Murdered Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying’s family to give US$20,000 reward to people who helped catch killer

Another US$30,000 will go towards fund in slain Chinese scholar’s name to help support international students in crisis

Money will come from GoFundMe campaign that raised more than US$161,000 from more than 3,500 people since her disappearance in June 2017

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A 2016 selfie provided by her family shows Zhang Yingying in a cap and gown for her graduate degree in environmental engineering from Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. Photo: Zhang family via AP

Published: 3:49am, 20 Aug 2019Updated: 3:49am, 20 Aug 2019

The parents of a University of Illinois scholar from China who was abducted and killed two years ago are giving at least US$20,000 to people who provided authorities with crucial information that led to the arrest and conviction of their daughter’s killer.

The money will come from a GoFundMe campaign that raised more than US$161,000 from more than 3,500 people since Zhang Yingying disappeared in June 2017, The (Champaign) News-Gazette reported.

According to a campaign update, part of that money will help to pay for the family’s “final US expenses”. Another US$30,000 will be used as an endowment through the University of Illinois Foundation called “Yingying’s fund” to help support international students and their families in crisis.

Steven Beckett, a lawyer for the Zhang family, declined to say on Monday who would receive reward money or how it might be divided up. But during the course of the investigation into Zhang’s 2017 killing and the trial of former University of Illinois doctoral student Brendt Christensen, which ended in June, the names of two possible recipients emerged: Terra Bullis and Emily Hogan.

Perhaps the most riveting evidence was provided by Bullis, Christensen’s ex-girlfriend. During the trial, she testified that she wore a wire for the FBI, and jurors heard recorded conversations in which Christensen told Bullis in gruesome detail how he killed the 26-year-old Zhang, explaining how he raped and beat her to death.

Hogan testified about being approached by Christensen on the same day he offered Zhang a ride and then kidnapped her. She said after she refused to get into Christensen’s car she called police and then later identified Christensen in a photo line-up.