On Friday, June 9, Yingying left the office during lunch hour to sign a lease for a new apartment across town. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Weeks before, a 26-year-old visiting scholar from China went missing on the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). its incredibly painful, Bullis said in court, according to CBS Local. My mind had filled in the rest of the plot. "We condemn his brutal and malicious actions and we hope that he suffers for the rest of his life as he made Yingying suffer in the final moments of her life," he said through an interpreter. However, just three minutes later, the car returned, and Zhang was seen getting into it. Zhang went missing on June 9, 2017, as she was headed to sign a lease for an off-campus apartment in Urbana. 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 . Christensen claimed that he drove up to the Asian female, who relayed she was late to an appointment. However, a few precise details matched Brendts Saturn Astra to the one seen on CCTV. He was arrested on June 30, his 28th birthday. 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. Clothing/Jewelry Description A pink and white flannel long-sleeved shirt over a white shirt, jeans, white shoes, and a . In a flurry of anguished messages, she told me to stop wearing high-heels so I could run faster in case of danger. The image was used in the missing person bulletin by the police and the FBI. As the FBI listened on, Brendt revealed a terrifying truth to his girlfriend. Some documents remain sealed, including Christensen's medical and mental health records, and those of his entire family. Yingying ZHANG | Cited by 11,350 | of Tsinghua University, Beijing (TH) | Read 163 publications | Contact Yingying ZHANG The prison, as Angela Davis and Gina Dent explained, is a border. Yingyings life was precious. The drive from the airport is the longest distance in the world. That I had emerged unscathed made everything seem surreal. 13. 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. The Terrifying Right to Remain Silent60 Days after Yingying Zhang's Disappearance. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. Federal prosecutors have said Christensen posed as an undercover officer to lure Zhang, 26, into his car on June 9, 2017. Yingyings disappearance affirmed my mothers long-held belief that a foreign country is too dangerous for a Chinese woman like me. 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. Christensen is still in a downstate jail, awaiting assignment to a federal penitentiary where he will spend the rest of his life. Completely normal, perhaps a bit awkward but with no unusual vibes.. 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.. Attorney Steve Beckett, who represents Zhangs family, said last week that defense lawyers provided the information about Zhangs remains as part of an immunity agreement in November 2018, telling prosecutors that Zhangs body was likely in a landfill in Vermilion County in Illinois. Later, in the other interview, authorities extracted an admission from Christensen that Zhang had been in his car, prompting the surveillance, according to the affidavit. A source close to the investigation said the landfill has not been searched. 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Brendt Christensen, the 29-year-old who was sentenced to life in . Christensen stated that he offered the Asian female a ride. In fact, the details of how Zhang died, which came out during trial, were awful. Yingying Zhang was a visiting scholar from China at UIUC. Since the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic caused by a new beta . The suspect, Brendt Christensen, pleaded not guilty and refused to give up information. 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. The answer is no. China Central Television ran a feature: The Terrifying Right to Remain Silent60 Days after Yingying Zhangs Disappearance. About. Yingyings father, Ronggao ZhangIf, upon hearing this, later said, If what that man said is true, it further confirms that he is a heartless and evil person We now understand that finding (Yingying) may be impossible. After this news came to light, a memorial service was held for those grieving the death of Yingying Zhang at a church outside Champaign in August 2019. 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 father, Ronggao Zhang, said on Wednesday: If what that man said is true, it further confirms that he is a heartless and evil person. Her son should say where my daughter is., Lifeng Ye, the mother of Yingying Zhang, cries out in grief as her husband Ronggao Zhang, far left, addresses the media after a jury found Brendt Christensen guilty of her murder. Shraman Mitra. 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. Prosecutors said Christensen raped, choked and stabbed Zhang before beating her to death with a bat and decapitating her. On the right, a strapped gurney. Ph.D. student at Unversity of Minnesota, Twin Cities. "It is evident that any attempt to recover Yingying's remains would be complicated and expensive, would require government oversight and the cooperation of the landfill owners, and would have no certainty of success," he said. At this time, they think the most prudent thing to do is to allow the authorities to handle the situation and undertake the recovery of Yingyings remains if it is feasible, according to the statement. The remains of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese scholar at University of Illinois who was murdered in 2017, could be in a landfill in central Illinois, according to multiple reports, though her body has still not been found, authorities say. 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. Who, or what, keeps a community safe? Growing up, she had a loving family; Her . There, a young woman in a black dress and boots is shredding her voice to the beat. I had known this before, but seeing the words displayed on his page invoked an intense nausea that I doubled over. "Due to the compaction process, Yingying's bodily remains may be very, very small in size," Beckett said. She had previously told people she was going to sign an apartment lease and would return shortly after. The following month, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole. A black sedan circles around the block and stops in front of her. Japan Web Proxy Server*****Jiang Yuzhou was silent for a moment before saying: "You are still young, I can understand that you don't want to be bound by marriage early, but I think we are very suitable, if you want, we can not talk about marriage and talk about a relationship like other couples, you don't have to Just find someone to deal with."In his opinion, Gu Nai suddenly had a boyfriend . We condemn his brutal and malicious actions and we hope that he suffers the rest of his life as he made Yingying suffer in the final moments of her life., He added, We now understand that finding her may be impossible.. ILLUSTRATION:JORDAN LEE. 216-228)Shanghai JiaoTong University Press (in . Initially, during interrogations, Brendt claimed to have mixed up the dates and denied meeting any Asians. That was just hours before Zhang was seen getting into Christensen's black Saturn Astra, the last time she was seen alive. 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 . Ten of the 12 jurors voted for the death penalty. She called the FBI after seeing Christensen's picture on television when he was arrested in June 2017. At the sentencing phase of the Christensen trial, one of the aggravating factors the jury agreed with was Yingyings particular vulnerability due to her small stature and limited ability to communicate in English. Ten thousand years of civilization and were still relying on physical size for protection. She told police that her husband was a psychopath and that she was 80% certain he had kidnapped and killed the Chinese scholar. Show more detail . Also part of the case that was sealed: a motion to exclude evidence of a lost Illinois State Police badge found on the roadway four days after the disappearance of Yingying Zhang. I was too heavy! I joke with my friends. Wenbing Luo, Jian Wang, Yingying Zhang: Software Quality Evaluation Model based on Multiple Linear Regression and Fuzzy Comprehensive Evaluation Method. On most days, its barely noticeable; then suddenly, the sharp end declares its piercing presence. She wanted to make a difference in the world.. In a series of surveillance videosUIUC has more than 2,000 cameras on campusshe gets on a bus. Yangyang Cheng is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center and a particle physicist. In the documentary "Finding Yingying," which is now playing in virtual theaters, director Jiayan "Jenny" Shi turns the attention to Ms. Zhang and her family. My height makes me more visible. Court records that had been sealed during the trial of Brendt Christensen, who was convicted in her death, were just turned over to the I-Team. Former US doctoral student Brendt Christensen, 29, has been found guilty of the violent abduction and slaying of Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang in 2017. Yingyings family believed that Christensen should be executed. At 2:38 p.m,, the apartment manager sent Zhang a text message and received no response. I felt fine the next morning, as if it were all just a dream. Torture during detention is commonplace in China. Video showed her at an Urbana, Illinois, bus stop getting into a black Saturn vehicle, and, after that, she vanished without a trace. Sep 2017 - Dec 20225 years 4 months. Brendt also had a masters in Physics but dropped out from his Ph.D. program and instead claimed that he was searching for employment. As I was preparing to write this essay, I spent an evening at my favorite restaurant, where I ate dinner and sipped two glasses of wine by the bar. From Yangtze to Mars: The Fiery History of Chinas Space Program, The US Is Building Walls Around Science, and Were All Poorer for It. The former girlfriend of accused killer Brendt Christensen, who recorded his alleged admission of brutally killing 26-year-old Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang, testified Wednesday that Christensen . Powered by WordPress.com VIP. Cultural difference makes for a convenient excuse to validate the self and exoticize the other. On the left is a grim, gray facility with barbed wires and a watch tower. The song is Avril Lavignes Complicated. If I look back on the early aughts, when life revolved around school and heartbreak was about boys, Avrils voice will accompany those reels of memory. I pursued physics, the same discipline as her killer. The Chinese government keeps the total number of executions per year classified. Ms Zhang's parents and . However, soon, through the lenses of CCTVs, the police learned that the answer might be a lot closer to home than people thought. 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. The attorney argued he had mental health issues and the case was essentially to set up the next phase of the trial, Christensens sentencing. Incarceration does not stop or reduce harm in society; it relocates individual harm to places outside public view and promulgates institutional harm in the name of justice. Penculikan dan pembunuhan Yingying Zhang terjadi di Urbana, Illinois, Amerika Serikat pada tanggal 9 Juni 2017 ketika Zhang, seorang sarjana tamu di Universitas Illinois Urbana-Champaign, diculik oleh Brendt Allen Christensen, seorang warga kota Champaign dan alumni jurusan fisika di universitas yang sama. 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. Claim Author Page. He was found guilty in the kidnaping, torture and murder of foreign student Zhang. 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). (2021 Rerelease) 02.01. . To view it as an isolated incident, an example of the dangerous few, would be to miss the underlying context and eschew collective responsibility. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Illinois has outlawed the death penalty, but the case was tried in federal court. At one point the driver had tried, but failed, to drag me out of his car. Zhang's body has never been found. 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. The remains of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese scholar at University of Illinois who was murdered in 2017, could be in a landfill in central Illinois, according to multiple reports, though her body has . However, he soon broke down and told authorities that he had picked up an Asian girl, but she was not in his car for a long time. A bilingual memorial service for Zhang will be held on Friday in Savoy, Illinois. Alpha, our German Shepherd dog, left us forever on Feb 28, 2021. I go back to the video and let the clock rewind. She is singing a song about youth, where time is all future, brimming with possibilities. Police searched her apartment and found nothing. The family of murdered Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang has finally learned what happened to the body of their beloved daughter. Steve Beckett, Zhangs family lawyer said, 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(Federal investigators) described for us that at this stage, with decomposition and then compaction, the size of the remains could be smaller than a cellphone.. Many in the comment section praised the efficiency of Chinese police and the capabilities of the countrys Skynet surveillance system. When she did not turn up on time for the lease signing, the agent sent her a text which went unanswered. 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. They dont. 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