Mrs Liu gave her evidence by video link from China in the trial of Nai Yin Xue (55), who ischarged 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 3-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 cellphone on September 13.
After trying a number of times, she finally got through.
Through a court interpreter, she said she became worried it was not her daughter who answered.
Instead, it was Xue, who told her his wife had gone to Wellington with their child.
When she asked why Ms Liu had not taken her cellphone, 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 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 ind his wife.
The court had been told earlier that Ms Liu went to live in Wellington to escape Xue, but returned to uckland 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 earched 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.
