A court has heard how Auckland businesswoman Elizabeth Zhong was killed in her east Auckland home before her body was driven away from the scene in the boot of her own car.
Zhong's former business partner, Fang Sun, is on trial for her murder after pleading not guilty.
On Tuesday, as the trial began at the High Court at Auckland, their relationship was described by the prosecution as embittered and hostile.
"They had been business associates together but their relationship had broken down," Crown prosecutor Gareth Kayes said in his opening address.
"Mr Sun believed that Ms Zhong owed him and his family millions of dollars."
Zhong, 55, was reported missing in November 2020.
That same weekend, police discovered her body in the boot of her own black Land Rover, parked only a short distance from her home in the east Auckland suburb of Sunnyhills.
She had been killed in her bedroom, her body driven from the scene.
"The killer stabbed Ms Zhong over twenty times, and after the murder, the killer put Ms Zhong into a suitcase, and used that to get her from the upstairs level down to the garage." Kayes said.
More than two months later, 48-year-old Sun was charged with her murder.
Elizabeth 'Ying' Zhong was involved in a number of business ventures, including two film companies, and two vineyards, Kennedy Point in Waiheke and Carrick Wines in Central Otago.
Born in China, she moved to New Zealand with her daughter and then-husband in 1997.
In 2013 Zhong met Sun and the pair went into business together, starting a company called Sunbow Limited.
But the Crown said the relationship began to deteriorate in 2019 and in August that year, Sun and companies associated with him filed legal proceedings in the Auckland High Court against Zhong.
"Based on the legal proceedings, it would appear Mr Sun blamed Ms Zhong for losing him and his family over $25 million," Kayes told the court.
The Crown said that in 2020, Sun hired a private investigator to follow Zhong.
"He would park up outside her house sometimes for hours, he would follow her in his car and send messages to Fang Sun, telling him where she was and what she was doing," Kayes said.
"Around August 2020 he placed a tracking device under her black land rover," Kayes told the jury.
The Crown said Zhong told people about threats she said Sun made against her, including telling officers at North Shore police station that he had said words to the effect of, "You will rather die than be alive".
"She told the police officer she feared for her life," Kayes said.
Sun has denied the murder charge.
On Tuesday, his defence told the court he did not kill Zhong - and that there were many other suspicious characters in the case.
"Quite simply and quite strongly, it was not him," defence lawyer Sam Wimsett said.
"You may have a strong suspicion that someone very much wanted to make it look like Mr Sun was connected with the case."
The trial is expected to last six weeks.
