Elizabeth Zhong murder: Victim’s ex-boyfriend testifies at Fang Sun trial in New Zealand
- David Zheng denies owing money to Zhong, but admits US$50,000 is tied up in a film company they started together, and US$20,000 frozen in Chinese bank account
- Zhong was stabbed more than 20 times during a knife attack in her bedroom in the middle of the night at her east Auckland home
Despite no longer being in a relationship they were still good friends and he feared it might have been another suicide attempt, he told jurors at the murder trial of Zhong’s estranged business partner, Fang Sun.
“Ever since we got to know each other she told me why she was depressed – because the business was in jeopardy,” testified Zheng, who worked as a police detective in China before immigrating to New Zealand 22 years ago. “And that was actually a big reason why I cared for her so much. I feel like she was honest and she was so helpless.”
But in addition to their relationship, which lasted about six months, Zheng was also another business partner of Zhong’s whose relationship was strained over money, according to the defence.
He is the first acquaintance of Zhong’s to have testified at the trial, which is expected to last five more weeks.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Zhong, 55, had tried taking her own life in the weeks before her death as her companies went into liquidation. But the cause of her death was clearly not suicide, having been stabbed more than 20 times during a knife attack in her bedroom in the middle of the night at her east Auckland home, Gareth Kayes said during opening statements.
Sun, the defendant, has been described by prosecutors as an embittered former business partner who believed that Zhong owed him and his family up to US$24 million.
