Ex-girlfriend's recordings critical as trial to begin in earnest into disappearance of Chinese scholar at University of Illinois

Hand in hand, Brendt Christensen and his girlfriend faded seamlessly into the crowd at a 2017 vigil for missing Chinese scholar Yingying Zhang.

As their oblivious fellow marchers walked around the University of Illinois campus, Christensen began to mutter about the kind of person who makes an ideal victim, federal prosecutors allege. He pointed out to his girlfriend which people nearby might make easy prey.

For days beforehand, he had talked about how he held Zhang against her will and how she tried to fight back, prosecutors say.

What Christensen - then married to another woman - didn't realize was that his girlfriend was recording every word for the FBI.

Those chilling recordings are at the center of a sensational trial set to kick off in earnest this week with opening statements at the federal courthouse in downstate Peoria. Christensen, a once-promising graduate student at the Urbana-Champaign campus, is charged with the kidnapping, torture and murder of the 26-year-old Zhang.

If the jury convicts Christensen of the charge of kidnapping resulting in death, the same 12