The Nai Yin Xue story

BY MICHAEL FIELD

She was the sad face that moved a couple of nations.

Three-year-old Qian Xun Xue standing alone for four minutes on Melbourne's Southern Cross Railway Station concourse, abandoned by her father, Nai Yin Xue.

For the Chinese, who understood the name, it was poignant.

Qianxun means "looking for a thousand years" by tradition it speaks of a deeply wanted child.

Three days earlier, on the evening of Tuesday September 11, 2007, Xue had taken his neck-tie and strangled his 28-year-old wife, Qianxun's mother, An An Liu to death.

Her name means "double safe".

It took about three minutes to die, tiny haemorrhages exploding across her face and in her eyes.

If she was murdered in her bed, as the prosecution believes, its likely Qianxun who slept with her mother - was beside her as she died.

An An had came to New Zealand on April 19, 2002 to learn English.

Her visa expired and the only way to stay was through marriage.

Xue, 25 years older, arrived in 1990.

He called himself "Pangu", Creator of Chinese culture and language.

Xue and An An married and until the child came alone they were content.

Violence came when the baby turned out to be a girl.

A mechanic, Graham McNamara, had been a friend of Xue and he gave her the English name Clare.

"There was no warmth in the house, no feelings."

Xue did not hide his homicidal thoughts and on July 28 2007 An An had a close call.

She had fled to Wellington with Qianxun and found her way to the Johnsonville home of Weihong Song, who rented rooms. His wife and daughter were in China and it was plain he found An An attractive.

If a single conversation on an internet chat room, QQ, is anything to go, by An An liked him.

"In the past I seem to be sexually frigid, having no interest at all but since following Brother Song I have a lot of desire. Is it that a woman at 30 is as sexually furious as a wolf," she wrote to a friend in China.

Xue found out where she was and purchased an axe to kill her.

He drove to Wellington and broke into the home and went room to room. Song's small dog sounded the alarm and he leapt up, seeing a fat headed short Chinese man. With rifle in hand, Song chased him away.

A speed camera in Levin at 3.31 am recorded Xue's drive back to Auckland

An An returned but Xue was consumed with the idea that his wife had another lover.

The family lived at 26 Keystone Avenue off Dominion Road. It was two flats with a shared kitchen.

An An was seen by flatmates Zhengye Zhang and wife Ling Liu in the kitchen. At 6.46pm that Tuesday she went to the nearby supermarket and paid with Eftpos.

Each night the flatmates went out on a diligent walk; counting out 10,000 steps. They left at 8pm and were back between 10pm and 11pm. They saw and heard nothing.

It was then, the crown says, she was murdered.

At 12.27 am on Wednesday Xue was at the down town ASB Bank vault checking his safety deposit box.

At 2am Police Constable Terrance Logan pulled him over on the southern motorway.

Xue said was going home. He was heading away from home.

An An's body may have been in the boot. If it wasn't then he had left it with Qianxun who was home alone.

On September 19 eight days after the murder two detectives opened the boot of Xue's car and found An An's body.

- © Fairfax NZ News