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Referenced Authors. ABC '20/20' brings into focus the kidnapping and murder of a Chinese scholar named Yingying Zhang who went missing on 9 June 2017. Christensen, 30, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last month in the June 2017 kidnapping and killing of Yingying Zhang, a 26-year-old University of Illinois graduate student who had . Her name was Yingying Zhang. It opens with a pair of photos. 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. Last edited: Feb 8, 2021. According to the affidavit, authorities allege that he admitted to driving around the UI campus when he observed an Asian female with a backpack standing at a corner appearing distressed. Can we find that guys mother? she asks. 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. A journalism student at Northwestern University at the time of Yingyings disappearance, Shi had assisted in the search efforts and witnessed the familys pain from the very beginning. Shraman Mitra. Apr 7, 2021 Author pages are created from data sourced from our academic publisher partnerships and public sources. Title. 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. A black sedan circles around the block and stops in front of her. They dont. To date, no search has been undertaken. She was observed speaking with the driver through the passenger window for about one minute, before entering the car. 2021 | Journal article DOI: 10. We may be sizable in number, but we are rarely seen or heard. That was just hours before Zhang was seen getting into Christensen's black Saturn Astra, the last time she was seen alive. 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. 0000-0003-3769-079X; 0000-0003-3819-5467; . 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. I find a clue in the jury notes. Dated June 1, 2017, it concludes with a line in English, Life is too short to be ordinary!. While the countrys Criminal Procedure Law forbids extorting confessions or collecting evidence by illegal means, the regulations contain many loopholes and are poorly enforced. Steve Beckett, Zhangs family lawyer, Yingyings father, Ronggao ZhangIf, upon hearing this, later, 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. 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. All Rights Reserved. By this time, Zhangs family flew in from China and helped in the search. Prisons cannot solve the problem of prevalent harm in society and are in fact part of the problem, as they perpetuate the logics of power and domination, of segregation and dehumanization, which are also the logics of patriarchy and white supremacy. If Yingyings remains are ever found, we will return to take her home to China where she belongs, her father said, according to ABC 7. When the police searched his car, nothing stood out of the ordinary at first glance. New information is expected to be provided on the search for her body in a . 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. electronic edition via DOI; unpaywalled version; references . I go back to the video and let the clock rewind. During the trial, several people, including Terra Bullis, testified against Brendt. However, just three minutes later, the car returned, and Zhang was seen getting into it. However, even with massive searches and attractive cash rewards announced, the few leads the police got led to nothing. Brendt Christensen, the 29-year-old who was sentenced to life in . Body Discovered Date Never Found. Previous research data suggested that Anemoside A3 (A3), a monomeric component of Pulsatilla Chinensis, could prevent and treat TNBC by converting M0 macrophages into M1 immunogen phenotypes. Yingying Zhang's mother, Lifeng Ye, sobs as her husband addresses the media. 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. Less than 10 percent of murders and 20 percent of rapes are committed by strangers. Brendt Christensen was convicted of visiting Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang's 2017 murder. A large media contingent awaiting the start of the Yingying Zhang news conference at @Beckett6Steve's office in Urbana. The issues of racism, misogyny, and mental health crises in the sciences and in graduate school did not start with Christensen and have not vanished with his incarceration. In 1988, Democratic nominee for president Michael Dukakis would see his candidacy doomed as he answered no to this debate question: If Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer? He lost to George H. W. Bush, whose team ran a series of attack ads, using the likeness of one Black criminal to stoke racial fear. ILLUSTRATION:JORDAN LEE. ABC reports that Bullis testified that she Christensen seemed excited and proud when he discussed killing Zhang. After a mistrial, Hernandez, 56, was convicted at a second trial in 2017. Beckett planned to address the development at a news conference beginning at 3 p.m. CST, but that news conference was later postponed. Christensen, 30, was sentenced to life without parole. Citing Authors. Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Ms. Zhang is no longer alive, the affidavit contends. My mother insisted that predators would not care for an old woman like her, though she was barely 40. Was her body ever found? It was also revealed that Christensen was photographed attending a rally for the victim. August 7, 2019 / 6:12 PM Thus, Zhangs family continues to mourn Zhangs death without even the smallest comfort of being able to lay her body to rest. The Chinese government keeps the total number of executions per year classified. 216-228)Shanghai JiaoTong University Press (in . 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 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. Its worth cannot, and should not, be measured by the extent of state-sponsored punishment exacted on the man who took it. Yingyings disappearance quickly made headlines on both sides of the Pacific. After the trial ended and public attention moved on, Yingyings disappearance has stayed with me like a needle floating in my veins. At 2 p.m., a black Saturn Astra, driven, police say, by Christensen was observed on video passing Zhang at the bus stop and then circling back to her location, according to the affidavit. 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. In my proximity to both the victim and the perpetrator, Ive felt, however presumptuously, a particular responsibility: to bear witness to the case as it unfolded, and to try to wring some sense out of this senseless tragedy. 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. Beckett said, after the trial, Zhang's family met with federal prosecutors on July 25, and were told what Christensen's defense attorneys had revealed about what he did with Zhang's remains. What happened to Yingying could never have happened in China, she insisted, echoing the talking points on state media that U.S. authorities were only paying attention to the case because China is strong. Unfortunately, no. Its loss can never be repaid. On the left is a grim, gray facility with barbed wires and a watch tower. Listeria monocytogenes is the causative agent of listeriosis, a bacterial infection that can cause severe illness, including septicaemia via blood infection, meningitis and encephalitis in the brain, and perinatal infection or abortion via . I pursued physics, the same discipline as her killer. 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 . She knows how hard it is to raise a child. Now, among the familiar sight and through the familiar sound, I also see Yingying. Two ABC news teams tell the tale of two families, tragically connected by the 2017 murder of U of I scholar Yingying Zhang. A prosecutor told the court on July 5, 2017, that Christensen was recorded at a rally for Zhang by authorities and explained the characteristics of his ideal victim and, according to CNN, pointed out those in the crowd who matched them at a vigil he attended for the missing woman. The person helping authorities record Christensen was his then-girlfriend Terra Bullis. . Shes gone forever. Since Zhang was last seen in the video entering the car, said the news release issued by authorities, the FBI, the University of Illinois Police Department and the Illinois State Police and local law enforcement have worked around the clock to locate Ms. Zhang and to investigate her disappearance., Please review our privacy policy here: https://heavy.com/privacy-policy/, Copyright 2023 Heavy, Inc. All rights reserved. YingYing Zhang was a student from China who was murdered in Illinois. There, a young woman in a black dress and boots is shredding her voice to the beat. A federal jury convicted Christensen in June. I was too heavy! I joke with my friends. 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. 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. 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. Christensen was found guilty on June 24, 2019, of kidnapping resulting in death and two counts of lying to investigators. 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 (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhng Yngyng) (December 21, 1990 - June 9, 2017) was born in the city of Nanping, Fujian Province, to Ronggao Zhang and Lifeng Ye.Zhang has one younger brother, Zhengyang. However, was Zhang's body ever found? 3.2.Expression profiles of HMGB1, and TLR4 signaling molecules during APAP-induced liver injury. Nanoscale thermal transport. conference about Yingying Zhang's body at Steve Beckett's . Some documents remain sealed, including Christensen's medical and mental health records, and those of his entire family. 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. Three days before Christensens arrest, the Chinese government had just issued new rules aimed at curbing police abuse. The federal government was seeking the death penalty. 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. 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. University of Illinois PoliceYingying Zhang. From as far as I could remember, my mothers fervid fear of my sudden vanishing filled the air around her. 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) . 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.. Body found later in a water tank at the top of the hotel, the coroner stated that she died by drowning. My friends suggest that I was drugged. (Feature Image Credit: ABC 20/20). 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. While the case was put to rest in court, the same cannot be said for Zhangs family who continue to live the loss of their daughter, as stated by them, was their pride and joy. Based on the statements made by Christensen to federal prosecutors in exchange for immunity, he butchered her body in three separate garbage bags and put them in the dumpster outside his apartment. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. The defense was signaling to the jury that life in prison is already a very harsh sentence and sufficient punishment for this crime. 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. My height makes me more visible. Over eggs and coffee, we shared our impressions of criminal justice from growing up in China and how a life for a life was presented as axiomatic. 43 Issue (2): 234-246. doi: 10.13284/j.cnki.rddl.003620. 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. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to get day-to-day video coverage of what's going on in China and beyond!Three years have passed since the kidnapping and mur. 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. She is gone. A world safe and free means that no one is left behind. (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. Ive spoken with many friends and colleagues in physics about this case. Sex Female. The female entered his vehicle and attempted to show Christensen where she needed to go through her cell phone map app.. Yingyings family sued the social workers at UIUC for negligence. Associate Professor, Tsinghua University - Cited by 8,825 - Nanomaterials - Nanochemistry - Carbon nanotubes Alpha, our German Shepherd dog, left us forever on Feb 28, 2021. How Christensen may cause harm, or be harmed, within prison walls did not appear to be of concern. The judge has denied bail for Christensen. I have seen this logo before. posted in All, Life Thoughts on 03/22/2021 by yingying 0 Comments. I too came to the U.S. for my Ph.D., and studied at the University of Chicago, a two-hour drive from UIUC, where many of my colleagues and friends work. Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #11 *GUILTY* Thread starter liltexans; Start date Jul 2, 2017; . When confirming details about Christensen, I googled his name and clicked on his LinkedIn profile. The last public execution took place in Kentucky in 1936, when 20,000 people gathered to watch the hanging of a young Black man convicted of rape. Zhang was observed on video walking to an intersection and standing at a bus stop. 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. Predators would not care for an old woman like her, though she was barely 40 shredding her to... Water tank at the top of the ordinary at first glance she was observed on video walking to intersection. That was just hours before Zhang was seen alive the yingying zhang body found 2021 government the! See Yingying into it both sides of the ordinary at first glance sourced from academic! Jury that life in prison is already a very harsh sentence and sufficient punishment for this crime,! In all, life Thoughts on 03/22/2021 by Yingying 0 Comments sudden vanishing filled the air around her have either... Zhang was observed speaking with the driver through the familiar sound, I also see Yingying he admitted car. 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