Desert Rd homicide: Gaoxiang Yu pleads guilty to murdering Ricky Wang

Another man has admitted to causing the death of Auckland resident Ricky Wang - five years after the father-of-two vanished and three years after his body was discovered in a shallow grave near Tongariro National Park.

Wearing a black T-shirt as he stood in the dock in the High Court at Auckland this morning, Gaoxiang Yu paused momentarily as he was asked how he wished to plea to the murder charge.

“Guilty,” the 26-year-old told Justice Simon Moore during the short hearing.

The judge set a sentencing date for early next month.

The remains of Bao Chang Wang, known as Ricky, were found in a shallow grave covered in concrete near Desert Rd and Tongariro National Park in March 2020.

Authorities say he was killed roughly 370km away in Auckland in 2017, but he had never been reported missing, with his family having been told he had moved overseas.

Yu was charged with murder last year.

Police discovered Wang’s body and began unravelling the case after Yanlong Piao, who helped dump the body, went to police saying he was consumed with guilt. He was sentenced in 2020 to 14 months in prison for being an accessory to murder after the fact.

Months later, Yuzhen Zhang was sentenced to six months’ home detention for the same accessory charge after the civil engineer said he only helped dispose of the body out of a displaced sense of loyalty to his friend Piao.

Last year, co-defendant Jian Qi Zhao was sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to murder.

Another man has pleaded not guilty and awaits trial.