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

[HoldySi]

Also, what about the car title? The most recent Craigslist ad says it has a Texas title, and when I reverse searched the two phone numbers listed, they came up as Texas phone numbers. Can titles be gotten super quickly? Either that, or this person was based in Texas to begin with, which doesn't really make much sense unless he was visiting Champaign-Urbana for some reason.

 

[Linfone]

The phone numbers are for a used car dealer.
About the title? Unknown, maybe a TX person can shed light.

Edit: the car looks clean. Like meticulously so. It's a good find but it seems unlikely to be that vehicle.

 

[Elainera]

Yes. If the car had no plates, metal or temporary, it would be pulled over quickly even in a smaller metro area.

If the car is stolen or sold recently private-party, the current plates may not connect to the driver/new owner.

Since the public has been given zero info, I think LE/FBI could not get a plate number and has no idea.

I can definitely see what you're saying. On the other hand, though, if they have no idea who the driver is, wouldn't they be imploring the public to come forward if they know anyone who's been driving that car recently? It just seems like they should be begging the public for info if they truly don't have any leads on this guy.


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IIRC two days ago LE said they do NOT have the plate numbers. I will look if I can find it and post the link.

 

[Elainera]

It was more than two days ago that it was reported they don't have the plate numbers.

The two quoted posts below are from June 15.

bolded by me

Safety concerns rise over missing student

"The FBI has been involved, which is routine in missing persons cases," Patrick Wade, communications director of the UIUC Police Department, told China Daily. "But that they have identified the plate number is incorrect information, which gained traction on social media."

The FBI is putting up billboard messages across the state and beyond about Yingying Zhang. The FBI has an agreement with Adams Outdoor Advertising, and the plan is to post information about Zhang on billboards from the Quad Cities and Chicago to Indianapolis and St. Louis

The FBI has labeled the case a kidnapping but investigators haven't ruled anything out.

Investigators are also looking into reports of a black vehicle whose driver invited other young women into the car. They've talked to one person who reported a similar encounter in another west Urbana neighborhood in early June.

As of Wednesday evening, they hadn't identified information about the car or the driver. The license-plate number wasn't legible in the video.

Police are still reviewing security camera footage "to see if the car pops up anywhere else on campus." Police asked any individuals who may have dash-cams in their cars to check the footage to see if they may have caught the car driving around town.


http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-15/fbi-joins-search-missing-ui-scholar.html

 

[HoldySi]

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-22/give-my-daughter-back.html

"'Give my daughter back,' the father of visiting UI scholar Yingying Zhang said through an interpreter on Thursday."
--
"During an emotional interview with The News-Gazette on Thursday morning, family members and friends from the missing scholar's hometown near Hong Kong say they're not satisfied with the state of the investigation aimed at finding her."

Heartbreaking.

 

[crhedBngr]

I just submitted the link to the U if I police email listed in the flyer, this is one of the ONLY astras I have found on Craigslist with those rims.

Good Job! One never knows if one's tip is THE tip (that will lead to resolution of the issue).

:tyou:

 

[Ven]

If the person lived in the area, I think they would have been identified very quickly. The fact they have billboards out in multiple states and are still looking means the creep is probably not local.

 

[Ven]

Also, I'd be really interested to hear what kind of proactive measures the UI campus police took after reports of a man approaching women and asking them to get in his car, falsely identifying himself as LE, etc. What kind of alert did they put out on campus? Did they text students? Reports like that are so serious that kind of information has to be disseminated with a sense of great urgency.

Although I've never been to UI campus, and I can't comment on them specifically, my experience at another large state university, one of the largest in the country, is that campus police are THE WORST. Their job at my school was simply to make the university money by issuing tickets and nothing else. You could not park anywhere on campus illegally for 5 minutes without getting a ticket, but when crimes actually happened, they were slow to respond or even refused to investigate. There was a months-long series of break-ins in the same parking lot, over and over again, and they never increased patrols or anything. When my car got broken into and the inside was virtually ripped apart, I found a glove and tool left behind by the criminals on the floorboard of my car, and when I called the campus police to notify them they refused to even come out or investigate.

My experience is that they only act with any urgency after something really big happens, so I would be very interested to hear what their actions were in between those earlier reports and when Yingying was abducted.

 

[CluelessWonder]

I believe I saw a photo of the car in Lisle, and I believe it's gray.

 

[proctorelites]

I am local to this case as well, and this case has been driving me absolutely nuts, a very high profile case for sure. Like many others I have been scouring Craigslist for the make/model/ and found a matching Saturn Astra with the same rims, just posted down in Dallas, TX on June 20th. Maybe this guy fled to Mexico and ditched his car down in Texas before leaving the country?

I think we could consider he dumped the car or sold the car to a small dealer and it went to auction. I've heard of dealers taking many of their cars to auctions in different states. But I'm not sure at which point it would cost more to transport them & how far they're willing to transport them. So it would be something to consider if one is researching the actual car. Surrounding states and auctions.

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[U2forever]

I just wanted to take a moment and tell y'all how impressive everyone's sleuthing skills are. I am proud to be among such smart, caring and gifted sleuths.
Everyone jumped in to try and find the car and answers to where and what happened to our dear Yingying with very little to go on.

Okie dokie, carry on...


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[Chambana]

Also, something else just struck me as odd, the seller is only asking for 3500$ for a 2008 car with only 76K miles, feel like they could easily get 5-6K for a car in this shape and low mileage, is this person trying to flip this car super quick with a cheap price tag?

 

[liltexans]

Hi all,

Websleuths Admin has reviewed and approved the Find Yingying Facebook page for linking, and posts by the admin of the Find Yingying Facebook page may be discussed.

Here's the link to the FB page:

Find Yingying

 

[Ven]

Are there other websites to check for used car sales besides Craiglist?

 

[Cherry_Sugar]

The site truecar.com has a few listings for Black Saturn Astra one of the cars is in Loveland OH.
I was thinking maybe the guy works for a cardealer/carsales and has access to cars that way.

 

[liltexans]

Video of today's interview with Yingying's family:

http://www.news-gazette.com/video/2017-06-22/yingying-zhang-familyfriends-speak.html

 

[Chambana]

The site truecar.com has a few listings for Black Saturn Astra one of the cars is in Loveland OH.
I was thinking maybe the guy works for a cardealer/carsales and has access to cars that way.

Thanks for looking, but again the rims are wrong in the Loveland listing. The set of rims used in the yingying case are unique, the only Astra I’ve found with them, was the Dallas listing.

 

[mbison]

Just my opinion, but I think this guy is way more likely to try to hide or destroy his Astra than to sell it on a public forum for a few grand.

 

[TiffanyL_AS]

I think we could consider he dumped the car or sold the car to a small dealer and it went to auction. I've heard of dealers taking many of their cars to auctions in different states. But I'm not sure at which point it would cost more to transport them & how far they're willing to transport them. So it would be something to consider if one is researching the actual car. Surrounding states and auctions.

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I'm assuming he lives in the area. But in an apartment or a house? I thought he looked possibly college-aged, for sure. He could even go to that school. If he lives alone it'd be easier to stash her (awful saying that!). He could be hiding the car in a garage since he knows everyone is looking for it? I wish I lived closer so I could help patrol for that car!

 

[HoldySi]

I'm assuming he lives in the area. But in an apartment or a house? I thought he looked possibly college-aged, for sure. He could even go to that school. If he lives alone it'd be easier to stash her (awful saying that!). He could be hiding the car in a garage since he knows everyone is looking for it? I wish I lived closer so I could help patrol for that car!

This one is tricky and it's literally driving me crazy. My gut wants to believe he's local or lives in the area for school. But if that were the case, how would no one (friends, roommates, classmates) have come forward recognizing his car by now?? Also, why would they have billboards up in other states and be extending their searches to different areas?

Then again, if he does not reside in CU, why was he here? Did he come here specifically to hunt for victims? Was he here for something else and saw an opportunity arise?

So many different possibilities.