of her plans for the day, but she had mentioned she hoped to meet with a prospective client.

There was also a testy exchange between Gooch and the accused man’s defence lawyer

Gooch was asked by Colin Eason if the pair’s daughter was still at the same school.

Gooch asked if he meant she was still at the same school since Yanfei was murdered.

After a pause to allow the interpreter to catch up, Eason repeated the question and said is the daughter at the same school since her mother went missing.

Gooch angrily replied: “Her mother is not missing, she is dead.”

Eason then asked Gooch if he intended that the child, who is not his biological daughter, would continue to live with him or return to live in China.

Gooch said he intended for her to keep living with him, but he did not have a crystal ball.