Illinois man set for trial in missing Chinese scholar case

CHICAGO (AP) — A former University of Illinois graduate student is set to stand trial in the 2017 disappearance and suspected killing of a visiting scholar from China — a case in which the death penalty is possible and that has been closely watched in the home country of the victim, whose body hasn't been found.

Jury selection in the federal trial of Brendt Christensen begins Monday in Peoria, a central Illinois city about 85 miles (135 kilometers) northwest of Champaign, where 26-year-old Yingying Zhang was studying at the university's flagship campus and where she was last seen.

Because it's a death penalty case, jury selection is expected to take a week, as among the questions prospective jurors will be asked is whether they oppose capital punishment. If Christensen, 29, is convicted, jurors would decide whether they think he should be executed.

Zhang went missing on June 9, 2017, as she was running late to sign a lease for an off-campus apartment in Urbana, which is next to Champaign and about 140 miles (225 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. She had just missed a bus when Christensen tricked or forced her into his car, prosecutors say. Christensen told the FBI he dropped Zhang off after a few blocks.

Her disappearance led to a weeklong search, which included help of more than 5,500 Chinese students at the school, which has more Chinese students than any other U.S. university.

Christensen, who earned a master's degree in physics at the university, was arrested that June 30 — his birthday — and was later charged with kidnapping resulting in death. Christensen has pleaded not guilty.

In court filings a week before the trial, prosecutors indicated that among the evidence they want to show jurors is carpet with an apparent blood stain from Christensen's bedroom, a baseball bat that was in the bedroom and a...