Brendt Christensen
 |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page Brendt Christensen contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
|
| “ | No one will ever know where she is. She's gone forever. | „ |
| ~ Christensen speaking of his murder victim Yingying Zhang |
Brendt Allen Christensen (born June 30, 1989) is an American man who kidnapped and murdered University of Illinois scholar Yingying Zhang on June 9, 2017. In 2019, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.
Background edit
Brendt Christensen was born on June 30, 1989 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. He graduated from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in math and physics. According to Christensen's ex-wife, at the time he attended the college, he began abusing alcohol. He married in 2011 and started graduate school in 2013. graduated with a master's degree in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2017.
In March 2017, Christensen had an interview with a University of Illinois Counseling Center intern, in which he talked about struggling with alcohol and substance abuse, as well as having homicidal and suicidal thoughts. In that interview, he also revealed he had been fascinated in serial killers since finding an online forum about them and idolized certain ones, especially Ted Bundy. As was later found in the investigation of Yingying Zhang's disappearance, in April 2017 Christensen had accessed the sexual fetish site FetLife on his phone, where he explored threads teaching to kidnap.
Kidnapping of Yingying Zhang edit
On June 9, 2017, at 9:00 a.m., Christensen approached young University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign scholar Emily Hogan in his car, a black Saturn Astra, and tried to lure her in. Hogan refused, and later called police. Hours later, at about 2:03, Christensen stopped at a bus stop where Yingying Zhang, a visiting Chinese scholar at the same university, was waiting, and promised to give her a ride after she had missed a bus. After they spoke for a minute, Yingying entered Christensen's car. She has not been seen ever since. At the time of the incident, Christensen's wife was out of town.
Investigation and trial edit
On June 12, investigators in the disappearance interviewed Christensen and inspected his car. Christensen told them he did not remember what he did at the time Zhang went missing. However, review of surveillance video footage led to the identification of the car which Zhang entered as Christensen's. Investigators noted it appeared that Christensen had cleaned the passenger seat of his car to remove evidence. In another questioning on June 15, Christensen admitted to giving an Asian female a ride, but said that she panicked when he may had taken a wrong turn and dropped her off a few blocks away. Christensen's girlfriend Terra Bullis agreed to cooperate with the FBI and wore a wire to record her conversations with Christensen.
Nine recordings were made from the wire. In them, Christensen was recorded telling Bullis in graphic detail how he killed Yingying Zhang. He describes that after picking her up in his car, he took her to his apartment, where he choked, raped, and stabbed her in his bedroom. He then dragged her to his bathroom, where he beat her with a baseball bat and decapitated her. Christensen also bragged to his girlfriend that he was a serial killer and that Zhang was his thirteenth victim. However, investigators found no evidence supporting this claim and thus doubt its veracity.
On June 29, Christensen attended a vigil for Zhang. The FBI arrested Christensen and charged him with kidnapping on June 30, 2017. Christensen had been recorded saying that Zhang fought him, and that he took her back to his apartment and held her there against her will last month. He had also been recorded threatening someone who then provided incriminating evidence to authorities. Christensen was formally indicted on July 12, 2017. In November 2018, Christensen's attorneys told prosecutors what Christensen had told them about Zhang's remains. According to Christensen, after killing Zhang, he dismembered her bodily remains in three separate garbage bags. He later disposed of her personal belongings in various dumpsters in the UIUC area. Christensen provided the information under an immunity agreement, so prosecutors did not disclose it until after his trial.
Christensen's trial began in June 2019, in which his attorney admitted that Christensen killed Yingying Zhang. Bullis provided evidence from the recordings at the trial. On June 24, 2019, Christensen was found guilty of one count of kidnapping resulting in death and two counts of making false statements to FBI agents. The jury did not reach a unanimous decision on if he should receive the death penalty, so Christensen was sentenced to life in prison on July 18, 2019. The decision was met with adverse reactions and strong criticisms among many in China, including that of Zhang's family and boyfriend.