A year on from her disappearance, remains have today been found in the search for missing Christchurch real estate agent Yanfei Bao.
The remains were found in a shallow grave on private farmland in the Greenpark area of Canterbury, police say.
The grave was about 150mm deep.
"I am comfortable that we were searching for Yanfei and that we have found her," Detective Inspector Nicola Reeves said.
Bao, 44, has been missing since July 19 last year. Despite extensive searches in Christchurch and the Selwyn district over the past 12 months, her body has never been found.
Chinese national Tingjun Cao, 53, has been accused of her kidnapping and murder. Cao is set to go on trial in October.
Det Insp Reeves said a post-mortem would take place tomorrow and results were likely to take a few days.
"You get the organic fall of trees... there's no obvious disturbance and I don't think there would have been an obvious disturbance at the time either. I think it was probably covered up."
The farmland had been searched previously, but new information that gave "quite a specific direction or location of where we needed to be" prompted the investigation team to return.
Det Insp Reeves earlier said the search today involved a team of more than 60 people, and centred on and near the intersection of Hudson and Clarks Rds.
This information came in six to eight weeks ago, she said, but a bit of planning was needed ahead of today's search.
"A lot goes into it, certainly a lot of visits to the area, what does the ground look like, what's the terrain, what resources, what equipment do we need, how many people are we going to need.
"It's not something that we would rush out and do."
Police were searching for about an hour and a-half before finding the remains, she said.
"What it means is going forward we'll be able to tell a full story and not have a big part of that story missing or undone, so that's really satisfying and comforting that we will be able to give her daughter and her family answers to a lot of questions that we haven't been able to so far."
While it was the intention to find something today, it was still a shock, she said.
"There's a lot of emotions today for all of the investigations team and everybody who has been involved in the last year and ten days.
"We are relieved that what we set out to do we have done. We are enormously proud of the police team that have worked really hard on this over the last year."
Det Insp Reeves said news of the discovery had been shared with Bao's immediate family, "and while long hoped for, still comes as a shock".
Bao had been working at Harcourts. Managing director Bryan Thomson said in a statement they had seen the news and their thoughts were with her family, friends and colleagues.
Det Insp Reeves said police were "certainly not seeking anybody else in relation to Yanfei Bao's disappearance".
Police would continue to prepare for trial, she said.
