‘Obsessed with money’: Accused killer lost on trading before alleged murder

A Chinese national allegedly strangled his flatmate, hid her in a box and plundered her and her mother’s finances before confessing to killing her, the Crown has argued in its closing address.  

Yang Zhao is accused of killing 30-year-old Qiong Yan for financial gain.

A Chinese national “obsessed with money” who allegedly strangled his Brisbane flatmate to death, hid her in a box and then plundered her and her mother’s finances before confessing to killing her three times to police should be found guilty, the Crown has argued in its closing address.

But lawyers for Yang Zhao, 30, who pleaded not guilty to murdering his best friend Qiong Yan in their Hamilton unit, say while he may be a selfish liar and a coward he is not a killer and actually showed “lingering affection” for Ms Yan whose death he covered up but did not cause.

Over two weeks a trial in Brisbane’s Supreme Court has heard Zhao allegedly murdered Ms Yan in September 2020 and placed her in a toolbox on their balcony for 10 months before detectives found her corpse after a missing-person report was filed.

The crown allege Zhao was motivated by greed and had just lost money on trading shortly before killing her.

In the days and months that followed Zhao has admitted placing Ms Yan in the chest and posing as her online to cause her Shanghai based mother to transfer up to $400,000 in funds to currency exchanges.

Qiong Yan’s mother Rongmei Yan. Picture: Patrick Woods.

The crown allege it was more like $460,0000 and Zhao, who did not have a job but traded on Chinese securities exchanges, also moved $200,000 out of Ms Yan’s account as well as acquiring her $302,000 Porsche Panamera, though he maintained the car was always his.

“Mr Zhao is a man obsessed with money. He knew that Qiong and her mother Rongmei had money. He attacked her. He struck her with this gas canister and he strangled her and he hid her body, he posed as her,” Crown prosecutor Chris Cook said on Monday.

“He hoped no one would ever find Qiong’s remains. He indeed, stole a heap of money, and he hoped that Rongmei Yan and the police would stop looking for her. That’s the Crown’s case.”

In three police interviews after his arrest in Sydney in July 2021 the court has heard Zhao say he killed a saddened Ms Yan at her request after a night spent inhaling nitrous oxide or nangs.

Mr Cook asked the jury to take what Zhao told police about killing the 29 years old as the truth but to disregard the “suicide pact” claim.

“Ms Yan wanted to live,” he said.

Once in the witness box Zhao claimed that he never harmed Ms Yan but had instead found her dead in the early hours on the floor of their unit. In a state of panic and fearful he would be in trouble for supplying her nitrous oxide Zhao says he did not call for help and the following day bought a tool chest from Bunnings and placed her in it before proceeding to pose as her on WeChat in conversation with police and her mother.

Zhao said he later lied to police about killing her because he wanted to be punished for his conduct in not calling for help and covering up her death.

Yang Zhao under arrest in Sydney. Picture: 9News

This is the version his barrister Andrew Hoare, KC, asked the jury to believe.

“Once he made a decision not to call authorities or to seek assistance, that pathway was set,” Mr Hoare said

“That singular, self centred act put in motion this inevitable series of events. Lies accumulated upon lies until eventually it unravelled.

“Admissions by Yang Zhao that he’s a liar, selfish and a coward do not absolve you from your duty, which is to apply the facts.

“That Ms Yan passed too soon, that’s a tragedy. That doesn’t make it a murder.”

Mr Hoare said there were indicators of a “lingering affection” his client had for Ms Yan including the small prayer bags he put on the tool chest and an expensive ring he wanted to place in the chest but did not have the courage to open it.

“Those small acts demonstrate an affection towards Ms Yan by Mr Zhao which is inconsistent with him being a calculating murderer prepared to end a person’s life over money,” he said.

Mr Hoare said the forensic evidence did not support the version his client gave police about hitting Ms Yan with a gas canister then strangling her.

The court heard Ms Yan’s cause of death could not be ascertained following an autopsy due to the level of decomposition of her remains

Ms Yan had no skill fracture and while a “defect’ on her forehead was found by the pathologist this could have occurred after death and did not support the version of him striking her with a gas canister, Mr Hoare said.

“The way Mr Zhao describes causing Ms Yan’s death to the police is inconsistent with the pathologist’s evidence,” he said.

“A reasonable possibility open on the evidence is that Ms Yan passed from the consumption of nitrous oxide.”

But Mr Cook said there was evidence that “entirely supports” what Zhao told police about how he allegedly killed Ms Yan.

“Defect in the head, fracture to her neck,” he said.

“Mr Zhao can have no idea what was going on … when a post mortem examination is being conducted. But yet here he is … down in NSW talking about injuries to these very places on her body.”

Referring to Zhao’s purported “lingering affection” for Ms Yan, Mr Cook reminded the jury that Zhao had allegedly gone and bought petrol to burn her body before deciding against it.

“On his version, she’s lying dead on the floor before he goes to get this box, and he’s sending a picture of the cat (Ms Yan’s cat Anchun) to the dead girl’s mother. Think about the mindset there,” Mr Cook said.

“It is a great tragedy on any version though, Mrs Rongmei Yan’s been dragged here, she’s watching on.

“The evidence in this case has demonstrated that Mr Zhao acted with murderous intent and killed Qiong Yan.”

At the start of the trial Zhao pleaded guilty to improperly interfering with a dead human body.

Justice Martin Burns has finished summing up with the jury sent home and their deliberations will continue Tuesday morning.