Sep 2017 - Dec 20225 years 4 months. YingYing Zhang was a student from China who was murdered in Illinois. Video showed her at an Urbana, Illinois, bus stop getting into a black Saturn vehicle, and, after that, she vanished without a trace. Friday the I-Team reported information that government and defense attorneys both wanted kept quiet during the trial. A US former doctoral student has been spared the death penalty for kidnapping and murdering a 26-year-old Chinese scholar, prompting widespread anger in China. The family of murdered Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang has finally learned what happened to the body of their beloved daughter. Very new to the country, Zhang still hadnt settled down properly when a devastating state of affairs snuffed out her wonderful life. How Christensen may cause harm, or be harmed, within prison walls did not appear to be of concern. He confessed to posing as an undercover police officer and picking Zhang up before bringing her back to his apartment. To lure female victims into his car, Christensen claimed to be a police officer. From as far as I could remember, my mothers fervid fear of my sudden vanishing filled the air around her. Christensen claimed that he drove up to the Asian female, who relayed she was late to an appointment. First published on August 7, 2019 / 6:12 PM. 116313 (2021) [j53] view. Most sexual assaults are never reported and fewer than three percent lead to a conviction. According to Bullis, who testified during Christensens trial, she felt very conflicted because she still cared for Christensen, but she also cared about what had happened to Zhang. After the trial ended and public attention moved on, Yingyings disappearance has stayed with me like a needle floating in my veins. Yingying Zhang was born on December 21, 1990 in China. Thats because, not only was Christensen convicted in Zhangs death, but his lawyer revealed in court that he admits to murdering her. Yingying Zhang was known as a compassionate, talented, joyous, and intelligent woman. Experiences: -- Graduate student at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University (2012-2018) -- Lab technician at Dana Farber Cancer Institute (2010-2012) -- Internship at . After nine days of trial and less than two hours of deliberations, the jury found Christensen guilty. Articles Cited by Public access. Berkeley host: Professor Dan Portnoy Research Summary. She was observed speaking with the driver through the passenger window for about one minute, before entering the car. To date, no search has been undertaken. Photo: Matt Dayhoff/Journal Star via AP. So let me just say here at the outset, it will be startling for many of you to hear Brendt Christensen killed Yingying.. June 16, 2021. The attorney argued he had mental health issues and the case was essentially to set up the next phase of the trial, Christensens sentencing. On the right, a strapped gurney. On June 9, 2017, the day Zhang went missing, she was supposed to meet a leasing agent to sign for a new apartment where she planned to stay. Zhang was remembered as intelligent and extroverted. Dated June 1, 2017, it concludes with a line in English, Life is too short to be ordinary!. Copyright 2023 WLS-TV. I argued that its safer for me because Im tall. The surveillance video was provided by University of Illinois police. Having seen how much Yingyings family has suffered, Shi, the director, narrates in the film, I really hoped for the death penalty. We met for breakfast in Chicago and I asked about this statement. Publications. Prosecutors said Christensen raped, choked and stabbed Zhang before beating her to death with a bat and decapitating her. In August 2019, Zhangs family was notified of the potential site of Zhangs remains by the prosecutors. It was also revealed that Christensen was photographed attending a rally for the victim. I too came to the U.S. for my Ph.D., and studied at the University of Chicago, a two-hour drive from UIUC, where many of my colleagues and friends work. He could have been a colleague, a classmate, someone I encountered at a conference: a white guy who takes whiteness and manhood for granted, who uses nonchalance to mask his insecurity, who can act polite but will never see me as his equal. ABC 20/20 brings into focus the kidnapping and murder of a Chinese scholar named Yingying Zhang who went missing on 9 June 2017. According to ABC News, Law enforcement believes the bags were then taken to a landfill in Danville, Illinois. But it was too late to recover her body. I also recommend this Washington Post article, which links to a partial transcript of the trial. Nanoscale thermal transport. But he can be interrogated day and night until he confesses.. In 1988, Democratic nominee for president Michael Dukakis would see his candidacy doomed as he answered no to this debate question: If Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer? He lost to George H. W. Bush, whose team ran a series of attack ads, using the likeness of one Black criminal to stoke racial fear. The horrific details of her death were made public when Brendt Christensen was caught on an audiotape, talking about how he killed Zhang and then disposed of her body, stating that her family would never find her. He later advised, however, he must have been either sleeping or he was playing video games at his residence all day. He admitted the car belonged to him, the affidavit said. Days after the murder, Christensen said he put Yingyings clothing, backpack, cell phone, books and other personal items into a large duffel bag and then distributed them in dumpsters throughout the Champaign-Urbana area. Age 26 years old. One says that I might have had an allergic reaction, which is the version I swear to because the alternative is unthinkable. Yingying never made it to the leasing office. A new documentary, Finding Yingying, premiered at film festivals last year to critical acclaim and is now available on streaming platforms. Paradoxically, it also offers a primal sense of security. I replay this clip and reckon that Im again at fault for over-intellectualizing. Got a tip? What does the cage accomplish? He seemed like a normal physics grad student. As the FBI listened on, Brendt revealed a terrifying truth to his girlfriend. The defense pointed to inconsistencies in her claims. The kidnapping and murder of Yingying Zhang occurred in Urbana, Illinois on June 9, 2017, when Zhang, a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, was abducted by Brendt Allen Christensen, a Champaign resident and former physics graduate student at the university. The U.S. Attorney's office in the Central District of Illinois said Zhang's remains have not been found. When the police questioned Brendt, he denied being involved in Zhangs disappearance. The only emotion I sensed during those hours of paralysis was an eerie calmness akin to closure, like I had spent my entire life treading the edge of a cliff and finally had to surrender to the air. During a follow-up investigation, authorities determined that the contents of Christensens dumpster were picked up on July 12, 2017, compacted at least twice, and taken to a private landfill near Danville, Illinois, the statement said. They have since divorced. Zhang went missing on June 9, 2017, as she was headed to sign a lease for an off-campus apartment in Urbana. He then confessed that he decapitated Zhangs body and disposed of the parts separately to reduce the chances of discovery. Ive spoken with many friends and colleagues in physics about this case. (Zhang Family Photo via AP, File) PEORIA, Ill. (AP) The Latest on the trial of man charged in slaying . University of Minnesota. Cameras show her getting into a black car and authorities identified Brendt Christensen as the suspect. Share; . Yingying is on stage with her band. 3.2.Expression profiles of HMGB1, and TLR4 signaling molecules during APAP-induced liver injury. The only logical explanation, as far as I can tell, is that the jurors were only thinking about violence outside prison, whether Christensen would be able to commit it himself (impossible) or persuade someone on the outside to (unlikely). But as I research this story, she appears so young to me, like a distant reminiscence. Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, but Christensen was prosecuted under federal law. Photo: Stephen Haas/The News-Gazette via AP. Yingying Zhang, 26, a visiting scholar doing research at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, went missing on June 9, 2017 in Champaign, and her body was never found . Read More: Where is Brendt Christensen Today? Yingying Zhang was a 26-year-old visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who went . My friends suggest that I was drugged. I eventually regained some mobility and dialed a friend. It creates and reinforces a binary: us versus them, good versus evil, the deserving versus the unwanted. She played guitar and sang in a band called Cute Horse in China. Brendt Christensen, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in Yingying Zhangs murder, said he put her body in three separate trash bags and threw them in a dumpster. To her, supporting capital punishment in this case is not an abstract position; its about thinking through what true justice is for a family that has lost so much. My mother forwarded many of these reports to me. The case is being featured on 20/20 on November 15, 2019. Two months after Yingying went missing, her mother and younger brother arrived in the U.S. As seen about halfway through the film, the humble woman from Nanping weeps in the backseat of a car. A woman who testified during the trial said Christensen showed her a silver sheriff's star when he asked her to get into his car. There were also statements from Christensen's wife at the time of the investigation in the newly unsealed records. Without a body, prosecutors based their case on DNA evidence found at Christensen's apartment, and the defendant's own boasting of having killed Zhang in a conversation with his girlfriend. Yingying Zhang is from a small city in South east China called Nanping (a prefectural city in the Fujian province). I watched it again this spring, when haunting images from the mass shooting in Atlanta were still in the news, and every day seemed to bring fresh reports of harassment or assault against people who look like me. Yingyings life was precious. Red with rage, the old man exclaims: If the U.S. does not address this case properly, well kill one or two American students in China.. Yingying Zhang is seen entering a black Saturn Astra on the east side of Goodwin Avenue in Urbana. The portion of that private landfill that was being actively used at the time was about half a football field in width, and, by the time Christensens attorneys informed authorities about the remains, they would have purportedly been covered by at least 30 feet of fill from later garbage hauling., It is evident that any attempt to recover Yingyings remains would be complicated and expensive, would require government oversight and the cooperation of the landfill owners and would have no certainty of success, said the statement. Since Zhang was last seen in the video entering the car, said the news release issued by authorities, the FBI, the University of Illinois Police Department and the Illinois State Police and local law enforcement have worked around the clock to locate Ms. Zhang and to investigate her disappearance., Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. With over 6,000 Chinese students, accounting for 12 percent of its student body, UIUC is home to the largest Chinese community among U.S. universities. Yingying Zhang's mother, Lifeng Ye, sobs as her husband addresses the media. Three months before he kidnapped, raped, and murdered Yingying, Christensen had sought help at the universitys counseling center, where he admitted to suicidal and homicidal ideations. The zonules may directly participate in the formation of cataract via the immune mechanism. (2021 Rerelease) 02.01. . Photos of Yingying Zhang on a tree on the University of Illinois campus in Urbana, Ill. Photo: Stephen Haas/The News-Gazette via AP, This is the last entry in Yingyings journal. For a woman, the most dangerous place is often the home. My mother insisted that predators would not care for an old woman like her, though she was barely 40. Christensen is still in a downstate jail, awaiting assignment to a federal penitentiary where he will spend the rest of his life. WGN-TV reported that he raped and beheaded Zhang, and implied he had 12 other victims, but this was never proven. He does not have to be beaten, my mother wrote. He was found guilty in the kidnaping, torture and murder of foreign student Zhang. Highly Influential Citations 1. conference about Yingying Zhang's body at Steve Beckett's . Jul 2021; Xu Junhao; Yingying Zhang . And thus, even though they said that the FBI is probably looking into it, they did state that it would be quite challenging a process. After her education, she planned on marrying her fianc and eventually returning to China to become a teacher. On the other hand, law enforcement also learned that Brendt was in an open marriage with Michelle Zortman while dating Terra Bullis at the same time. . I felt fine the next morning, as if it were all just a dream. On the other hand, the threat of sexual violence is effectively sanctioned as a condition of incarceration, and 60 percent of sexual assaults in prison or jail are committed by staff. Verified email at umn.edu. China Central Television ran a feature: The Terrifying Right to Remain Silent60 Days after Yingying Zhangs Disappearance. During the trial, several people, including Terra Bullis, testified against Brendt. Tragically, and . The Terrifying Right to Remain Silent60 Days after Yingying Zhang's Disappearance. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. She knows how hard it is to raise a child. The 26-year-old visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, disappeared June 9, 2017. All Rights Reserved. If Yingyings remains are ever found, we will return to take her home to China where she belongs, her father said, according to ABC 7. In one recording, Christensen is accused of saying that Zhang fought him, and that he took her back to his apartment and held her there against her will last month, CNN reported. Her accusations were never presented to the jury. It opens with a pair of photos. The sentencing phase of the trial took place two weeks later. New information is expected to be provided on the search for her body in a . Lifeng Ye, mother of slain University of Illinois scholar Yingying Zhang, cries out in grief as her husband, Ronggao Zhang, left, addresses the media after a jury found Brendt Christensen guilty . Zhang's family said they believe the best thing to do at this point is allow federal, state, and local authorities to determine the feasibility of recovering her body. It doesnt reveal whom Christensen was allegedly speaking with at the time. Her disappearance was big news in China as well as the United States as the Urbana-Champaign community mobilized to find the promising young environmental engineer who was researching crop production. The same jury who convicted him later split on the death penalty. Publications 10. h-index 3. Investigation Discoverys See No Evil: Far from Home chronicles the disappearance and the horrifying ordeal Zhang had to endure before her untimely death. Two days later, he put her personal belongings including her clothes, backpack, cell phone, and books into a duffel bag, and drove around the Champaign-Urbana area, throwing them in various dumpsters. Beckett planned to address the development at a news conference beginning at 3 p.m. CST, but that news conference was later postponed. The U.S. Attorney for Central Illinois, John Milhiser, as he spoke, Zhang's mother, Lifeng Ye, sobbed and the woman standing next to her appeared to be holding her upright. This detail is particularly heartbreaking as members of law enforcement are frequent perpetrators of sexual violence, especially toward women of color, but are rarely held accountable. She was supposed to check out an apartment to lease and never showed up. (MORE: Man found guilty of killing visiting Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang) Mike Christensen believes Zhang's killing could have been avoided if counselors took action then and there. Christensen is serving a life prison term. Police searched her apartment and found nothing. Prosecutors indicated in court filings that Christensen may have destroyed the remains. Audio and video recordings were played for a federal jury in the murder-kidnapping trial of Brendt Christensen on Friday --- including a recording of Christensen's chilling account of how he kidnapped and murdered Yingying Zhang, a promising young environmental engineer from China in June 2017. Shes gone forever. Yangyang Cheng is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center and a particle physicist. Beckett said the defense team for her killer, Brendt Christensen, disclosed the location of Zhang's body as part of a failed immunity agreement. With the defense already admitting that Brendt killed Zhang, the jury did not take long to find him guilty of the crime. At the time of my disagreement with my mother, a former Ph.D. candidate in physics at the same university had been apprehended and charged with the kidnapping and death of Yingying. The alternative for a crime of this nature is life in prison. Statement from family's lawyers: @WCIA3 pic.twitter.com/SaYqeuwE3h. After reviewing hours of interviews and hundreds of pages of documents on him, Im haunted by a sense of familiarity. Previous research data suggested that Anemoside A3 (A3), a monomeric component of Pulsatilla Chinensis, could prevent and treat TNBC by converting M0 macrophages into M1 immunogen phenotypes. According to Beckett, a follow-up investigation determined the dumpster where Christensen placed Yingying Zhang's body was picked up three days after her murder, and the contents were taken to a private landfill near Danville, where they were compacted at least twice. She gets off the bus. ? or IF he was free? Co-Author. Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #11 *GUILTY* Thread starter liltexans; Start date Jul 2, 2017; . . It was invaluable. My biggest concern is that the suspect wont get a severe punishment, Yingyings father says in the film. Christensen stated that he brought Zhang back to his apartment, and otherwise held her in his apartment against her will, the affidavit alleges. Powered by. And thus, even though they said that the FBI is probably looking into it, they did state that it would be quite challenging a process. Given the size of the landfill, the amount of time that has passed, and the amount of additional garbage since dumped in the landfill, Beckett said any attempt to find the body would be very costly. Steve Beckett, Zhangs family lawyer, Yingyings father, Ronggao ZhangIf, upon hearing this, later, In addition to this, a memorial stone with Zhangs name was placed on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. However, soon, through the lenses of CCTVs, the police learned that the answer might be a lot closer to home than people thought. Rights of a criminal suspect were seen as obtuse hurdles inhibiting a swift conviction. Thats because Christensens attorney said during an opening statement that Christensen had killed Zhang, but disputed some of the evidence against him. Yingying Zhang Zhang; Zhonghua Gao (Contributorpp. Brendt Christensen, 30, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for the kidnapping and killing two years ago of 26-year-old Yingying Zhang, a student at the University of Illinois Urbana . Can we find that guys mother? she asks. What happened to Yingying could never have happened in China, she insisted, echoing the talking points on state media that U.S. authorities were only paying attention to the case because China is strong. People from the FBI also testified that Zhangs DNA and her blood were found inside Brendts apartment, which unmistakeably linked him to the crime. At the end of the verdict form, the jury added a mitigating factor: Mr. On June 15, 2017, Christensen was interviewed at the FBIs Champaign office. However, even with massive searches and attractive cash rewards announced, the few leads the police got led to nothing. For the closing statement at the penalty phase of the trial, Christensens defense presented a 72-page powerpoint on why his life should be spared. "A lot of news coverage of . Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old Chinese scholar, traveled to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in April 2017 to pursue research in agriculture. Growing up, she had a loving family; Her . ID found on disambiguation page, needs clean-up. There was a trial, but it was more about whether he would get the death penalty (he didnt; he got a life sentence), than it was about guilt or innocence. It is evident that any attempt to recover Yingyings remains would be complicated and expensive, would require government oversight and the cooperation of the landfill owners and would have no certainty of success, said Steve Beckett, attorney for the Zhang family, according to ABC. Several lamented that while foreigners in China are showered with privileges, Chinese people overseas endure second-class status. A memorial stone engraved with Yingying Zhang's name in both English and Chinese on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in June 2019, two years after her disappearance. Yingying Zhang was born in 1990 in China and by the time she was 27, she had graduated with a Master Degree and had traveled to the United States to conduct research on photosynthesis at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (Photo by Mark Van Moer) Inset, top: Yingying Zhang (Courtesy University of Illinois Police Department). Citing Authors. Zhang's father said if his daughter's remains are ever found, her family plans to take her body back to China. Superior Unidirectional Water Transport and Mechanically Stable 3D Orthogonal Woven Fabric for Human Body Moisture and Thermal Management. A jury convicted Christensen of all charges in her death after 90 minutes of deliberation in June. Zhang's body has not been found. Brendt Christensen, 30, kidnapped, tortured and killed U of I scholar Yingying Zhang in 2018. YINGYING ZHANG WAS ABDUCTED AND MURDERED IN 2017. She left her quaint, mountain top home town after receiving a scholarship to study at the Chinese Academy . She is wearing a gray baseball cap, a white jacket, and jeans. One student who had Christensen as a TA wrote on Reddit, I had him 3 years ago for physics 212 TA. Yingying is an incredible young lady. Christensen, a 30-year-old former doctoral student at the university, was arrested later that month and charged with her kidnapping and murder. They also found evidence of a part of the car being cleaned extra thoroughly, which hinted towards Brendt hiding something. By defending features in the U.S. judicial process, I was in fact defending the life I had worked so hard to achieve. Yingying Zhang (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhng Yngyng) (December 21, 1990 - June 9, 2017) was born in the city of Nanping, Fujian Province, to Ronggao Zhang and Lifeng Ye.Zhang has one younger brother, Zhengyang. "Due to the compaction process, Yingying's bodily remains may be very, very small in size," Beckett said. 29 Nov - Zhang Yingying and Wang Xiaofei's mother Zhang Lan seem to be butting heads when it comes to the mainland businessman, after the actress seemingly decided to declare that they are dating.. As reported on CTWant, the 26-year-old actress, who has been romantically linked to Wang for months and was even accused of being the third party in his previous marriage with Barbie Hsu, recently . According to the affidavit, authorities allege that he admitted to driving around the UI campus when he observed an Asian female with a backpack standing at a corner appearing distressed. 1 hospitalized after fire in West Town, CFD says, Jupiter and Venus appear to 'kiss' in the sky, Belvidere Jeep assembly plant shut down indefinitely. Beckett said Christensen's defense attorneys told federal prosecutors what he did with Zhang's body in November 2018, but the information was provided under a grant of immunity, so prosecutors could not disclose the information to anyone until after the trial. Christensen was found guilty on June 24, 2019, of kidnapping resulting in death and two counts of lying to investigators. Death penalty or life in prison: What if neither leads to justice? She was No. Its clear from an affidavit in the case that authorities thought they had their man, but they needed more evidence to seek an arrest, especially because they did not know where Zhangs body was. 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