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

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HoldySi said:
Being a local, I have to say that I see no connection to this case at all. Though this man had committed his share of crime, it ended up "coming out" that the two teenagers in this situation had lied. He slowed down his work van to park on the street where they were riding their bikes (not knowing he actually lived at the house where he was parking) and got spooked. They over-indulged their story and once they realized that basically a manhunt was underway for this suspect, had to fess up.
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Agreed. Not related.

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HoldySi said:
Being a local(???), I have to say that I see no connection to this case at all. Though this man had committed his share of crime, it ended up "coming out" that the two teenagers in this situation had lied. He slowed down his work van to park on the street where they were riding their bikes (not knowing he actually lived at the house where he was parking) and got spooked. They over-indulged their story and once they realized that basically a manhunt was underway for this suspect, had to fess up.
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HOLDYSI, Overall, how are people reacting locally? Do they think this is isolated, targeted or known to victim? Thank you so much for telling us the rest of the story. (I wish they could "erase" the case & photos...such a shame! Someone cried "wolf" and he ended up with a new mugshot, ugh!!)
 
IQuestion said:
HOLDYSI, Overall, how are people reacting locally? Do they think this is isolated, targeted or known to victim? Thank you so much for telling us the rest of the story. (I wish they could "erase" the case & photos...such a shame! Someone cried "wolf" and he ended up with a new mugshot, ugh!!)
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He was never arrested for any crime related to that incident, he did however have a warrant out for a probation violation on a petty misdemeanor charge. He came out publically and stated he’s just trying to live a normal and quiet life and had to go stay with a friend for a week because of death threats.

Not related. I am from Champaign-Urbana. Born and raised. To me, the perp is local, he had to of known the area and the escape route out of town. While CU is not large, and easily navigated, you still have to know an area with 150,000K people.
 
Chambana said:
He was never arrested for any crime related to that incident, he did however have a warrant out for a probation violation on a petty misdemeanor charge. He came out publically and stated he’s just trying to live a normal and quiet life and had to go stay with a friend for a week because of death threats.

Not related. I am from Champaign-Urbana. Born and raised. To me, the perp is local, he had to of known the area and the escape route out of town. While CU is not large, and easily navigated, you still have to know an area with 150,000K people.
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I'm wondering if it wasn't a past U of I student or someone who once lived in the area.

Everything around town has pretty much gone back to its normal calm. There has been some rumors and speculation but there doesn't seem to be any fear of a continued threat. I think if it was a local and/or they were thought to still be in the area that police presence about town would be more noticeable and tensions in the community would be higher.

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the previous incident occurred in the morning of the same day according to the police blotter: a U. of I. student who reported she had been approached at 9:27 a.m. June 9

http://police.illinois.edu/crime-reporting/police-blotter/

eastcoasterinco said:
I have to point out that the time that the second report was made was around 2pm. In the screen grab of YingYing's text conversation with the property contact at North 1 (upthread) YingYing indicates that she's running late and will be there around 2:10.

Can't help but notice the consistency in the times, although there's no way to know whether the second female who reported the similar incident did so right after it happened or hours/days later.

In any case, both females in your post reported that this happened in broad daylight in the morning/afternoon hours.

This perp is indeed brazen (if it's the same guy).

MOO


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[rbm]

I don't think it's odd that she was wearing the same hat. Many people have a favorite piece of clothing they wear more frequently than others.

IQuestion said:
I have another thought. (Tons of them actually,:blushing:.) Does the university use contract work on their agricultural sites? Do they own or lease the "structures" on the agricultural land? When the regular university schedule ends, some staff or contracted workers would still have to take care of the land, right? (Just thinking outside the box and trying to figure out where the car could be hidden, other than just a residential garage.) Hmmm, how do the ag students get to the "ag farms"? Do they use their own vehicles, team up with a designated driver, or use university vehicles?
**edited to add** I noticed how isolated the surroundings were in the picture of her in the blue windbreaker-type jacket and dark grey hat (with white logo)
and thinking to myself, <modsnip> She was wearing the same grey hat with white logo when she was taken. Is that just an odd coincidence?[/COLOR]
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LadyL said:
did you perhaps quote the wrong article? I don't see where it says a friend reported her missing
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In this article is says "Friend Chuck Guo contacted The News-Gazette on the afternoon of June 10 to report that Zhang was missing and ask for publicity."

In another News Gazette article, it says she "was reported missing Saturday," so the landlord or anyone else did not report her missing on Friday if this is correct: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-15/fbi-joins-search-missing-ui-scholar.html

While this does not necessarily confirm that this was the initial report to the police, this is only about 24 hours after when she was going to sign the lease, so very early in the process. He is also mentioned in several MSM articles as being a volunteer organizer for searches and events: http://wqad.com/2017/06/16/fbi-join...y-of-illinois-student-missing-since-june-9th/
 
IQuestion said:
HOLDYSI, Overall, how are people reacting locally? Do they think this is isolated, targeted or known to victim? Thank you so much for telling us the rest of the story. (I wish they could "erase" the case & photos...such a shame! Someone cried "wolf" and he ended up with a new mugshot, ugh!!)
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I agree with both Chambana and LoremIpsum. Either a local or someone who has become well-acquainted with the area (past student, staff member, current student, etc). I second that C-U is not a large city, but one would have to know how to navigate the area specifically the area where she was taken. Goodwin is a smaller, less populated side street and it requires certain knowledge to know how to get from there to one of the many roads that could take you out of town (University to Lincoln, University to Mattis or Prospect, Goodwin to Bradley to Lincoln to 74, etc). You couldn't figure it out quickly and sufficiently, on a whim, if you were new to the area.

Things have returned to their normal calm, but it is still regular "water cooler" conversation among colleagues here on campus.
 
Millhouse said:
In this article is says "Friend Chuck Guo contacted The News-Gazette on the afternoon of June 10 to report that Zhang was missing and ask for publicity."

In another News Gazette article, it says she "was reported missing Saturday," so the landlord or anyone else did not report her missing on Friday if this is correct: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-15/fbi-joins-search-missing-ui-scholar.html

While this does not necessarily confirm that this was the initial report to the police, this is only about 24 hours after when she was going to sign the lease, so very early in the process. He is also mentioned in several MSM articles as being a volunteer organizer for searches and events: http://wqad.com/2017/06/16/fbi-join...y-of-illinois-student-missing-since-june-9th/
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Also, just emphasizing again, he is NOT a suspect or a POI. He reported her missing and is a volunteer organizer to help find her. I am not suggesting anything else at all and we cannot and should not sleuth him (just covering my bases here!)
 
Some background info on her:

Arriving on April 24, Yingying Zhang moved into a one-bedroom apartment at the UI's Orchard Downs housing complex on South Race Street in Urbana. A friend already on campus recommended it, but Zhang soon realized she needed a place where she could interact with friends and share living expenses.

Although she had the opportunity to study at other universities, she chose the UI because of its "very prominent reputation in the field of agriculture," said Xiaolin Hou, her boyfriend and a Ph.D. student in agriculture at Peking University in China.

Zhang received her master's degree in environmental engineering last year from Peking University.

She met Hou about eight years ago in a college class. Their fields of study concerning crop productivity are similar.

The other main reason Zhang chose the UI, Hou said, was because she received enough money from a grant to afford to live and study here. She didn't want to be a financial burden to her parents, he said.

Neither of her parents went to college. Her father works as a truck driver at an electrical company and her mother is a housewife. Her only sibling, brother Xin Yang Zhang, 24, did not go to college.

Zhang's plan, family and friends said, was to ultimately become an agriculture professor — maybe in China, maybe elsewhere.

It was her first time in this country and her first major travel abroad, aside from once attending a professional conference in Holland, her boyfriend said.

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-23/family-missing-ui-scholar-never-never-give.html
 
Millhouse said:
In this article is says "Friend Chuck Guo contacted The News-Gazette on the afternoon of June 10 to report that Zhang was missing and ask for publicity."

In another News Gazette article, it says she "was reported missing Saturday," so the landlord or anyone else did not report her missing on Friday if this is correct: http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-15/fbi-joins-search-missing-ui-scholar.html

While this does not necessarily confirm that this was the initial report to the police, this is only about 24 hours after when she was going to sign the lease, so very early in the process. He is also mentioned in several MSM articles as being a volunteer organizer for searches and events: http://wqad.com/2017/06/16/fbi-join...y-of-illinois-student-missing-since-june-9th/
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MILLHOUSE :loveyou: You are a "go-to-sleuther" and always have the info, link and patience.
 
LadyL said:
[rbm]

I don't think it's odd that she was wearing the same hat. Many people have a favorite piece of clothing they wear more frequently than others.
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LADYL Thank you.... I think you just made my point!! If she had a stalker (or person otherwise obsessed with her?)....she would be very easy to spot if she "often" wore
a unique hat, even from a distance, walking on a sidewalk. My window faces out to a busy street and I might see 2 women, in a whole week, wearing a hat. (And I am in sunny Calif.) I still am curious<modsnip> The picture is on post #841....wish someone could just isolate that picture for us. Frankly, I don't even know if the pic was taken in Illinois...it is the isolation/remoteness background and the hat that intrigued me.
 
IQuestion said:
LADYL Thank you.... I think you just made my point!! If she had a stalker (or person otherwise obsessed with her?)....she would be very easy to spot if she "often" wore
a unique hat, even from a distance, walking on a sidewalk. My window faces out to a busy street and I might see 2 women, in a whole week, wearing a hat. (And I am in sunny Calif.) I still am curious<modsnip>The picture is on post #841....wish someone could just isolate that picture for us. Frankly, I don't even know if the pic was taken in Illinois...it is the isolation/remoteness background and the hat that intrigued me.
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I'm guessing it's an odd coincidence. The isolated picture looks like what I would could imagine some field work looks like for someone who studies crop productivity. If that's the case, likely a colleague or fellow researcher took this picture. It looks like Illinois to me, but I imagine corn fields look pretty similar lots of places. I have the same rain jacket on in so many of my pictures that people might think it's the only article of clothing I wear- of course, we don't know anything about this photo, but I'm guessing the hat was just a go to item of hers.

As for the fields, I don't know for sure, so this is just a guess, but I'd be shocked if the University leased the fields. They are a land grant university that has been around since 1862 and is renowned for agricultural research. They might have some partnerships or sponsorships, but I'd be very surprised if they were leasing them from someone else. I am sorry that I do not have time to research this more thoroughly right now, so just my guess.

There is a lot of research and activity near these fields. If anyone wanted to ditch a car somewhere, they would probably be better off picking one of the numerous other fields in the Champaign-Urbana area that is not university affiliated. IMO.
 
From some days back I see this news blurb from a community meeting:


Many people expressed concerns of not knowing where the investigation currently stands, but officials stressed how important it is for them to not give out too much information and said they don't want to jeopardize the evidence they currently have.
&#8220;We&#8217;re not going to announce it to the person we&#8217;re looking for who&#8217;s out there,&#8221; officials from the FBI department said. &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to have the information out there that can jeopardize the case.&#8221;
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I hope this means police have homed in on the relatively few black Saturn Astras that might&#8217;ve been in the central Illinois area (maybe even tied them in with some cell phone ping data) and are closing in on someone by now.
And I&#8217;ll say again, unless this guy is a total loner or hermit than SOMEbody around him, who knows he drives an Astra, has seen a change in his behavior/demeanor in recent weeks and needs to speak up!
 
http://www.autoblog.com/buy/2008-Saturn-Astra-XE__4dr_Hatchback/safety-features/

Standard features:
Stolen-vehicle tracking

Features: ONSTAR Safe and Sound:
In-Vehicle Assistance Service
Automatic Crash Response (airbags and/or sensors)
Emergency Services
Crisis Assist
Stolen Vehicle Assistance
Remote Door Unlock
Roadside Assistance
Remote Horn and Lights
Hands-Free Calling
Vehicle Diagnostics
 
It is disheartening to not have any new developments in this case. I can only surmise that the relative silence coming from LE means they have narrowed down their focus considerably.
 
The FBI has made it clear they will not be sharing any new information. We just have to wait.
 
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