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. Alpha was very healthy and energetic otherwise. Her life is frozen in time, while mine goes on. Brendt also had a masters in Physics but dropped out from his Ph.D. program and instead claimed that he was searching for employment. He was arrested on June 30, his 28th birthday. The fund had already amassed more than $30,000 by Wednesday morning. According to News Gazette, she testified that Christensen typed the following, showed it to her, and then deleted it: It was me. 10: 2021: The Vacancy Effect on Thermal Interface Resistance between Aluminum and Silicon by Molecular Dynamics. The political catastrophes in the first half of the 20th century brought a new urgency and understanding to human rights and the necessity of constraining state power. That evening, unable to reach her, Yingyings Chinese colleagues reported her missing to the police. So let me just say here at the outset, it will be startling for many of you to hear Brendt Christensen killed Yingying.. After her education, she planned on marrying her fianc and eventually returning to China to become a teacher. . ABC reports that Bullis testified that she Christensen seemed excited and proud when he discussed killing Zhang. The zonules may directly participate in the formation of cataract via the immune mechanism. Yingying Zhang - update. Christensen was found guilty on June 24, 2019, of kidnapping resulting in death and two counts of lying to investigators. I was terrified that he might see me from the other side of the screen, that he would find out I had visited his profile and make me his next target. In June 2017, Yingying Zhang, a young scholar from China went missing from a bus stop near the University of Illinois.The entire encounter was caught on nearby surveillance cameras. People from the FBI also testified that Zhangs DNA and her blood were found inside Brendts apartment, which unmistakeably linked him to the crime. After his conviction and trial, the fate of Yingying Zhangs body came to light. 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. Yingying is on stage with her band. Former US doctoral student Brendt Christensen, 29, has been found guilty of the violent abduction and slaying of Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang in 2017. 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. Statement from family's lawyers: @WCIA3 pic.twitter.com/SaYqeuwE3h. At 2:38 p.m,, the apartment manager sent Zhang a text message and received no response. 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. Yingying Zhang was born on December 21, 1990 in China. The judge has denied bail for Christensen. Powered by. In England and colonial America, as legal historian Stuart Banner writes, the death penalty circa 1700 was the equivalent of prison todaythe standard punishment for a wide range of serious crimes including arson, theft, and counterfeiting. 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. It just adds to the tragedy, Miller said, because Zhangs family doesnt have her body back. (AP/AAP) Zhang's mother, Lifeng Ye, cried . Hes also accused of stabbing and choking her and comparing himself to Ted Bundy. Yingyings family sued the social workers at UIUC for negligence. With trucks taking their loads to landfills across the city, authorities figured that her remains might have been spread around several landfills by the time Brendt was convicted. The Terrifying Right to Remain Silent60 Days after Yingying Zhang's Disappearance. My mother who lives in China believes that criminal suspects should be tortured till they confess, my 2017 self wrote, that innocent until proven guilty is a frightening flaw of the U.S. justice system., The post concluded with a hashtag, #help., I read the words now and am startled by the casual cruelty. Its sadly ironic that prisons are called penitentiaries or correctional facilities, while theyre designed for neither repentance nor rehabilitation but segregation and retribution. 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. 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. 216-228)Shanghai JiaoTong University Press (in . Search For Terms: Would love your thoughts, please comment. The answer is no. Yingyings disappearance affirmed my mothers long-held belief that a foreign country is too dangerous for a Chinese woman like me. "A lot of news coverage of . According to his lawyers, Christensen placed her butchered body in three separate garbage bags, which he tossed in a dumpster outside his Champaign apartment before disposing of her personal items among trash receptacles around the Champaign-Urbana area. The FBI approached Bullis, who was very confident about Brendts innocence. conference about Yingying Zhang's body at Steve Beckett's . 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?. Alpha, our German Shepherd dog, left us forever on Feb 28, 2021. She gets off the bus. Yingying's body has never been found. 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. 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. Yingying majored in environmental engineering. Christensen has never revealed what he did with Zhang's remains. The menacing images appear to come alive, two monsters manifesting the paucity of our moral imagination. 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 . The answer is no. As the information was provided under immunity, prosecutors were not able to use or communicate that information to anyoneincluding her familyduring the criminal trial, according to a statement from the Zhang family released on Wednesday morning. On June 12, 2017, they went to the 2500 block of W. Springfield Ave. in Champaign and saw the car registered to Christensen. In the just-unsealed documents was the story of a woman who claimed Christensen choked and sexually assaulted her sometime in 2012 or 2013. Yangyang Cheng is a postdoctoral fellow at Yale Law Schools Paul Tsai China Center and a particle physicist. We were the same age. It was found during a search of his Macon County jail cell. She was diagnosed with Pyothorax (causes unknown). "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. 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). The trial, from that moment on, was no longer about the certitude of Christensens guilt but whether he deserved to die. On the right, a strapped gurney. (Feature Image Credit: ABC 20/20). its incredibly painful, Bullis said in court, according to CBS Local. They also found evidence of a part of the car being cleaned extra thoroughly, which hinted towards Brendt hiding something. Christensen claimed that he drove up to the Asian female, who relayed she was late to an appointment. Christensen lured Zhang into his car at a bus stop on campus posing as a police officer with the . Zhang family attorney Steve Beckett said, based on information provided by federal prosecutors and attorneys for convicted killer Brendt Christensen, her body likely was taken to a landfill near Danville, Illinois, after Christensen placed her remains in three garbage bags and tossed them in a dumpster. "An attorney whos been representing the family is evidently holding a news conference this afternoon in Urbana to discuss information the government provided the family following trial based on statements Christensen made to his attorneys late last year and prior to trial," a spokesperson for the attorney's office said in a statement. That alleged admission built on previous statements that Christensen made to the FBI in which he allegedly confessed that Zhang had been in his car, although he claimed she left it voluntarily, the affidavit says. Three days before Christensens arrest, the Chinese government had just issued new rules aimed at curbing police abuse. 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 . It was invaluable. I had known this before, but seeing the words displayed on his page invoked an intense nausea that I doubled over. Who, or what, keeps a community safe? 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. ID found on disambiguation page, needs clean-up. A large media contingent awaiting the start of the Yingying Zhang news conference at @Beckett6Steve's office in Urbana. Friends offered up advice in the comments below. 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 . She played guitar and sang in a band called Cute Horse in China. 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 . In 2017 she went missing on her way to sign a lease, and after missing a bus. She played in a band and had ambitions of becoming a professor in China. However, soon, through the lenses of CCTVs, the police learned that the answer might be a lot closer to home than people thought. For a woman, the most dangerous place is often the home. Photo: Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette via AP. The black sedan that picked up Yingying was quickly identified as belonging to one Brendt Christensen. The family of murdered Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang has finally learned what happened to the body of their beloved daughter. Ph.D., 2016, Xiamen University. Furthermore, he was convicted on two additional counts of lying to the FBI, which netted him two 5-year sentences, which would run consecutively with the life sentence. Illinois has outlawed the death penalty, but the case was tried in federal court. Christensen's attorneys told prosecutors that the day after he killed Zhang, Christensen placed her body in three garbage bags, and put the bags in the dumpster outside his apartment building, Beckett said. However, just three minutes later, the car returned, and Zhang was seen getting into it. I am a research fellow at the Centre for Health Economics (CHE), University of York. 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. Zhang's father said if his daughter's remains are ever found, her family plans to take her body back to China. Co-Authors. It doesnt reveal whom Christensen was allegedly speaking with at the time. The 26-year-old visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, disappeared June 9, 2017. We share the same feelings. The alternative for a crime of this nature is life in prison. On June 29, 2017, while Christensen was under law enforcement surveillance, agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang. Zhang was remembered as intelligent and extroverted. Its loss can never be repaid. All rights reserved, WATCH: Procession Escorts Body of Fallen Chicago Officer From Hospital, Storm System Could Bring Rain, Snow, and Gusty Winds to Chicago Area Friday, Chicago Police Officer Shot and Killed on Southwest Side, Secret Service, Police Seen Investigating Business in Suburban Lisle. As the FBI listened on, Brendt revealed a terrifying truth to his girlfriend. If even one juror opposed, then the life sentence was applied. 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. Yingying Zhang's father, Ronggao Zhang, reads a statement in Chinese outside the federal courthouse in Peoria, Illinois, on Monday, June 24, 2019, moments after a 12-person jury found Brendt Christensen guilty of her kidnapping and death. Claim Author Page. She was 26. While Zhang was waiting at the bus station, cameras caught a black Saturn Astra pass her by. 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. Beyond the immediacy of war, when is a state justified to kill? This greatly alarmed counselors, but they later deduced that he was not in immediate need of hospitalization. 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 sentencing phase of the trial took place two weeks later. Ten of the 12 jurors voted for the death penalty. The case is being featured on 20/20 on November 15, 2019. 43 Issue (2): 234-246. doi: 10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.003620. 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. However, even with massive searches and attractive cash rewards announced, the few leads the police got led to nothing. Ying Ying Zhang, Her Name Means "A Twinkle Of Light," But Her Light Was Taken Away; who Was Yingying Zhang? My height makes me more visible. Her phone was disabled moments later. I go back to the video and let the clock rewind. 2021 | Journal article DOI: 10. Brendt Christensen, a former graduate student, has been charged with kidnapping and killing her. In addition to this, a memorial stone with Zhangs name was placed on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Thats because Christensens attorney said during an opening statement that Christensen had killed Zhang, but disputed some of the evidence against him. In the previous study, we revealed that SMA/CORM2, through releasing CO induced macrophage reprogramming toward M2 polarization fulfills the anti-inflammatory effect and promotes liver regeneration (Song et al., 2021).However, besides the macrophage-mediated inflammatory process, other inflammation . She told police that her husband was a psychopath and that she was 80% certain he had kidnapped and killed the Chinese scholar. ABC Murdered University of Illinois student Yingying Zhang in a family photo. Zhang's body has never been found. 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.". Zhang was observed on video walking to an intersection and standing at a bus stop. Ive never felt as acutely aware of my identity as a Chinese woman in the U.S. My body is a constant reminder of the many ways society renders it vulnerable. On the left is a grim, gray facility with barbed wires and a watch tower. For me, for myself, the result today seems to tell me that I can kill anyone and I can kill anyone with any kind of cruel method and I will not need to die for it, Yingyings partner of eight years speaks to the press after the verdict. Associate Professor, Tsinghua University - Cited by 8,825 - Nanomaterials - Nanochemistry - Carbon nanotubes The lens zonule is the elaborate system of extracellular fibers, which not only centers the lens in the eye but also plays an important role in accommodation and lens immunity, maintains the shape of the lens, and corrects spherical aberration. 0000-0003-3769-079X; 0000-0003-3819-5467; . I download it and press play. Yingying Zhang. I find a clue in the jury notes. According to this unsealed motion, he was placed on suicide watch and isolated from the general population for several months. She is singing a song about youth, where time is all future, brimming with possibilities. 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 is wearing a gray baseball cap, a white jacket, and jeans. She was the first in her family to graduate from college in 2013 and to go on to finish a master's degree in 2016 in the field of agricultural sciences at . At present, Brendt Christensen is a federal prisoner serving his life sentence at the United States Penitentiary, Coleman II, in Florida. That was the last anyone ever heard or saw from Zhang. The I-Team has also learned that soon after Christensen's arrest, he wrote a letter saying he wanted to end his life. At 1:39 p.m., she sent a text message from her cell phone to a manager of a different apartment complex in Urbana, Illinois, where she intended to sign a lease. A world safe and free means that no one is left behind. Investigators believe Zhang is dead . (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. 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. Got a tip? 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. WGN-TV reported that he raped and beheaded Zhang, and implied he had 12 other victims, but this was never proven. By the time they provided that information, it was almost 18 months after she would have been placed in the landfill, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Miller, ABC reported. Ph.D. student at Unversity of Minnesota, Twin Cities. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. On June 9, 2017, Yingying had left to catch a bus to go view an apartment to rent and was never seen alive again. The backdrop to her stage features a spiraling pattern in green, yellow, and white: a clock turned upside down. The strange and twisted life of Brendt Christensen: claims to have killed over 12 people already, vows Yingying Zhang's body will never be found (June, 2019) . With a confession on hand, the FBI arrested Brendt Christensen and charged him with the murder of Yingying Zhang. Cameras show her getting into a black car and authorities identified Brendt Christensen as the suspect. Body Discovered Date Never Found. The defense was signaling to the jury that life in prison is already a very harsh sentence and sufficient punishment for this crime. By this time, Zhangs family flew in from China and helped in the search. After a mistrial, Hernandez, 56, was convicted at a second trial in 2017. (. Since then, they've likely been covered by at least 30 feet of landfill. Friday the I-Team reported information that government and defense attorneys both wanted kept quiet during the trial. Prosecutors said Christensen raped, choked and stabbed Zhang before beating her to death with a bat and decapitating her. He seemingly boasted about choking, sexually assaulting, and beating Zhang to death with a baseball bat. 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. 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. The investigators said that even with the information provided by Christensen, the recovery of Zhangs body will be tough. When she did not turn up on time for the lease signing, the agent sent her a text which went unanswered. 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. Shell never be found.. Her accusations were never presented to the jury. After reviewing hours of interviews and hundreds of pages of documents on him, Im haunted by a sense of familiarity. 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