A man who killed his girlfriend, dumping her body in a household rubbish bin, has been found guilty of murder by a Supreme Court jury.
The remains of Ju "Kelly" Zhang, 33, were discovered at the Wollert tip on Melbourne's outskirts in June 2021 after a painstaking police investigation to find her body.
Ms Zhang was reported missing four months earlier, with her boyfriend of only a few weeks telling police he last saw her alive when she walked out of her Epping home wearing a pink dressing gown and slippers.
In reality, the man, Joon Seong Tan, had stabbed Ms Zhang to death and taken the body in a wheelie bin to another suburb.
He sat in his car and watched it being collected by a council rubbish truck.
Prosecutors said Tan carried out the killing because he was jealous Ms Zhang — who was planning to leave him — was dating other men.
The killing occurred while Ms Zhang's young son was in the house.
Tan's lies were quickly uncovered by police who checked his phone and found he had searched the terms: "How many years for killing a person in Australia?" and "How is stinky garbage disposed in Australia?"
Tan was arrested at the Melbourne Airport days later, as he prepared to board a flight to Adelaide.
He was charged with Ms Zhang's murder, even though her body had not been found at that stage.
Police track council rubbish trucks
Tan's housemate Jeff Chan told police Tan had summoned him to Ms Zhang's house on the night of the murder.
Mr Chan said Tan told him he had "lost his mind" during an argument and accidentally killed Ms Zhang.
"Mr Tan said the body is getting stinky. So he wants to put the body in the rubbish bin," Mr Chan told the court, through an interpreter.
Mr Chan refused to help and ran from the scene, terrified Tan would kill him next.
Investigators were able to trace Tan's movements on the night of the killing through his phone's GPS, finding the approximate location he had travelled to in Heidelberg Heights.
From there, police worked with the local council to determine which council rubbish trucks had been in the area, and the rough spot in the Wollert tip where Ms Zhang's body could be buried.
Prosecutor Jeremy McWilliams said even though Ms Zhang's remains were decomposed when they were found, pathologists were able to identify several stab wounds.
"This is plainly a case of murder and the evidence proves it," he told the jury.
Tan protested his innocence, pleading not guilty at his Supreme Court trial, which ran for more than three weeks.
The jury retired to consider its verdict on Tuesday, returning a guilty verdict this afternoon.
Tan showed no emotion as the verdict was read out, however there were sobs from Ms Zhang's supporters in the public gallery.
Tan, 37, was taken into custody and is scheduled to face a pre-sentence hearing next week.
