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

[Ven]

If you found the right listing but with the wrong hubcaps, is there any possibility that a dealer may upgrade the hubcaps on their own after purchase in order to mark up the price? I'm not really sure what their business practices are. Can't stand those guys!

Here's a new arrival in St. Charles, MO:
https://www.kbb.com/cars-for-sale/4...tra&zipcode=&distance=500&bodystyle=hatch&p=2

New arrival in Waterford, MI:
https://www.kbb.com/cars-for-sale/4...tra&zipcode=&distance=500&bodystyle=hatch&p=2

Neither have pictures yet, so I don't know.

Here's one in IL but the hubcaps are different:
https://www.kbb.com/cars-for-sale/4...l=astra&zipcode=&distance=500&bodystyle=hatch

 

[Yvettea]

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

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

So heart wrenching. I hope with all my heart they find their loved one and soon.

 

[JnRyan]

Looking at the U of I - Urbanna-Champaign website, it appears that students have to have a parking permit to park on campus. And they state license plates of cars on campus are scanned to determine if the permit in the car matches the license plate associated with the permit.
http://parking.illinois.edu/permits/License-Plate-Recognition

That would lead to believe vehicle data is likely entered in the university database. I would imagine that the manufacturer, model and year are entered as well. I'm thinking that is one of the first places LE went to look for a black Saturn Astra. Either the abductor is there and gave LE an alibi they can't crack, he's under surveillance or it is someone not enrolled in the university.

 

[Ven]

Then again, if he does not reside in CU, why was he here?

He could have been in the area for an event or doing contract work. He could have just been traveling and passing by. Maybe he got a hotel room the night before and tried to abduct other women, and the next day after he checked out he scoured the campus again until he came across Yingying. Who knows, but it's plausible he's not local and was just passing through. He even could live in Chicago or St. Louis metro areas, Indianapolis, or some mid-size town in Illinois and just picked Champaign-Urbana because it's not too far away. Ted Bundy would travel 100 miles from Seattle and abduct the girls he first started killing.

 

[HoldySi]

Looking at the U of I - Urbanna-Champaign website, it appears that students have to have a parking permit to park on campus. And they state license plates of cars on campus are scanned to determine if the permit in the car matches the license plate associated with the permit.
http://parking.illinois.edu/permits/License-Plate-Recognition

That would lead to believe vehicle data is likely entered in the university database. I would imagine that the manufacturer, model and year are entered as well. I'm thinking that is one of the first places LE went to look for a black Saturn Astra. Either the abductor is there and gave LE an alibi they can't crack, he's under surveillance or it is someone not enrolled in the university.

This isn't entirely accurate. There are a tonnnn of apartment complexes/old houses converted into apartments/condos, etc. within the campus vicinity that require only metered parking. Some of the older, more established areas even have free street parking. There are a lot of quiet, side streets that have a lot of apartments for UIUC students. This isn't a small campus, there are many nooks and crannies where he could be hiding.

 

[Ven]

Looking at the U of I - Urbanna-Champaign website, it appears that students have to have a parking permit to park on campus. And they state license plates of cars on campus are scanned to determine if the permit in the car matches the license plate associated with the permit.
http://parking.illinois.edu/permits/License-Plate-Recognition

That would lead to believe vehicle data is likely entered in the university database. I would imagine that the manufacturer, model and year are entered as well. I'm thinking that is one of the first places LE went to look for a black Saturn Astra. Either the abductor is there and gave LE an alibi they can't crack, he's under surveillance or it is someone not enrolled in the university.

The scanning is probably only if they enter a parking garage or designated parking area where you have to pass through a traffic gate. So if someone were just driving around campus, I don't think their license plate would ever get scanned, although I could be wrong.

 

[sherpa14]

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.

As a local:

1. Nothing was done after the first reports
2. After Yingying was reported missing, it took two days to alert the campus community
3. The FBI was not contacted until day 3

Yep, UIPD is terrible.

Overview of campus police:

• 50% public relations
• 40% traffic, parking, and drinking tickets
• 9% drug busts
• 1% real police work

 

[Ven]

As a local:

1. Nothing was done after the first reports
2. After Yingying was reported missing, it took two days to alert the campus community
3. The FBI was not contacted until day 3

Yep, UIPD is terrible.

This makes me so angry. Students and their families expect campus police to look out for them. The fact that UI could have put out public alerts, stepped up patrols, notified students immediately to be on the lookout for such a car and suspect, and yet did not do any of these things, probably because they had no monetary incentive to gain from it, infuriates me!

First and foremost I hope that Yingying is found and brought back to her parents; but the next thing I hope comes about from this case is the wrath of God and increased political and media scrutiny upon the university and campus police. Not just UI but all universities across the country. These agencies should not exist simply to fill the school's treasury. They should be held to the same standard as all law enforcement agencies or they should be stripped of their public responsibilities. Absolutely outrageous!

 

[sherpa14]

This makes me so angry. Students and their families expect campus police to look out for them. The fact that UI could have put out public alerts, stepped up patrols, notified students immediately to be on the lookout for such a car and suspect, and yet did not do any of these things, probably because they had no monetary incentive to gain from it, infuriates me!

First and foremost I hope that Yingying is found and brought back to her parents; but the next thing I hope comes about from this case is the wrath of God and increased political and media scrutiny upon the university and campus police. Not just UI but all universities across the country. These agencies should not exist simply to fill the school's treasury. They should be held to the same standard as all law enforcement agencies or they should be stripped of their public responsibilities. Absolutely outrageous!

Unfortunately this is barely going beyond Illinois in terms of news. I have to say that if this was a Missing White Girl we'd be on CNN daily by now.

edit: Actually it's national news in China but that doesn't really help tell people to look for the car here in the States.

To add a little discussion about the car: Only 18,000 total saturn astras were sold in the USA. They came in many different colors, 2 and 4-door varieties, and many of those remaining are probably no longer functioning due to crashes and breaking down. There really can't be all that many across America.

 

[proctorelites]

I agree. I wonder how often they get reports of a missing student and what protocol they have in place or if they have a protocol. I can see how they would take a less serious attitude if they get 2 or 3 MP reports a week and they always turn up after a couple days BUT, if they were putting the effort frwd in the beginning I feel confident we would be closer to resolution than we are now.
I have a question was she living on campus? How did the MP reporting go down? Who noticed, who filed and where did they file? What is the chain of command like from beginning to now? I might question the college's responsibility if she didn't live on campus to begin with. If the police notified the campus I'm pretty sure campus felt like the police were handling it and would contact campus police for any info required to investigate other students etc.

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[HoldySi]

As a local:

1. Nothing was done after the first reports
2. After Yingying was reported missing, it took two days to alert the campus community
3. The FBI was not contacted until day 3

Yep, UIPD is terrible.

Overview of campus police:

• 50% public relations
• 40% traffic, parking, and drinking tickets
• 9% drug busts
• 1% real police work

But, has it been confirmed that there really was a first report? As far as I'm concerned, the previous report of someone in a black car targeting girls and posing as an authority figure is speculation. I've seen it on a Facebook comment and then I saw a UIPD statement that they're looking into that rumor. Did I miss the official confirmation that this occurred?

 

[sherpa14]

But, has it been confirmed that there really was a first report? As far as I'm concerned, the previous report of someone in a black car targeting girls and posing as an authority figure is speculation. I've seen it on a Facebook comment and then I saw a UIPD statement that they're looking into that rumor. Did I miss the official confirmation that this occurred?

It's been confirmed by the people who experienced it. "This is what happened to me and I reported it to the police on this day (June 3 and June 9)". Police have released exactly zero information beyond the video we're all familiar with, so no official confirmation of anything.

 

[HoldySi]

It's been confirmed by the people who experienced it. "This is what happened to me and I reported it to the police on this day (June 3 and June 9)". Police have released exactly zero information beyond the video we're all familiar with, so no official confirmation of anything.

That's what I'm saying though. Unless this has been reported to the public by the police dept or on MSM, it's all speculation. And where did you see this confirmation by the people who experienced it? I'd be interested to see that.

 

[Ven]

But, has it been confirmed that there really was a first report? As far as I'm concerned, the previous report of someone in a black car targeting girls and posing as an authority figure is speculation. I've seen it on a Facebook comment and then I saw a UIPD statement that they're looking into that rumor. Did I miss the official confirmation that this occurred?

I saw one social media post that claimed a woman was approached by a man in a black sedan on UI campus. He flashed a badge and said he was undercover police. He asked her to come to his car, and asked her some questions. After a moment, he asked her to get into his vehicle so he could continue to question her more. She refused, and he politely drove away. She claimed she notified the police.

The social media post said "black sedan" and it was made before LE released the camera footage of Yingying's abduction, and before anyone was notified to be on the look out for the black saturn astra.

 

[sherpa14]

https://www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comments/6ggn0k/international_student_kidnapped/diqdfxp/ Here's publicly viewable post of the first report. It's originally on someone's facebook privately and cant be viewed. The other report is on the UIPD facebook page. I'm not sure if I'm permitted to link to that from here?

Either way, the police aren't going to confirm anything so "speculation" is the best we've got. However, i think "This is what happened to me and I reported it to police on [day]" is a bit beyond the definition of speculation

 

[proctorelites]

I am curious. Are there any toll roads near this bus stop?

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[HoldySi]

https://www.reddit.com/r/UIUC/comments/6ggn0k/international_student_kidnapped/diqdfxp/ Here's publicly viewable post of the first report. It's originally on someone's facebook privately and cant be viewed. The other report is on the UIPD facebook page. I'm not sure if I'm permitted to link to that from here?

Either way, the police aren't going to confirm anything so "speculation" is the best we've got. However, i think "This is what happened to me and I reported it to police on [day]" is a bit beyond the definition of speculation

Thanks for sharing the Reddit link, hadn't seen that! He was able to get her to come over and talk through the window too. Sound very familiar...

 

[sherpa14]

I am curious. Are there any toll roads near this bus stop?

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No toll roads anywhere near this city. Closest are probably Chicago, ~2.5 hours north.

 

[JnRyan]

This isn't entirely accurate. There are a tonnnn of apartment complexes/old houses converted into apartments/condos, etc. within the campus vicinity that require only metered parking. Some of the older, more established areas even have free street parking. There are a lot of quiet, side streets that have a lot of apartments for UIUC students. This isn't a small campus, there are many nooks and crannies where he could be hiding.

Well, I'm not local so I'm dependent on the university's website. Maybe you don't have to provide license, manuf., model and year in order to obtain a parking permit. Of course, that means campus LE is completely blind as to the cars allowed to park on campus and one source for LE to look for the car is not available.

 

[proctorelites]

I saw one social media post that claimed a woman was approached by a man in a black sedan on UI campus. He flashed a badge and said he was undercover police. He asked her to come to his car, and asked her some questions. After a moment, he asked her to get into his vehicle so he could continue to question her more. She refused, and he politely drove away. She claimed she notified the police.

The social media post said "black sedan" and it was made before LE released the camera footage of Yingying's abduction, and before anyone was notified to be on the look out for the black saturn astra.

Oh no. He could have pulled up beside her and asked to see her passport. Looked at it and demanded she come with him bc there was a problem with it. The possibilities are numerous & very frightening. I know I can't sleuth her home. I'm gonna assume that the FBI is using every available resource at their disposal to bring her home.
My kid will be going to a University; away from local community college and I just cannot stand the idea of this.

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