Shivangi Sinha
Yingying Zhang, originally from China, arrived in the US in June 2017 to begin her research at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. When she failed to meet up with friends that day, they grew concerned. Attempts to locate her revealed that she had not returned home after her classes. An immediate investigation was launched, and soon the police uncovered a lead that ultimately pointed to her killer. Paramount+’s ‘FBI True,’ in the episode titled ‘Where is Yingying Zhang?,’ provides a detailed account of the investigation and the events that followed.
Yingying Zhang’s Friends Raised an Alarm When They Couldn’t Locate Her on Campus
Yingying Zhang was born on December 21, 1990, to Ronggao Zhang and Lifeng Ye. She grew up in Nanping, Fujian, alongside her younger brother, Zhengyang, in a loving and supportive family. From a young age, Yingying excelled academically. She graduated from Sun Yat-sen University in 2013 and, driven by her passion for further studies, pursued a master’s degree at Peking University. Consistently at the top of her class, she completed her degree in 2016 and went on to expand her opportunities internationally, including a visiting scholar position at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Yingying decided to continue her research in the US and, in April 2017, joined the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences within the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She initially planned to focus on photosynthesis and crop productivity for about a year, but she loved the campus and environment so much that she decided to pursue her doctoral program there as well. Yingying had ambitious plans for her future and had even found her life partner, Hou Xiaolin. The couple was deeply in love and had set their wedding for October 2017.
On June 9, 2017, Yingying was traveling to an off-campus apartment complex in Urbana, Illinois, via the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (MTD) bus. At 1:39 pm, she sent a text to the leasing agent letting them know she was running a little late and asked them to wait for her. However, she never arrived. When the agent followed up at 2:39 pm, there was no response. Her friends grew increasingly concerned as they were unable to reach her. Later that evening, around 9:30 pm, a university professor reported Yingying missing. Her remains have never been found, and thus, the exact cause of her death could never be determined.
The Killer Abducted Yingying Zhang on the Pretext of Giving Her a Lift
As news of Yingying Zhang’s disappearance spread, her family traveled to the US to assist with the search and any related efforts. Large sums were offered as rewards for tips, but no leads emerged initially. Police then reviewed CCTV footage to trace her last movements. They soon learned that though Yingying had boarded her first bus and attempted to transfer to another, she missed it. She was last seen waiting at a bus stop when a black Saturn Astra pulled up, and she got inside. The vehicle remained untraced because the footage was blurry and the license plate was unreadable. Investigators eventually discovered that only 18 Saturn Astras were registered to residents in the area. Among the owners of similar cars, one person who drew attention was Brendt Allen Christensen, a former PhD student at the University of Illinois.
Brendt and his wife, Michelle, lived in the Champaign area, and police visited them on June 12, 2017. Initially, he claimed he knew nothing about the case, but investigators remained persistent. They noticed a small hubcap damage in the surveillance footage that matched Brendt’s car. As per reports, the investigators noted that further probing revealed that he and his wife were in an open marriage. On June 15, based on their suspicions, police executed a search warrant on his vehicle and found that the passenger side had been meticulously cleaned. Brendt was questioned again, and this time he gave a different account. He admitted that he had picked up an Asian woman that day but claimed he had dropped her off shortly after.
According to him, she became alarmed when he took a few unexpected turns and chose to get out of the car. With no immediate evidence to contradict his statement, police placed him under surveillance and also approached his girlfriend, Terra Bullis, who agreed to wear a wire and speak with him. Brendt even attended a memorial walk with her, but during their recorded conversations, he told Terra that he was a serial killer and confessed to abducting, assaulting, and killing Yingying in his apartment. On June 30, 2017, Brendt was ultimately arrested. Investigators also discovered that he had conducted extensive online searches related to serial killers and body decomposition. He had also watched abduction fetish pornographic videos on his phone. However, no evidence linked him to any other crimes.
Brendt Christensen is Behind Bars in Florida Today
Brendt Christensen was charged with kidnapping resulting in death and two counts of making false statements to the FBI, to which he initially pleaded not guilty. During his trial in June 2019, prosecutors sought the death penalty, while his defense team admitted that he had committed the crime but argued that it didn’t warrant such a sentence. According to court records, the prosecution stated that Brendt had dismembered Yingying’s remains, placed them in garbage bags, and disposed of them, with the contents ending up in a private landfill near Danville in Vermilion County, Illinois, where they were compacted and buried.
Brendt was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of release, along with two consecutive 5-year terms for the false statement charges. He was briefly held at the Oklahoma City Federal Transfer Center before being moved to USP McCreary in Kentucky. Now 36 years old, Brendt Christensen is currently in federal custody at FCC Coleman USP-2 in Sumter County, Florida.
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