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

[Millhouse]

I think she studies about natural resources or ecology? Is that enough reason to abduct someone? I don't know. But she is just a scholar, not a professor. I'm sure you can find someone more experienced in the industry.

Yeah, not sure. Like I said, I think this is extremely unlikely.

My thought was that if she was studying crop productivity, I would imagine there are some people in that field whose work is of great interest to the government or others. If someone knows a gene or a chemical that could massively increase crop production (or on the flipside, hurt it), maybe there was someone out there worried about that or not wanting it to get out. Like I said, far fetched- just doing the internet version of thinking out loud

The thing with academia is is that you don't need to be the most experienced to be the one doing the work- in fact, quite the opposite. Young scholars are really the ones making most of the discoveries and doing most of the lab work. They might not be the ones with the power or the money, but they are the ones actually learning new things. As someone who went to grad school and thinks a lot about scientific training and academia, I have a slightly biased view here, but just thought it was worth throwing out there.

It seems as if it was less targeted than this scenario though, IMO.

 

[LoremIpsum]

Doesn't sit right with me that her abduction occurred near the corner of Goodwin and Clark - right by the National Center for Supercomputing, which is also right down the street from the Public Safety building. UI is home to Blue Waters and are in the bid as a top runner to hosting the over a billion dollar funded new SuperComputer that will be fastest and strongest in the world.

In other words, it seems to me the man that abducted Yingying did so brazenly, in broad daylight, in an area that imvho should've been much more secure, which to me points to him having an agenda that surpasses abducting a female student. Seems to me this man has an axe to grind. One can only hope Yingying hasn't been harmed to the point of incapacitation.

That's not where the computer is located. And the buildings themselves are very secure.

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[HeatherLiu]

Re the females that came forward earlier to describe a man driving the same car attempting to "pick them up" or "give them a ride somewhere" - I wonder if they (the girls) are Asian. If so, then I wonder if a certain type of predjudice rests inside this person because maybe he lost a job/scholarship to a certain nationality that is female.

Or maybe he just took Yingying because he could. Maybe he was targeting females smaller than him, females that may appear weaker than him.

Yes he may hold a grudge against someone who is Chinese/Asian/ a female scholar etc. Or maybe he secretly admires (in a nasty way) Yingying/someone like her.

 

[Jersey*Girl]

There HAVE to be cameras all over the place there, there just has to be. There's probably satellites they own that can zoom in and pinpoint facial features. Way way way too much money put into BlueWaters for it not to be protected all the way around that campus. My bet is that the FBI has the perp's face but he's not in their database so they're running all kinds of facial recognition programs to figure him out. I'll bet the car didn't trace back to him. I'll also add that I won't be surprised if this isn't his first abduction.

 

[HeatherLiu]

Yeah, not sure. Like I said, I think this is extremely unlikely.

My thought was that if she was studying crop productivity, I would imagine there are some people in that field whose work is of great interest to the government or others. If someone knows a gene or a chemical that could massively increase crop production (or on the flipside, hurt it), maybe there was someone out there worried about that or not wanting it to get out. Like I said, far fetched- just doing the internet version of thinking out loud

The thing with academia is is that you don't need to be the most experienced to be the one doing the work- in fact, quite the opposite. Young scholars are really the ones making most of the discoveries and doing most of the lab work. They might not be the ones with the power or the money, but they are the ones actually learning new things. As someone who went to grad school and thinks a lot about scientific training and academia, I have a slightly biased view here, but just thought it was worth throwing out there.

It seems as if it was less targeted than this scenario though, IMO.

If the person who took her was interested in resources and ecology, then who could it be? A NGO ? An oil company? seems unlikely.
But you are right that you don't need the most experienced to make breakthroughs in science.

 

[Millhouse]

That's not where the computer is located. And the buildings themselves are very secure.

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Yes, this. I'm sure the supercomputing building is very secure and you probably have to key in. And honestly, at least at the big campus I went to, the buildings were even more secure in the summer when everyone was gone as there were less classes, etc. that would necessitate everything being open as much all the time.

At the end of the day, college campuses still exist within the real world. These buildings are probably very secure, but there are limits to what they can do to protect everyone outside walking on public streets. It's so easy to feel like you are in a safe bubble on these campuses, but anyone can drive through or walk through and there are many buildings open to the public. It's awful when something like this happens to burst that bubble for the community, especially for the victim.

Even if they had more cameras, I'm not convinced we'd have more information in this case. They have video of her and the guy in the car, and here we are

 

[HeatherLiu]

There HAVE to be cameras all over the place there, there just has to be. There's probably satellites they own that can zoom in and pinpoint facial features. Way way way too much money put into BlueWaters for it not to be protected all the way around that campus. My bet is that the FBI has the perp's face but he's not in their database so they're running all kinds of facial recognition programs to figure him out. I'll bet the car didn't trace back to him. I'll also add that I won't be surprised if this isn't his first abduction.

Agree. If you're right, then he's holding a few hostages in some place. That's creepy even to think about.

 

[Jersey*Girl]

That's not where the computer is located. And the buildings themselves are very secure.

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I know that's not precisely where its located but it is the corner of the computer science buildings. BlueWaters is on the campus. Do you know how far away it is from where she was abducted? There absolutely have to be tons tons tons of cameras. I think the FBI have much more than the public thinks.

 

[Millhouse]

If the person who took her was interested in resources and ecology, then who could it be? A NGO ? An oil company? seems unlikely.
But you are right that you don't need the most experienced to make breakthroughs in science.

Yes, agreed- very, very unlikely. I just realized why I even had this thought, which was this is literally a plot line on the Americans. They go after people studying crops because they think they are going to use their findings against Russia. While a crazy TV line, research can have major implications.

A company could be interested, or a rival researcher, but also, was her previous lab in China worried about her sharing information? Again, totally unlikely and just my thoughts.

We can move back to more productive thoughts on here from actual sleuthers

 

[Millhouse]

I know that's not precisely where its located but it is the corner of the computer science buildings. BlueWaters is on the campus. Do you know how far away it is from where she was abducted? There absolutely have to be tons tons tons of cameras. I think the FBI have much more than the public thinks.

There is another facility on the south west side of campus- link to the map here: https://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode&q=40.095013,-88.242187&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr

 

[Jersey*Girl]

Yes, this. I'm sure the supercomputing building is very secure and you probably have to key in. And honestly, at least at the big campus I went to, the buildings were even more secure in the summer when everyone was gone as there were less classes, etc. that would necessitate everything being open as much all the time.

At the end of the day, college campuses still exist within the real world. These buildings are probably very secure, but there are limits to what they can do to protect everyone outside walking on public streets. It's so easy to feel like you are in a safe bubble on these campuses, but anyone can drive through or walk through and there are many buildings open to the public. It's awful when something like this happens to burst that bubble for the community, especially for the victim.

Even if they had more cameras, I'm not convinced we'd have more information in this case. They have video of her and the guy in the car, and here we are

I'm confusd by this. I'm suggesting there are waaay more cameras all the way around that campus considering they have the largest supercomputer on their campus. It would have to be secure and I'm sure in case of terrorism they'd have cameras everywhere. I'm not at all even suggesting the buildings aren't secure. I'm speaking of the campus in it's entirety. UI at Urbana is in the top 5 research universities in the world. There's way more camera footage than those couple of shots and video that's been released thus far. Have to be.

 

[Spellbound]

Most of the Astra hatchbacks I've been looking at have a red emblem on the grill. I haven't detected red on any of the video or still shots. I wonder if that's relevant.

Google search of images show this Saturn logo for a 08-09 Saturn Astra... is this what you are thinking should be on the grill?

08 09 SATURN ASTRA FRONT UPPER GRILLE W/EMBLEM OEM 94701192 2008-2009

 

[HeatherLiu]

Yes, agreed- very, very unlikely. I just realized why I even had this thought, which was this is literally a plot line on the Americans. They go after people studying crops because they think they are going to use their findings against Russia. While a crazy TV line, research can have major implications.

A company could be interested, or a rival researcher, but also, was her previous lab in China worried about her sharing information? Again, totally unlikely and just my thoughts.

We can move back to more productive thoughts on here from actual sleuthers

I really hope our hypothesis is right because that would mean she is safe!! Do you watch Elementary? I think there are a few episodes where scientists are abducted/murdered/blackmailed due to their research. It is possible that someone Chinese or who speaks some Chinese took her. If I come across a person speaks Chinese in the US I might be suspicious, but trust him anyways for obvious reasons.

 

[LoremIpsum]

I know that's not precisely where its located but it is the corner of the computer science buildings. BlueWaters is on the campus. Do you know how far away it is from where she was abducted? There absolutely have to be tons tons tons of cameras. I think the FBI have much more than the public thinks.

It's on the other end of campus.

<modsnip> She was working on photosynthesis and crop productivity. This is the type of stuff they do:

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[LoremIpsum]

There is another facility on the south west side of campus- link to the map here: https://www.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode&q=40.095013,-88.242187&ie=UTF8&z=16&iwloc=addr

That's it.

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[LoremIpsum]

I'm confusd by this. I'm suggesting there are waaay more cameras all the way around that campus considering they have the largest supercomputer on their campus. It would have to be secure and I'm sure in case of terrorism they'd have cameras everywhere. I'm not at all even suggesting the buildings aren't secure. I'm speaking of the campus in it's entirety. UI at Urbana is in the top 5 research universities in the world. There's way more camera footage than those couple of shots and video that's been released thus far. Have to be.

Yes. They've been going around town, not just limited to campus, gathering surveillance footage.

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[Jersey*Girl]

It's on the other end of campus.

<modsnip>She was working on photosynthesis and crop productivity. This is the type of stuff they do:

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<modsnip>I don't think she was targeted due to her work either. I think she was targeted because of what her nationality or appearance is and because of her size. I do think it's very possible this guy has an axe to grind and I really don't think she's his first abduction.

 

[Spellbound]

WQAD.com. http://wqad.com/2017/06/13/chinese-scholar-missing-from-university-of-illinois-for-days/Chinese scholar missing from University of Illinois for days ...This is the color and model of the car police say Zhang entered.

 

[Millhouse]

I'm confusd by this. I'm suggesting there are waaay more cameras all the way around that campus considering they have the largest supercomputer on their campus. It would have to be secure and I'm sure in case of terrorism they'd have cameras everywhere. I'm not at all even suggesting the buildings aren't secure. I'm speaking of the campus in it's entirety. UI at Urbana is in the top 5 research universities in the world. There's way more camera footage than those couple of shots and video that's been released thus far. Have to be.

Cameras don't equal secure to me, so we may just have different ideas of what counts as secure. I'm not really trying to disagree with you in that it's critical to secure these facilities, but I think they have secured the facilities the best they can but there are limits to what they can do on the streets with cameras. Cameras can't prevent stuff from happening, and short of having armed guards around the buildings, these buildings exist on public streets. I live in the DC area, which I would consider very secure as there are concrete barriers and police all over, but even here... stuff happens.

I've been to this campus a ton of times, and there are cameras around. In fact, they have over 1,000 (http://www.news-gazette.com/news/lo...ers-ui-request-more-surveillance-cameras.html) and were requesting more according to this article. It's also mixed jurisdiction- there are city governments and campus police/administration involved. I don't know how this works, but I imagine they aren't monitoring them all all of the time. And even if they were, would a girl getting in a car in the age of Uber really set of red flags?

And in my personal opinion they have more footage than they've chosen to release, although clearly not enough footage as there is no visible publicly known progress.

 

[Millhouse]

It's on the other end of campus.

<modsnip> She was working on photosynthesis and crop productivity. This is the type of stuff they do:

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I've said I think it was unlikely, and that I was just thinking out loud<modsnip>

I know people personally who have been harassed and faced pipe bombings for their research, though. Do I think her research was the reason for this abduction? No. I said I don't think so, but I was just throwing it out there.<modsnip>