Former University of Illinois graduate student Brendt Christensen could be eligible for the death penalty if convicted on new charges filed Tuesday alleging he kidnapped and killed a visiting scholar from China in June. Christensen, 28, of Champaign, was charged in a superseding indictment with one count of kidnapping resulting in a death stemming from the disappearance of 26-year-old Yingying Zhang, whose body has not been found. The federal grand jury returned the four-page indictment with the special finding that Christensen committed the offense “in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner, in that it involved torture or serious physical abuse to the victim,” and that the crime occurred after “substantial planning and premeditation.” 
 
 The indictment also charged Christensen with two new counts of making false statements to FBI agents. If the death penalty is not sought, a conviction on the kidnapping count would call for mandatory life without parole. Christensen, who is being held without bond, is tentatively set to go to trial Feb. 27 before U.S. District Court Judge Colin Bruce. Attorney Steve Beckett, who represents Zhang's family, said he had not spoken to them Tuesday but said the superseding indictment "is not unexpected." Shortly after, federal authorities allege that Christensen approached Zhang in his car and lured her inside. It states Christensen lied when he told the FBI he stayed at his apartment and slept and played video games all day on June 9, "when he knew full well that he drove around the University of Illinois campus on the afternoon of June 9, and picked up Y,Z.
– A man who liked to surf kidnapping-fetish websites will face the death penalty in the disappearance of a Chinese graduate student. A federal grand jury on Tuesday slapped Brendt Christensen, 28, with one count of kidnapping resulting in the death of Yingying Zhang, 26, whose body has not been found, the Chicago Tribune reports. The indictment, updating existing charges, says Christensen killed the University of Illinois student "in an especially heinous, cruel or depraved manner" involving "torture or serious physical abuse to the victim." Christensen, an ex-grad student, allegedly carried out the crime after "substantial planning and premeditation." The FBI questioned the suspect after determining his Saturn was the car captured on surveillance video that picked up Zhang, who was late for an appointment, at a campus bus stop on June 9. She is missing and presumed dead. Christensen is also charged with two counts of lying to the FBI when he said he was playing video games and sleeping on the day Zhang disappeared, when, the indictment says, "he knew full well" he offered her a ride. He allegedly lied again when he said he dropped her off a short time later. The FBI says he took Zhang back to his apartment. A lawyer for Christensen , who is being held without bail, had no comment, but an attorney for Zhang's family calls the new charges "not unexpected," per CBS News. Christensen's trial is set for Feb. 27. Cops say he was recorded at a vigil for Zhang describing the "characteristics of his ideal [kidnapping] victim."