DISTURBING

Jurors Hear Audio of Murder Suspect Say Chinese Scholar Yingying Zhang Was ‘Valiant’ When She Was Killed

Brendt Christensen allegedly bragged to his girlfriend about the murder of Yingying Zhang after attending her vigil.

Jurors attending a death penalty trial against an Illinois man accused of killing a visiting Chinese scholar in 2017 on Friday heard secretly recorded audio of the suspect bragging to his girlfriend about the murder, The News Gazette reports. Brendt Christensen, a former University of Illinois graduate student, was reportedly heard in the audio saying that the high turnout at Yingying Zhang’s campus vigil— which he attended before he was deemed a suspect— was there for him. “All those people there tonight. They want her home safe. They have no idea what happened. I’m the only one. She was valiant,” he said. Christensen also allegedly detailed how he killed Yingying in the audio, claiming she fought harder than any other people he killed in the past. Christensen, who has compared himself to Ted Bundy, has claimed to have killed 13 people, though that has not been corroborated. “I won’t tell you where she is. I won’t tell anyone. They will never find her,” he said of Yingying’s whereabouts. Prosecutors say Christensen, 29, lured the 26-year-old Chinese student into his car before raping, beating, and decapitating her. Her body has not been found.