Full Text of HR0779 101st General Assembly
HR0779 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | HOUSE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Yingying Zhang arrived at the University of | 3 | | Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in April of 2017 to contribute | 4 | | to research in the Department of Natural Resources and | 5 | | Environmental Sciences; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Yingying Zhang was an environmental engineering | 7 | | scholar from Nanping, a small city in the Fujian province in | 8 | | southeast China, where her parents and boyfriend lived; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, In June of 2017, Zhang went missing after getting | 10 | | into a black SUV near the UIUC campus; and
| 11 | | WHEREAS, After an extensive investigation and search | 12 | | efforts by local, state, and federal authorities, Yingying | 13 | | Zhang was declared dead in the summer of 2017; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, The loss of Zhang's life devastated the | 15 | | Champaign-Urbana community, the academic community, and the | 16 | | global community; UIUC honored Zhang's life with a number of | 17 | | vigils and rallies; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, Detective Eric Stiverson of the University of | 19 | | Illinois Police Department was one of two interrogators in an | 20 | | initial interview with the main suspect, Brendt Christensen, in |
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| 1 | | Yingying Zhang's case; and
| 2 | | WHEREAS, Detective Stiverson leaned on his experience as a | 3 | | seasoned interrogator to encourage Brendt Christensen to admit | 4 | | that he did indeed pick up Yingying Zhang, and the | 5 | | investigation unfolded from there; and
| 6 | | WHEREAS, Detective Stiverson's interrogation helped secure | 7 | | Brendt Christensen's conviction, and he was sentenced to life | 8 | | in prison without parole; and
| 9 | | WHEREAS, Detective Stiverson has served as an investigator | 10 | | and interrogator for the University of Illinois Police | 11 | | Department, Champaign County, and the State of Illinois for | 12 | | over 20 years; in 2005, he served as a deputy sheriff for the | 13 | | Piatt County Sheriff's Office in Monticello, Illinois, where he | 14 | | was assigned to patrol; in 2012, he transferred to the | 15 | | University of Illinois Police Department in Urbana, Illinois, | 16 | | where he served as a patrol officer until becoming a detective | 17 | | in 2015; he has conducted numerous death investigations as well | 18 | | as several high-profile homicide investigations; therefore, be | 19 | | it
| 20 | | RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE | 21 | | HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that | 22 | | without Detective Stiverson's skilled interrogation, it is |
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| 1 | | likely this case could have gone unsolved; and be it further
| 2 | | RESOLVED, That due to Detective Stiverson's work, Yingying | 3 | | Zhang's family at least has the comfort of knowing who was | 4 | | responsible for her devastating murder, and we send our deepest | 5 | | sympathies and condolences to the Zhang family; and be it | 6 | | further
| 7 | | RESOLVED, That we commend Detective Stiverson for his | 8 | | exemplary work in the murder case of Yingying Zhang and for his | 9 | | service to Champaign County and the entire state of Illinois.
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