Elizabeth Zhong murder: body lay in trunk for hours after police found car

An Auckland businesswoman whose death prompted an ongoing homicide investigation remained undiscovered in the trunk of her car near her home for at least six hours after police found the vehicle. Things understands.

Elizabeth (Ying) Zhong was brutally stabbed in her East Auckland home sometime between Friday afternoon, when she was last seen alive, and Saturday morning, when she was reported missing.

Shortly after 11 a.m. Saturday, police found her vehicle on Roadley Ave, a two-minute drive around the corner from her $ 2 million Suzetta Place home in the quiet suburb of Sunnyhills.

The agents who found his car did not search the trunk, Things understands.

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The incident echoes the case of An An Liu 13 years ago, whose body lay in a car for days, right under the noses of police examining his property on Mt Roskill.

Throughout Saturday, the police assigned to the Zhong case followed normal protocols for a missing person, including checking the city’s hospitals and clinics and talking to people close to her to try to locate her.

Officers had entered his home and are known to have found the horrific crime scene in the early afternoon.

At around 5.15 pm, six hours after Zhong’s car was found, the police issued a statement to the media asking for the public’s help in finding the missing woman.

It wasn’t until early in the evening that police thoroughly examined the car and found her body in the car. Things understands.

The police announced publicly around 11pm that they had discovered his body.

Police have yet to arrest or press charges in the case, nearly a week after his death.

Things An understanding of the sequence of events was corroborated by a woman who lived on Roadley Ave, near where Zhong’s car was found, who did not want to be named.

He said he saw the officers arrive on his street around 11:15 a.m. M.

But he didn’t hear the car alarm go off until several hours later, indicating the trunk had been opened, he said.

Despite repeated requests, the police media team has not provided a timeline of the sequence of events after Zhong’s disappearance was reported.

Things submitted questions to police asking why the car was not searched more quickly when it was found, the time period between the discovery of the bloody crime scene at Zhong’s home and the decision to search the car thoroughly, and the time exact date the body was discovered.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman said she could neither confirm nor deny that there was a delay between finding the car and discovering the body.

“For operational reasons, we are not in a position today to comment on specific details about what you have ordered.”

In September 2007, An An Liu, 27, was found dead in a car outside the house she shared with her husband, Nai Yin Xue.

It took police nearly two days to search the car after they first arrived at the Mt Roskill property.

Later, the police admitted that their investigations could have moved faster.

Xue strangled Liu and then fled with her daughter, Qian Xun, who was 3 years old at the time, to Australia.

He then left her alone at a Melbourne train station and then flew to the United States.

As authorities struggled to find out the girl’s identity, she became known as Pumpkin, due to the Pumpkin Patch clothing she was wearing.

After months on the run, Xue was captured when members of a Chinese family in Georgia recognized him, tied him up and called the police.

In 2009, Xue, then 55, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum probation period of 12 years for the murder.

He initially maintained his innocence, but eventually admitted the crime at a parole hearing in March.

Xue was denied parole and will appear before the board again in 2021.

The victim ran up huge debts before dying

Zhong had expanding business interests, but was in dire financial straits in the run-up to his death.

Digipost Entertainment’s facilities at Epsom, a visual effects and post-production company it bought in 2017 with the help of a mysterious foreign backer, were recently sold in a mortgage sale.

She was also the sole director and shareholder of the bankrupt Kennedy Point Group Ltd and Carrick Wines Ltd wine companies, as well as another of her businesses, Sunbow Ltd.

Detectives have not provided information on possible motives for the murder or on possible suspects.

Manukau County Police Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers said a detailed examination of the scene at Zhong’s Sunnyhills home is underway and is not expected to be completed until the end of the week.

“We continue to speak with various people known to Ms. Zhong as we work to piece together the events that led to her death.”

Police did not respond to questions about whether the passport flags or blocks were posted in connection with the investigation or whether they were working with their foreign counterparts as part of the homicide investigation.

Investigators asked anyone with information to contact 105, citing file number 201128/1909.