A vehicle matching the description of one police were looking for following Yanfei Bao’s disappearance was seen driving erratically the day she vanished, a court has heard.
The 44-year-old real estate agent vanished on July 19, 2023, and her remains were found more than a year later. Chinese national Tingjun Cao, 53, is charged with her murder.
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 on Monday, after previously waiving his right to be present at his trial. He appeared to have a bandage on his neck.
On Monday, 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, he said.
“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.
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 got in contact with 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 Chrtistchurch. 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.
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.
The trial began on October 21 and is expected to run for six weeks.
