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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is murder with my husband. I'm Peyton Moreland and I'm Garrett Moreland and he's the husband and I'm the husband Have you ever thought about how weird it is that we just have that memorized and just do it the same single time I know it's I know we've said it before but we literally say it every single time We've never used a past one and brought it to a we're just that good. We're just that good
Okay, do you have your 10 seconds? Yes. Well, we did a murder mystery party just with some family. That was kind of fun for Halloween. Happy Halloween. Yeah, and Garrett thought our characters were having a moment and tried to kiss me in the middle of me giving a speech. We were having a moment. Other than that, just been kind of hanging out. It's starting to get cold outside and we'll probably do some skiing and snowboarding this winter. We didn't do that much last winter. Peyton's still learning, but that's okay. Garrett had to carry me off the mountain. The story for...
Another time for Patreon. Yeah. Speaking of which, if you want to check our Patreon now, it's patreon.com slash murder with my husband. We're going to start doing probably some more personal stuff like this on there. Yeah. And also we are continuing spooky stories over on there. So there's a lot more content now on there than was available before. So if you've kind of been on the edge of checking it out, I would do it now. We do a regular true crime episode and we do an extra spooky episode.
And then maybe we'll add something else. But right now there's two extra episodes a month. And I mean, ad-free episodes, early release, any bonus content. But also it's just a great way to support the podcast. So thank you. Thank you so much. Again, we just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's listening on podcasts, on YouTube, wherever it may be.
Thanks for sharing it with all your friends and family. Seriously, it means the world to us and helps us so much. Also, thank you for leaving such great comments. We read them. We love them. They're really the best part of our life, really. Thank you guys so much. All right. Well, let's just hop right into it. Okay. This case was suggested by Christopher Hernandez from Toledo and Allie from Michigan. Thank you guys for sending this in via our Google form for case suggestions. Our case sources are...
a JCS YouTube video that digests this whole entire interrogation. He's awesome. I've talked about him a bunch, but that's linked if you want to check it out. Also findingyingying.com, newschannel20.com, and then an ABC 2020 called like Undercover Girlfriend. All right. So our episode this week begins in Champaign County, which is right in the middle of Illinois in the United States. The
the University of Illinois actually straddles two cities, one called Champaign and one called Urbana. And we will essentially stay on the campus of University of Illinois for this whole story. So just kind of keep that in mind. But fun fact, according to the ABC Undercover Girlfriend episode on this, YouTube was actually created by two U of I alumni. Oh, really? Yeah.
which is like huge YouTube's everywhere, which I just think that's cool. So also according to that episode, the U of I has the largest enrollment of Chinese students in the United States. It's a great place for international students to go to school. It's kind of like a melting pot type thing.
And in 2017, you have, I received another visiting scholar from China. It was the spring semester and 26 year old Ying Ying Zhang had decided to leave home and study abroad. Ying Ying was a graduate from one of the top universities in China. Actually, her family explained it as the Harvard of China is where she was coming from. And Ying
Oh.
that was made up of her and her friends. So days before leaving for the U.S., Yingying actually celebrated her birthday and turned it into a farewell party as well. A temporary goodbye from her friends and family in China as she embarked on this new adventure in the United States.
She picked the U of I because of the field that she was studying, which was environmental sciences. She wanted to begin a PhD program by the fall. So we're talking smart. As Yingying moved to a brand new country, the transition was as tough as can be expected. She had all summer to meet people and finalize plans before the fall semester started. She actually kept a journal during this time and she bought a guitar to spend her free time playing guitar.
she wasn't proficient, but she had time to spend learning as she tried to make new friends. She jumped into working at the school and, you know, really made the difficult shift of starting a new life. Like I think even here in the United States, picking up and moving to a different state and going to college and,
meeting brand new people can be very scary. I can't even fathom what it would be like to go to a brand new country where you are still, you know, learning the language, learning how to communicate and do the same thing. So on Friday, June 9th, 2017, it's a normal summer day on the campus of U of I. Summer months could be slow here, just like any other college as students would travel home for break.
That morning, Yingying went to Turner Hall where she worked in a lab with some other students in her field. That morning, they worked on cleaning some equipment that they had been using previously. She actually told her coworker that she had an appointment that day around 1.30 to maybe sign a new lease. She was currently living on the south of campus in married housing, which obviously wasn't her best fit, but
So she wanted to move more north, which is less expensive housing and not married people. You didn't have to be married to live there? Apparently not because she was living there. There's nothing to ruin your dorm living experience like married people in college. Am I right? So over the lunch hour that day, Peyton and I got married in college. We actually did, but don't tell me about that.
So over the lunch hour that day, she was going to tour another apartment complex and told her coworker that she would be gone for roughly two hours, but would be back to work after. As one o'clock rolls around, Yingying leaves Turner Hall and heads out for her appointment, texting the apartment manager around 135 and telling him that she actually is running late and she won't be there until around 210.
So she had obviously either ran home before or grabbed food because the time was getting pushed back for her appointment. But when 2.35 comes around and Yingying still hasn't shown up for her appointment, the manager texts her again following up. He says, hey, just checking in to see if you're on your way. He doesn't hear back and Yingying misses her appointment with the apartment complex that Friday afternoon.
Around 3:30 to 4 o'clock, her coworker back at Turner Hall becomes concerned that Yingying hasn't returned to work. The time is dragging on and so she tries to call her on her cell phone, but she wouldn't answer. After dinner, Yingying's coworker decides to drop back into the lab and see if her friend had ever come back from the apartment tour, but she still hadn't. It was at this moment that her coworker decided to head to her current apartment and look for her. Something was not right.
When she got there and nobody answered the door, Ying Ying still unaccounted for, her coworker and friends decided to make their way to the university police office and report their friend missing. Which, I mean, good valiant friends to be like, she said she was going to this appointment. She never came back. Something's definitely wrong. We're going to police. I think my friends, shout out to all you guys out there, I think they would have said, oh. Yeah, he just didn't come back. He'll turn up eventually. Yes.
So the university police struggled to take the report as seriously as we'd like. It's a Friday night in the summer on a college campus. Ying Ying is an adult after all, and she's free to make her own choices without checking in with anybody. So they're kind of like, we understand your concern, but this happens a lot. So come check in with us later. But her first...
friends and coworkers know something's wrong and they are persistent. They do not feel like this is normal behavior. They continue to stand in the office, pushing the police to do more. But as the day turns to night and still no word from their friend, they decide to head back to Ying Ying's apartment and wait in the
parking lot, hoping that for some, you know, by some miracle, some chance she would just show up this all being a misunderstanding. She must've been a very on time, just punctual person. Otherwise it wouldn't have gotten so concerned and enthusiastic about it. Yes. And also, I mean, she's there for her PhD, which I mean, she's gotta be pretty punctual if you're, you're, you're getting to that degree. Right. So the next morning, June 10th, 2017, Ying Ying has still not shown up.
Nobody's heard from her. She's not answering her phone. So her friends, you know, they waited as long as they could in the parking lot that night, but she never came home. With little hope and worry rising, one of the male friends decides to call the News Gazette
He talks to Mary Shank, a reporter in the newsroom. He tells Mary that his friend, an international student is missing and no one is taking them seriously. No one is looking for her. And could they please spread the news? Could they cover the story in this morning's newspaper? Like, could they get it out?
Mary feels the urgency in Ying Ying's friend's voice and decides that running a story about the missing student couldn't hurt after all. And with the release of the article and the persistence from her friends, police eventually make their way to Ying Ying's apartment to look around and begin the investigation into the missing student. Once at her apartment, police realized that it was...
in normal shape, like her clothes were still there. It didn't look as if she was, you know, planning to leave or had left. Friends told police that Yingying actually didn't have a car and used the city buses to get around, which was most likely her plan that day as she left to go to that appointment. And you used the buses your first year of college? - Yeah, I did, I used the bus a ton. - Good for you, 'cause that's so confusing to me. - Thank you. - So the police decide to check with the buses in town and view their camera footage.
There were about 2,000 bus cameras at the time of Ying Ying's disappearance. Wow. Yes. So we are talking some serious time and manpower to track down all of this footage and like go through it in hopes of maybe catching a glimpse of her. But they did know where she might have been coming from, the lab, where she lived and where she was heading to that apartment. So this kind of gave them an idea of which buses to start with, which cameras to kind of be looking at.
And it was on June 12th, two days later, that they luckily end up finding footage on a camera attached to the outside of a city bus that showed Yingying boarding that bus at 1.30 p.m. the day she went missing. And what time was her appointment at? So her appointment originally was at 1.30. She left her lab at 1. And then she's boarding this bus at 1.30.
So she was going to be a little late. Around 1.30, she texted the apartment manager from her phone and said, I'm actually not going to be there till 2.10. Got it. You know, a little after 2, pushing it back. By 2.35, she still wasn't there. The apartment manager texted her. He has since come forward and said, no, she never showed up. Okay. So on this footage, she actually gets on. She's seen walking towards the back of the bus and sitting down. This bus was actually out front of her current apartment. Okay.
So police are like, okay, so from the lab, she must have made her way home before heading to the appointment that day. The weird thing about this bus though, is that this exact bus was heading East. And if you remember the apartment complex that she's supposed to be looking at is North. So this isn't going to where her appointment was. So they're like, okay, they keep tracking it down. They're watching her on the footage. And they actually noticed that Ying Ying gets off the bus in the middle of campus and
and then is seen on another camera chasing after a different bus trying to flag it down. - Weird. - It's almost as if she had boarded the wrong bus in the first place, and so now she was trying to get on the right one. - Oh, so she realized probably that she boarded-- - Halfway through, wait, this is not the way I'm supposed to be going, and so she gets off to try to get on the next bus that's going to where she is. And like I said, bus systems are confusing. - Could they tell which bus she was going to board next?
I mean, I'm sure they did. That wasn't like mentioned in this, but I'm sure it was probably the correct bus because they did say that she maybe got lost. So that's what I'm assuming. But going back to what we said at the beginning of this, I mean, you did this when you lived in Spain, but trying to figure out where you're going when this is not your primary language that you speak, bus systems are already confusing in general. Totally. I mean, I don't think it's that, I mean,
I feel bad that she got lost because I think it's really easy to happen. How long had she been there at that point? Only a couple of weeks, I'm pretty sure. Okay, that makes sense. Then she's still learning the bus systems and how everything's working. The campus, the city, exactly. So like I was saying, my heart actually really hurts when I watch this footage of Yingying because you can see it. It's like security footage in the context that we know what's going on because first of all, she's in a brand new country as a foreign student.
She's trying to find a new apartment because she either mistakenly chose, you know, the married housing or she was unaware or she just didn't like it once she got there. She is using her lunch break from work to try and make this appointment for her new house and is running late, already pushing back the appointment once.
And then she boards a bus only to realize that she's on the wrong one. So she gets off. And once she does, she realizes that the bus she wants to be on is taking off. So she tries running down the road. You can see it in the footage. She's trying to flag down the driver, but he doesn't see her. And so then she misses the bus by seconds. Got it. Okay. So what happens after that?
You can see on the camera that she quietly walks to another bus stop and she waits for the next bus now even later than before. So now, Garrett, I think you're going to like this. But when police saw on the bus camera that she chased after the bus, but then that bus drove away. So she leaves camera. I told you that she they then saw her on a different camera walk to wait for the next bus.
And that's because police immediately searched the surrounding area for building security footage once like the buses left. And luckily there was one on a nearby parking garage that perfectly captures Ying Ying's next moves for us. Finally, some security footage. Okay. So the camera shows that after missing the bus, she walks across the street to go to the next bus stop. And she actually...
The bus stop is here and she's standing across the street from it, which is a little weird, but I don't really know why. And on this new footage, police watch in anticipation, waiting to see what happens next. Like really, they don't know where she is. And this is like the answer that they're looking for is they're sitting here going, okay, well, which bus does she take next? Like what happens next?
But before the new bus can get to the stop and picking up a black sedan comes driving up the road and passes her as she's waiting at the bus stop. Oh, no. Right. And now this isn't weird because lots of cars have been passing her. It's a busy street. But police noticed that the black sedan passes her, then drives off camera like every other car.
But then less than a minute later, it comes back into view on the other side of the street, like the corner. So she's standing on a corner. So it drives down this side of it, goes around and comes up on the other side of where she's standing. Almost like the black sedan had drove past her and then decided to circle around the block and come back to drive past her again.
What happens next in the footage is eerie and we will upload the footage if we can, but as the black sedan comes into view, driving slower than the other cars, it pulls over right in front of Yingying. And you can see Yingying walk up to the passenger side door and begin talking to the driver of the black sedan. And this lasts for about a minute.
The footage then shows she opens the passenger door and climbs into the car, which then drives off, leaving the frame. And I assume what was happening is they told her that they give her a ride to where she's trying to go, correct? Yes, you're listening to too many of these stories. Okay, you guys, shifting my wardrobe from summer to fall can be a challenge, but I'm telling you right now.
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So obviously this footage just dramatically changed the investigation. Buses you can track, you know their endpoint. Random cars, not so much. Who is this? What do they want? Was this planned? Does this have anything to do with her disappearance? This missing person case just turned into a possible kidnapping with the revelation of this new footage.
Police tried to follow the car on other cameras. Like they're going around the city trying to find cameras to figure out like, okay, did it turn left or right? Did it go? So how long did it go straight for? But they could never get a clear shot of the license plate on all of these cameras. That's what I was going to ask. It's just too grainy. Still. They also would eventually lose the car as it drove out of distance from surrounding cameras. Right? Like, unless you know where it's going, it's really hard to track a car.
It was at this point that police knew they needed to call the FBI for help. It had only been about three days into this investigation, but for all they know, Ying Ying could be in desperate need of time-sensitive help, right? So special agent Anthony Manganaro is called in to work the case and he identifies the black sedan as a Saturn Astra. It's a very unique
Apparently Saturn Astras were actually only produced for a short period of time and they had to be imported into the United States once you bought it. So this was a great clue for them. Had this car been a Honda or a Toyota, the make and model would have practically been useless to them, right? Like how many of those do you think are driving around in a college town? Yeah.
But this exact car is so rare. There were actually only 58 in the whole state. No way. Right. That's kind of crazy. Peyton drove a Honda, by the way. Yeah, I did drive a Honda. So could this narrow the list down in time though? Right. Like they're like, okay, we now have 58 cars that could probably be this car if we're considering that they didn't drive in from out of state. Right.
But also, do we have enough time to go interview 58 people? This is a time-sensitive case. Seriously. So this question leads the FBI to release the footage of Ying Ying climbing into the car, along with a missing person report and the suspect vehicle. I feel like it wouldn't be that hard to call all 58 people, though, and see which ones were acting, quote-unquote, sketchy. Yes. And then go from there, but I don't know. I think...
We think that too, but in a time sensitive case, actually, I don't know. All I'm speaking from is when I watch Criminal Minds, they'll have like 11 possible suspects and he'll be like, oh no, we got to narrow that down. That's way too many. We're time sensitive here. So, I mean, I don't really know, but so basically they release all the details they have so far. They're like this.
International student is missing. This is the last footage we have of her and it's you know a black sedan Saturn Astra and if you know anyone who drives this please let us know if they can't find it fast enough on their own Maybe the public could help them the posters being hung around the campus and the media coverage created a panic around town obviously people were worried about sex trafficking a potential predator on campus and
But this fear created even more coverage for Ying Ying's disappearance. And finally, word got around to the right person, which is the great thing about social media. We just saw this happen with the Gabby Petito case. If you can get details and information around to the right people who might have seen something, you can help solve a case. And a woman named Emily Hogan, another student on campus, came forward to police once she saw this with a tip.
On the Friday that Ying Ying was kidnapped, Emily had actually been confronted by a man in a black car trying to get her to get in and talk to him. Oh my gosh. She said that he was a white male who identified himself as an undercover police officer.
Oh no, that's, that's scary. Oh, it's the worst. That's really scary. He told her that he wanted her to get in because he needed to ask her a few questions about some things that were going on in the neighborhood. Emily says the man was wearing mirrored sunglasses and showing her a badge, but she still said no. She was like, absolutely not. Good. This is not right. So when interviewed, she tells police that she didn't hear a scanner in his car and
and probably wouldn't be able to identify him from a picture because of the sunglasses. He was kind of camouflaged.
She also tells them that she posted about the incident on Facebook that morning after it happened, warning other people to be on the lookout for a black car and to stay safe. That's crazy. What are the chances of that? Right? She made this post just hours before Yingying climbed into that black car, never to be seen again. Back in China, the video of Yingying starts being spread around, obviously, like they have a student that is now missing from the United States.
And her boyfriend from home, her friends, and her parents and brother are devastated. Their daughter has gone missing halfway across the world. So sad. It's just, I can't even imagine that helpless feeling. So they decide to fly to America immediately and, you know, help look for her. They don't speak English, but they have to do something.
Which is crazy. So now there's only 40 left.
Right. Well, and I think those 40, they had already said, probably not. These 18 were the ones they decided to go talk to in person. So it's got to be someone. Right. Yeah. As everyone is doing their part, the FBI, local police and civilians, it's actually a campus policeman that discovers the clue that cracks this case. Okay.
Sergeant James Carter spends hours combing the footage of the black Astra that they have just watching it on this street and on this street, just going back and forth through the footage. The further you zoomed in the grainier the footage got, there was no way to see the license plate number. Like sadly, this isn't CSI. It's not just like one magic button that clears the image. But on June 14th, five days after yinging climbed into the exact car, James was now watching on loop, uh,
He discovered something in one of the videos, something that no one had noticed yet.
He was looking at the wheels of the car as it drove past the camera and noticed that on the passenger side hub cap, there was a black spot near the edge, like where the wheel meets the tire. This black spot was not on the rear hub cap. So he presumed that it was an oddity with this, just this specific wheel. It looked like to James that almost maybe a piece of the hub cap was broken off and
And this, you guys, sets this specific black Saturn Astra apart from the other 57 in the state. Let's go. Because if it really has a broken hubcap, that's a night. That's like a birthmark, right? This was a huge moment in this case. And it is, you know, once he finds this information out, he relays it back to the FBI. He's like, the car we are looking for has a broken hubcap on the right passenger front side.
Going back through their notes, the FBI decide, okay, now that we have this information, let's relook at the 18 cars that we initially suspected that we talked to. Although clearing the owners, they now had something else to look for. I mean, this is a pretty easy look if it's correct, right?
And what are the chances that the first car they double check this second time around is a black Saturn Astra with a piece broken off of its hubcap on the front passenger side, just like the car that picked up. No freaking way. That's crazy. And the owner of this car is named Brent Christensen. Oh my gosh. Brent Christensen was a 27 year old student who had just finished getting his master's in physics at the University of Illinois.
So I think this information, how you just reacted is how everyone in town reacted when they found this out. That's so, that's crazy. One year older than her. Yeah. It's crazy. He was extremely smart. He didn't have a big personality and he was actually married. Right.
Okay. He grew up in a middle-class family as a quiet kid. And at this time he lived in an apartment on the West side of Champaign and he had no criminal history. Did he not, did he live close to her by chance? Um, he lived in the city cause like the college, not the same married housing. No. Okay.
Around midnight, the FBI head back out to Brent Christensen's place and knock on his door again, this time with a warrant. So this part can be confusing. So I'm just going to clarify this before we go on. So they initially talked to him as part of the 18 and then they leave and clear him. But now they've gone back out to re-talk to everyone. They ask if they can look at his car again. He says, yes. They're like, oh, it's a match. They go back to the FBI and say, hey guys, what's
We got a match on what you're looking for. So now they're going back out again around midnight. So this is the third trip. So I just want to clarify that. And it's midnight. So the FBI head back out to his place and they knock on his door this time with a warrant because before they could only look at his car, but now they need to like take the car. The first time they talked to him just a couple of days ago,
He told them that he was playing video games at the time of Ying Ying's disappearance. So this first time was a total of nine minutes that they talked to him and they spent five of those minutes inspecting his car. And so I'm guessing that's how the rest of the 18 like searches went. He was calm. He was relaxed. And so police had crossed him off.
And this time when the FBI show up at his door, he seems surprised to see them. But once again, he's calm. He doesn't seem guarded. He invites them in. And when the agents go in, they are surprised to see a partially closed woman in the living room. This woman is Brent's wife,
And they actually have to ask her to go put clothes on because when they walk in, she doesn't like jump up and do it upon seeing police. Oh no. Something just came to my mind. What? That it was probably done by the both of them. Okay. So you're not going to say, keep going. I'm not going to say. Keep going.
And agents actually see a pair of mirrored sunglasses in the living room. And so they quickly snap a picture, remembering the eyewitness account from Emily Hogan. And they present the warrant to Brent and they ask him to come to the station. You know, will you, can you be officially interviewed? Brent tells them, well, everything I've seen in movies makes me feel like I shouldn't talk to police. But his wife suggests, well, you should probably go. So he does.
Now, I know you guys know, but anytime there is an interrogation where it's pretty obvious that something's happened, my favorite YouTuber, Mr. JCS, loves to break down this footage for us with his criminal psychology knowledge. And this interrogation isn't on his main channel, but it's on his like second channel. So it's still linked for you guys in the episode. If you want to watch the whole thing, I can't tell you enough how amazing he is.
So in this interrogation, police did not feel like Brent was concerned with why he was there with them. Like normal innocent people would be like, WTF? Why am I here? Why did you pull me out of bed? Why am I suspect? I know I drive the car, but I didn't do this. And he's just like going along with it.
Normal people would question people who are trying to hide something don't want to cause an alarm So they just go along with it the two interrogators played good cop bad cop with him But Brent stuck to his alibi of playing video games at first. I was either playing video games on my computer or taking an afternoon nap. So
He also insists that although he drives the same car, it's not him. But he's not being pushy about it. He just says it. And when confronted with the footage... And when he's confronted with this footage, he changes his tune.
which when cops know more than the person being interrogated, like we just saw, it just makes for such a good interrogation because they're answering questions based on the knowledge that they think police have. But when police come forward and drop the bomb, like, hey, well, your hubcap matches this. And also like, we know this is your car. So why are you out here driving?
They are caught in a lie, right? And that's just a good interrogation. It's funny that he changes stories. Always happen. They always change their stories. Always. Always.
When Brent realizes that his original story isn't going to fly now, that they can confirm that it's his car on the footage, he goes silent for such a long moment. And it's so awkward because he's like, oh, crap, what do I do? And he probably wishes he would have gotten that lawyer. So he finally mumbles. This is his this is his second alibi or his second story. Maybe I'm getting my days mixed up.
And you can see in this moment in the interrogation footage that there is a visible change in him. He comes in calm, relaxed. And then when he realized that the realizes that the police know more than he thought, he immediately begins fidgeting. His voice is shaking. You can tell he's upset.
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And he tells them, okay, so actually I did pick up an Asian girl driving around campus, but I thought that was Saturday. So that's why I didn't tell you guys. Cause I thought it was Saturday, but I guess maybe it was Friday. No way dude. Game over. I thought I drove around on Saturday. I had to pick a girl up. I don't remember where. Okay.
He knows that he has to cop to picking her up because it's literally on camera now. So he says that when he saw the picture of the missing student, he didn't think it was the girl he picked up though. So that's why he didn't think to tell them that, even though I think you would remember once you saw the footage. Oh, he remembers. So his new story is that he was driving around and saw a girl on the side of the road that was looking distressed.
which I'm sure she was right because she just missed this bus. She's in trouble. He pulled over and asked her if she was okay, but her English was broken. And so he told her, you know, it's fine. I'll give you a ride, which is what you said. And so she got in a couple blocks away. This is according to him. She randomly freaked out. So he pulled over and he let her out. End of story. That's the last time I saw her.
That's what he said. Yep. And despite the obvious that he did something to her, unless he talks, unless he confesses the FBI and police will not find Ying Ying. Like they're no closer to finding her. They just now have their guy. Right. And around this point to the
interrogator's biggest fear brent shuts down the interview by asking for a lawyer dang it knew that was gonna happen they arrest him for lying to the fbi and although 100 certain that they now have their guy they still don't have their victim and not only that they still have to prove that he didn't let her out right right because i mean if they lose him on the security footage
I mean, you have no proof. It's just word against word at that point. Right? So police can hold Brent Christensen for 24 hours before deciding to prosecute. And ultimately they decide not to. Their hopes are that if they release him, maybe he will lead them to her or spill her whereabouts when they're listening in on his phone calls. Maybe his release would bring an opportunity for them to find her.
But as they follow Brent, nothing happens. And then randomly eight days after Ying Ying went missing, which I do have to say, this is pretty fast. Yeah, it is pretty fast. Eight days after Ying Ying went missing, Brent wants to come in and talk to the FBI once again. Okay. Police think, you know, that he was on edge and that he really wanted to clear his name because he, I think they feel like he knows at this point there that he's the only suspect. So he asks for this interview and he,
Once he comes in, the interview goes similar to the first. He sticks to his story that he picked her up and dropped her off after she randomly freaked out. He offers nothing new in this interview. Why would he ask to interview with them? Right. And I think because he thought if I go in and say it again and stand strong, maybe they'll. Don't believe me. Yep.
So he even takes them for a ride, like retracing his drive with her. But he actually just ends up like taking them in circles. And so they're like, what are you doing? He leaves and police are no closer to getting a confession or finding Ying Ying.
Because of the effort to possibly clear his name, police decide to release to the public that they have Brent's car and footage of him picking Ying Ying up. Try to create a panic, kind of. Right? If he was worried before that he was their only suspect,
maybe this will send him over the edge and they'll get a confession. Especially if he's walking around places and people are looking at him and there's lots of pressure on him. So they learned that Brent had actually originally been trying for a PhD, but around 2016, he was failing his classes. So he settled and graduated with a master's.
His settled and graduated with a master's. His marriage to his high school sweetheart, Michelle, was also on the rocks at this time. They had actually decided to enter into an open marriage recently as a last ditch effort before divorce. So they kind of did the Joe and love thing. They were like, oh, and before we get divorced, let's try the open marriage. Michelle, his wife, had actually been on a trip with her boyfriend at the time of Ying Ying's disappearance.
And Brent had his own girlfriend too. And her name was Tara. And so when police find all this out, they bring Tara in to be interviewed. Like, okay, well, if it wasn't, you know, maybe Tara knows something. And Tara was very open and honest with them. She was nervous about the possibility that Brent could be doing this. And with her cooperation, police decide to throw a Hail Mary in this investigation. Brent,
Brent was not leading them to yinging, but could Tara get them there? So they asked her if she would be willing to wear a wire and try to pull information out of Brent pretending to still be his girlfriend. And she agrees to go undercover and try to help. Okay.
The first few times that she tries wearing a wire, Brent sticks to his story that he's innocent. Tara even questions him like, well, why would they release your information to the public if they don't suspect you? And he's like, oh, honey, don't worry about that. That was just to make the real suspects think that they're not on their trail. They're trying to make it look like, you know, I'm the suspect. But really, they know the real suspects.
And it's always interesting to me how confident and different these men act in their real life when being talked to undercover. We've seen this so many times versus like their communication with the public or with police. It's always...
It's always so different. They're like a completely different person. Jinx. Jinx. On June 29th, 2017, there is a vigil held at the college for Ying Ying. And that morning, Brent reaches out to Tara and asks if she wants to go to the memorial walk with him. It's like a vigil. They're going to walk like a mile for her and then like hold a concert. It's like a whole event for her and her family's there too. So they're going to be going to this. Poor girl. This is horrible. Right? Yeah.
I just, every single time we're doing these stories, all I can think about is like, there are so many people hurting right now as we're telling it. Like in this moment, her family's sitting there in America trying to figure out what happened to their daughter. So Tara's like, okay, the first few times I've tried to wear this wire, it hasn't, like nothing's come of it. But she's like, okay, she tells Brent she'll go on like to the memorial for the girl that he's the number one suspect for.
And she tells police, okay, I'm going to wear the wire and see if anything happens. So she does. And once she gets there, she actually like thinks, okay, maybe it will because when they show up, Brent is drinking. And so she's like, oh, okay, maybe if I get him, like if I push, yes.
So the fact that he even wants to go to this event is weird to her. She's like, you're literally the number one suspect, but whatever, we'll go. And during the walk, he tells Tara that he feels like a lot of people here at the event are here for him because his name is attached, you know, to the case and it's been released to the public. And he keeps saying like, don't you feel like people are looking at me and like,
What the heck? Right? That's weird. And Ying Ying's brother also performs a song for her at the vigil. And after the performance, it's said that Brent actually doesn't get up. He doesn't clap with everyone. He just sits in his chair and stares at him. He's cool.
- He's crazy. - Weird behavior. - Yeah. - And I think that this event was an ego thing for Brent and towards the end, he couldn't take it anymore. He was so proud and boastful and giddy about what he had done.
And that he felt that without him, no one would even be here. And also that he feels like there's a secret that he knows that no one else does that's all here right now. And so he kind of felt better than everyone. And he eventually had to brag to Tara about it. No way.
He eventually tells Tara, and like I said, this is all on audio, that no one here knows what happened. She goes, well, yeah, duh, like no one will. And he then quietly says, I am the only one.
Holy crap. At this point, Tara knows what's going on. And so she continues to feed into the conversation because she's wearing the wire. He tells her... This is insane. Right? He tells her that the family will leave empty-handed because no one will ever find her. Oh, that is so messed up. Just that's what you're bragging about? So messed up. Hurting them even more? Yeah. Again, he's boasting about his ability to hide a body. I'm curious.
He talks about how hard Ying Ying fought back and didn't give up. And I'm not going to go into details here because it's just,
Yeah. But he confesses that he killed her to Tara on, and he goes into detail with Tara during this audio clip. So Tara like finishes the vigil. She's like trying to remain calm, trying to be supportive girlfriend. How does she not run away? That's crazy. So she finishes the vigil, goes home, calls the police,
and tells them what happened. She's like, I have it. I have it. Like I was wearing the wire and he confessed and I have it. They're like, okay, come to the station. So she goes to the station with the recording and at the station, she is visibly shaken. She is sobbing. She's bawling as she's telling them what happened. And the next day police arrest Brent Christensen for the kidnapping and murder of Ying Ying Zhang. Her family was devastated and confused.
Brent calls his mother from prison and tells her that he didn't do it, that they only have circumstantial evidence. At this point, Brent does not know about the wiretap. Okay. But besides the confession on tape, the footage of him picking her up, and the lying to police and changing his story, police had also discovered...
evidence on top of that after arresting him. And what they found was a counselor from U of I came forward after his arrest, like we came public and she turned over footage of a session that she had done with Brent back in March.
She said that he came in and that he had been worried about his marriage. And because she was an intern, she had to film the session. And in the session, he admits to alcohol and drug abuse and depression. And he also admits to wanting to harm others and that he had found a forum about serial killers and was very interested in it. Oh, my gosh. And in this session, he tells her that he had been fantasizing about it and actually had purchased things to do it.
it. He tells a counselor that he had purchased things to kill someone. He's a serial killer. Right. And then he goes, but don't worry. Those thoughts have since left. That was like an old thing. I'm not interested in it anymore. But the intern still flagged the session and was took it to the higher ups and was like, Hey, this is a little weird. So the higher ups did like offered some followup visits with more professionals for him. But Brent never showed up for those sessions. How long could they have that for?
Since March. Wow. So they also, police also discover that once confiscating his phone and computer, that Brent had been on a group chat called Abduction 101, which was a place for people to fantasize about abductions. That's right.
That's allowed. It's insane. It's allowed. Apparently that's so crazy. He even had messaged back and forth with someone planning to role play an abduction. And he actually purchased a duffel bag that him and this person had talked about. Like he said, listen, I'll come kidnap you and I'll stuff you in this duffel bag. And she said, whatever she said. And then he went and purchased the duffel bag that they were talking about in real life.
So again, this is all supposed to be fantasy on this site. Yeah. But he was taking it into real life by purchasing things, planning things, and
The evidence is mounting. It's not circumstantial evidence like he told his mom. And in June of 2019, so this is two years later, opening statements start for the trial as a death penalty case. At this point of the trial, two years after the murder, Brent has still not told Ying Ying's family where her body is.
Tara testifies at trial against Brent. And I mean, she really did finalize the case for police by recording so many conversations with him for weeks until he broke. And Ying Ying's family had to listen to all of these recordings that detailed her death. Those recordings that I said I wasn't going to retell you, they had to sit and listen to those with a translator. And this is horrible. And no one deserves to ever have to go through that.
And once again, why do these people continue to victimize so many people, not just the original victim? It comes out at trial that he ended up cutting her head off after failing to kill her in other ways.
Oh man. He also lets out a suppressed laugh while saying this on the audio. So he's talking to Tara and he's like, so I tried choking her, but I just eventually had to cut her head off. Holy crap. So like he, he knew it was inappropriate to laugh in that moment, but he couldn't help it. I don't even know what to say right now. Right. It also comes out that during his confession, he says that Ying Ying was his 13th victim and,
And that he had been killing since he was 19. Is that a lie? Is that real? Right? So he says that the last person that was on his level was Ted Bundy. Oh, it's a lie. It's for sure. At this point, he's just... It's ego. He's wanted to be a serial killer. This guy's crazy. Like I said, I wish you can just fill in the audio and...
that he went to that event specifically because he felt famous without anyone knowing he felt better. He felt cool. He felt like he had this huge secret that he was so proud of. You can just feel it seeping out of his voice. So the FBI had actually been combing through everything in his life the last two years, like leading up to this trial after hearing this, but had never been able to find any other victims. Like they went through his whole life and was like,
This just really doesn't make sense. We don't think he's telling the truth. And this actually went on to hurt the state because the defense said, well, yeah, just like he was embellishing 13 victims, he was also, you know, embellishing everything and performing because he was drunk. And that's his weird sense of humor. He didn't actually kill Ying Ying. He was just lying, which I mean, it's a good defense.
So her blood and DNA were actually found all over his apartment, though. So it was like the evidence was open. Yes. The baseball bat that he had used was there. The cleaning products that he had purchased at Walmart was on security footage. You can see him purchasing them. So the jury deliberated for only 90 minutes and came back with a guilty verdict. Got it. At sentencing, the defense played Brent as a depressed person who was mentally ill and
And it took eight hours, but the jury could not come back with a unanimous decision. So he was defaulted to life in prison without the possibility of parole. And this was actually a huge disappointment for Ying Ying's family, who feels like Brent never showed any remorse and that they didn't get any justice out of this. They also feel like the counselor visits 11 weeks prior showed that his family
intent was there and that this all could have been prevented had someone said something. Which is rough because that's a whole nother... A layer. So they actually went on to file a civil lawsuit against two counselors and the university came out and said that it will defend the social workers named in the suit, that they followed protocol. And after the trial was completed, Brent's attorney made a statement
that Ying Ying's body was placed in three separate trash bags after he killed her and put into a dumpster, which was then taken to a landfill. So her body actually still hasn't been found, which is just the last nail in the coffin for Ying Ying's family. So sad for her. So sad for the family. That's horrible. And I did hear that like the,
the Chinese and American rituals are different. It's very important in China. I'm sure it's important here too, but to her family specifically to have a Chinese burial, to bury a body. And so they are just like devastated by this. And then also in China, the death penalty is a lot more accepted than here.
And so that's also why they're like, why didn't we get the death penalty? Because it had to be tried in America. So there's also just cultural differences here that make this case hit even harder for them. - Horrible. - It's awful. Yingying was mature and brilliant and smart, obviously.
Family was really important to her. She had set out to start this new journey in America. She wanted to learn more. Her studies mattered and she went above and beyond for them. Ying Ying's family is still hurting and they still feel like they have not received justice as Brent really hasn't shown any remorse. And that is the story of Ying Ying Zhang. Gosh, that's a brutal one. Yes. Horrible. I mean, we have the answer, right? Brent is insane. This guy...
Right? I don't even know what to say about him. I just feel like we see this so often with these people who like kill their first victim and aren't smart about it. It's a lot harder to kill someone than they think it is. Like you just see all these things and then they can't help but brag about it. And it's just, you're just like, ugh. Ridiculous. Gross. Yeah. Okay, you guys. Well, that is our story for this week. And we will see you guys next week with another episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.
