A federal grand jury Wednesday indicted Brendt Christensen for allegedly kidnapping visiting U of I scholar Yingying Zhang.
The indictment states that Christensen, a Champaign resident and former UI grad student, "willfully and unlawfully seized, confined, inveigled, decoyed, kidnapped, abducted, and carried away" Ms. Zhang "and otherwise held her for his own benefit and objective, and used and caused to be used a means, facility and instrumentality of interstate commerce, namely, a Motorola cellular telephone and a Saturn Astra motor vehicle, in committing and in furtherance of the commission of the offense".
Christensen is jailed without bond, and faces up to life in prison if he's convicted.
The preliminary hearing that had been scheduled on July 14 for the case has been cancelled.
On July 5, he was ordered held without bail by US Magistrate Judge Eric Long of the US District Court for the Central District of IL in Urbana.
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The indictment alleges that Christensen kidnapped Yingying Zhang on June 9. Federal authorities now say they believe Zhang is dead, though her body hasn't been found. In the message Zhang said that she was running behind to meet the manager to sign a lease, and she thought she would arrive at approximately 2:10 p.m., for her appointment.
Later that evening a University of IL associate professor reported to University police that multiple colleagues had tried to reach Zhang by phone and she had not responded.
"Members of Yingying's family feel comforted by the indictment by the grand jury and express gratitude for the unremitting efforts of the police and prosecutors".
As stated in the complaint affidavit, law enforcement investigating Zhang's disappearance believe Zhang is deceased.
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