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The ex-husband of an Auckland businesswoman says he was not involved in her death and fears for her personal safety as the police hunt down her killer (s).
Elizabeth (Ying) Zhong, 55, who was heavily in debt to various creditors, was stabbed to death in her Sunnyhills home, then hidden in the trunk of her Land Rover, sometime between 4:30 p.m. on Friday, November 27. and the following Saturday morning. .
More than a week later, police have yet to make an arrest or press charges, but say their investigation is progressing well.
Officers found his vehicle on Roadley Ave, a cul-de-sac around the corner from his home on Suzetta Pl, in the hills of eastern suburban Auckland, just after 11 a.m.
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But it was not until Saturday afternoon that they meticulously searched the vehicle and found his body in the trunk, hidden under various elements of his house, after they had issued a statement to the media at around 5.15 pm asking for help from the public to find the missing. woman.
Frank Fu was married to Elizabeth (Ying) Zhong for over 30 years before their divorce in 2017.
He arrived in Suzetta Pl late Saturday night in his ute, while the police made the first inquiries at the crime scene.
Before the police publicly announced a homicide investigation, he told a Things A reporter on the scene feared that his ex-wife had been killed.
Shortly after, a detective approached him and asked him to follow a police car 20 minutes south to the Counties Manukau Police Station.
The 59-year-old said he was interrogated for about five hours that night.
THINGS
Acting Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers says Manukau County Police continue to investigate the circumstances of Elizabeth Zhong’s death.
Fu, a specialist in herbal medicine, said Things that on Friday night after Elizabeth was found, he was working on a manuscript at home until 2 am, when he was reunited with his new wife in bed. His wife had corroborated his alibi, he said.
On November 30, the Monday after Elizabeth’s death, he experienced a dream in which Elizabeth visited him and told him who the killer was, he said.
Talking to Things On Tuesday, as police continue their lengthy forensic investigations at Suzetta Pl’s home and investigators sift through the mountains of evidence, Fu said he had met with the police again that day, wanting more documents related to Zhong.
Supplied
Elizabeth Zhong, photographed in 2016 at her Carrick Winery vineyard in Bannockburn, downtown Otago.
He fears for his personal safety and said the police are protecting him. He had been advised not to release any photos of himself publicly, he said.
Police declined to comment on whether Fu or other family members are under protection.
Investigators will not publicly display possible suspects or motives.
Detective Inspector Shaun Vickers of the Manukau Counties Criminal Investigation Branch is asking anyone with information about what happened to Zhong to come forward.
“No data is too small.”
Zhong was fired in a small private service on Sunday morning, which was attended by her family, the police and some of her close friends and associates.
Fu served as the pallbearer.
Fu and Zhong parted ways in 2017, after more than three decades together, but they stayed in touch.
He would remember Zhong as a very smart and capable woman, he said. Things.
“She was lovely, she was beautiful. A smart lady. “
Fu also remembered her as an open-minded person. She would always give her loved ones a “big hug” every time she saw them, she said.
Chris McKeen / Stuff
Police are conducting a forensic examination of Elizabeth Zhong’s Sunnyhills home.
His various business ventures, ranging from winemaking to film effects, employed dozens of New Zealanders and contributed a lot to the local economy, he said.
Zhong was born in Shenzhen, a mainland Chinese metropolis near Hong Kong, on July 9, 1965.
A brilliant student, she went to college at just 16 years old to study English in the early 1980s.
He met Fu, who studied horticulture, at the University of Dalian, a port city in northeast China, in the summer of 1985.
The couple married the following year when Zhong was 21 and Fu was 25.
After leaving university, Zhong worked as a stock trader and Fu in an orchard in Dalian. The couple had a daughter.
LAWRENCE SMITH / Things
Forensic specialists at Elizabeth Zhong’s home in Suzetta Place, Sunnyhills.
The family immigrated to New Zealand in 1997. Fu said Zhong had earned enough money to live in Mission Bay and send his daughter to a private school.
About three years later, he started a business school, which Fu said was initially successful with hundreds of students. However, it is understood that it was liquidated a few years later amid commercial disputes.
Business Bureau records show that, as of November 2020, it was the sole director and shareholder of the bankrupt Kennedy Point Group Ltd and Carrick Wines Ltd wine companies, as well as another of its businesses, Sunbow Ltd.
The Epsom facilities of Digipost Entertainment, 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.
At the time of her death, she, her creditors and business partners were embroiled in a complex battle in Superior Court, which saw allegations of the misappropriation of more than $ 4 million in one of their heavily indebted companies.
