‘She’s gone,’ Christensen wrote at vigil

At a vigil for missing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying in 2017, the man accused of killing her, Brendt Christensen, wrote a message on his then-girlfriend's phone saying: "It was me. She was #13. She is gone. Forever."

In her second day of testimony Thursday at Christensen's capital murder trial in US District Court in Peoria, Illinois, Terra Bullis said she was "devastated" and "terrified" after Christensen confessed to her.

She wore a wire for the FBI and recorded nine conversations with Christensen, 29, in the weeks after Zhang's disappearance on June 9, 2017. Zhang was studying at the University of Illinois, the same school where Christensen also was once a PhD candidate.

Bullis said Christensen typed the lines on a notes app on her phone and deleted them after showing them to her.

Christensen is charged with kidnapping resulting in the death of Zhang, who was 26, and faces a possible federal death penalty if convicted.

The defense team admitted last week in the trial that Christensen killed Zhang. The attorneys took the unusual approach last week in an effort to spare the defendant a federal death penalty.

Bullis said Christensen "seemed to be smiling a lot and happy", at Zhang's vigil, adding that he told her that he had killed 12 people before Zhang.

But an FBI agent had previously testified that there was no evidence of Christenen being involved in any other purported slayings, according to news website WTTW, but it couldn't be ruled out.

"They (the FBI) have the bat I hit her in the head with," Christensen told Bullis, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Christensen then said he first tried to choke Zhang to death.

"I couldn't believe she was still alive," he said. "I got the bat and hit her on the head as hard as I could, and it broke her head open."

He continued that he then stabbed her in the neck, and "chopped her head off", he said, laughing.

The recorded conversation played in court took place about three weeks after Zhang was last seen getting into Christensen's black Saturn Astra on the university campus in Urbana.

The witness expressed how "disgusted" she felt as Christensen detailed what he had done to Zhang.

She said Christensen's demeanor was "matter of fact" and "clinical" when he told her that no one would ever find Zhang. "I was scared," she added.

According to local news site The News-Gazette, Bullis had to find a new job and get mental health treatment after video and photos of her at the vigil walk were published online. She said she also received about $7,000 from the FBI.

During the cross-examination by defense attorney Robert Tucker, the lawyer asked if she tried to implicate Christensen during the tapings.

Bullis denied that and described how she was feeling conflicted and confused, according to The News-Gazette.

She said she was drinking with the suspect at the walk, but didn't believe he was drunk.

During cross-examination, Tucker also highlighted Christensen's alternative sex life with Bullis, along with his emotional and psychiatric issues.

Prosecutors concluded their direct examination of Bullis on Thursday afternoon. They are expected to formally rest their case Friday morning.

The closing arguments and jury deliberations could begin as early as Friday. If the verdict is guilty, the jury will later convene about whether to impose the death penalty or life in prison for the defendant.