Brendt Christensen, 28, is set to go on trial for murder on April 1 in Illinois
Prosecutors are building a case based partly on a bloody hand print and the responses of a cadaver-sniffing dog that a former University of Illinois student killed a Chinese scholar in his apartment.
Prosecutors revealed the evidence in a recent series of filings that they say will help prove Brendt Christensen, 28, kidnapped and killed 26-year-old Yingying Zhang in Urbana, Illinois in 2017.
Zhang was last seen getting into a car at a bus stop on June 9, 2017. Her body has never been found.
Christensen's federal trial is set to begin on April 1 in Peoria. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.
In a filing Wednesday, prosecutors disclosed the bloody handprint was found in Christensen's apartment, though it's unclear if they believe it's Christensen's or Zhang's.
Prosecutors also took the opportunity to raise new allegations that the suspect choked and sexually assaulted someone five years ago (Pictured: Christensen and Yingying Zhang)
This surveillance image shows Zhang on the day she went missing in Urbana
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ShareProsecutors also say a cadaver-sniffing dog detected traces of a dead body around the bathroom sink.
Christensen's lawyers want the judge to bar much of that evidence. They argue the dog is unreliable because it wasn't properly trained.
For weeks after Zhang's disappearance, police suspected Christensen but had no evidence to arrest him.
Investigators closed in after convincing his girlfriend to wear a wire to record hours of their conversations in the weeks which followed her disappearance.
Among the conversations was one in which Christensen allegedly confessed to the killing and described how Zhang fought back when he attacked her, according to court filings.
He is also said to have described his 'perfect victim' by pointing them out in the crowd at the vigil for Zhang, where he was filmed walking hand in hand with the woman.
Christensen is seen walking hand in hand at a vigil for Zhang, at which the girlfriend wore a wire. Christensen allegedly pointed out other women who would make good victims
Zhang's death shocked her relatives in China who believed she would be safe in the small campus town where she spent most of her time
Christensen's lawyers did not reveal how the FBI contacted his girlfriend.
They pleaded with a judge to not allow the taped conversations into evidence at his trial, claiming the girlfriend was pressured into wearing the wire because she feared charges herself.
On one occasion, she was apparently so nervous about wearing it in front of him that she fainted, his lawyers claimed.
Christensen also allegedly tried to lure another student into his car on the day Zhang went missing.
That student told investigators that he pretended he was a cop to try to get her into his vehicle. She identified him through photographs shown to her by police.
Zhang's death shocked her relatives in China who believed she would be safe in the small campus town where she spent most of her time.
In addition to the girlfriend, Christensen was also married at the time. His then-wife, 30-year-old Michelle Zortman, filed for divorce in October, citing 'irreconcilable differences.'
Christensen is being held without bond at the Livingston County Jail.
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