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Tribune News Service

Sitting on a bench at a vigil for missing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying in 2017, Brendt Christensen grabbed his girlfriend Terra Bullis’ phone and pulled up the note function.
One at a time, he typed four lines then deleted each one after showing them to her.
“It was me.”
“She was number 13.”
“She is gone.”
“Forever.”

When he saw the crowd gathering for the vigil, he told Bullis “they’re here for me”.
Christensen was smiling and appeared happy at the sombre vigil, Bullis said.
She wore a wire for the FBI to record nine conversations with Christensen, including one the same evening in which Christensen told her in graphic detail how he killed Zhang.
Christensen was “excited” and “boastful” and claimed Zhang was his 13th victim, Bullis testified on Thursday at her ex-boyfriend’s trial for the kidnapping and murder of Zhang, a scholar at the University of Illinois.
Vanished Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying’s parents arrive in US for trial of her alleged killer, Brendt Christensen
“They have the bat I hit her in the head with,” Christensen told Bullis, referring to the FBI, adding that he first tried to choke Zhang to death. “I couldn’t believe she was still alive.”
He said he carried her to his bathtub.
“I got the bat and hit her on the head as hard as I could and it broke her head open,” Christensen said.
Then he stabbed her in the neck and “chopped her head off”, he said, laughing.
The conversation was on June 29, 2017, about three weeks after the June 9 disappearance of Zhang, as authorities were zeroing in on Christensen as a suspect.

Bullis conveyed interest in an effort to keep the conversation going, but was “devastated”, she said.
“Do you think you might be the next successful serial killer?” Bullis asked Christensen.
“I already am,” he replied on the recording.
Despite his boasts, FBI agents have testified that no evidence has been found to link any other victims to Christensen. Defence lawyers have admitted Christensen killed Zhang, but insisted he wasn’t being truthful when he said he killed other people.
Christensen is facing the death penalty, which was abolished in Illinois state courts, but is still an avenue federal prosecutors can pursue.
Zhang was last seen on June 9, 2017, getting into a black Saturn Astra near the Champaign-Urbana campus at the University of Illinois.


Thursday was Bullis’ second day testifying.
Christensen was drinking alcohol from a water bottle at the vigil, but she said he did not appear to be drunk.
In one recording, Bullis said did not think he would harm her or his wife, Michelle, with whom he was in an open relationship. Christensen told Bullis she was “safe”.
Bullis said she would not be safe if she told anyone about their conversation.
“That’s true,” Christensen said.
Christensen, 29, was arrested the day after that conversation. He called Bullis several times after his arrest, she said.




Bullis became emotional several times during her many hours of testimony on Thursday, at times wiping her eyes. She left her job after Zhang’s disappearance, in part because photos were released of her with Christensen so she could not work in a public setting, she said.
She has received up to US$8,000 from the bureau for mental health treatment, she said on Thursday.
In a July 2, 2017 phone call between Christensen, who was in jail, and his wife, he asked her to reach out to Bullis.
“Please text her or call her and tell her not to say anything to anyone except our lawyers,” Christensen said. “Tell her I’m innocent and everything is going to be OK.”
US man Brendt Christensen, accused of killing visiting Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, abandons mental health defence
In his cross-examination of Bullis, assistant federal defender Robert Tucker highlighted Christensen’s “severe” issues with alcohol, emotional and psychiatric issues she was dealing with and her alternative sex life with Christensen.
Bullis said she was struggling at the time, taking medication and suffering from PTSD related to something else.
Tucker suggested that during the conversations, Bullis was asking Christensen leading questions to get him to implicate himself. She said she drank alcohol from the water bottle Christensen took to the vigil because she thought if she did not that he might not keep talking to her.

“You wanted to drink with him and keep him drinking, didn’t you?” Tucker said.
“That’s incorrect,” Bullis said.
Bullis said she contacted Christensen on the dating website OKCupid in April 2017 and introduced him to “kink” and BDSM (bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and sadism and masochism).
Special Agent Greg Catey presented analysis of Zhang and Christensen’s mobile phones. Zhang’s phone did not communicate with an AT&T tower after 2:28pm on June 9, 2017, he said.
A camera recorded her getting into the Astra less than 30 minutes earlier. Zhang’s phone has not been found.
Testimonies continue on Friday and closing statements are expected on Monday.


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Crime

Brendt Christensen, accused killer of Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, laughed about how he ‘chopped her head off’, girlfriend says

Zhang Yingying on graduation day at Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School in 2016. Photo: AP

FILE - This photo provided by the Macon County Sheriff's Office in Decatur, Ill., shows Brendt Christensen. The former University of Illinois doctoral student on trial in the killing of a visiting scholar from China bought Drano and garbage bags three days after the slaying, according to testimony Thursday, June 13, 2019. (Macon County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

FILE - This 2017 file photo provided by Xinyang Zhang shows his sister, Yingying, with their parents, Ronggao Zhang, right, and Lifeng Ye, at a train station in Nanping, China. The 26-year-old visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, disappeared June 9, 2017. Brendt Christensen, a former graduate student, has been charged with kidnapping and killing her. Zhang's body has not been found. (Xinyang Zhang via AP, File)

This undated photo provided by the University of Illinois Police Department shows Yingying Zhang. The parents of the visiting University of Illinois scholar who disappeared two years ago have arrived in Illinois from China for the murder trial of the man accused of abducting and killing her. Former Illinois student Brendt Christensen is charged with Zheng, whose body hasn't been found. He pleaded not guilty and his trial is set to begin Monday, June 3, 2019. (Courtesy of the University of Illinois Police Department via AP)

Zhang Yingying. Photo: AP

Brendt Christensen, charged with beheading Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, was obsessed with US serial killer Ted Bundy, court hears

Zhang Yingying, a visiting student who went missing in June 2017. Photo: University of Illinois Police Department via TNS

FILE PHOTO: Brendt Christensen, 28, arrested in connection with the disappearance of Yingying Zhang, 26, on June 9, 2017, is shown in this booking photo in Champaign, Illinois, U.S., provided July 5, 2017. Macon County Sheriff's Office/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY/File Photo

Mother Lifeng Ye (C), and brother Zhengyang Zhang (L) of Yingying Zhang arrive at the US Courthouse as federal trial of Brendt Christensen begins in the 2017 disappearance and suspected killing of Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar from China whose body has not been found on June 12, 2019 in Peoria, Illinois. - Zhang Yingying went missing in June 2017 when police say she got into a car belonging to Brendt Christensen near the campus of the University of Illinois. She was 26 years old at the time.crime (Photo by KAMIL KRZACZYNSKI / AFP)

‘She’s gone forever’: Brendt Christensen bragged to girlfriend that he killed Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying

A 2017 photo provided by Zhang Xinyang shows his sister, Zhang Yingying, with their father, Zhang Ronggao and mother, Ye Lifeng, at a railway station in Nanping, China. Photo: Zhang Xinyang via AP

We will forgive you, but please let her go, father of missing Chinese student Zhang Yingying begs kidnapper

Zhang Yingying poses for photos during graduation at the entrance to Beijing University in China in 2016. Photo: Zhao Kaiyun via AP

This undated photo provided by The University of Illinois Police Department shows Yingying Zhang. Police said the FBI is investigating the disappearance of Zhang, a Chinese woman from a central Illinois university town, as a kidnapping. Zhang was about a month into a yearlong appointment at the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign when she disappeared June 9, 2017. (Courtesy of the University of Illinois Police Department via AP)

Yingying Zhang boarded an MTD Teal line bus at the south shelter at Orchard Downs at 1:35 p.m. on Friday, June 9. A University of Illinois student Ying-Ying Zhang, 26-year-old has been reported missing. PHOTO : HANDOUT

Suspect in murder of Chinese student Zhang Yingying bought corrosive drain cleaner after she disappeared, US court told

This undated photo provided by The University of Illinois Police Department shows Yingying Zhang. A Champaign man is charged with kidnapping 26-year-old Zhang, a visiting University of Illinois scholar from China who authorities believe is dead. A federal complaint says Brendt Christensen, 28, a former U of I graduate student, was under surveillance when agents. The story was chosen as one of Associated Press year's 10 biggest stories or 2017 in Illinois.(Courtesy of the University of Illinois Police Department via AP)

US federal prosectors say the suspect in the killing of Chinese student Zhang Yingying bought corrosive drain cleaner and rubbish bags in the days after she vanished. Photo: AP

Hundreds demand ‘justice for Yingying’ as kidnap suspect makes first court appearance

People line up outside a federal courthouse in Chicago on Monday, for first appearance of Brendt Christensen, the suspect in the kidnapping of Zhang Yingying. Photo: AP

Sharon Paul, spokeswoman with the U.S. Attorney's Office, speaks to the media following the first appearance of Brendt Christensen, the suspect in the kidnapping of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois, Monday, July 3, 2017, in Urbana, Ill, During the nine-minute hearing, Christensen did not speak other than to acknowledge to the federal judge that he understood his rights. U.S. Magistrate Eric Long ordered Christensen held without bond. (Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette via AP)

Yingying Zhang(L); Brendt Allen.

People line up outside the federal courthouse for first appearance of Brendt Christensen, the suspect in the kidnapping of Yingying Zhang, a Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois, Monday, July 3, 2017, in Urbana, Ill, During the nine-minute hearing, Christensen did not speak other than to acknowledge to the federal judge that he understood his rights. U.S. Magistrate Eric Long ordered Christensen held without bond. (Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette via AP)

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Christensen also boasted he was a serial killer and said Zhang was his 13th victim, but FBI doubts the claim.


Brendt Christensen also boasted he was a serial killer and said Zhang was his 13th victim, but FBI doubts the claim.


United States