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In April 2017, 27-year-old Peking University master Zhang Yingying went to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for exchange and study, on June 9, Zhang Yingying disappeared near the school, and was later confirmed dead, the murderer was Christensen, a doctoral student in the Department of Physics of the same university.
769 days after the incident, at 2:50 p.m. on July 18, 2019, the murderer Christensen was sentenced to life in prison without bail.
Christensen kept silent about the whereabouts of Zhang Yingying's body, and it was not until Christensen revealed his whereabouts after the conviction, what is the reason behind it? What exactly was Christensen's motive for the crime?
Now, 7 years have passed, how is Zhang Yingying's family doing? What happened to Zhang Yingying's affectionate boyfriend now?
Looking back on the case, at that time, Zhang Yingying just wanted to take a hitchhike, Christensen took the initiative to be courteous, because the other party was a classmate in the same school, and often saw her at school, Zhang Yingying let down her guard, but what she didn't expect was that her originally brilliant life came to naught because of a hitchhike.
From a psychological point of view, Christensen has a severe sociopathic personality.
Antisocial Personality: A long-hidden violence
After his conviction, Christensen confessed to his crimes. He said that he had indeed kidnapped, defiled and killed Zhang Yingying, adding that he "".
After a long period of torture and humiliation, he killed Zhang Yingying, then divided the body into three garbage bags and finally threw it into a garbage treatment plant. After forensic analysis, over the years, these garbage bags have been compressed at least twice, and in the end they may not be as big as a mobile phone.
Incredibly, even after Christensen's arrest and before he was publicly interrogated, his classmates and friends considered him a "smart and friendly" person.
But in fact, Christensen is the quintessential sociopath.
Since his parents divorced, he began to detach himself from society and social organizations at all levels, often living alone, absent from group activities, not answering emails, and even a dark web user (Hidden Web), judging from his computer search records, he is obsessed with various crime cases and indulges in "perfect crimes".
这就具备了反社会人格（antisocial personality disorder）的条件：
,,, most importantly, behave normally in front of others.
Combined with Christensen's computer search records retrieved by the police, we can deduce his motive for the crime:
1. Have sought a one-night stand on the Internet, and should have forced women to have sex many times in private;
2. He has a poor relationship with his wife, coupled with the divorce of his parents, he has been in an abnormal mental state for a long time, and likes to watch some mental illness movies;
3. Extremely conceited, thinks that he has a high IQ, fantasizes about committing perfect crimes, and often watches some crime movies;
4. There is a large number of part-time job information, indicating that the personal financial situation is not good, the education is high and the IQ is high, but it is at the bottom of the society;
The lack of parental affection, unstable family relationships, and poor financial conditions contributed to his eventual crime.
So, there is another question, Christensen concealed the whereabouts of Zhang Yingying's body for a long time, and did not say it until after the conviction, why?
It turns out that the judicial decision in the United States may be affected by the subjective judgment of the judge, and there are more than 30 states in the United States that retain the death penalty.
Don't believe it, this kind of thing has happened in the United States.
A 17-year-old boy shot another boy in the street, in the courtroom, the victim's mother cried bitterly, and the 17-year-old boy was still laughing, when the victim's mother decided to give up the prosecution because of his minority, after the private settlement, the 17-year-old boy actually said:
"I will be coming home soon because I love my family."
When the judge heard this, he could not bear it any longer, and said:
"You are laughing there as if all this is not a big deal, I personally cannot accept the settlement, we will have a retrial, you may stay in prison for the rest of your life, and besides, deprive you of the right to a second trial."
At this time, the boy was dumbfounded, he was dazed, and then there was fear and fear.
See, the outcome of the trial in the U.S. court may be affected by the specific circumstances of the scene and new clues to the case.
At that time, the U.S. Attorney General had approved the search for a death sentence, and if Christensen pleaded guilty and told the details of the dismemberment, he was very likely to be sentenced to death under such a heinous crime.
After he was sentenced to life in prison, the smile he put on his face said it all.
Judging from the composure shown in the follow-up, he is likely to be a repeat offender, he once claimed to have killed 13 people, I don't know if it's true or not.
Now, 7 years have passed since Zhang Yingying's case, how are her family and former lover doing?
In the years since the incident and the verdict, has anyone really cared about their condition?
It is understood that Zhang Yingying's younger brother Zhang Xinyang already has a child, previously, Zhang Yingying's father drove in a unit with a monthly salary of 2,050 yuan, and in February 2023, Zhang Yingying's father Zhang Ronggao started a live broadcast to sell goods to subsidize the family.
Every night during the prime time, Zhang Ronggao, who is over the age of six, will sit in front of the mobile phone screen with his wife Ye Lifeng, look at the teleprompter next to him, and introduce his various products to the audience in front of the mobile phone screen with a slight stump.
They usually bring daily necessities such as tea and garbage bags.
Many people know that Zhang Yingying had excellent grades before her death, and she studied at Sun Yat-sen University as an undergraduate and then went to Peking University for graduate studies.
But what few people know is that the reason why she was able to go all the way to graduate school and have the opportunity to go to the United States on the other side of the ocean for further study was actually the savings that her father Zhang Gaorong had worked hard to accumulate by driving a large truck.
Now, Zhang Yingying has suffered misfortune, but her younger brother Zhang Xinyang is an adult, and Zhang Ronggao has passed the age of retirement, and there is no way to drive a big car on the road to earn money.
At this time, "live streaming" was very popular, and then a merchant happened to find the two of them, hoping to sell some goods through live broadcast.
Zhang Ronggao didn't think so much at first, thinking that live streaming was not a bad thing, after all, his purpose was just to get some income, and he could have the opportunity to set off to the United States again to find his daughter's body, although the hope was already very slim.
However, things are far from being as simple as he imagined.
After the live broadcast for a period of time, Zhang Ronggao said: Whether it is a barrage or a comment area, there will always be people pointing fingers at them, and some people even say that they are "selling their daughters" and "eating their daughters' blood steamed buns", which made Zhang Ronggao and his wife fall into despair again.
The psychology behind it: the public does not want to sympathize with being consumed
Although we are very sympathetic to Zhang Ronggao and his wife, and it is not too much for them to engage in live broadcasts in order to support their families, these people who are labeled as "victims' families" represented by Zhang Ronggao and his wife will be questioned in various ways once they get involved in public opinion, which actually has a psychological basis.
In layman's terms, the public does not want their emotions to be coerced and become a means of economic consumption. We know that the so-called "live streaming" is largely the anchor who mobilizes consumers to place orders through his own personality, image, and eloquence.
However, many victims of public events will unconsciously enter the image of the "perfect victim" constructed by public opinion - this is actually with the help of people's natural compassion.
The public tends to look at the victims of public events with sympathy and acquiesce that they are、、, but when this identity overlaps with live streaming, the identities of both parties are reversed.
It seems that the families of the victims, who need to be sympathized, have instead become the party that takes the initiative to stimulate mass consumption, and this kind of image subversion and status reversal is the fundamental factor that arouses public opinion.
Later, under pressure, Zhang Ronggao and his wife did not bring goods live anymore. It is said that Zhang Ronggao is now driving a car in a unit, and his wife is engaged in some small businesses to subsidize the family, but in the face of donations from netizens, they refused, and they hope to maintain the family by their own efforts.
In June 2023, in an interview with reporters, Zhang Ronggao said while making tea:
"Very few people have come in recent years."
Of course, he probably doesn't want to be constantly disturbed.
Ye Lifeng was preparing a fruit platter, and she said while crying:
"It would be nice if my daughter was still here, she likes to eat the most."
When the reporter heard this, he couldn't stop crying, and he didn't know how to comfort them.
Hopefully, the shadow hanging over the family will dissipate as soon as possible.
Let's take a look, how is Zhang Yingying's affectionate boyfriend now?
Back then, Zhang Yingying's boyfriend Hou Xiaolin said in an interview with the media:
In his heart, Zhang Yingying is already his wife, and Zhang Yingying's parents will be his parents in the future."
Hou Xiaolin also said that Zhang Yingying once had a wish to be a volunteer teacher, and in order to complete Zhang Yingying's unfinished business, Hou Xiaolin resolutely gave up her career plan and went to teach in remote mountainous areas, perhaps this is the biggest memory of Zhang Yingying.
Hou Xiaolin also said that he planned to take Zhang Yingying's parents to the United States to find Yingying later.
Later, according to the description of Zhang Yingying's parents, Hou Xiaolin is still unmarried and often comes to visit the two old men.
The main culprit for all of this is Christensen's hidden inhumanity. Even he even told the whereabouts of Zhang Yingying's body, it was a "charity" after hearing that he was not sentenced to death.
In life, we must stay away from antisocial personalities, these people are often very hidden.
- What do you have to say about this? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comment section!
- Note: The original debut, plagiarism to any platform, must be investigated to the end! The legs are long, and the chase is more fierce.....