Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #4 *Arrest*

[ninij9]

This is going to be a difficult case for prosecutors. It seems the only evidence of a crime is a recorded phone call of him admitting to an abduction. I'm not sure that will hold up well in court as his defense attorney will attempt to knock holes in the recorded conversation.


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Remember Christina Morris? We all knew who did it. And I was pleasantly surprised they were able to convicted him with such little (to my eyes) evidence. I hope she will one day be found. Her mother still searches for her in weekends. Heartbreaking.

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[IQuestion]

just curious: does someone know what the banner picture on Brendt’s FB page is? looks like some sort of huge downward spiral staircase… probably completely insignificant but just wondering… almost seems a metaphor for his life spiraling downward!
http://tinyurl.com/y7t5pgdx
(hope it's OK to link to this?)

WEBTHRUSH!!!, Not insignificant at all. Yes it is a huge downward spiral staircase, but look closely (or enlarge the pic) it is a man holding hands with another person and taking them down the path, too. Actually a dark haired man holding a smaller person's hand (child?) and leading them down a steep spiraling stair case.
Okay, absolutely convinced....deeply disturbed individual. So is it the picture of his past?? Who was his "mentor" when he was 10-12 years old?
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?...54863092434.2039484.1262760463&type=3&theater
(Mods, don't know what happened on the link...was trying to duplicate Webthrush's link and it came up as an Fb link ...so please accept my apologies in advance as I do not FB...and am a tech novitiate.

 

[agilbe]

just curious: does someone know what the banner picture on Brendt’s FB page is? looks like some sort of huge downward spiral staircase… probably completely insignificant but just wondering… almost seems a metaphor for his life spiraling downward!
http://tinyurl.com/y7t5pgdx
(hope it's OK to link to this?)

WEBTHRUSH!!!, Not insignificant at all. Yes it is a huge downward spiral staircase, but look closely (or enlarge the pic) it is a man holding hands with another person and taking them down the path, too. Actually a dark haired man holding a smaller person's hand (child?) and leading them down a steep spiraling stair case.
Okay, absolutely convinced....deeply disturbed individual. So is it the picture of his past?? Who was his "mentor" when he was 10-12 years old?

I just noticed the people in that picture yesterday. I guess I'm not real observant. I have to say it gave me a chill.

 

[HoldySi]

just curious: does someone know what the banner picture on Brendt’s FB page is? looks like some sort of huge downward spiral staircase… probably completely insignificant but just wondering… almost seems a metaphor for his life spiraling downward!
http://tinyurl.com/y7t5pgdx
(hope it's OK to link to this?)

WEBTHRUSH!!!, Not insignificant at all. Yes it is a huge downward spiral staircase, but look closely (or enlarge the pic) it is a man holding hands with another person and taking them down the path, too. Actually a dark haired man holding a smaller person's hand (child?) and leading them down a steep spiraling stair case.
Okay, absolutely convinced....deeply disturbed individual. So is it the picture of his past?? Who was his "mentor" when he was 10-12 years old?

Can anyone do a reverse image search on this to see where it originated? Or perhaps he drew it himself? Complete speculation here, but I sense the he, too, was at one time a victim of something morbid.

 

[Skigirl]

This is going to be a difficult case for prosecutors. It seems the only evidence of a crime is a recorded phone call of him admitting to an abduction. I'm not sure that will hold up well in court as his defense attorney will attempt to knock holes in the recorded conversation.


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I think this case is going to be relatively easy for prosecutors. They have video footage, they have a car, they have a confession, they have bizarre comments from him about perfect victims that we know about, and probably have physical evidence, digital evidence, witness statements, and who knows what else that we don't yet know about. Plus they have a sympathetic victim and an alleged murderer who is not very sympathetic. I agree with SteveP that there is no such thing as a "slam dunk," but I don't think it gets much easier to prosecute than this case.

 

[Webthrush]

just curious: does someone know what the banner picture on Brendt’s FB page is? looks like some sort of huge downward spiral staircase… probably completely insignificant but just wondering… almost seems a metaphor for his life spiraling downward!
http://tinyurl.com/y7t5pgdx
(hope it's OK to link to this?)

WEBTHRUSH!!!, Not insignificant at all. Yes it is a huge downward spiral staircase, but look closely (or enlarge the pic) it is a man holding hands with another person and taking them down the path, too. Actually a dark haired man holding a smaller person's hand (child?) and leading them down a steep spiraling stair case.
Okay, absolutely convinced....deeply disturbed individual. So is it the picture of his past?? Who was his "mentor" when he was 10-12 years old?

Yeah, I had noticed the 2 people; I'm just trying not to read TOO much into every little thing we find on this guy; but you did make me curious to check on when he switched to THIS cover photo -- he's used a total of 6 cover photos on FB, and switched to this one on Oct. 13, 2016, if anyone draws any meaning from that?
And I'd still be curious where the picture comes from/what the context is?

 

[Hatfield]

I just noticed the people in that picture yesterday. I guess I'm not real observant. I have to say it gave me a chill.

Agree.

JMO
I believe the picture represents an adult guardian leading a child down into the "Dark Abyss".

I agree this has deep meaning to him and he is either the leader of that child or was that child growing up and he has resentment to this day against someone from his life.

 

[Maisiebelle]

I've searched for the image. Its coming up on Twitter, Pinterest and youtube. I can't seem to find a source for it but its unlikely BC drew it himself.

 

[Maisiebelle]

Apparently it was drawn by a Japanese horror comic artist called Junji Ito.

 

[Webthrush]

deleted... misinformation

 

[Hatfield]

I may be confused, but I think the artist is someone named Uzumaki, writer of Japanese horror comics, specifically one called “The Labyrinths,” and Junji Ito is just one of the Pinterest accounts it's showing up on. I still don’t know just what the meaning or context of it is.

Probably only he could ever answer as to the depth of how he felt about the picture but it sure is intriguing. As this whole case is.

For him to think he could even get away with this crime in broad daylight is just mind boggling to me. For someone like him who was educated and was even teaching others to try to pull this off and think he could get away with it just throws me for a loop.

I guess thats what Narcism does to people is it makes them think they are above others and superior to others where he may have felt he could fool the LE.

I keep thinking he may have had a deteriorating brain situation too. He could have been getting more and more phsychotic as a real illness of his brain maybe.

 

[Webthrush]

OK, apparently the spiral originally comes from a 1998-99 serial manga comic called “Uzumaki” illustrated by Junji Ito (see Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzumaki ). I’m too lazy to delve into this and speculate on any connection to BC’s life, but maybe some of you more into manga and anime than I am will want to.

 

[Ambitioned]

I looked into the panels. They may be someone else's cup for tea but deff not mine. Yes they are disturbing IMO. Interesting thing is, BC may have shielded his tastes really well, even from the ones he was closest to. Hence the "I had no idea" comments. You would think someone would have picked up on it though. *shrugs*

 

[AnemoneBrown]

So, it turns out some people had already detected B.C. was a creep before the abduction. So much for: "he was just a normal guy".

"Others who lived in the same apartment complex have since come out to describe him as 'creepy'.

Alyssa Patterson told the News Gazette she remembered his distinct walk and gait.


'He is really quiet. It's creepy, how he walked, how he held himself,' she said following his arrest.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nois-grad-student-s-arrest.html#ixzz4mMCW5WXo
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

[Hatfield]

OK, apparently the spiral originally comes from a 1998-99 serial manga comic called “Uzumaki” illustrated by Junji Ito (see Wikipedia here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzumaki ). I’m too lazy to delve into this and speculate on any connection to BC’s life, but maybe some of you more into manga and anime than I am will want to.

Thank you. I think you nailed where the image originates. I think it is possible BC somehow related his childhood to some of the horror stories from the author and illustrator.

"Uzumaki was written and illustrated by Junji Ito. Junji Ito's initial desire was to create a story about strange changes that would occur to people living in a very long, traditional Japanese terraced house. This story would have been based on Ito's personal experience living in such a house as a child"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzumaki

 

[MomminIt]

I'm wondering if the evidence they have that leads them to believe yz is deceased is based on something he said under surveillance or something else they found. For example, if they luminoled bc's bathtub and it lit up, despite him probably attempting to clean it. Would they be able to DNA test a section of the tub or would his cleaning attempts have destroyed the DNA? Without being able to link a positive luminal test to yz could this still be used as evidence at trial or would it be thrown out? For what it's worth, I don't believe he kept her local or in one piece. ☹️ Every day when I wake up I say a little prayer that today will be the day she's found and sent home to her poor mother to be properly mourned and interned close to her family in her own country. Just so sad.....

 

[Webthrush]

And more: a rendition of Chapter 18 of Uzumaki is on YouTube (the actual image from BC's page comes toward very end at the 12:13 mark):
[video=youtube;-igMuOc4Cl0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-igMuOc4Cl0[/video]
The storyline is in Spanish, which I don't know, but I'm sure someone here can tell us what it's all about.

 

[Hatfield]

I wont keep dwelling on the spiral picture but that link had this part below that makes me wonder if she had fairly long hair at the time of her abduction. Below is a picture of her with shoulder length hair and it makes me wonder if when he saw her it may have triggered his fantasy/reality actions if he had read a lot of the horror books from that author.

"The story in which Kirie's hair is cursed by the spiral reflects a recurring theme in Ito's work in which a heroine's hair has a life of its own. Ito uses this imagery because it lends itself well to horror due to its association with the Japanese feminine ideal (Yamato nadeshiko), as well as the unnerving flowing motions of long hair, which he describes as snakelike"

http://heavy.com/news/2017/07/yingying-zhang-photos-pictures-ying-facebook-pics-brendt-christensen/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uzumaki

 

[Yellow]

‘nother oddball thing I’ve never quite understood: from the beginning this crime got VERY little national publicity (plenty of local coverage and some newspaper, but I saw nothing on national TV or radio prior to BC’s arrest; strange), yet it was the sort of case the media usually eats up. Made me wonder early on if the kidnapper had communicated to LE that YZ would be released unharmed, but only IF they followed all his directions and didn’t publicize things much… from there things went downhill. I doubt he really communicated with them, but don’t understand the sparsity of coverage from day 1 when he could’ve been driving her states away and word needed to get out.

I heard of this case before the arrest and I live on the east coast. I think it was covered by CNN at the time of the abduction. CNN of all the natl media outlets has covered this case the most it seems as I have seen several stories, and at times, it is the lead story on cnn.com.

We sometimes forget there are thousands of missing women cases yearly. There was a spate in time where the natl media was obsessed with missing cases (in the era of Lacey Peterson, Chadra Levy) that has since died down. I think this case got significantly national publicity, much more so than any other recent case, indeed, I would say from my perspective, this case has gotten one of the most publicity since the Heather Graham case from UVA. I think cases on college campuses get to get national publicity because it is a compelling story that freaks parents of 18 year old girls out. It's a shame for the thousands of other girls who go missing every year but the story of a college campus is especially compelling to the national media.

Even here on websleuths it is prominent as its link has been on the main page for weeks.

 

[SteveP]

I'm wondering if the evidence they have that leads them to believe yz is deceased is based on something he said under surveillance or something else they found. For example, if they luminoled bc's bathtub and it lit up, despite him probably attempting to clean it. Would they be able to DNA test a section of the tub or would his cleaning attempts have destroyed the DNA? Without being able to link a positive luminal test to yz could this still be used as evidence at trial or would it be thrown out? For what it's worth, I don't believe he kept her local or in one piece. ☹️ Every day when I wake up I say a little prayer that today will be the day she's found and sent home to her poor mother to be properly mourned and interned close to her family in her own country. Just so sad.....

BBM...I know that several people here share that opinion, but for some reason, I really believe that once he had done what he wanted to do, he probably just killed and dumped her in the first place he thought she would not be found. (Maybe a dumpster at his apartment, or down one of those country roads very close by, that several of you locals have described so well). As much as I am pretty sure he had thought or fantasized about doing what we all think he did, I still believe it was largely a crime of opportunity for him, and most pre-planning or thought went out the window when he actually had Yingying in his car, and from that time on, he was flying by the seat of his pants. For the sake of her family and loved ones though, I really pray that Yingying can be found and taken home and laid to rest with a proper burial. JMO