Brendt Allen Christensen (born June 30, 1989) is an American PhD student researcher based in Champaign, Illinois.

Christensen completed his undergraduate degree at the University Of Wisconsin, where he received his Bachelor's degree in Physics in 2013.

At the time of his arrest, he was a PhD student researcher at the University of Illinois. He had worked there for 3 years and 7 months.

He spent the 2012-13 school year serving as a research assistant in Switzerland, where he analyzed data generated from the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most powerful particle collider.

His responsibilities at the University of Illinois as a graduate teaching assistant included supervising and guiding discussion sections containing twenty students at a time while they worked through physics problems, overseeing and grading quizzes, and proctoring exams.

On June 30, 2017, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced the arrest of Christensen in the kidnapping case of Chinese visiting scholar, Yingying Zhang.

While Christensen was under law enforcement surveillance, agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang.

Christensen will remain in law enforcement custody pending his initial federal court appearance in Urbana scheduled on Monday, July 3, 2017 at 10:00 a.m.

Authorities say based on that and other facts uncovered during the investigation, agents believe Zhang is no longer alive.

On June 15, 2017, Christensen was interviewed at the FBI’s Champaign office.

Authorities allege that he admitted to driving around the UI campus when he observed an Asian female with a backpack standing at a corner appearing distressed.

Christensen claimed that he drove up to the Asian female, who relayed she was late to an appointment.

Christensen stated that he offered the Asian female a ride.

The female entered his vehicle and attempted to show Christensen where she needed to go through her cell phone map app.

He stated that he believed he made a wrong turn because the female became panicked.

He claimed that he then let the female out of the vehicle in a residential area a few blocks away from where he picked her up.

On June 29, 2017, Christensen was captured on audio recording while under law enforcement surveillance explaining how he kidnapped Zhang.

Christensen stated that he brought Zhang back to his apartment, and otherwise held her in his apartment against her will.

Christensen’s phone also revealed evidence that he visited the abduction threads on a site called FetLife.

On the same day Zhang disappeared, Brendt attempted to pick up a white female while pretending to be an undercover officer. He told her he wanted to ask her some questions and stated that she needed to get in his black Saturn Astra while she was walking around Busey and Stoughton in Urbana.

On July 3, 2017, Christensen appeared at the federal courthouse in Urbana, Illinois where he barely spoke a word and did not enter a plea during his nine minute appearance.

Nor did he give any indication of where Zhang, who investigators believe is dead, might be found.

He also has a tentative July 14, 2017, trial date and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.

On July 18, 2019, Christensen was sentenced to life in prison.

A 12-person jury deliberated for more than eight hours over the course of two days in Peoria’s federal courthouse, but failed to reach a unanimous decision in the death-penalty case.

Instead, the judge officially imposed a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of release.^[28][29]