New Zealand - Yanfei Bao, 44, Real Estate Agent - Christchurch, South Island 19 July 2023

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hazel324 said:
Not sure where you are Teche - it's a 'thing' in New Zealand for lawyers to request name suppression...initially to give the accused time to have family etc notified

Sometimes it goes on and on and on...the guy who murdered Grace Millane had name suppression for ages - I believe because there were other charges pending and so as not to prejudice his case. I won't go into another high profile crime in Chch suffice to say 2 disgusting individuals managed to keep name suppression for years while awaiting trial - innocent til proven guilty!
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Thank you for responding. I’m from Louisiana.
 
Their search for Bao has largely concentrated on two areas – New Brighton and the Halswell River, south of Neills Rd, near Lake Ellesmere.

On Friday morning, a helicopter took to the sky near a search base at Motukarara, while teams of people on the ground painstakingly made their way along both edges of the swollen, muddy brown Halswell River, near Duckpond Rd.

Coastguard staff onboard two inflatable boats used sonar to search the shallow water of Lake Ellesmere, near the mouth of the Halswell River.
www.stuff.co.nz

By air, land and on water: The search for missing real estate agent Yanfei Bao

Yanfei Bao was last seen alive 10 days ago in a Christchurch street where she was due to show someone a house listed for sale. Police believe she was murdered.
www.stuff.co.nz www.stuff.co.nz
 
Thanks for keeping things going today...

There was I believe a False Alarm

About 12.30pm, staff on the boats thought they might have made a breakthrough. Police attended, and people were seen crossing their fingers as they headed back out onto the lake towing an inflatable stretcher. But it wasn’t to be, and the two boats returned to shore about 1.5 hours later empty-handed.

Coastguard staff head out to Lake Ellesmere where a search was conducted using sonar.

PETER MEECHAM/THE PRESS/STUFF
Coastguard staff head out to Lake Ellesmere where a search was conducted using sonar.

Detectives have tracked the movements of the kidnapping accused through the help of tips from the public, cellphone data and CCTV footage, Stuff understands.

Their search for Bao has largely concentrated on two areas – New Brighton and the Halswell River, south of Neills Rd, near Lake Ellesmere.

On Friday morning, a helicopter took to the sky near a search base at Motukarara, while teams of people on the ground painstakingly made their way along both edges of the swollen, muddy brown Halswell River, near Duckpond Rd.
 
Thank you hazel for keeping the thread up to date. I felt too saddened by it all yesterday to look and One News seems to have forgotten her tonight ( all about climate change and the mum who killed her 3 girls).

I do hope the quiet is because they have something to present soon.



- In NZ we prefer to say the names of the victims and not the offenders. I’m sure many here saw and worked out who Grace Milanese’s murderer was from his fb comment early on and we NEVER say the name of the mosque murderer
 
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Yanfei Bao: Family of missing real estate agent head to New Zealand from China as Police escalate search

[Ms] Bao has now been missing for nine days and Police escalated their missing person's case to a homicide investigation two days ago.

" .... Ms Bao's family are overwhelmed by the keenness and information from the public to help find her," Det Insp Reeves said.

Police told Newshub Bao's family are coping remarkably well, they have support, and her family are on their way here to New Zealand from China.
 
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Nothing new but good synopsis from Mike White and Blair Ensor for Stuff

The disappearance of Yanfei Bao: Mystery, tragedy, and the sad house on the street corner

Yanfei Bao was a mother, wife, and hard-working Christchurch real estate agent. Her disappearance has shocked and horrified the community and country. Mike White and Blair Ensor examine what happened, and what is known. Additional reporting by Nadine Roberts and Wei Shao.

The House

If this was where Yanfei Bao’s life ended, it’s a sad and lonely location.

A house in suburban Christchurch, emptied for sale, devoid of people or personality.

It’s the last place the 44-year-old mother, wife, and real estate agent is known to have been, late on the morning of Wednesday, July 19.

16 Trevor St in Hornby, on the apex of the road where it hooks sharp left, where trees’ bare branches lend certainty it’s still mid-winter.

Bao had gone there to show a prospective buyer through the house, its vacant rooms still chilly from the frosty night.

Its previous occupants had long gone, to Australia where it was warmer, where their grandchildren were.

After 37 years living there, the only reminders they’d left behind were indents in the carpet where solid furniture had once been.


16 Trevor St, which had been on the market less than two weeks, when Yanfei Bao went missing after arranging to meet a client there.

PETER MEECHAM/STUFF

<modsnip: copyright>

Cont at link…
 
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So let me get this straight...the suspect rented a room in a house from a fellow factory worker and Yanfei had been the buyer's agent in purchasing the house just in June. Was the perpetrator stalking and targeting her?
 
Snoopster said:
So let me get this straight...the suspect rented a room in a house from a fellow factory worker and Yanfei had been the buyer's agent in purchasing the house just in June. Was the perpetrator stalking and targeting her?
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Basically, yes.....either from meeting her in the area and setting his sights on her for nefarious reasons; or

IMO there is always the possibility that he actually came to NZ already knowing her:

As you say, he'd arrived here just a couple of months ago

Didn't have his own place, so boarding, a temporary arrangement

One of the comments made by DI Reeves early on was "a big focus of the investigation would be to look into Bao’s background and her activities to see who she may have crossed paths with ... to work out what the motivation might be."

Obviously it's standard to look into a missing person's past 'n present lives...this comment "a BIG focus" just made me think hmmmmmm what about her ex-husband in China

With name suppression we just don't know WHO he is but we know he booked a one way ticket to Shanghai, needed interpreter so limited English and he had no suitcase with him which is quite bizarre - you can fill a bag in 3 mins but maybe he didn't risk going back to his address and just bolted to the airport

Another possibility is the guy came to NZ intending to set up money laundering - approached Yanfei who reacted with disdain and said she's report him so...

Whilst I thought this might apply in earlier stages I now don't think it likely
 
Snoopster said:
@hazel324 I want to thank you for keeping everyone updated on this case. It is truly heartbreaking and so surprising that this happened in such a safe country. And to think she has a 9 year old daughter and family from far away. :(
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Thank you Snoopster, it's quite true NZ is considered a safe country, although the past week's Media reports have had allsorts going on. You're right, heartbreaking for her family and friends, I feel so sad every time I think of them...just hoping for a quick resolution.

Cases of missing people dragging on and on only lengthens the torture for the families involved.
 
hazel324 said:
Basically, yes.....either from meeting her in the area and setting his sights on her for nefarious reasons; or

IMO there is always the possibility that he actually came to NZ already knowing her:

As you say, he'd arrived here just a couple of months ago

Didn't have his own place, so boarding, a temporary arrangement

One of the comments made by DI Reeves early on was "a big focus of the investigation would be to look into Bao’s background and her activities to see who she may have crossed paths with ... to work out what the motivation might be."

Obviously it's standard to look into a missing person's past 'n present lives...this comment "a BIG focus" just made me think hmmmmmm what about her ex-husband in China

With name suppression we just don't know WHO he is but we know he booked a one way ticket to Shanghai, needed interpreter so limited English and he had no suitcase with him which is quite bizarre - you can fill a bag in 3 mins but maybe he didn't risk going back to his address and just bolted to the airport

Another possibility is the guy came to NZ intending to set up money laundering - approached Yanfei who reacted with disdain and said she's report him so...

Whilst I thought this might apply in earlier stages I now don't think it likely
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You raise an interesting point about who she knew, and he knew, back in China.
I'm sure various immigrant groups would make connections with others from their immediate original area.

How long had Yanfei been in NZ?

I think about real estate here in Canada. The Chinese have long been pumping money into real estate here as they try to find places to invest their money outside of China. (I presume it is similar in New Zealand? ) That's what caused my mind to go toward business deals as opposed to domestic violence.
 
hazel324 said:
<snip>
One of the comments made by DI Reeves early on was "a big focus of the investigation would be to look into Bao’s background and her activities to see who she may have crossed paths with ... to work out what the motivation might be."

Obviously it's standard to look into a missing person's past 'n present lives...this comment "a BIG focus" just made me think hmmmmmm what about her ex-husband in China
<snip>
Click to expand...
Snipped for focus by me.

I've been thinking a bit more about DI Reeves' comment. They were looking at who she might have crossed paths with. It's possible that she only crossed paths with the accused as a result of he tenancy at the house that she helped his landlord buy. I wouldn't necessarily jump to the assumption that it relates to 'crossed paths back in China'. Of course it might be related to that, but it could also be a "simple" case of infatuation by a 52 year old man with an attractive bright younger woman.

I will definitely continue following this case with a hope of finding out why Yanfei Bao was murdered. :(
 
Snoopster said:
You raise an interesting point about who she knew, and he knew, back in China.
I'm sure various immigrant groups would make connections with others from their immediate original area.

How long had Yanfei been in NZ?

I think about real estate here in Canada. The Chinese have long been pumping money into real estate here as they try to find places to invest their money outside of China. (I presume it is similar in New Zealand? ) That's what caused my mind to go toward business deals as opposed to domestic violence.
Click to expand...

From her bio on a real estate website, she had been a university lecturer at Hubei University of Education in Wuhan, China, and also Wuhan Donghu University, as well as working as a translator for a national railway organisation in China.

The biography says she received a master’s degree in English linguistics, and a postgraduate diploma in business from Canterbury University in 2019.

Purely guessing from when she was studying here 6+ years - I don't know if she met her husband here (in which case it would be 10+ years) or whether they met and married overseas and came to NZ to settle

NZ nurtures a close relationship with China - exports + education top onfthe list and over the years many Chinese communities have been established here. Investment in property has been big business for sure and grown exponentially in recent years. However, I have not heard of alleged/prosecuted corruption (and haven't searched it either just imo)

In the early stages of her disappearance a WSer mentioned corruption in Vancouver relating to Chinese investment in property there and links to laundering.

This made me think early on that a proposition could've been made to Yanfei that she rebuffed which lead to altercation.

I've since re-thought this due to the accused's living/working situation
 
Snoopster said:
Snipped for focus by me.

I've been thinking a bit more about DI Reeves' comment. They were looking at who she might have crossed paths with. It's possible that she only crossed paths with the accused as a result of he tenancy at the house that she helped his landlord buy. I wouldn't necessarily jump to the assumption that it relates to 'crossed paths back in China'. Of course it might be related to that, but it could also be a "simple" case of infatuation by a 52 year old man with an attractive bright younger woman.

I will definitely continue following this case with a hope of finding out why Yanfei Bao was murdered. :(
Click to expand...
I see that too - a sad case of a man using a ruse of buying house to lure her in and when secluded in the Trevor St house, made his move.

We can't rule in or out any possible motive until LE have all the evidence lined up to complete the picture....it's just a semi-completed puzzle right now.
 
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