The partner of Yanfei Bao has given evidence at the second day of the High Court trial for the man accused of her murder.
Paul Gooch told the court his partner of five years was still asleep when he headed to work on July 19, 2023, the day the Crown says she was killed.
“I kissed her on the forehead before I left,” he said.
He hadn’t known her plans for the day, but the real estate agent, who was working for Harcourts Grenadier, told him she was excited.
“She was hopeful that she was meeting a client … in relation to a sale.”
The Crown claims that the client was Chinese national Tingjun Cao. The 53-year-old has pleaded not guilty to her murder.
Gooch and Bao weren’t in contact during that day, but he did message her after work.
“Just before I left to go to the gym, to say, ‘Hi honey, I’m just heading to Les Mills now, I’ll catch up with you when I get home later.'”
He recalled that it wasn’t until he’d finished at the gym that night in July that he knew something was wrong, noting missed calls on his phone about Yanfei’s daughter not being picked up from after-school care.
“I obviously whizzed home to see what was going on,” he said.
When he arrived home, his neighbour told him the 9-year-old had been taken to the police station. Checking their dishwasher raised alarm bells, he said.
“She’d always chuck her dirty dishes in the dishwasher and obviously I looked in there and they weren’t there,” Gooch told the court.
“So, I knew she hadn’t come home for lunch that day, which was unusual.”
He told the court his priority was to make sure Yanfei’s daughter was safe.
“I obviously made sure [she] was okay and then obviously spoke to the police officer on duty there that night.
“I had grave concerns for my partner, because obviously, I didn’t know where she was and it was completely out of character for her to do such a thing.
“She’d never disappeared like that in the whole time that I’d known her. Ever.”
He said the officer had suggested it wouldn’t make a difference whether he reported the disappearance at that time, or waited until the morning.
But, on the way home from the station, after further attempts to call Yanfei, he said: “I was getting continually more and more concerned.”
“We had a few friends come round and we were all trying to contact her and it was at that point, I think around 10:30 I think, that I just said, no I’m not going to wait until the morning.
“There’s something seriously wrong here. So I called up the police line and officially reported her as missing.”
During Gooch’s cross-examination, Cao’s lawyer Colin Eason mistakenly referred to Yanfei Bao as “missing” in a question. Gooch corrected him, “Her mother’s not missing, her mother is dead.”
Yanfei Bao’s body was found on farmland on the outskirts of Christchurch, more than a year after her disappearance.
The Crown alleges the defendant buried her there and tried to cover his tracks.
The trial continues tomorrow.
By Katie Stevenson and Laura James
