Remains of murdered Chinese student Zhang Yingying may be in US landfill, family told
- Information comes from lawyers for her killer, Brendt Christensen, and was provided under immunity agreement
- Family has repeatedly urged Christensen to reveal what he did with body so they can return it to China for burial
The body of a visiting Chinese postgraduate student who was kidnapped and brutally murdered by a former US doctoral student may be in a landfill in central Illinois, her family was told.
The (Champaign) News-Gazette reported that Steve Beckett, who represents Zhang Yingying’s family, said the information about the remains came from lawyers representing her killer, Brendt Christensen.
“The information was provided to the prosecution under an immunity agreement. This information came from the defence lawyers, and that information indicated that the remains, as it traced down, could be found in a landfill in Vermilion county,” the report quoted Beckett as saying.
Christensen was convicted in federal court last month and sentenced to life in prison after a federal jury failed to agree on whether he should be given the death penalty.
After the sentencing, Zhang’s family members stood before news cameras outside the courthouse to beg him to reveal the location of the 26-year-old woman’s body.
“If you have any humanity left in your soul, please end our torment,” said her father, Zhang Ronggao. “Please let us bring Yingying home.”