The Disappearance of Yanfei Bao

smartcooky

Penultimate Amazing
smartcooky
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Yanfei Bao is a Christchurch Real Estate agent. On Wednesday, July 19 she was out trying to drum up business by door-knocking in the southern Christchurch suburb of Wigram. She was last seen around 10:15 am in the Vickery's Road area, but spoke to her friend Jin Tein on the phone about 45 minutes after she was last seen. Yanfei has apparently been kidnapped.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national...-man-charged-with-kidnapping-appears-in-court

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/24/yanfei-bao-police-search-another-property-over-missing-woman/

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/07/24/cars-distinctive-feature-could-lead-to-yanfei-bao-police/

There are some peculiar aspects to this case.

1. Police are seeking sightings of a silver Mitsubishi car with the registration DPH101 from mid-last week until Saturday night. They are particularly interested in sightings from the Prebbleton and Tai Tapu areas to the south west of Christchurch.

2. Yanfei's mobile phone was found several kilometres along the southern motorway.

3. On Saturday, the Police found the Mitsubishi near Christchurch International Airport, and subsequently arrested a Chinese man in the public area of the airport. He had no bags and a one-way ticket to Beijing.

4. The Police located the home of the suspect. That home as in the area where Yanfei was door-knocking on Wednesday.

5. Neighbors say that the Mitsubishi belongs at the house and was usually seen there, but on Wednesday, it was parked outside with all four doors and the boot (trunk) open for a few hours. It was absent on Thursday and Friday.

6. The conversation between Yanfei and her friend Jin was regarding a request to transfer about $600,000 from China to New Zealand to make a cash property purchase.

7. The suspect appeared in court on Monday 24 July. He was charged with kidnapping and remanded in custody for three weeks. The suspect does not speak English and was assisted by an interpreter throughout his appearance.

Speculation

Yeah, I know, its way too early to speculate... but I'm going to anyway.

- Yanfei was out door-knocking. Did she see something at the suspect's house she should not have seen.

- The Police asking for information about vehicle movements in the Prebbleton/Tai Tapu area is because the vehicle was seen there on Wednesday. Do they suspect that is where she is likely to be found?

- Yanfei's cellphone was found on the southbound side of the southern motorway. Was this an attempt at misdirection by the suspect to get Police looking in the wrong area.

- The suspect's Mitsubishi was parked for a few hours outside with all the doors and the boot lid open. Was this because he cleaned up the inside of the car with bleach in an attempt to destroy forensic evidence? Was he trying to air it out to get rid of the smell?
 
On the airport arrest, were the police checking for one way tickets with no bags?
It seems extremely fortuitous to get this (innocent till proven otherwise) individual before a complex international search and extradition became necessary.
 
Samson said:
On the airport arrest, were the police checking for one way tickets with no bags?
It seems extremely fortuitous to get this (innocent till proven otherwise) individual before a complex international search and extradition became necessary.
Click to expand...

NZ police are now using automated number-plate readers with a network of surveillance cameras

https://www.autocar.co.nz/police-expand-licence-plate-camera-network/

The police have spent years developing a platform made up of almost 5000 CCTV cameras owned by private businesses that can be accessed by 4000 officers via a smartphone app. That means number plate data can be accessed at the touch of a button.​

I'm guessing they picked up his car near Christchurch Airport and took a guess that is where he was going
 
The Police have begun searching the Halswell River and in Greenpark. They have divers in the water and boats on the river.

Sounds grim!
 
This may turn out to be a David Gilroy type case where the body is not found, and a prosecution without that critical evidence is pursued.
 
Edited by sarge: 
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Also, thousands go missing daily. Scores are kidnapped and murdered annually. Not to sound callous, but is there something particularly noteworthy about this one?
 
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Thermal said:
Edited by sarge: 
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Also, thousands go missing daily. Scores are kidnapped and murdered annually. Not to sound callous, but is there something particularly noteworthy about this one?
Click to expand...

I admit the same thought occurred to me as well. I know some people personally who have disappeared, but they don't attract any local, let alone national or international, attention.

Maybe the times we're living in have made me callous.
 
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Samson said:
Poor child.
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Child?

She was 44.

Thermal said:
Not to sound callous, but is there something particularly noteworthy about this one?
Click to expand...

No.

Although the publicity has managed to get the Givealittle fund over the $36k mark, which is more than slightly ironic in light of the other 50 homicide victims a year who don't get funds started for them. I'm not even going to touch on the fact that as a "dedicated and successful real estate agent" the family probably doesn't even need the money.
 
Thermal said:
Edited by sarge: 
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Also, thousands go missing daily. Scores are kidnapped and murdered annually. Not to sound callous, but is there something particularly noteworthy about this one?
Click to expand...

Most of those people who go missing are runaways, or disappear when out hiking, or persons of dubious character involved in the underworld or simply disappear by choice. The perpetrators more often than not, are someone they know or a member of their family.

This person appears to have been abducted off the street by a complete stranger while out doing their job, so yes, it is a little unusual, especially in a small country like this one.

NOTE: Please stop giving mods more encouragement to do more damage by getting their their sticky fingers involved in any more threads.
 
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Edited by sarge: 
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Bit of a stretch to be talking about justice being served or the maligning thereof when they don't know what happened yet. Not even a body, IIRC?

And again, a real estate agent goes missing, possibly murdered. OK. Is this like a whodunit thread? Most threads have a wider point. Serious question: Is this bigger news in NZ because it doesn't happen often? Here in the States, there aren't enough hours in the day to sift through the missing persons/murders to find one that stands out sufficiently. Was this woman a beloved local personality or something?
 
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Thermal said:
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Bit of a stretch to be talking about justice being served or the maligning thereof when they don't know what happened yet. Not even a body, IIRC?

And again, a real estate agent goes missing, possibly murdered. OK. Is this like a whodunit thread? Most threads have a wider point. Serious question: Is this bigger news in NZ because it doesn't happen often? Here in the States, there aren't enough hours in the day to sift through the missing persons/murders to find one that stands out sufficiently. Was this woman a beloved local personality or something?
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Its been an article in every news reports and has remained in the news cycle since the day she disappeared, so I''d say yes. Its also in an area where I used to live and work, so I have a sort of personal connection with the story

But hey, if you don't want to participate, then don't. No-one is making you post here.
 
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smartcooky said:
Its been an article in every news reports and has remained in the news cycle since the day she disappeared, so I''d say yes. Its also in an area where I used to live and work, so I have a sort of personal connection with the story

But hey, if you don't want to participate, then don't. No-one is making you post here.
Click to expand...

It's not a question of participation. I've gone out of my way to make it clear that I'm asking because it seems like something is missing. Like, are thousands of missing/murdered stories posted daily on the forum? Why this one?

That you have a personal.connection makes more sense of it, thanks.
 
Thermal said:
It's not a question of participation. I've gone out of my way to make it clear that I'm asking because it seems like something is missing. Like, are thousands of missing/murdered stories posted daily on the forum? Why this one?

That you have a personal.connection makes more sense of it, thanks.
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There is a charge of kidnapping, and murder charges will certainly be laid, since it has been ruled homicide. It becomes an interesting case if there is no body which is like the David Gilroy case from Scotland, thread on this forum. It is worth noting there will be 65 murders in US, and about 13 in the UK for each in New Zealand, so they do get a higher national profile here.
 
Samson said:
There is a charge of kidnapping, and murder charges will certainly be laid, since it has been ruled homicide. It becomes an interesting case if there is no body which is like the David Gilroy case from Scotland, thread on this forum. It is worth noting there will be 65 murders in US, and about 13 in the UK for each in New Zealand, so they do get a higher national profile here.
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The UNDOC numbers are rather different; 1:6:182. Though the homicide rate per 100k is higher in New Zealand than in the UK.
 
catsmate said:
The UNDOC numbers are rather different; 1:6:182. Though the homicide rate per 100k is higher in New Zealand than in the UK.
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Thanks yes, shows US 3 times NZ rate and NZ double UK rate.
NZ high because there are many gang murders, Maori in the greatest part.
 
Maybe (probably?) nothing.

A friend of mine who I know has links to Chinese Triad gangs claims that Yanfei was involved in laundering meth money through property purchases for the Triads and ripped them off.

Not completely outside the bounds of possibility.
 
The Atheist said:
Maybe (probably?) nothing.

A friend of mine who I know has links to Chinese Triad gangs claims that Yanfei was involved in laundering meth money through property purchases for the Triads and ripped them off.

Not completely outside the bounds of possibility.
Click to expand...

Meh, probably nothing is right. IMO your contact is talking through a hole between his butt-cheeks.

What little triad gang activity there is in NZ involves the Hong Kong-based 14K gang, who are really only active in Auckland. They are mostly involved in protection rackets with small businesses like dairies and corner stores which are predominantly Chinese-owned.

In Christchurch, most of those businesses are owned by Indians and Pakistanis.
 
smartcooky said:
What little triad gang activity there is in NZ involves the Hong Kong-based 14K gang, who are really only active in Auckland. They are mostly involved in protection rackets with small businesses like dairies and corner stores which are predominantly Chinese-owned.
Click to expand...

Dunno which archive you're getting your info from, because that's what it was like in the 1970s.

First off, Chinese own a very small number of dairies and corner stores - I go all over Auckland and couldn't tell you when I last went in a dairy with any kind of [east] Asian owners.

More importantly, you badly underestimate triad involvement in crime in NZ. The majority of ephedrine and methamphetamine coming into NZ originates from China, and triads have a very strong presence in the gang world, which they supply.

If you have P in your town - and Christchurch absolutely does - there will be triad gangs involved.

Whether or not they were involved in Yanfei's disappearance is moot for sure, but you have no clue about the gangs themselves.
 
The Atheist said:
Dunno which archive you're getting your info from, because that's what it was like in the 1970s.

First off, Chinese own a very small number of dairies and corner stores - I go all over Auckland and couldn't tell you when I last went in a dairy with any kind of [east] Asian owners.

More importantly, you badly underestimate triad involvement in crime in NZ. The majority of ephedrine and methamphetamine coming into NZ originates from China, and triads have a very strong presence in the gang world, which they supply.

If you have P in your town - and Christchurch absolutely does - there will be triad gangs involved.

Whether or not they were involved in Yanfei's disappearance is moot for sure, but you have no clue about the gangs themselves.
Click to expand...
We know she was asking how to move 600k from China to NZ and that is the price of a house in the area. She has a white husband and a 9 year old daughter and is educated.
I am trying to see how clandestine activity, and a money trail fits in. It is reasonable to suspect Chinese in NZ, but it looks more like a typical honest real estate activity to me.
 
Samson said:
We know she was asking how to move 600k from China to NZ and that is the price of a house in the area. She has a white husband and a 9 year old daughter and is educated.
I am trying to see how clandestine activity, and a money trail fits in. It is reasonable to suspect Chinese in NZ, but it looks more like a typical honest real estate activity to me.
Click to expand...

Indeed, and despite what The Atheist would have us all believe, Triad activity is all but non-existent outside of Auckland. Why would they waste their time and money in, what is to them, a small town of 400,000 with a tiny Chinese population, when they have Auckland with a population of almost 1.7 million, and a much larger percentage Chinese population.
 
smartcooky said:
Why would they waste their time and money in, what is to them, a small town of 400,000 with a tiny Chinese population, when they have Auckland with a population of almost 1.7 million, and a much larger percentage Chinese population.
Click to expand...

Did you even read what I wrote? The number of Chinese in the town is irrelevant - they're supplying drugs to gangs as wholesalers.

It's not even news: https://www.scmp.com/article/724511/asian-drug-links-reach-south-meth-deals

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/revealed-nzs-thriving-underbelly/SS3FUTFHOSTQ727GTQIKUXPDN4/
 
I am still curious.
How close did he come to leaving the country on his one way ticket?
Or did he have no chance due to the police operation securing the border against the specific individual?
 
Where did the new information come from?

It was private property, so occams razor says a resident on the property out walking or working.

A very shallow grave, and they were looking for a specific spade.

It is incredibly sad, it is about money, quelle surprise.
 
The trial is over. A Chinese national, Tingjun Cao has been found guilty of murdering Yanfei Bao

The evidence against him was overwhelming and irrefutable. It involved cellphone tracking and CCTV footage of both of them for the whole day leading up to Yanfei's murder, including footage of him buying the very same spade that was used to bury her body.

For his part, the killer claims all the video footage and cell tracking was faked by the police.

 
Samson said:
It is incredibly sad, it is about money, quelle surprise.
Click to expand...
But was it? This article seems to imply something else:-
The reality was as mundane as it was awful. Cao was a simple man of little means, skills or intelligence. He came to New Zealand in search of a better life but soon became infatuated with a woman he met in passing at a lunch. There they exchanged little more than pleasantries but Bao, in typical generosity, had offered to help Cao find work and a home. The pair had limited contact after that, meeting just once more so he could pay her a house deposit on behalf of his uncle. In a year-long police investigation, detectives struggled to identify any more of a connection between them, apart from Bao, who had a partner and a daughter, telling a friend that she had rejected a man who had been chasing her.
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How many times have we heard this story before? But this time the police did the job properly and had him dead to rights. Well done!

This is one case where we won't have to invoke crazy conspiracy theories to explain why all the evidence against him was somehow bogus. He says another guy by the name of 'Mr Tang' did it. A guy who just happened to look exactly like him, was driving his car, disposed of his clothes and other items, and bought a spade to bury the body. That's one hell of a frame-up, if true. IOW, unbelievable.

He also says the police faked the cell-phone evidence. Now there's something conspiracy theorists could get their teeth into. The article says:-
Her cellphone was the key. For months, police had tried unsuccessfully to guess the PIN code. With two attempts left before it locked itself permanently, police gave up in fear of losing the opportunity forever. Months later they returned to it and miraculously landed the successful combination.
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'Miraculously' huh? Sure. The police probably just pretended to guess the pin and actually faked all the cellphone data - planting 'evidence' to confirm what they supposedly already had on him.

But there's a problem with that idea too, the cell phone data led them to the body!
Now, detectives had access to the phone’s geographical polling and, crucially, Bao’s Apple health data. This showed the exact number of steps taken by Bao, or whoever was in possession of her phone, on the day she disappeared. Police search teams descended on the Greenpark farm once more to retrace the phone’s movements there. Teams paced out the steps in different directions, digging as they went. Soon, a dog began signalling and remains sticking out of a shallow grave were spotted, buried under macrocapra trees.
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Damn! Now we have to believe the police faked that too! Probably had her body on ice for months - after they killed her themselves (like in the Steven Avery case). :xrolleyes
 
The Police and prosecutors weren't kidding when they said this was a "Slam Dunk" case. Its about as slam dunk as its possible to get sort of having a video of the killer actually committing the murder.
 
Roger Ramjets said:
'Miraculously' huh? Sure. The police probably just pretended to guess the pin and actually faked all the cellphone data - planting 'evidence' to confirm what they supposedly already had on him.
Click to expand...

Or more likely, the police have managed to get someone to break into the phone, but are unwilling to reveal who that was, or how it was done. It could have been a hacker, or it could have been Apple, who might do so on the condition that their name is left out of it..

Anyone who watches Louis Rossman's YouTube channel would know that it is entirely possible to recover all the data on an iPhone by pulling the relevant NAND chips (even though they are encrypted).

There is also a women in Canada who taught herself how to repair phones, and to recover data such as videos, documents and photos, even after Apple tells the customer this is impossible to do...

 
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