A 63-year-old grandmother charged with manslaughter told police she didn't know the victim whose body was found in the water at Gulf Harbour two years ago.
Xiuyun Li is facing trial for kidnapping and manslaughter alongside three co-defendants including her son Kaixiao Liu, her daughter-in-law, and her husband. The body of Shulai Wang, a 70-year-old woman from Hainan, China, was found wrapped in plastic bags and bound to two SunRice bags containing over 15kg of stones on 12 March 2024.
When shown an image of Wang during a police interview, Li said she didn't know her and had never heard of the name. Li was interviewed as a witness following a search of the family's home on Harvest Avenue in Orewa and was not facing charges at the time.
The Crown alleges Wang and five other women from China sought religious instructions from Kaixiao Liu and lived in servitude to his family in their Orewa home. Wang was allegedly starved for breaking house rules and later bound in tape after a failed escape attempt.
Li's standby lawyer Philip Hamlin told the jury Li spent her time looking after her four grandchildren and barely had any contact with Wang. Immigration records showed Li practised as a doctor in China for 37 years.
A diary entry written by Li about five days before Wang's body was found stated there was no more sound coming from her. Police identified Wang after a woman living with the defendants told them a person in the house fell and died.
All four defendants are self-represented in the trial. The five women who lived in the house were deported in August 2024 after overstaying their visas by more than 42 days.