Did Brendt Christensen kill 12 people before beheading Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying?
- Christensen told girlfriend he had killed 12 people before abducting Zhang
- No evidence so far linking accused to other murders, but FBI agent tells court it’s not ‘completely impossible’
An FBI agent testified on Monday that investigators have not been able to corroborate Brendt Christensen’s claim that he killed 12 people before the abduction of Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2017.
In a recording played for jurors on Friday, Christensen tells his then-girlfriend, who was wearing a wire for the FBI, that Zhang was his 13th victim.
FBI special agent Andrew Huckstadt testified in federal court that “we’ve said multiple times” that evidence had not been recovered linking Christensen with other murders.
“However, that’s not the same as saying it’s completely impossible,” Huckstadt said. “We’re continuing to investigate and that’s as far as we can go at this time.”
Christensen, 29, is accused of killing Zhang in June 2017 after she had missed a bus and got into his car.