Body-in-toolbox murder left mother too shocked to walk

A devastated mother says she was so traumatised by her daughter’s body being found in a tool box she had to learn to walk again.

Yang Zhao, 30, has been found guilty of murdering flatmate Qiong Yan, 29, in September 2020 at their apartment at Hamilton, in inner-city Brisbane.

The victim’s mother Rongmei Yan wept on Tuesday as the Supreme Court jury delivered its guilty verdict after just two hours of deliberating.

Rongmei Yan said she had been living in an “abyss-like” state since her daughter’s body was discovered.Credit: Nine News

Zhao, 30, received a life sentence and will be eligible for parole after serving 22 years.

Rongmei Yan flew from Shanghai to Brisbane to attend the two-week trial, delivering a heartbreaking victim impact statement.

“When I heard the news that my daughter had been murdered I suddenly lost the capacity to walk,” she told the court through tears.

“After several months of acupuncture treatment I gradually recovered.

“Every day I wash my face with tears. I still cannot accept the fact my daughter is gone.”

Zhao, who pleaded not guilty, had been accused of killing Yan by striking her on the head with a metal bottle and strangling her.

Zhao then pretended to be Yan for months after the murder, sending more than 2500 WeChat messages to her mother to steal almost $500,000.

Zhao had earlier pleaded guilty to interfering with Yan’s corpse, which was found concealed by police in a large toolbox on their unit’s balcony about 10 months after her murder.

Speaking to the court via a translator, Rongmei Yan said she had been living in an “abyss-like” state every day since her daughter’s body was discovered.

“I feel sorry that all those days that the person I’ve been talking to was not my daughter ... at the time she had already become a skeleton,” she said.

“Zhao Yang deliberately deceived my daughter to gain my trust and under false pretences defraud her and my family of our prized assets ... taken through vile and deceitful means.”

Zhao spent three days giving evidence at the trial, claiming Yan died accidentally after they had both spent up to four hours in the apartment inhaling nitrous oxide, which he referred to as “nangs”.

Zhao, a Chinese national living in Australia on a student visa, testified Yan passed out on the floor and stopped breathing while he was asleep on a nearby couch.

He claimed he hid her body because he was afraid of being charged with supplying drugs.

Zhao said he then unlocked her phone and impersonated her for months via text messages to her mother.

During sentencing, Justice Martin Burns said Zhao’s singular motive for murder was naked greed.

The money stolen by Zhao was compensation Rongmei Yan had received from the Chinese government for relocating her house.

“Not only have you consigned [Rongmei Yan] to a lifetime of grieving, you drained all her available money and as far as I can gauge, she’s been left destitute as a result of no realistic prospect of recovering anything from you,” he said.

AAP