Brendt Allen Christensen Full Length Police Interrogation

The kidnapping and murder of Yingying Zhang occurred on June 9, 2017 when Zhang, a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, was abducted by Brendt Allen Christensen, a Champaign resident and former physics graduate student at the university. Christensen lured Zhang into his car at a bus stop on campus with the promise of a ride after she missed a bus, but then took her to his apartment where he raped and murdered her while his wife was out of town for the weekend.

On June 30, 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested and charged Christensen in federal court. Christensen was convicted of one count of kidnapping resulting in death and two counts of making false statements to agents of the FBI, for which he received a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility of parole on July 18, 2019.

On the afternoon of June 9, 2017, Zhang was traveling on a Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District (CUMTD) bus in Urbana, Illinois, to an off-campus apartment complex where she was planning to sign a new apartment lease. She was running late and sent a text message to the leasing agent at 1:39 p.m. to inform them that she would arrive at approximately 2:10 p.m. After riding on one bus, she exited at 1:52 p.m. and tried to transfer to another. However, because she was on the wrong side of the street for boarding, the bus did not stop after she attempted to flag it down. The CUMTD stated it is against company policy to stop for pedestrians on the wrong side of the street, as to do so would encourage them to run into oncoming traffic.

Zhang then walked to another bus stop a few blocks away at the corner of North Goodwin Avenue and West Clark Street, directly in front of the university's PBS radio and television station, WILL. Surveillance video cameras showed that a black Saturn Astra passed by her at 2:00 p.m. as she waited at the bus stop, and then circled back around and stopped where she was waiting at 2:03 p.m. She spoke to the driver for approximately one minute, and then entered the car.

The leasing agent sent a text message to her at approximately 2:38 p.m., but received no reply. As the hours passed, Zhang's friends, aware of her errand and expecting her to return quickly, grew increasingly worried. At 9:24 p.m., an associate professor called police to report her missing.

Investigators were unable to discern the license plate number of the vehicle from security camera footage. However, they determined that there were 18 four-door Saturn Astras registered to owners in the Champaign County area. One of these vehicles was registered to Brendt Allen Christensen, a Champaign resident. Christensen, born June 30, 1989, is a former Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013 with a bachelor's degree in math and physics and graduated with a master's degree in physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in May 2017. Before starting graduate school, he married Michelle Zortman in March 2013. Investigators interviewed Christensen on June 12,and i nspected his car. When questioned, Christensen reportedly claimed that he did not remember what he was doing at the time of Zhang's disappearance. He later told investigators that he may have been sleeping, or at home playing video games.[1]

On June 14, investigators reviewed the surveillance video footage and observed that the car's sunroof was similar to the one on Christensen's car. They also noted that the car in the video had a cracked hubcap and, upon reinspecting Christensen's car, found that it had a cracked hubcap. They concluded that the car in the footage belonged to Christensen.[1]

On June 15, local police and FBI investigators questioned Christensen and executed a search warrant for his car. The black Saturn Astra was initially towed to a secure bay at the Champaign Police Department, and on June 18 was transported to the FBI Springfield Division's main office in Springfield, Illinois. Investigators noted that the passenger door of his car "appeared to have been cleaned to a more diligent extent than the other vehicle doors", which they said "may be indicative of an attempt or effort to conceal or destroy evidence".

During questioning on June 15, Christensen admitted that he had given an Asian female a ride,] but said that he dropped her off after only a few blocks when a wrong turn caused her to panic.Concurrent with this questioning, agents at Christensen's apartment sought and obtained written permission from another occupant of the residence for search and seizure of items at the residence.

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