Brendt Christensen, charged with beheading Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, was obsessed with US serial killer Ted Bundy, court hears
- Prosecutors tell jurors Zhang fought for her life as accused hit her with baseball bat, raped her and stabbed her in the neck before cutting off her head
- Christensen’s girlfriend, who is expected to be star witness, wore wire for FBI in bid to capture incriminating statements
A US man accused of kidnapping and killing a scholar visiting from China two years ago was obsessed with Ted Bundy and other serial killers, prosecutors said on Wednesday as they shared with jurors grisly details of how the victim was allegedly raped and brutally beaten before her death.
Opening statements began in the federal death-penalty trial of Brendt Christensen, a case closely watched by Chinese students across the US. Christensen is accused of luring 26-year-old Zhang Yingying into his car in June 2017 as she headed to sign a lease off campus.
Christensen abducted Zhang to his apartment where she fought for her life as he hit her over the head with a baseball bat, raped her and stabbed her in the neck before cutting off her head, Eugene Miller, an assistant US attorney for central Illinois, said.
“Her blood ran down the wall,” the prosecutor said, as some of Zhang’s relatives sat in court listening to an interpreter through headsets. “Thousands of miles away from her parents, alone with a stranger, she breathes her last breath.”
Miller said Christensen was obsessed with Bundy, who killed dozens of women in the 1970s, and other serial killers. He had researched online how to abduct someone before buying a very large duffel bag.