The breakthrough that led to police finding Yanfei Bao

By Sam Sherwood

A technological breakthrough is believed to have led police to find the suspected remains of alleged murder victim Yanfei Bao more than a year after she went missing.

A large team of police descended on a rural property in Greenpark, about 45 minutes south of Christchurch last Tuesday morning.

About midday, they announced they had found human remains in a "shallow grave" about 150mm deep along a treeline at the property. It took searchers about 90 minutes to find them.

Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves told media police received information about six to eight weeks ago.

She would not elaborate on what the information was, but said it was "new information that has come to light that has given us quite a specific direction for a location of where we needed to be".

Stuff understands the information relates to a technological breakthrough where police used multiple different data points including photos, cellphone data polling, location services and Radio access network (RAN) data from a cellphone.

It's understood police were able to triangulate the data, which gave them a specific area to search at the rural property.

On Friday, Reeves confirmed the remains were those of Bao.

"This news brings to a close a key aspect of our investigation and Yanfei will now be returned to her family."

Police were not in a position to share further details of the post mortem.

Reeves earlier said there was "no obvious disturbance", where the remains were found.

"And I don't think there would have been an obvious disturbance at the time earlier, it was probably covered up," Reeves said.

Asked if it was frustrating not to have found Bao earlier, given police had searched the property before, Reeves said the whole year and 10 days had been frustrating.

"In terms of the information [that police received], no. Because I understand the process that's had to go through for us to obtain that," she said.

After the information was received, police had to do a significant amount of preparation.

"We've had 60 people out searching today so there's a bit of planning that's needed ... we've had to undergo and make sure that what we've set out to do today we did it methodically, we did it efficiently and that we got the right result."

There were a lot of emotions for the investigation team, Reeves said.

"We are relieved that what we set out to do we have done. We're enormously proud of the police team that have worked really hard on this over the last year.

"We went out there today - this was the intention. It does still come as a shock to all of us, but we're pleased that we've been able to give this news to her family."

Bao's family in New Zealand and China were aware police were searching on Tuesday.

"They knew that we were very hopeful. We've given them that news this morning, they are in shock, they're upset. I think it's probably something that will take a little bit of time to settle in."

Finding Bao brought a "level of comfort," Reeves said.

"We've all felt this really heavily that this is a piece that we haven't been able to finalise. It is a very proud day. It's why we come to work," she said.

"Going forward we will be able to tell a full story and not have a big part of that story missing or undone. So that's really satisfying and really comforting that we will be able to give her daughter and her family answers to a lot of questions that we haven't been able to so far."

Craig Eggleston, the owner of the Greenpark property, told Stuff he was feeling "emotional".

He learned of the discovery on Tuesday morning.

Eggleston said he was "relieved" but also "sad". He hoped it would bring some "closure" to Bao's family.

Police initially went to his property in the weeks after Bao's disappearance after a "sighting" nearby.

Eggleston said they had not told him what led them back there on Tuesday.

Harcourts Gold Chief Operations Manager Jason Wills said although Bao didn't work in the same Christchurch office, many of his colleagues knew and worked with her. He was saddened and shocked at the news that her remains had been found.

"On behalf of all our Harcourts family we extend our condolences to Bao's family," Willis said.

Bao, who is a Chinese national, vanished on 19 July, 2023 and was last seen in the suburb of Hornby just before 10am.

She was due to meet a prospective client to show him through a Trevor St property.

The last time she was heard from was when she called a friend that morning via the Chinese social media app WeChat.

Bao asked how a Chinese buyer who lived in Christchurch could transfer $600,000 from China to buy a house.

Police later charged 53-year-old Tingjun Cao with her kidnapping and then days later, charged him with her murder.

The kidnapping charge has since been dropped. Cao is due to stand trial in October.

On the first anniversary of Bao's disappearance, Reeves said police were committed to finding the missing real estate agent's body.

The case was on her mind every day, she said.

Bao's husband Paul Gooch said at the time it had been "incredibly challenging for our entire family to cope with the devastating loss of Yanfei; it has changed all our lives irreparably".

Her daughter Momo had shown "incredible resilience" in the past year, Gooch said."It's truly inspiring to witness her ability to still find reasons to smile and be her authentic self in the midst of such adversity.

"Her mother would undoubtedly be deeply proud of her."

Bao's China-based family said: "We have been in immense grief, feeling helpless while being far away in our home country. We can only hope that police will find Yanfei soon and bring peace to her soul."

- Stuff