Elizabeth Zhong murder: Ex-cop hired by defendant Fang Sun tells New Zealand court he ‘illegally tracked’ Zhong
- Jun “Jimmy” Jin, who was paid to tail Zhong in the months before her death, told a court he knowingly broke the law when he placed a tracking device under her SUV
- The former police officer was hired in July 2020 by Fang Sun, an estranged business partner of Zhong’s who is now on trial for her murder
A former New Zealand Police detective turned private eye who was paid to tail Auckland businesswoman Elizabeth Zhong in the months before her grisly death acknowledged to jurors today that he was knowingly breaking the law while doing so.
Jun “Jimmy” Jin was hired in July 2020 by Fang Sun, an estranged business partner of Zhong’s who is now on trial for her murder.
Jurors spent most of the day reviewing multiple photos and videos that the 19-year police veteran took of Zhong and her East Auckland home starting in July 2020 on through to November of that year, when she was found stabbed to death in the boot of her blood-smeared Land Rover.
To help keep tabs of the 55-year-old when he wasn’t parked for hours near her home, Jin said he illegally placed a tracking device underneath her vehicle that he bought from China.
“I knew it was illegal to put a tracking device on someone’s vehicle without consent,” he said. “But I justified my actions by thinking I was doing the right thing, that I was investigating a crime.”
Police found Zhong’s body on the afternoon of November 28, 2020. Authorities believe she had been stabbed more than 20 times the night before, when an intruder entered the bedroom of her East Auckland home.
Prosecutors said at the start of the trial last month that Sun had been furious with Zhong, believing that she had lost him and his family more than US$16.5 million in investments. The two were engaged in a heated civil battle over control of their company, Sunbow Ltd.
