University Of Illinois Missing Student News: Man Linked to Chinese Student's Abduction Arrested, Appears in Court
The Federal Bureau of Investigation previously arrested a man allegedly connected with the June 9 abduction of a visiting Chinese graduate student at the University of Illinois. The suspect has now appeared in court in connection to the case.
The man, 28-year-old Brendt Christensen of Champaign, Illinois, was under surveillance last June 29 when FBI agents heard him confessing that he had actually abducted student Yingying Zhang and had taken her back to his apartment. Because of what the agents overheard, Christensen has been charged with kidnapping.
According to the FBI, Christensen's confession and the facts discovered in the course of the investigation point to the possibility that Zhang might already be dead. The document from court also revealed that after a careful inspection of Christensen's car, they found that he had cleaned it "to a more diligent extent," which suggested that he might be hiding something.
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The security camera video that was recovered following Zhang's abduction showed Christensen driving a black Saturn Astra and picking up the Chinese victim in the afternoon of her disappearance. The video showed Zhang entering the front passenger side of Christensen's car. The vehicle was previously spotted circling the area of the University of Illinois and talking to Zhang for about a minute before the latter got in the car.
When asked about the footage, however, Christensen admitted he gave Zhang a ride but said he dropped her off a few blocks away from where he had picked her up.
What added to the FBI's suspicion of his involvement in Zhang's disappearance was the history of his phone, which showed that back in April, he had visited some online forums about abduction. Some of the forum titles shown in his search history were "Abduction 101," "Perfect abduction fantasy" and "Planning a kidnapping."
On Monday, June 3, Christensen appeared in front of a court in Urbana, Illinois. A large number of people waited outside the courthouse while he was being arraigned on the kidnapping charges filed against him.
Although the police has yet to find out what happened to Zhang, the University of Illinois police said in a statement, "Our thoughts are with Yingying's family, loved ones. Please support fellow community members tonight."
