Yanfeibao.
Photo: RNZ/New Zealand Police

Blood stains found in a Christchurch home matched the profiles of estate agent Yanfei Bao and the man accused of her murder, the High Court heard.

Chinese national Tingjun Cao is on trial for killing Bao on the Hornby property in July last year.

ESR forensic scientist Wendy Janes told the court the blood was not visible to the human eye, but luminol tests revealed stains on walls, curtains, doors and carpets that matched their DNA profiles.

Luminol is a chemical compound that emits blue fluorescent light when it reacts with blood.

Bao had arranged to meet a buyer at the home before she disappeared on July 19, 2023.

Tingjun Cao at the beginning of the trial.
Photo: NZME/George Heard

His body was found in a shallow grave on a Greenpark farm south of Christchurch a year later.

The trial, which has already passed more than half of its scheduled six weeks, has around 80 witnesses.

On Wednesday, Judge Lisa Preston told jurors she was concerned about the risk the trial could drag into a seventh week and asked them to consider her availability.

“In any criminal process there are always some unknowns and the deadlines are subject to those factors,” he said.

Cao, who is representing himself after firing his defense lawyers, has been warned by Judge Preston about the nature of some of his questions, including repeatedly accuse police witnesses of falsifying evidence.

Justice Lisa Preston.
Photo: Kai Schwörer / The press

On Wednesday, Crown prosecutor Cameron Stuart objected to Cao’s cross-examination of police fingerprint analyst Mark Brooks, in which Cao questioned evidence relating to fingerprints taken on the rearview mirror of his own car.

“We’re wasting time going down this rabbit hole,” Stuart said.

After Stuart objected a second time, Judge Preston ordered the jury out and closed the court.

Upon his return, Cao told the court that he had no further questions for the witness.

The trial continues.

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