Tingjun Cao, 53, centre, is charged with the murder of Yanfei Bao. Photo: KAI SCHWOERER / THE PRESS
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 19 July, 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.
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 Road the day after she vanished.
Yanfei Bao's phone. Photo: Supplied
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 Road, Neil Clode, who said his attention was attracted by a car on his street on the evening of 19 July, 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.
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.
The car that Neil Clode observed close to his house. Photo: Supplied
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.
On Wednesday, the trial also heard from Christchurch resident Ian Flatley, who told the court he saw a suspicious looking car in the Greenpark area - where Bao's remains were found - on the day she went missing.
Flatley said at about 4.30pm on 19 July, 2023, he was driving along Hudsons Road when he was drawn to a silver car parked up at a strange angle after he crossed the intersection at Greenpark.
"I was suspicious because it was parked at 45 degrees to the road and the rear of the car was at the edge of the tarmac, presenting a road hazard."
Flatley said he slowed right down going past the vehicle.
"I noticed no one was in the car, and to my shock when I passed the car there was a man crouching at the rear driver's side door.
"I looked at him, he looked at me. He had a concerned look on his face. He was crouched but he had nothing in his hands," he said.
Flatley said he saw no one else inside or outside the car.
"I would've seen somebody in the car if they were sitting up," he said.
Flatley got in contact with police after hearing a media report that police were appealing for sightings of a vehicle in the Greenpark area on 19 July.
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 cell phone 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 21 October and is expected to run for six weeks.