Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #1 *Arrest*

[mbison]

IMO, you guys are being overly tough on the FBI/police. Most cases are solved by finding somebody with a motive to target the victim. When there is no association between the perpetrator and victim, they are starting with a huge pool of potential suspects. Low res video evidence helps only so much.

 

[JerseyGirl]

I think once the FBI is involved, any LE updates to the public and family are curtailed.

I noticed that in the ET/Cummins kidnapping, she went missing for several weeks and once she was found the FBI laid out every stop they took between Tennessee and California.

 

[GigTu]

Agreed. We may not hear anything until either they are found or they need help from the public. In terms of social media and interest, that makes it become an uninteresting cold case rather quickly.

 

[tlcya]

CHAMPAIGN — There are now two different rewards for information leading to an arrest in the disappearance of a University of Illinois scholar visiting from China.


With Yingying Zhang’s family members on hand, the UI and Champaign County Crime Stoppers announced a reward of up to $40,000 for information in Zhang’s June 9 disappearance.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/lo...reward-announced-case-missing-ui-scholar.html

“Yingying is a very cautious and great person,” Zhang’s boyfriend, Xiao Lin said. “She's very thoughtful so she would never do anything like this like hiding out without telling her parents or friends that's just not the kind of thing she would do."

[....]

“Yingying may definitely be facing some difficulties, but I want to tell her to please hang on there and we will try our best to bring her home,” Lin said.

http://foxillinois.com/news/local/f...aks-out-hoping-for-yingyings-safe-return-home

The $40,000 reward is encouraging. I hope it brings the right lead(s) to bring her home. I feel terrible for her family and boyfriend, their fear and heartache is palpable in their statements.

 

[liltexans]

Reminder that links are required with posts that are referring to articles or videos and please do not discuss comments under articles or videos or from social media.

Thanks!

 

[liltexans]

[video=twitter;877582128698896384]https://twitter.com/ui7news/status/877582128698896384[/video]

 

[liltexans]

Media advisory: Campus meeting Thursday night for missing scholar support

Representatives from the University of Illinois Police Department, International Student and Scholar Services, Counseling Center and others will meet with members of the campus and Champaign-Urbana communities the evening of Thursday, June 22, to discuss campus support for the search for Yingying Zhang.

The meeting, which is open to the public and the news media, will take place from 6 to 7 p.m. in room 314 of Altgeld Hall, 1409 W. Green St., Urbana.

Because of the sensitive nature of the search, police representatives will not be able to comment on specific details of the ongoing investigation.

 

[U2forever]

Reminder that links are required with posts and please do not discuss comments under articles or videos or from social media.

Thanks!

Hey, liltexans, thanks for this reminder.
I was just looking for my latest post cause I wanted to delete it as I was very uncomfortable with my reply to another post, and I stated if violating TOS to please forgive.

Thank goodness it's already been deleted.


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[liltexans]

Hey, liltexans, thanks for this reminder.
I was just looking for my latest post cause I wanted to delete it as I was very uncomfortable with my reply to another post, and I stated if violating TOS to please forgive.

Thank goodness it's already been deleted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We just need to keep the discussion focused on finding Yingying and the car. Right now there's no evidence that has been released to us to suggest that Yingying was specifically targeted or that her kidnapping had anything to do with her nationality.

I know it's frustrating because we have very few facts to work with in this case and time is the enemy in finding either Yingying or her kidnapper.

 

[bluehydrangea]

We just need to keep the discussion focused on finding Yingying and the car. Right now there's no evidence that has been released to us to suggest that Yingying was specifically targeted or that her kidnapping had anything to do with her nationality.

I know it's frustrating because we have very few facts to work with in this case and time is the enemy in finding either Yingying or her kidnapper.

In that vein - does anyone have any thoughts on what we know of LE's handling of this case so far in relation to where they think Yingying was taken? What I mean by that is, do we think that LE's lack of searching for her on foot locally (as far as we know) and the fact that billboards were said to be put up in nearby cities means that they believe she was taken out of C-U? Maybe they don't even have enough information to know that yet. I would sure think that they would be asking the public to pay attention to anyone they know who drives this vehicle who has missed work, acted strange recently, etc.

Trying not to be overly speculative here, but I agree that the focus needs to be on locating Yingying. Even with as little info as we have to go off of here.


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[Ven]

They should be able to track down the car, there aren't that many of them. Find the registration owners of all black saturn astra's in Illinois. They may not even have to check car dealerships in the surrounding area because of the age of the vehicle, I don't know. With the FBI's involvement they should have enough manpower to find all owners of this kind of vehicle in Illinois and investigate within a relatively short amount of time.

 

[HoldySi]

https://uofi.illinois.edu/blog/view/7513/522103

Update from UIPD:

"[FONT=&quot]While we cannot share specific details on the investigation in order to maintain its integrity and direction, we continue to make progress in our search, and we will not give up until we find her."[/FONT]

 

[JnRyan]

Only the 2008 model Astra was sold in the US, although there were a glut of them and they were sold through 2010. Per one website, a total of 18291: http://carsalesbase.com/us-car-sales-data/saturn/saturn-astra/

Very rough calculations of 18291 divided by 50 states is 365 per state. Some states such Wyoming or Alaska are going to have very few if any, but states such CA, NY, FL, PA, NJ and TX are going to have more than that, so using a rough # of 400 per state. One third of the models offered were 2DR, so again if we estimate roughly 1/3 don't apply, we have 267. There were 5 color options including black or a rough number of 20%. Since black is a popular color, I'm going with 30%. 30% of 267 is 80.

This is a very rough, non-scientific calculation, but give or take 10 cars LE has approximately 80 in IL to go through. Throw in MO, IN, WI and KY a approximate total of 400. I'm guessing they go through the local area first, then IL before going on to the nearby states.

That has got to be better than trying to find, say, a black Toyota Camry over range of greater than one year. I'll bet they've ID'd and visited most within a 75 to 100 mile radius already.

 

[JnRyan]

They should be able to track down the car, there aren't that many of them. Find the registration owners of all black saturn astra's in Illinois. They may not even have to check car dealerships in the surrounding area because of the age of the vehicle, I don't know. With the FBI's involvement they should have enough manpower to find all owners of this kind of vehicle in Illinois and investigate within a relatively short amount of time.

With today's databases LE can probably go the DMV and get a printout of all the black Saturn Astra's. If DMV can't do that, then download to, say, MS Access, and do a sort. In any event, I would bet it was possible to have this inside of 12 hours after LE ID'd the make and model.

 

[Vail]

It would have more media attention if she was from a country the US needs to appease. Imagine if she was an Israeli student! Here are a few others who also did not get any media attention in spite of 3 of them being Japanese:

Still missing:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-amp-Isse-Salazar-11-mos-Brooklyn-18-Nov-2016

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...-Zhimin-Maggie-Liu-32-Winnipeg-MB-30-Oct-2016

Killed by predator:
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...sumi-Kogawa-29-Vancouver-7-Sept-2016-*Arrest*

Found dead of suspicious circumstances
http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?327949-NY-Taku-Minemura-30-Long-Island-5-Dec-2016

 

[Ven]

There is a black saturn astra that has been put up for sale on Craigslist in the Chicago area:
https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/ctd/6185327208.html

I've saved a screenshot in case it gets taken down. If any of you want to check around Illinois or neighboring states for used car listings, that would be some good sleuthing and a way to help out. Don't contact the listing but refer it to law enforcement. I'm sorry I'm only doing this today, June 21st, almost two weeks later, and can't check every listing in the area alone, but there's a good chance some kidnapper would be trying to sell his car and get rid of it now that the make has been identified.

The place in the listing I referenced looks like an all-cash on-the-downlow type of used car place, in a poor urban area. Some operation like this or another 3rd party somewhere could wind up buying the vehicle and not even know what they have.

 

[GigTu]

The hubcaps are different than the one caught on video. Good eye though. Keep looking.

There is a black saturn astra that has been put up for sale on Craigslist in the Chicago area:
https://chicago.craigslist.org/chc/ctd/6185327208.html

I've saved a screenshot in case it gets taken down. If any of you want to check around Illinois or neighboring states for used car listings, that would be some good sleuthing and a way to help out. Don't contact the listing but refer it to law enforcement. I'm sorry I'm only doing this today, June 21st, almost two weeks later, and can't check every listing in the area alone, but there's a good chance some kidnapper would be trying to sell his car and get rid of it now that the make has been identified.

The place in the listing I referenced looks like an all-cash on-the-downlow type of used car place, in a poor urban area. Some operation like this or another 3rd party somewhere could wind up buying the vehicle and not even know what they have.

 

[GigTu]

I mentioned before that I was able to determine that the man was wearing a red or maroon sleeveless shirt (cut off at shoulder like an athlete, not a tank top), probably a t-shirt. He seems clean cut, and seems tall with a long neck. A tall guy "typically" has a deeper voice.

If he had been circling the area, hopefully they caught the license plate on some other camera, or they are still in the process of trying to do that... or they are still in the process of seeing if they can backtrack via cameras until they figure out where he entered the area from.

I have a feeling he is not local to that immediate area, but was in the area for a few days and knew to scope the campus streets for people needing rides. Maybe he was even a student, an athlete (because of the shirt). This creeper needs to be found. I wish I knew how to help. We are helpless.

 

[Yvettea]

Police may have been able to follow the progress of the car as it went down N. Columbia Ave. Using surveillance video they may have a better idea of where the car went then they are sharing with us. MOO

 

[Ven]

Another black saturn astra up for sale in O'Fallon under the Carbondale craigslist:

https://carbondale.craigslist.org/cto/6162424903.html

ETA: listing might be too old though to be relevant, unless the perp just bought his vehicle i guess.