Elizabeth Zhong murder: Victim’s daughter, lawyer in NZ describe threats from Fang Sun

She told her about threats she said she received from the defendant: ‘I could tell she was getting very desperate and upset at the time,’ her daughter said

The Auckland businesswoman was stabbed more than 20 times; her body was found in the back of her blood-smeared SUV, parked near where both she and Sun lived

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Elizabeth Zhong, aka Ying Zhong of Sunnyhills Auckland, was stabbed more than 20 times.

Published: 6:13pm, 9 May 2022Updated: 6:51pm, 17 May 2022

In the four years leading to the discovery of Elizabeth Zhong’s body in the boot of her Land Rover, the China-born New Zealand businesswoman had visited Auckland’s SkyCity Casino 381 times and had accumulated nearly NZ$240,000 (US$152,000) in gambling losses.

At the same time, Zhong was being accused in a civil suit in the High Court at Auckland of improperly funnelling millions of dollars from the business she shared with Fang Sun, while creditors sold the company’s assets to repay debts.

Those “agreed facts” were revealed to jurors today at Sun’s murder trial, which is now in its third week at the same courthouse where the civil suit took place.

Zhong, 55, was stabbed more than 20 times in her bedroom on the night of November 27, 2020, authorities have said. Her body was found the next afternoon in the back of her blood-smeared SUV, which was parked on the side of the road in the East Auckland neighbourhood where both she and Sun lived.

Zhong’s daughter, who has been granted name suppression, described her mother through tears today as a private person but said Zhong opened up to her about her financial troubles and threats from Sun in the final months of her life.