Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying vanished in 2017. Her accused killer Brendt Christensen could face the death penalty
- Jury selection begins in trial of former University of Illinois student for the alleged killing of Zhang Yinying, whose body has not been found
- If Christensen is convicted, jurors would decide whether they think he should be executed
A former University of Illinois graduate student is set to stand trial in the 2017 disappearance and suspected killing of a visiting scholar from China – a case in which the death penalty is possible and that has been closely watched in the home country of the victim, whose body hasn’t been found.
Jury selection in the federal trial of Brendt Christensen begins Monday in Peoria, a central Illinois city about 135km (85 miles) northwest of Champaign, where 26-year-old Zhang Yingying was studying at the university’s flagship campus and where she was last seen.
Because it’s a death-penalty case, jury selection is expected to take a week, as among the questions prospective jurors will be asked is whether they oppose capital punishment.
If Christensen, 29, is convicted, jurors would decide whether they think he should be executed.
Zhang went missing on June 9, 2017, as she was running late to sign a lease for an off-campus flat in Urbana, which is next to Champaign and about 225km southwest of Chicago.
She had just missed a bus when Christensen tricked or forced her into his car, prosecutors say. Christensen told the FBI he dropped Zhang off after a few blocks.