Liu told Cissy Chen's brother she was kidnapped

Yun Qing "Jack" Liu is accused of murdering Cissy Chen (inset). Photo / File

Cissy Chen's partner spent the days after her disappearance trying to convince her brothers that kidnap was the most likely scenario.

The trial for Yun Qing "Jack" Liu, 58, accused of the murder of the 44-year-old accountant, began in the High Court at Auckland.

Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey told the jury on November 5, 2012 the couple's relationship had deteriorated to such a degree she called her brother to tell him she was leaving the defendant and was going to write a will excluding him as a beneficiary.

Liu told police Ms Chen had gone for a walk alone that evening but the Crown disputed that version of events.

"She never went out for that walk that night. It's likely, although we don't have to establish it, that she died at home by the actions of the defendant," Mr Dickey said.

Ms Chen's body was eventually found 16 months after her disappearance in a stream in a reserve in Totaravale, 10km away from their home.

Two days after Ms Chen's disappearance her brother Philip called her cell phone, which was answered by the defendant.

The conversations over the subsequent days and weeks were recorded by Ms Chen's brother and the jury spent the day listening to those exchanges.

Liu told the concerned sibling he suspected his partner of more than eight years had been kidnapped.

"I rang my mother to ask them to send me some money. I said I wonder if it was a kidnapping or something like that," he said.

Philip Chen grilled Liu over whether there was any "sign" of unhappiness but he said the only things worrying her were her work and her weight.

"Currently I'm anxious as hell," Philip Chen said, three days after her disappearance.

He was also confused about why Liu had gone back to work straightaway.

"Under such circumstances, and it was only a few days ago, you ought to take some rest. Besides, you should be concentrating on finding Cissy," he said.

But Liu said his computer and phone had been confiscated by police and there was nothing to do at home.

He also scolded himself for approaching police too early and not giving potential kidnappers the chance to come forward with ransom demands.

Then, four days after her disappearance, he refined his theory.

"I now suspect perhaps she had come across someone from the past, someone she had known before she met me and got into that person's car and was taken away. That possibility is huge," Liu said.

The recorded conversations are expected to end tomorrow and defence counsel will cross-examine Philip Chen.

The trial, before Justice Sarah Katz and a jury of six women and six men, is scheduled to last eight weeks.