Missing student’s family has theories on disappearance
Yingying Zhang is so cautious, she warned her aunt in China to “be careful” when going out and to avoid using shared ride services.
“You never know who it is,” Liqin Ye recalled her niece saying.
“It could be because she is here, and she felt that the campus is very safe, and therefore she was less guarded,” Ye said Thursday.
“The other reason could be because she was to sign a lease with the landlord, and she was late, and so she was eager to be there on time,” the aunt said.”And that, perhaps, sort of triggered her to decide to get into the car. We can’t think of any other reason that she would randomly jump into a stranger’s car.”
.
“Her mom … being a mom, is obviously reluctant to let her go afar,” Zhang’s aunt said. “And her mom’s thought is kind of a traditional way … ‘This is the age for you to get married, have a family. There’s no need to go this far, to the United States.’ “
But Zhang’s father “was always a supporter in whatever her dream is.”
Her dream, ever since she was a little girl, was to become a university professor.
“To be a faculty member in China, there are certain qualifications you have to meet, and as part of that you have to have broad experience in terms of your research and your study,” Ye said. “And that’s probably what motivated her to want to come to the United States.”
Zhang also knew that the United States had the most cutting-edge research in her field, environmental sciences, her aunt said.
Despite being so far from home, “her perspective is it’s generally safe in the United States,” Ye said.