Man accused of kidnapping missing real estate appears in court
A 52-year-old Bryndwr resident is set to appear in the Christchurch District Court on Monday before Judge Michael Crosbie.
Court documents allege the man “unlawfully took away Yanfei Bao without her consent with intent to cause her to be confined”.
Distraught husband Paul Gooch this morning spoke to the
Herald of his devastation at his wife’s vanishing five days ago.
”It’s just a nightmare,” he said at his Christchurch home in the west of the city.
”It still feels surreal... I still can’t quite believe that this is all unfolding.”
Just an hour before a man was due to appear in court charged with Bao’s kidnapping, Gooch said he remains hopeful for a positive outcome and his wife will come home to him and their young daughter.
”Otherwise, it’s a very dark head space to be in,” he said.
”But it fluctuates for me... it’s unbelievable, to be honest.”
Gooch became emotional when thanking the public, mutual friends, and family during the harrowing ordeal.
”I just want to thank them all so far for their wonderful support, which we really do appreciate,” he said, fighting back tears.
”They have all just been so kind.”
Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves told
NZME on Monday police had received “well over” 100 pieces of information from the public. She added police were not ruling out further charges in relation to the man facing the kidnapping charge.
She said police were still treating Bao as a “missing person”.
“We are still trying to locate her.
“The concern continues to grow the longer that we don’t know where she is.”
‘It’s just a nightmare’: Husband of missing real estate agent speaks about ordeal
Asked about a potential motive, Reeves said 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, it’s too early to say what that is at this stage”.
The houses that were being searched were “places of interest” as a result of inquiries to date.
“Some of this is to rule places in as parts of interest, and sometimes it’s actually to rule places out as locations of interest.”
On Monday morning police could be seen searching a third property on Trevor St, in Hornby. The house is currently listed for sale by Harcourts.