IL Progtard Maniac Shoots Up GOP Baseball Practice

[Harrison J Bounel]

Is there something going on with the water there in IL?

UIUC Physics TA held in kidnapping! Another UIUC physics loony loose on campus!

Maybe someone there in the UIUC physics department is helping dispose of mutant hogs, perhaps by dumping them in the UIUC Physics department water/air/sewer/hvac system? What does unethical UIUC physics professor George Gollin know about this perverted animal Christensen? Wonder who else was on the committee that admitted this degenerate?

'Nobody saw this coming': Arrest in Chinese scholar's disappearance stuns U. of I. community
By Dawn Rhodes, Grace Wong and Robert McCoppin•Contact Reporters
Chicago Tribune

July 1, 2017, 6:22 PM |CHAMPAIGN, Ill.

Federal authorities have arrested and charged a 28-year-old man with kidnapping Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois who disappeared three weeks ago and now is presumed dead.

Brendt Christensen, a former Ph.D. candidate who had studied physics at the university, was arrested late Friday, according to a news release from the Department of Justice. A federal complaint also was filed Friday in the Central District of Illinois accusing him of kidnapping Zhang from the Urbana-Champaign campus the afternoon of June 9.

Christensen's former academic advisor, professor Lance Cooper, associate head for graduate programs in the Department of Physics, was part of the committee that admitted Christensen to the program in fall 2013.

"Nobody saw this coming," Cooper said Saturday. [Because it's hard to see with your head up your ass.]

Zhang, 26, arrived at the University of Illinois in late April to contribute to research in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Her appointment as a scholar was through April 2018.

She originally was from Nanping, a small city in the Fujian province in southeast China; a university spokeswoman, Robin Kaler, said Zhang was considering entering a doctoral program at U. of I.

Tina Chu, acting executive director of the Chinese-American Museum of Chicago, said Zhang's father, boyfriend and aunt came from China to Illinois during the search.

Chu met the family and helped translate for them at a vigil held in Chinatown on June 24, and described them as "good, hardworking people." They had a very positive attitude that they would find Yingying, Chu said.

Chu has not seen the family since then, but said the news must be devastating.

"This is their hope," she said. "I don't know how they're going to take it."

"It is scary, shocking news for the Chinese in China," she said. "People are talking, saying, 'You've got to be careful, watch out for your safety.' It makes us feel really insecure."

Some 5,600 Chinese are enrolled at U. of I., more than at any other U.S. college, according to government data.

"This is a senseless and devastating loss of a promising young woman and a member of our community," U. of I. Chancellor Robert Jones said in a statement. "There is nothing we can do to ease the sadness or grief for her family and friends, but we can and we will come together to support them in any way we can in these difficult days ahead."

The day she disappeared, Zhang was at Turner Hall, where she conducted her research, between 8:30 a.m. and around 12:30 p.m., according to the affidavit. She then went back to her apartment for lunch, authorities say.

Zhang left shortly after, heading to a different apartment complex in Urbana to sign a lease. She texted the building manager around 1:39 p.m. to say she was running late, according to the affidavit, and planned to arrive around 2:10 p.m.

Video showed Zhang boarding a Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District bus around 1:35 p.m. She took the Teal line bus from Orchard Downs and exited at West Springfield and North Mathews avenues at 1:52 p.m., police said.

Four minutes later, Zhang was seen on video trying to flag down another MTD bus, but it passed her without stopping. The affidavit states the bus was a Limited Line bus and probably did not stop because Zhang was standing on the wrong side of the street to board.

Unable to catch the bus, Zhang walked north to the intersection of North Goodwin Avenue and West Clark Street, where she stood at another designated MTD bus stop on the southeast corner. According to the MTD website, the Goodwin and Clark stop is designated for the Illini Limited weekday daytime route, which runs only during university breaks and summer sessions.

Around 2 p.m., a black Saturn Astra, which authorities say was driven by Christensen, was seen on surveillance video from a nearby building driving east on West University Avenue, then turning onto Goodwin and then to Clark Street, past where Zhang was standing. The Astra then reappeared on surveillance video driving west on West Main Street, then turning back onto Goodwin.

Authorities previously said the car appeared to be circling the area before approaching Zhang.

Minutes later, the car pulled off to the side of the road where Zhang was standing. Video from a parking garage across the street showed Zhang speaking with the driver for about a minute before she got into the front passenger seat, authorities say. The car then continued driving north on Goodwin Avenue.

Zhang was not seen or heard from after that, police said. The apartment manager texted her at 2:38 p.m. and got no response, according to the affidavit.

An associate professor reported Zhang missing to U. of I. police at 9:24 p.m. A responding officer spoke to the professor and several of Zhang's friends, all of whom said they knew she was heading to sign the apartment lease but had not been able to contact her for several hours. The officer went to Zhang's current apartment, which was locked and vacant, the affidavit states.

Police determined that there were 18 four-door Saturn Astras registered in Champaign County, one of which was in Christensen's name. Police went to Christensen's home the night of June 12 and asked him where he was when Zhang was last seen June 9. Christensen initially said he could not remember, then told police he was either sleeping or playing video games all day. Police searched the car but did not locate or take anything from it, the affidavit states.

On June 14, police noted in the surveillance footage that the Astra had a sunroof and a cracked hubcap on the front passenger side. Authorities returned to Christensen's home in the 2500 block of West Springfield Avenue and saw that his Astra also had a cracked hubcap consistent with what police saw in the footage. Police, who had previously noted that Christensen's car also had a large sunroof, determined that his was the vehicle seen in the surveillance, the affidavit states.

Authorities interviewed Christensen on June 15 while the FBI and U. of I. police searched his car. In the interview, Christensen admitted to driving around the U. of I. campus when he saw an Asian woman standing at the corner, looking distressed, the affidavit states. Christensen said he drove up to her and offered her a ride after she said she was late to an appointment. The woman then tried to show Christensen where she needed to go through the map on her phone. Christensen claimed he made a wrong turn at some point and the woman panicked, then he let her out of his car a few blocks from where he picked her up, the affidavit states.

Authorities also searched Christensen's home and seized electronics, including his phone, according to the affidavit. The phone's search history revealed visits to a bondage and sadomasochism fetish website called FetLife and a forum called "Abduction 101," as well as subthreads titled "Perfect abduction fantasy" and "planning a kidnapping," according to the affidavit. The searches to those websites had occurred several weeks before the alleged abduction, around April 19, authorities wrote in the affidavit.

In a search of the car, authorities discovered that the front passenger side where Zhang would have been sitting "appeared to have been cleaned to a more diligent extent than the other vehicle doors," the affidavit states, adding that investigators believed this was done to conceal evidence.

Authorities began surveilling Christensen on June 16. On June 29, police heard him say on an audio recording that he kidnapped Zhang, brought her back to his apartment and held her in his apartment against her will, according to the affidavit.

"Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement does not believe (Zhang) is still alive," the affidavit states.

Federal authorities listed Christensen as 27, but the federal complaint gives his birthday as June 30, which would make him 28 as of Friday.

He is scheduled to appear in federal court in Urbana on Monday morning.

Bin Xu, 22, a senior from Zhejiang, China, who is studying statistics, said he wished the school would emphasize safety to international students who may be disoriented from being in a new country and naive to potential dangers. Orientations are in English, which can be hard for international students to understand, and Xu said the school forgets how hard it is for students to simply get around the large campus.

Xu recalled a time when he was confused about how to get across campus on a particularly snowy day. He said he walked on the street that night to avoid slipping on the ice on the sidewalk and became exasperated to the point where he would have accepted a ride from a stranger.

"You shouldn't be blaming Yingying Zhang for riding in someone's car," Xu said in Mandarin. "The school also can't run away from this. The school's responsibility is huge. I feel really sorry for Yingying Zhang's parents."

Zhang's boyfriend has said that she was cautious and wouldn't normally get into a car with a stranger unless duped or forced.

Zhang graduated last year with a master's degree in environmental engineering from one of China's elite schools, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School. She had been doing research on crop photosynthesis, which included using drones to study fields, the university's communications office has said.

Those who knew Zhang described her as bright and outgoing. She played guitar and sang in a band called Cute Horse in China. One of her favorite songs was "The Rose," a hit in 1980 for Bette Midler.

Zhang's aunt recently told CNN that her niece had ambitions of becoming a professor in her home country.

"To be a faculty member in China, there are certain qualifications you have to meet, and as part of that you have to have broad experience in terms of your research and your study," Liqin Ye recalled her niece saying. "And that's probably what motivated her to want to come to the United States."

Christensen, similarly, was following a path in academia until he changed course a little more than a year ago.

As Christensen's advisor, Cooper went over his school record and charted out the courses he was to take. Cooper said he didn't interact with Christensen on a regular basis after the initial semester until spring 2016, when Christensen had a meeting with him to drop out of the Ph.D. program and pursue a master's degree instead.

"Christensen earned a master's degree from the (physics) program in May of 2017 and his affiliation with the department ended that same month," said Kaler, the university spokeswoman.

Christensen also taught introductory courses and discussion sections for four semesters and one summer course.

"He was completely normal [by UIUC standards], there were no complaints about his teaching," Cooper said. "He was on the excellent teaching list, so he was well-reviewed by his students."

No disciplinary issues were reported about him, and he never had issues showing up for class or getting assignments in on time, Cooper said.

"There was nothing remarkable about him as far as I could see," Cooper said. [Except for being a murdering pervert.]

On what appears to be his LinkedIn page, Christensen described himself as a Ph.D. candidate at U. of I. since January 2014, researching experimental condensed matter physics.

Cooper said Christensen mentioned in spring 2016 that he was married and that he and his wife were going to use the next year to decide what their plans were while he completed his master's program.

Christensen worked briefly in a condensed matter physics group, which studied materials and their exotic properties, but transitioned out of that when he dropped his Ph.D.

"He never gave any personal reasons," Cooper said. "I just got the impression that the Ph.D. program was not what he thought it would be and that this was no longer his goal. He didn't speak about any personal issues."

Cooper said he was shocked when he heard news about Christensen's arrest and said that members of his graduate-level physics class seemed to share that reaction. They had a meeting scheduled for Sunday to brainstorm ideas for sharing their condolences with Zhang's family.

Also according to Christensen's LinkedIn page, he received a bachelor of science degree with honors in physics, as well as a degree in mathematics from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where he was in the Physics Club.

The page also describes him as a graduate teaching assistant in physics at U. of I. from 2013 until the present, overseeing about 20 students.

Christensen described himself on the page this way: "I am a Ph.D. candidate in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, I fabricate nanoscale-level devices and perform electrical measurements on them in order to discover new things about mesoscopic physics. These measurements are done with a variety of devices; most notably probe stations and cryogenic systems. Along the way, I utilize an assortment of programs and skills, such as Python, LabVIEW, electron-beam lithography, atomic force microscopy, and much more."

Sarah Manzella, 20, who lives in the same apartment complex as Christensen, which is made up of multiple buildings with a central parking lot, said she could not have imagined living so close to the person eventually arrested in connection with Zhang's disappearance.

Manzella lives in an apartment building across from Christensen's building and said she had been looking for the car after its description came out but never realized it was in the parking lot directly in front of her apartment.

"She was (in America) for a month. This should not have happened," Manzella said. "I want her family to get justice. It's just really disturbing. I don't even feel safe."

Others believe the situation was random and could have happened to anyone. Even though she received a flurry of messages from her parents concerned for her safety, Xuying "Clover" Tong, 22, who is from Shanghai and graduated in December, said the incident doesn't make her feel like she's in danger.

"This situation was inevitable," Tong said in Mandarin near campus. "There's no way you can prevent something like this from happening when you go somewhere. I think any college could have faced a similar situation, it's not just unique to our school."

Tong also said that because Zhang has a Chinese background, she may have felt it would be rude to turn down someone insistent on helping her.

Xu said parents of Chinese students hear about gun violence but assume that it's safer at school and many students come to the United States with the perception that Americans are exceptionally nice.

Chenyu "Paul" Zhu, 22, who is from Shanghai and recently graduated, agreed, saying that this opinion is common but people should have their guard up no matter where they are.

"Every society has good people and bad people," Zhu said. "It's not strictly to this campus, like every other campus can happen, things like this. Just be wary and keep this in mind. Don't trust strangers 100 percent."

Chancellor Jones, in a message to campus, said:

"There is always some joy to be found in the memories we hold of those who we lose even in the darkest of moments. ... I ask all of you to help to ensure that Yingying is remembered for her kindness, her gentleness, and her smile. This is the greatest gift we can offer as a community to her family and friends today."

A crowdfunding campaign set up to help the Zhang family had generated more than $106,000 of its $150,000 goal with 2,602 contributors as of Saturday afternoon.