Tingjun Cao seen making digging motion in video. Video / Stuff
A jury has watched a video appearing to show murder-accused Tingjun Cao buying a spade on the day the Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao disappeared.
The 44-year-old mother vanished on July 19, 2023 and her remains were found in a shallow grave more than a year later.
Chinese national Tingjun Cao, 53, is charged with her murder.
Giving evidence today at Cao’s murder trial, shop keeper Dennis Shrimpton told the court an Asian man who visited his store did not speak English and made gestures about what he wanted.
Shrimpton said he thought the man was asking for something foldable at first, but realised it was a digging motion and he wanted to dig a hole.
He also said he noticed a stain on the man’s clothes above the left knee.
There was another outburst in court today.
Tingjun Cao is accused of murdering of Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao. Photo / Iain McGregor, Christchurch Press
Cao walked out of court last week, saying a witness was lying. After a subdued presence this morning, Cao stood up in the dock this afternoon, speaking loudly and waving documents and his hands at his lawyers.
Earlier, the court heard that a vehicle matching the description of one police were looking for following Bao’s disappearance had been seen driving erratically the day she vanished, RNZ reported.
Bao was last seen heading to show a house to a prospective client on Trevor St in Hornby, where the Crown alleged she was stabbed to death by Cao.
Police found Bao’s car, a silver Nissan Dualis, in Iroquois Place, Wigram, around 10.45pm that evening.
Cao was in the courtroom today, after previously waiving his right to be present at his trial. He appeared to have a bandage on his neck, RNZ reported.
The High Court trial heard from Christchurch man Jason Saunders.
He described seeing a Nissan car weaving all over the road, without its headlights and indicator lights on, in the Wigram area about 7pm on the evening Bao went missing.
He took note of the vehicle because it was dark and it had no lights on.
“The car was weaving a bit from side to side over the road so over the centre line and back, towards the left-hand side of the road,” Saunders said.
He could not make out the registration number of the vehicle, what the driver looked like, or the number of occupants in the car.
Saunders contacted police after seeing a news article about police looking for a Nissan Dualis car in relation to Bao’s disappearance.
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.
Police erected a tent over an area on farmland at Greenpark on the outskirts of Christchurch. Photo / Joe Allison
Crown prosecutor Cameron Stuart said a photo retrieved from Cao’s phone had an image which the Crown said was Bao’s dead body, naked from the waist down, with 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, RNZ reported.
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?” he said.
