BRENDT CHRISTENSEN, the former University of Illinois student who confessed to killing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying, 26, was sentenced to life in prison for her murder.

The jury was unable to make a unanimous decision, so the court imposed a life sentence. While Illinois abolished the death penalty in 2011, Christensen was charged in federal court, which made him eligible for a death penalty case.

“The jury has spoken, and the trial is over, but Yingying is not home,” said Zhang’s father, Zhang Ronggao, at a brief news conference following the sentence.

“We ask the defendant to unconditionally tell us what he knows about Yingying’s location,” the father said. “If you have any humanity left in your soul, please help end our torment. Please let us bring Yingying home.”

“The result today seemed to encourage people to do crimes,” said Hou Xiaolin, Zhang’s fiance.

Christensen was convicted last month of kidnapping and brutally killing Zhang in 2017.

During his trial, federal prosecutors told jurors in grisly detail what authorities believe happened to Zhang in June of 2017.

Prosecutors told the jury Christensen posed as an undercover officer to lure 26-year-old Zhang into his car June 9, 2017, as she headed to sign a lease off campus.

Christensen took Zhang to his apartment where he raped, choked, and stabbed her in his bedroom, as Zhang tried to fight him off, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene Miller said. Christensen then dragged Zhang into his bathroom, and pummeled her in the head with the bat before decapitating her. (SD-Agencies)