CHINA / SOCIETY
Family of murdered Chinese visiting scholar told location of remains
Published: Aug 21, 2019 06:13 PM

Ye Lifeng (second from right), lets out a wail of grief as her husband Zhang Ronggao (left), the father of slain Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, reads a statement to the media outside the US Courthouse in Peoria, Illinois, on June 24, after a federal jury found Brendt Christensen guilty of kidnapping and murdering Zhang Yingying. Photo: VCG

The remains of Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, who was killed in 2017 while visiting the US, may have been left in a refuse landfill in central Illinois, the attorney for Zhang's family told media on Friday. 


"The information was provided to the prosecution under an immunity agreement. This information came from the defense lawyers, and that information indicated that the remains, as it traced down, could be found in a landfill in Vermilion County," Steve Beckett, the family's attorney, was quoted as saying by The News Gazette. 

More information will be released at a press conference next week, Beckett said. Zhang's parents and their other attorney Wang Zhidong will attend the press conference, according to the report. 

Brendt Christensen, who kidnapped and killed Zhang two years ago, was sentenced to lifetime imprisonment on July 18 without the possibility of release. 

Christensen agreed to provide information about the remains on the condition that the death penalty being taken off the table, media reported.