The US government on Friday filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty for Brendt Christensen. This is the man charged last year with kidnapping a visiting Chinese scholar, Zhang Yingying.

The Justice Department said in a statement that Zhang's kidnapping resulted in her death, and because of that "a sentence of death is justified". Zhang was recorded on surveillance video on June 9th waiting for a bus. She was seen getting into a black car that police later connected to Christensen. He is also charged with making false statements to the FBI, after he told them he had picked her up in his car and dropped her off.