Yanfei Bao case: Accused’s car tracked to same areas as victim’s phone

Tingjun Cao in Christchurch district court facing trial for the murder of Yanfei Bao (background). Photos / Iain McGregor / Christchurch Press

By Anna Sargent of RNZ

The car of the man accused of murdering Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao was seen in the same areas the missing woman’s phone was traced as being in, a court has heard.

The 44-year-old mother vanished on July 19, 2023, and her remains were found in a shallow grave in farmland on the outskirts of Christchurch just over a year later.

Chinese national Tingjun Cao, 53, is charged with her murder.

Her remains were found in a shallow grave in farmland on the outskirts of Christchurch. Photo / Joe Allison

Bao was last seen heading to show a house to a prospective client in Hornby, where the Crown alleged Cao stabbed her and left with her body in his car boot.

Attention turned to Bao’s cellphone at the trial on Wednesday. It was found damaged in bushes beside Christchurch’s Southern Motorway near Blakes Rd the day after she vanished.

Police detective inspector Joel Syme told the court the phone appeared to have been snapped in half.

He said police were able to track where it had been.

“Polling data indicated prior to it being found by police, Ms Bao’s cellphone had been polling at Halswell Village and Tai Tapu cell towers.”

The trial heard from a resident of Blakes Rd, Neil Clode, who said a car was being used in a strange manner on his street the evening of July 19, 2023.

“About 6.15pm on the Wednesday night I was going out for tea and I went out for my car and I saw a car across the other side of the road with its lights on and I saw someone walk around the front of the car.

“I then went back inside to get my wallet, and as I was standing at the dining table to grab my wallet the headlights of the car were then pointed towards my house with the high beam lights on. I thought that was strange at the time because not many cars usually do that, they usually parked in the cul-de-sac pointing their headlights towards the motorway,” Clode said.

Tingjun Cao, 53, is charged with the murder of Yanfei Bao. Photo / Iain McGregor

When Clode and his wife headed out in the car for dinner they saw the vehicle again, and followed it.

“I accelerated to chase him, to catch up with him... I thought whoever was driving in the car was up to no good,” he said.

He noted the details of the vehicle at a red light, including its registration number.

“It was a dirty four-door silver sedan with a dent in the left-hand side of the boot and it had a sticker on it as well,” Clode said.

Several days after Bao’s disappearance police appealed to the public for sightings of a silver Mitsubishi sedan with the registration DPH101.

Detective Syme said this number plate was found to be registered to the defendant Cao.

“Cao’s vehicle had been seen on traffic cameras in the same or similar areas at the time Bao’s cellphone was polling in those areas [Halswell and Tai Tapu]. Cao was suspected in being involved in the disappearance of Bao,” he said.

On Tuesday the jury was shown CCTV footage of a man who the Crown alleged was her killer buying a spade on the day Bao went missing.

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

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 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 the Crown 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.

- RNZ