‘We don’t think she’s alive’: Police launch homicide investigation following Yanfei Bao’s disappearance

Police have launched a homicide investigation following the disappearance of real estate agent Yanfei Bao a week ago – revealing she was last seen alive in a street where she was due to show someone through a house listed for sale.

As divers continued to search a river south of Christchurch on Wednesday afternoon, Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves told a media conference she no longer believed the 44-year-old mother to a 9-year-old girl was alive.

“We’ve always held grave concerns for her wellbeing, but as the week has progressed, and in particular developments over the last couple of days, we are now launching a homicide investigation.

“We have today informed Ms Bao’s loved ones of the development, and we know it is the news that they did not want to hear. Our thoughts are with them.”

Reeves would not say why police now believed Bao had been killed, but revealed the last sighting of her was in Trevor St, Hornby, just before 10am last Wednesday.

A previous sighting of her door knocking in Vickerys Rd about 10.30am that day appears to be a red herring.

Reeves said the missing real estate agent’s silver Nissan Dualis, registration PKT556, left Trevor St about 12.30pm. It was found in Iroquois Place, Wigram, about 10.45pm that day, after she failed to pick up her daughter from after school care and was reported missing. Anyone who saw Bao’s car in the intervening period should contact police, she said.

A man has been charged with kidnapping the missing Harcourts real estate agent and police are forensically examining the property listed for sale in Trevor St that she was due to show a prospective buyer through on the day she disappeared.

Further charges against the man were being considered, Reeves said. She would not say if he was cooperating with police.

Police were not actively seeking anyone else in connection with Bao’s disappearance, but investigators were “keeping an open mind”.

Reeves said the Trevor St property remained of “significant interest” to the investigation.

She would not say if she believed Bao had been killed there, or taken from there.

“I won’t go into what I think has happened at that address, just that it is of significant interest to us and has certainly helped shape the investigation now.”

Reeves confirmed both Bao’s car and a Mitsubishi sedan, registration DPH101, which belonged to the man accused of kidnapping her, were seen in Trevor St on the day she disappeared.

The senior detective said she remained hopeful Bao’s body would be found.

Police have received more than 170 pieces of information from the public since news of the real estate agent’s disappearance was first reported.

On Wednesday morning, officers in two inflatable boats slowly worked their way along the Halswell River near Neills Rd, southeast of Lincoln near Lake Ellesmere, as the investigation intensified.

A man in a wetsuit at the rear of one of the boats was monitoring what appeared to be an underwater camera.

Police were also walked the edge of the river with a police dog.

A man who lived nearby told Stuff that police told another resident they’d tracked the movements of the kidnapping suspect along nearby roads through cellphone data.

Police searched the same stretch of water following the disappearance of Christchurch man Michael McGrath in 2017. David Benbow is accused of murdering McGrath, who remains missing.

The Halswell River is muddy brown and swollen after recent rain. Paddocks and ditches in the area are also flooded.

In Christchurch, police also searched an area near Palmers Rd and the Avon River, New Brighton, on Wednesday morning.

While Trevor St residents spoken to by Stuff on Tuesday couldn’t recall seeing Bao last week, police hoped CCTV cameras on various homes in the street captured her movements, and those of anyone involved in her disappearance.

At least two residents who live nearby believe they saw the alleged kidnapper’s silver Mitsubishi sedan parked in the street last week.

Julie Charnley said she was adamant she saw the vehicle parked on a slight angle on the side of the road about 100m from the Trevor St property for two days, but she couldn’t be sure exactly when.

On Tuesday morning, investigators paid close attention to two cameras on the front of the house next door to the Trevor St property, and appeared to be photographing an area of footpath where footage may have captured someone walking past.

The 52-year-old man accused of kidnapping Bao was arrested on Saturday in the public area of Christchurch International Airport, with no bags and a one-way ticket to China.

He appeared in the Christchurch District Court on Monday where he was granted interim name suppression and remanded in custody.

At 11.15am on Wednesday last week, Bao rang her friend Jin Tian and had a four-minute conversation with her. During the conversation, she asked Tian how someone she was working with could transfer $600,000 (more than 2.6 million RMB) from China to pay cash for a house.

She was reported missing after she didn’t collect her daughter from after school care later that day.

Her car was found parked in Iroqouis Place, less than 1km from where she was last seen in Vickerys Rd.

On Friday, police located her cellphone on the Christchurch Southern Motorway, near Blakes Rd.

The accused man’s vehicle was seized after it was found parked near Christchurch Airport on Saturday.

The man had rented a room at a property in Bryndwr for about a month.

On Monday, a neighbour said the same silver car the police wanted information on was always at the property, but was not there on Wednesday or Thursday. However, it was parked across the driveway on Friday with the boot and doors open for several hours. It was gone the following day, she said.