Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao murder trial: Victim told friend she was being chased by man she rejected

Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao.

By Anna Sargent of RNZ

Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao told a friend a month before she disappeared that she was being chased by a man she rejected, a court has heard.

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

Bao was last seen heading to show a house to a prospective client on Trevor St, Hornby, where the Crown alleged she was stabbed to death by Cao.

On Friday, the trial heard from Bao’s friend Qi Qi who said the pair were like “sisters” and described her personality as very outgoing and friendly.

When Bao told her she planned to go door-knocking to drum up business, Qi said she warned her it might be dangerous.

She said Bao told her, “It’s in daylight, it’s quite safe, New Zealand is a safe place”.

Qi told the court they had a lengthy phone conversation in June 2023 in which they talked about their lives.

“That day I had an argument with my boyfriend so she was comforting me. I asked her if anyone was chasing after her and she said yes, somebody was chasing her. She said it was a friend of a customer,” she said.

Qi said Bao told her she had rejected the man and told him she had a husband and family, but the man told her that he “doesn’t care”.

Tingjun Cao in the High Court at Christchurch facing trial for the murder of Yanfei Bao.

“Even after she rejected him he still kind of approached her,” Qi said.

Bao did not tell her any identifying details about the man or his nationality, she said.

Qi said Bao told her that her job was going well and she was happy about a sale.

The court also heard from another friend of Yanfei Bao’s, Jin Tian, who spoke to her on July 19, the day she vanished.

“She called me and asked if there’s any way that people can transfer money from China [to New Zealand]. The amount she tells me is around 500,000 to 600,000 New Zealand dollars,” Tian said.

Tian said Bao did not indicate who she was asking for, but she assumed she was talking about a potential buyer.

Bao sounded normal on the phone and nothing in the call gave her cause for concern, Tian said.

The trial also heard from Cao’s brother-in-law Shengxian Xu on Friday.

Xu said Cao lived at his house when he arrived in New Zealand from China early last year, and he helped him find work.

Cao came to New Zealand on his own, but he had talked about plans for his wife and children to join him, Xu said.

Xu met Bao through her being the real estate agent for a property he purchased.

Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao went missing in July 2023 but her remains were not found until a year later.

He said Cao went to meet with Bao on his behalf to pay for the property while he was away in China.

Xu did not know where the two met, or if his brother-in-law had any other contact with her after that point.

Crown prosecutor Pip Currie asked Xu if he talked to Cao about the real estate agent’s disappearance.

“I can’t remember clearly but likely the day Yanfei Bao went missing or the following night I remember he walked by the dining hall and my wife told him Yanfei Bao went missing.

“I remember he said that now it is easier to track down the missing person because there is so much CCTV footage,” Xu said.

Yesterday, the trial heard from Harcourts real estate agents who worked with Bao.

Steven Golding talked to her the day she went missing.

“I had a few missed calls from Yanfei in the morning, and then I spoke to her sort of mid-morning and then also engaged text conversation with her after that, and that was the last conversation I had with her.

“She was just enquiring around Trevor St, and if it was vacant and the lockbox code… she didn’t say why, but it’s a common thing to ask if it’s vacant to let their owners know if they can go there or not,” Golding said.

Golding said an open home was held at the Trevor St property four days later on July 23.

He was not aware of any cleaning inside the house before the open home, but when he visited the property beforehand he found Bao’s business card in the kitchen and said there was a set of keys missing from the lockbox.

The Crown case is that Cao stabbed Bao multiple times at the Trevor St property, dragged her body through the house and put it in the boot of his car. Bao’s body was found in a shallow grave on a Greenpark farm in July this year.

Crown Prosecutor Cameron Stuart said a photo retrieved from Cao’s phone had an image which the Crown said was Bao’s dead body, which showed her naked from the waist down and blood on her body.

Stuart said the Crown did not need to prove motive, but the photo might suggest a sexual element to the attack.

Cao’s defence lawyer Joshua MacLeod said the Crown’s evidence was not enough to prove the murder charge, and the evidence was much muddier than they wanted it to appear.

“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 began on October 21 and is expected to run for six weeks.

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