BRAZEN

Illinois Kidnapping Suspect ‘Marched in His Victim’s Vigil’

Day before his arrest for Chinese scholar’s abduction.

The man suspected of abducting a visiting Chinese scholar from the University of Illinois last month attended a vigil in her honor a day before his arrest, prosecutors said Wednesday. Federal prosecutors announced the news at a detention hearing Wednesday for Brendt Christensen, whom a judge ordered to remain jailed pending trial. Christensen reportedly took part in a vigil for 26-year-old student Yingying Zhang at the university last Thursday, an event that was attended by her father. He is also accused of making “a threat to another person to whom he made incriminating statements” about the alleged abduction, telling an unnamed individual Zhang “fought and resisted” during the kidnapping, prosecutors said. Zhang disappeared June 9. Police arrested Christensen last week after spotting his car in surveillance video and alleging he’d viewed an abduction fantasy website called “Abduction 101.”