Cissy Chen's body was found 16 months after her disappearance. Photo / Supplied
Cissy Chen's body was found 16 months after her disappearance. Photo / Supplied
Any alternative explanations to Cissy Chen's partner deliberately killing her are "fanciful", the Crown says.
Yun Qing 'Jack' Liu, 58, has been on trial in the High Court at Auckland for the last six weeks accused of the murder of his partner, who went missing on November 5, 2012.
MsChen's body was eventually found 16 months after her disappearance in a stream in a reserve in Totaravale, 11km away from their home.
In closing its case, Crown prosecutor Brian Dickey said the location of the victim's body was only a few hundred metres from where the couple used to live.
"That's either an extraordinary coincidence or it isn't a coincidence at all," he said.
"Otherwise the person who killed her - a random killer who we know of no motive for - chooses to drive 11km south and dispose, conceal, dump her body in a reserve just next to where [they] used to live. That's utterly remarkable.
"[Liu] was in a hurry, he was probably panicking and he needed to go somewhere he knew to get rid of evidence that implicated him in what he had done."
When Liu called police, he said his partner had gone for a walk between 5pm and 6pm that night, but Mr Dickey said she had made a call from her landline - which was found at the house - to her brother Phillip at 7.15pm.
When one of Ms Chen's friends called the Torbay address at 8.19pm, Liu answered and said she was still walking.
The Crown case is that she was killed in that hour-long window.
Yun Qing Liu, in the dock, during his appearance at the trial for the murder of Cissy Chen. Photo / Brett Phibbs, NZ Herald
Mr Dickey said the motive was clear: Liu had access to his partner's email address and saw messages from her brother which made it obvious she was changing her will to "cut him out".
"Do you think that made Jack Liu mad? Do you think Cissy Chen died because of it? Or did she go for a walk?" he said.
There was evidence from Ms Chen's brothers that she had had told them about a "fierce argument" on the night before her alleged murder, and neighbours told the court of hearing yelling and screaming at times.
A friend of the victim also told the jury she was planning to sell a rental property in Mt Roskill and move away from Liu into her own place.
Earlier today Mr Dickey drew jurors' attention to intercepted communications after police bugged the defendant's house.
Five days after Ms Chen went missing he discussed with a friend the best way to sell one of their two cars.
"Interesting isn't it that five days after the disappearance of his wife he's planning to sell the car; because he doesn't need two anymore, does he?" Mr Dickey said.
There was also a soliloquy Liu gave when he was on his own.
"It's been seven days, Cissy. I'll remember this day forever. I love you Cissy. I'm sorry, it can't be helped. I want you to be released. I want to make you happy in another world. Cissy I love you," he said.
"How does he know that she's dead? He knows she died on the 5th? I wonder why that is." Mr Dickey told the jury.
Cissy Chen's partner told some "big, whopping lies" to the police, the Crown said.
Mr Dickey said the most significant were about the victim going for a walk and the fact he went out to look for her.
CCTV footage showed Liu drove left at an intersection onto Beach Rd that evening, which the Crown said would take him south to where her body was dumped rather than to Long Bay to look for Ms Chen.
Until police told him about the video evidence, the defendant maintained he had turned right, but when confronted with the truth he "reworks the drive route", Mr Dickey said.
"The reason that lie is so significant, is if he told the truth he would have to say, 'I wasn't looking for my wife. I know where she was. She was in the boot of my car'," the prosecutor said.
"That's not something he was willing to share with police then, not ever. The explanation for the lie was guilt."
Liu's injury to the webbing of his right hand pointed to a "manual killing" the Crown said.
"There's no blood at the scene, that's certain. She's not got a fractured skull, there's no apparent brain injury, she's not fallen over and banged her head. It would seem the likelihood is she's been killed manually," Mr Dickey suggested.
"To kill someone manually is the most personal of events, you might think, you're that close to them when you do it. By definition, you're at arm's length."
The defence is expected to close its case this afternoon before the judge sums up next week.
