The mother of An An Liu, whose husband is standing trial for her murder, broke down today at the end of her evidence to a High Court jury in Auckland.
Xiaoping Liu also said she tried not to think the worst when she could not get hold of her daughter by phone in September 2007.
Mrs Liu gave her evidence by videolink from China in the trial of Nai Yin Xue, 55, who is charged with murdering her daughter in Auckland on September 11, 2007.
The body of Ms Liu, 28, was found in the boot of Xue's car outside the family home in Mt Roskill, West Auckland.
Xue was alleged to have strangled her then flown to Australia with their then three-year-old daughter, Qian Xun, whom he abandoned at a Melbourne train station.
Xue was located in the United States four months later.
Mrs Liu said she was in regular contact with her daughter through internet messaging.
However, when she did not receive any messages from her on September 11 and 12, she decided to call her mobile phone on September 13.
After trying a number of times, she finally got through.
Through a court interpreter, she said she became worried that it wasn't her daughter that answered.
Instead, it was Xue who was at the other end, and he told her that Ms Liu had gone to Wellington along with their child.
When she asked why Ms Liu hadn't taken her mobile, Xue said she had left it behind in the car.
"I found that was odd," Mrs Liu said.
"At that time, I was not sure what to believe and I was a little suspicious. I did not dare think of the worst scenario and asked him to contact An An to get hold of me.
"I asked for the home number. He gave me a phone number but the last two digits were wrong."
At the end of her hour-long testimony, Mrs Liu asked to say some words to the jury, but Justice Hugh Williams explained that the New Zealand legal system did not allow that.
When Justice Williams then asked how her granddaughter, who was living with her in Hunan province, was doing, Mrs Liu broke down at the end of her reply.
The reply was not translated for the jury after the judge said it could be controversial.
Another witness, Gui Qing Jia, said Xue told her about a trip he made to Wellington in July 2007 to find his wife.
The court had been told earlier that Ms Liu went to live in Wellington to escape Xue, but returned to Auckland the month before her death.
Ms Jia, also known as Judy, said Xue told her he got into the house where Ms Liu was staying and searched room by room, but did not find her.
The landlord, who had a gun, discovered him there and he ran away.
Ms Jia said Xue told her he wanted Ms Liu to come back to him and that, if she refused, he would kill her.
Ms Jia, who first got to know Xue when she went to put an advertisement for her language school in the newspaper he owned, also said she saw an axe in the boot of his car.
He told her he had taken the axe down with him to Wellington, she said.
The trial is continuing.
