Murder of Yanfei Bao

Yanfei Bao, a Harcourts real estate agent in Christchurch, New Zealand, was last seen on the morning of 19 July 2023 in the suburb of Hornby, where she was reportedly due to show a potential buyer a property on Trevor Street. She spoke by phone with a friend, Jin Tian, that morning about a large money transfer for a house purchase. Bao was reported missing after failing to collect her daughter from after-school care. Her car was found that evening in Wigram, and her cellphone was later located on the Christchurch Southern Motorway, several kilometres from where she was last seen.

New Zealand Police launched a missing person search that expanded into a homicide investigation on 26 July 2023. Tingjun Cao, then 52, was arrested at Christchurch Airport on 22 July 2023 after booking a one-way flight to China, and was charged with kidnapping. He told police he had lost his job a month earlier and had been driving around looking for work, and denied knowing Bao well. Police searches over the following months covered the Halswell River, Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora, Greenpark, Rolleston, and wider Christchurch areas, seeking a silver Mitsubishi sedan, items of clothing, and a spade. On 15 August 2023, Cao was charged with murder and pleaded not guilty.

The investigation remained active into 2024, with police unlocking Bao's phone in May 2024, which helped locate her remains. On 30 July 2024, more than a year after her disappearance, Bao's remains were found in a shallow grave on rural farmland near Lincoln, in the Greenpark area. An autopsy on 31 July 2024 and confirmation on 2 August 2024 identified the remains as Bao's.

Cao's trial began on 21 October 2024 at the Christchurch High Court before Justice Lisa Preston, with a jury of six men and six women. The Crown, led by prosecutors Cameron Stuart and Pip Currie, argued Cao stabbed Bao inside the Trevor Street property, transported her body by car, bought a spade from a hardware store, and buried her in a shallow grave, citing forensic, CCTV, cellphone, and eyewitness evidence, and raising a possible sexual motive. During the trial, Cao dismissed his defence lawyers, Colin Eason and Joshua Macleod, and represented himself, later testifying that an unnamed stranger he called "Mr. Tang" had test-driven his car and could have been responsible. Prosecutor Pip Currie described this account as "completely fictitious and made up." On 4 December 2024, a jury found Cao guilty of murder after roughly ninety minutes of deliberation.

At sentencing on 13 June 2025, Justice Preston said the evidence showed a sexual component to the offending while noting that it was unnecessary for her to decide whether a sexual assault occurred. She sentenced Cao to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 17 years and six months. The court heard victim impact statements from Bao's daughter, husband Paul Gooch, father-in-law David Gooch, and her father. A public memorial for Bao was held on 18 November 2024 at Our Lady of Victories Church in Sockburn, and a Givealittle fundraiser organised by a friend raised over NZ$50,000 for her family.

Cao filed an appeal against both his conviction and sentence in July 2025. The Court of Appeal had not set a hearing date when the appeal was reported in August 2025.