Clothing/Jewelry Description A pink and white flannel long-sleeved shirt over a white shirt, jeans, white shoes, and a . Prosecutors said Christensen raped, choked and stabbed Zhang before beating her to death with a bat and decapitating her. That recording provided them with the key piece of evidence outlined in the affidavit. By the penalty phase, Christensen had already been found guilty. Authorities interviewed Christensen who allegedly told authorities that, between 2 and 3 p.m. on June 9, 2017, the day that Zhang disappeared, he could not initially recall his whereabouts. 13. CHICAGO (CBS) -- The family of slain Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang said Wednesday they now know where her body might have been dumped, but that it might be impossible to find her remains more than two years after her brutal murder. The memorial garden for Yingying Zhang outside Campbell Hall on the UIUC campus, near where she was last seen. Yingying ZHANG | Cited by 11,350 | of Tsinghua University, Beijing (TH) | Read 163 publications | Contact Yingying ZHANG She played guitar and sang in a band called Cute Horse in China. Yingying Zhang, Clinical Social Work/Therapist, Chicago, IL, 60640, (872) 274-4302, As a first generation immigrant, I recognize the unique experience individuals face in life. On the 9 th of June 2017 a 26 year old Chinese scholar studying at the University of Illinois went missing. Referenced Authors. I was furious at my mother, who appeared oblivious to the cruelty and repeatedly defended the inhumane practice. Yingying Zhang was a 26-year-old visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who went . Yingying Zhang was born on December 21, 1990 in China. Speaking through an interpreter at Christensen's sentencing, Zhang's father, Ronggao Zhang, appealed to him to reveal where her body is so that the family can take her remains back to China. "Due to the compaction process, Yingying's bodily remains may be very, very small in size," Beckett said. Highly Influential Citations 1. 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. Brendt Christensen was convicted of visiting Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang's 2017 murder. Three days before Christensens arrest, the Chinese government had just issued new rules aimed at curbing police abuse. 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. She walks over and leans in the passenger side window. The same jurors took less than 90 minutes to convict Christensen last month in the killing of Yingying Zhang. Prosecutor Eugene Miller alleged that Zhangs blood was found on a bat that Christensen used to strike Zhang, as well as in other places in his apartment, according to WTTW-TV. 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. Born to a working-class family in the southern city of Nanping, Yingying received her masters degree from Peking University and worked as a research assistant at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing. The FBI approached Bullis, who was very confident about Brendts innocence. Im surprised, though perhaps I should not be, by how little awareness there is. People from the FBI also testified that Zhangs DNA and her blood were found inside Brendts apartment, which unmistakeably linked him to the crime. Every person deserves safety, but when does justice bleed into vengeance, and how may our desires for protection embolden the systems that harm us? Police said that, on June 9, 2017, Zhang went to UIs Turner Hall where she conducts research and then returned to her apartment for lunch. Search For Terms: 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 . He seemed like a normal physics grad student. Main text. 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. While a teenager in China, I had many fraught conversations with my mother about who should run errands after dark. A grief stricken Lifeng Ye, second from right, the mother of slain University of Illinois scholar Yingying Zhang, is supported by a friend Lin Guiping and Yingying's brother Zhengyang Zhang, right . Like her, I had grown up in a provincial city in China and clung to academic excellence as the only way out. I laugh. Brendt Christensen, 30, kidnapped, tortured and killed U of I scholar Yingying Zhang in 2018. / CBS Chicago. Since then, they've likely been covered by at least 30 feet of landfill. Citations 15. Revisiting Yingyings story at this moment is not only relevant, but also necessary. All Rights Reserved. Christensen stated that he offered the Asian female a ride. Two ABC news teams tell the tale of two families, tragically connected by the 2017 murder of U of I scholar Yingying Zhang. A black sedan circles around the block and stops in front of her. The affidavit filed after Christensens June 2017 arrest provides chilling details; it says that authorities examined Christensens phone and alleges that he accessed a website entitled Abduction 101 and sub-threads that were called things like perfect abduction fantasy and planning a kidnapping. He had also worked as a Physics class teaching assistant. We now understand that finding her may be impossible," he said. Yingyings disappearance affirmed my mothers long-held belief that a foreign country is too dangerous for a Chinese woman like me. Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) exhibits the characteristics of strong metastatic ability and a high recurrence rate, and M2-type macrophages play an important role in this process. Thats because, not only was Christensen convicted in Zhangs death, but his lawyer revealed in court that he admits to murdering her. Her death was not random. "The Zhang family reports this as information they have received and cannot vouch for its truth," he said in a statement. Just imagine a woman opening a water tank and deliberately drowning herself in it. Four days after the news broke, a post went viral on Chinese social media, If the Yingying Zhang case took place in China, with attention from the entire country, whats the probability that it would be solved within 48 hours?. Zhang was a visiting scholar at the university. The public execution, according to Michel Foucault, was not only a judicial but also a political ritual, through which the state manifested its absolute power. She was supposed to check out an apartment to lease and never showed up. To be a Chinese student or scholar in the U.S. is to chart a lonely existence. Follow Author. Beckett said the defense team for her killer, Brendt Christensen, disclosed the location of Zhang's body as part of a failed immunity agreement. (2021 Rerelease) 02.01. . 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. The answer is no. Christensen allegedly claimed that he believed he made a wrong turn because the female became panicked. He initially claimed that he then let the female out of the vehicle in a residential area a few blocks away from where he picked her up. The judge confirmed that its the former. CHICAGO (WLS) -- The ABC7 I-Team on Friday obtained never-before-heard information in case of murdered University of Illinois Chinese scholar Ying Ying Zhang. And me, myself will never agree with that. He pauses after every few words and presses his lips, as if to hold back the flame rising through him. Zhangs friends, too, had no idea about her whereabouts, and they were worried about the visiting student getting into trouble in an unfamiliar place. It has been shown that a low BCAA diet can lead to dramatic changes in metabolism, including an increase in energy expenditure, enhancement of ketogenesis, upregulation of Fgf21, and a decrease in body weight in mice (Newgard et al, 2009; Lotta et al, 2016; Cummings et al, 2018; Karusheva et al, 2019; Zhou et al, 2019; Richardson et al, 2021 . She was diagnosed with Pyothorax (causes unknown). She called Christensen a demon. After the trial, media asked for access to hundreds of documents sealed during the case. Tragically, and . The remains sought by Yingying Zhang's family for proper burial, and whose whereabouts the killer had kept from them, may be "impossible" to retrieve By Jeff Truesdell Published on August 8, 2019 . That was just hours before Zhang was seen getting into Christensen's black Saturn Astra, the last time she was seen alive. She left her quaint, mountain top home town after receiving a scholarship to study at the Chinese Academy . 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 . Christensen has never revealed what he did with Zhang's remains. On Friday, June 9, Yingying left the office during lunch hour to sign a lease for a new apartment across town. Friday the I-Team reported information that government and defense attorneys both wanted kept quiet during the trial. Co-Authors. Many in the comment section praised the efficiency of Chinese police and the capabilities of the countrys Skynet surveillance system. Her accusations were never presented to the jury. They also found evidence of a part of the car being cleaned extra thoroughly, which hinted towards Brendt hiding something. It took more than two years for Christensen to be convicted. My friends meant well. . He was recorded confessing to killing her and has an online history at FetLife re . By 9:24 p.m., an associate professor reported that Zhang was missing. 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. He then took her to his apartment, where he raped, choked, and stabbed her in his bedroom; then dragged her into the bathroom, and beat her to death with a baseball bat before decapitating her. Would UIUC be a safer place if some of its resources for policing and surveillance went toward mental health services and supporting international students? Its loss can never be repaid. The case was dismissed. The moment the page loaded, I looked away. This greatly alarmed counselors, but they later deduced that he was not in immediate need of hospitalization. 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. The suspect, Brendt Christensen, pleaded not guilty and refused to give up information. Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. He seemingly boasted about choking, sexually assaulting, and beating Zhang to death with a baseball bat. Tropical Geography 2023, Vol. If someone is deemed prone to violence as a free man, then hes likely to become more so in prison, where violence is the norm. Yingying Zhang is seen entering a black Saturn Astra on the east side of Goodwin Avenue in Urbana. To date, no search has been undertaken. The fund had already amassed more than $30,000 by Wednesday morning. A source close to the investigation said the landfill has not been searched. When Yingying Zhang went missing on June 9, 2017, the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign was thrown into chaos as people searched frantically for the visiting Chinese scholar. About. On June 15, 2017, Christensen was interviewed at the FBIs Champaign office. Read More: Where is Brendt Christensen Today? During the trial, several people, including Terra Bullis, testified against Brendt. 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. To do this, representative systems must be strategically selected to stimulate students' motivation. One of them, a law student, noted that the presumption of innocence is a first principle and a literally foundational American value.. Christensen, a former physics Ph.D. candidate at the University of Illinois, raped, choked, and stabbed 26-year-old Zhang before beating her with a baseball bat and decapitating her in June 2017. My mind had filled in the rest of the plot. Thus, Zhangs family continues to mourn Zhangs death without even the smallest comfort of being able to lay her body to rest. Zhang's body has never been found. During the eight-and-a-half hours of deliberations, they asked the judge to clarify this question on the special verdict form: By whether Christensen is likely to commit more acts of violence, did it mean IN PRISON? Yingyings life was precious. Most sexual assaults are never reported and fewer than three percent lead to a conviction. She is gone. 10. As per Zhangs family lawyers statements, the contents of the dumpster were taken to Danville, where it was compacted twice. 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. I feel sorry that Ive brought knowledge of this gruesome crime to people dear to me, but Ive always felt responsible for Yingyings death, that Im complicit by my profession. Photo: Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette via AP. Her name was Yingying Zhang. To lure female victims into his car, Christensen claimed to be a police officer. By signing up, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy & to receive electronic communications from Vice Media Group, which may include marketing promotions, advertisements and sponsored content. Directed by Jiayan Jenny Shi, its a tender, intimate portrayal of a promising life cut short, a familys harrowing search for their beloved daughter on a foreign land, and their unrelenting quest for justice. October 1, 2021, 7:30am. The menacing images appear to come alive, two monsters manifesting the paucity of our moral imagination. However, the jury was divided over the decision for the death penalty, as a result of which Brendt was awarded life in prison without the possibility of parole in 2018. We may be sizable in number, but we are rarely seen or heard. She refused to let me out of her sight, and I refused her suffocating love by leaving China as soon as I could. Yingying Zhang; Liangtao Li; Jiarui Guo; Yang Zhang; Xufeng Niu; Yang Wang ; Liang Hu et al. That evening, unable to reach her, Yingyings Chinese colleagues reported her missing to the police. She was a brilliant scholar and had won numerous laurels in China before coming to the US in April 2017, where she was supposed to stay for a year. Christensen is still in a downstate jail, awaiting assignment to a federal penitentiary where he will spend the rest of his life. . However, Brendt never returned for a second counseling session like he was asked to. (. 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. ABC reports that Bullis testified that she Christensen seemed excited and proud when he discussed killing Zhang. U. of I. She was last seen on surveillance video at her . She had previously told people she was going to sign an apartment lease and would return shortly after. 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. Sep 2017 - Dec 20225 years 4 months. Brendt Christensen, a former graduate student, has been charged with kidnapping and killing her. However, Mike refused to divulge any information about the location of Zhangs remains. Yingyings disappearance quickly made headlines on both sides of the Pacific. 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. Brendt Christensen, the 29-year-old who was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Zhangs murder, informed his attorneys that after killing and decapitating Zhang, he put her body in three separate garbage bags, then disposed of those bags in the dumpster outside his Champaign, Illinois, apartment. He then confessed that he decapitated Zhangs body and disposed of the parts separately to reduce the chances of discovery. Cops are also more likely to commit domestic abuse than the general population. Zhang's father, Ronggao Zhang, said if the information Christensen gave prosecutors is true "it further confirms that he is a heartless and evil person.". Jul 2021; Xu Junhao; Yingying Zhang . A bilingual memorial service for Zhang will be held on Friday in Savoy, Illinois. Articles Cited by Public access. T. TEB Active Member. Reports also claim that Brendt claimed to be a serial killer, but that claim has never been substantiated and is believed to be false. She was No. The U.S. Attorney's office in the Central District of Illinois said Zhang's remains have not been found. Ying Ying Zhang, Her Name Means "A Twinkle Of Light," But Her Light Was Taken Away; who Was Yingying Zhang? She wanted to make a difference in the world.. Her boyfriend, Xiaolin Hou, testified that the family's only hope was that Zhang's body will be found so they can bury her in China. After his conviction and trial, the fate of Yingying Zhangs body came to light. Cultural difference makes for a convenient excuse to validate the self and exoticize the other. When the police questioned Brendt, he denied being involved in Zhangs disappearance. Brendt had previous mental health issues as an ABC news report mentioned that in 2017, he had admitted to having homicidal intent after conducting researches on serial killers. Amidst a global pandemic caricatured as a product of Asian pathology, my birth country has descended further down the abyss of authoritarianism, my adopted home teeters on the brink of fascism, and relations between the two superpowers are at their lowest point in decades. According to ABC 7, after Christensens trial, it was revealed that he told his lawyers that he put Yingyings remains in three separate garbage bags and placed them in a dumpster outside his Champaign apartment. Authorities think Zhangs body might be in multiple landfills, but thats never been determined for sure. Yingying Zhang. By this time, Zhangs family flew in from China and helped in the search. When we turn away from the face of the condemned, were in fact refusing to look at ourselves, to confront our culpability in systems of oppression, to recognize the glimmer of humanity in the darkest corner. 37. Yingyings family believed that Christensen should be executed. electronic edition via DOI; unpaywalled version; references . "There is nothing in the world that we want more than to find our daughter and bring . She was 26. Completely normal, perhaps a bit awkward but with no unusual vibes.. Beyond the immediacy of war, when is a state justified to kill? 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. 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. He told authorities that he was at home around the time in question. When the police searched his car, nothing stood out of the ordinary at first glance. 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