This archive report was first published on 19 July 2019.
On July 19, 2019, a US District Judge handed down a life sentence to Brendt Christensen, 30, for the kidnapping and murder of Zhang Yingying, a 26-year-old Chinese graduate student at the University of Illinois.
Christensen was found guilty of abducting Zhang on campus in June 2017, beating her to death with a baseball bat, and decapitating her. Her remains have never been found.
The jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on whether Christensen should be given the death penalty, which is not available in Illinois but was a possibility in federal court.
US District Judge James Shadid described Christensen's actions as 'an inexplicable act of violence' and said that the Zhang family may never learn where their daughter's remains are.
Christensen did not speak during the hearing, and his former girlfriend, Terra Bullis, testified that he had confessed to the murder while they attended a vigil for the missing student.
China has been closely following the case, with state media highlighting denunciations of the 'unfair and unjust' US legal system.
