The remains of murdered Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying may be in a landfill in central Illinois' Vermilion County, said Steve Beckett, who represents the Zhang family, on Friday.
The news conference was rescheduled to next week, as another lawyer who represents the family returned to China.
More information is set to be provided during the coming-up presser.
Zhang's mother, Ye Lifeng (C), being supported by a friend and her son during the trial in her daughter's murder, Peoria, Illinois, July 19. /VCG Photo
Local media outlet the News-Gazette reported that information about the remains was provided to the prosecution under an immunity agreement by attorneys representing Brendt Christensen, who kidnapped and killed Zhang in 2017.
"This information came from the defense lawyers, and that information indicated that the remains, as it traced down, could be found in a landfill in Vermilion County," said Beckett.
Brendt Christensen was sentenced to life without parole for kidnapping and killing Zhang Yingying two years ago after a judge announced the verdict in Illinois, July 19. /VCG Photo
Christensen was sentenced last month to life imprisonment without the possibility of release.
The body of the Chinese scholar at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), however, was never recovered. Christensen did not tell the court what he had done to the body, despite the appeals from Zhang's family.
The victim's father Zhang Ronggao told Christensen after he was sentenced, "if you have any humanity left in your soul, please end our torment."
"Please let us bring Yingying home," the father begged before news cameras outside the courthouse. The family said they wanted to bring Zhang's body back to China for a proper burial.
Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying was murdered by Brendt Christensen in his apartment in an astonishingly brutal way. /CGTN Photo
Zhang went missing on June 9, 2017, after getting into a black Saturn Astra about five blocks away from where she got off a bus on her way to an apartment complex to sign a lease.
Christensen was arrested on June 30, 2017, after being caught on tape pointing out people he described as "ideal victims" during a vigil in Zhang's honor.
(With input from agencies)