Deceased/Not Found IL - Yingying Zhang, 26, Urbana, 9 June 2017 #2 *Arrest*

[sherpa14]

With the amount of time elapsed, lack of information, removal of her face and the vehicle from billboards, I strongly agree and share, "just your opinion."

Just my thoughts, as well.

From: http://police.illinois.edu/search-updates/

The FBI has announced that investigators located the black Saturn Astra used in the abduction of Yingying Zhang.

The driver is not some random innocent. This car was observed multiple times trying to lure young women into his car. I don't really understand all this rampant speculation about her family, boyfriend, trying to escape China (seriously? she's a top tier student with a full scholarship coming to further her education!), when there's a clear cut answer with multiple independent corroborations: a lone creep was trying to lure women into his car, posing as an undercover officer at least once, and finally succeeded with Yingying. Really, Occam's razor reigns supreme.

 

[IQuestion]

As for what she would have in her bag: Maybe my experience was unique, but I didn't really need that much to actually sign my lease. I needed a check and my ID. She was already approved prior to this according to posts upthread stating this happened on June 8, and the initial screening is when I needed my proof of income and other documents. And also in my experience, most college complex landlord companies wouldn't accept cash for a security deposit or rent, so if she had money on her, I would guess it was a check, money order, or something similar to that. That being said, I also didn't text with my larege apartment complex landlord, so they might have been operating under different circumstances.

As for the phone, I'm curious to know the answer to this. Does she have an iPhone? Is it the difference of whether she's using iMessage/Wifi vs. cellular service?

MILLHOUSE your post BBM above /and NICK_1 your question on what is she carrying in her backpack....ID, passport, cash, DEBIT CARD, grant money, check book....etc. Could she have been lured to the apartment complex for a robbery at the apartment complex/or locked/held in a vacant apartment? Golly, just thinking on these computer keys, again....but she might very well have been dropped off at the
apartment complex, but never made it to the front office! All it would take is someone saying, "Let me show you this better apartment that just became available." Hmmmmmm (insert suspicious sleuth emoticon) I only ask because a lot of sites make it a point to say "GUEST SCHOLAR" as opposed to undergrad or student could or would that give an outsider the impression that she had a lot of money/assets??

 

[Elainera]

I think we should all try our hardest not to assume the Terminal is involved in any way. I believe it was the closest cell tower where her phone pinged, that terminal is not far at all from the location where she was picked up. Lots of theories have started regarding her or her phone being left at the Terminal and I don't think we have enough information to go there, to me it's as simple as her proximity to the cell tower and that's it.

snipped for focus and bbm

That's an interesting point. The ping was close to where she was picked up yet it happened more than half an hour after she was picked up, right? So either her or her phone was still in the area half an hour after she left in the car when it pinged. The question are, why did it stop pinging, and where is it? Was it dumped in a pond, destroyed, etc? Or was it simply switched off or lost battery power? Is it possible to determine why a phone stops pinging? Does it behave differently when it's switched off vs being destroyed or submerged in water?

 

[DQN]

[FONT=&quot] Cell towers, typically, have three sides: Alpha, Beta and Gamma. A tower is essentially nothing more than a line-of-sight instrument and is computer controlled to “hand off” a call as it passes from one tower’s radius area to another. Inner-city towers are typically good for up to one to two miles; however, the towers’ cell signals can be blocked by tall buildings, more so by a newer, predominantly “steel” type of skyscraper.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]The most important factors to understand when reading cell towers are the traffic, the pitch of the tower, and the landscape or terrain. For example, it would not be uncommon for a call in San Jose to cross the San Francisco Bay and get picked up an Oakland or East Bay tower, some 20 miles away, again, depending on the traffic.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]There are temporary situations with tower traffic that are not addressed by the cellular companies, such as when a major league team is playing a game and people are sitting in traffic waiting to get to a ballpark. The towers in the immediate area will get overloaded, and the computers will do their best to seek and connect to a reasonably close tower. With no interference, again, this signal could travel a great distance, and reading the tower reports can be confusing, making the cell tower traffic reports that much more important.[/FONT]

 

[daisy.faithfull]

<cough, cough> People get passionate, but at the end of the day we're all just trying to make sense something that I don't think any of us can completely make sense of. I love Websleuths because we have so many people looking at things from all angles. <cough, cough> :loveyou:

 

[Ven]

If the vehicle were stolen, I think it would have been located much sooner. IMO, the owner of the vehicle or the person who was borrowing/using it on June 9th, is the person who kidnapped Yingying. This person would be under constant surveillance, but police are still looking for Ms. Zhang.

 

[HeatherLiu]

<modsnip>

My point is to not assume the worst from her family or her.<modsnip>

<modsnip> what happened to her was heartbreaking. All countries are different and as far as i'm concerned adult kidnapping is not as common in China. I'm posting here in WB because I want to offer you guys another perspective, and I'm sure you can understand me.

Besides, even if she went away willingly in the first place, it does not mean she's not in danger.

 

[liltexans]

I'm trying to figure out if you all want the thread shut down or not?

The alerts are getting out of control on this thread.

You all have been warned more than once to stop bickering with each other, stop the snark, and stop insinuating that Yingying's family or boyfriend are involved with her kidnapping. And yes, the FBI has labeled Yingying's disappearance a kidnapping.

Familiarize yourselves with the rules and TOS and learn to scroll and roll or use the helpful "ignore" feature if you cannot stand to read another member's opinion.

If the nonsense continues, you may be subject to loss of posting privileges.

This post falls at random.

 

[daisy.faithfull]

Regarding the possible prior abduction attempt/attempts...

I have just been reading over at the first thread, so it is fresh in my mind. It was first brought up on Reddit. A Websleuther noted that nothing like that was on the police blotter, then an article stated:

Investigators are also looking into reports of a black vehicle whose driver invited other young women into the car, police said.They've talked to one person who reported a similar encounter in another west Urbana neighborhood in early June, Wade said. It's unclear whether that incident is connected to Zhang's disappearance, but "it's one scenario we've explored, and we're not ruling anything out," he said.

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

I guess I still have questions in my mind as to whether or not it/they actually occurred because it wasn't on the police blotter.

 

[liltexans]

Family of missing U of I scholar has renewed hope

On Tuesday morning around 11 o'clock the Zhang family waited in anticipation, as the FBI gave them an important update. The car that Yingying Zhang was last seen getting into 19 days ago, was found.

Xiaolin Hou - "It absolutely is a hope. They've been here for quite a while now and all along they didn't hear anything and it makes the waiting very difficult to figure out what could be the result."

When they first heard about it, it was a relief. But despite this good news, one question remains.

Xiaolin Hou - "Now the car is found but where is Yingying? Yingying is not in the car so what happened?"

And there are dozens of other thoughts running through their minds.

Liqin Ye - "How did it happen? Where is she now? Do you have anymore?"

Many people have joined in on the search for her. But the family believes it's important to get to know the person they're looking for. To know the young woman Yingying Zhang is.

 

[sherpa14]

That's the biggest clue they've given indirectly in this whole case.

Um, they found the car. They announced they no longer need tips to find the car, because they already have it. There's no indirect anything here.

 

[sherpa14]

I find it amazing the FBI is managing to keep the location of where the Astra was found a secret. I don't see identifying the car parked on the street or in a parking lot because LE presence would seem to be noticed by others. I'm thinking either when going through the owners of black Astra's they came across the owner and he admitted to giving her a rider OR he saw himself on video and went to LE voluntarily. Even then LE would probably have towed the Astra somewhere for processing and that had to be noticed. Of course, the media may be cooperating with LE as well if only one or two news agencies has uncovered the secret.

<modsnip>

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-06-27/car-used-pick-ui-scholar-located.html - read the comments

I have a feeling it was hidden away in a nature preserve and found by a forest ranger, but just a guess. That's the most likely way it avoided any attention

 

[GigTu]

They also don't needs tips on where the car was seen because it has theft assist software and onstar built in. They'll be able to find out where that car went after picking up Yingying.

 

[daisy.faithfull]

In my mind, I still question removing the car from the billboards. Its a huge piece of the puzzle, and if someone were to see it associated with a missing person that they may not have actually seen something might click.

:loveyou:

 

[CluelessWonder]

I know it's easy to lose patience. But hang in there, people. Don't let it get to you. Just be kind. When people lash out, it makes me sad for our world. We all want the same thing. Put your energy where it needs to be. I'm just hoping for a miracle for Yingying and all missing people. May your shining light help to bring them home.

 

[Nick_1]

In my mind, I still question removing the car from the billboards. Its a huge piece of the puzzle, and if someone were to see it associated with a missing person that they may not have actually seen something might click.

:loveyou:

Fair point, I agree, exposure never hurts.

However, I am confident the investigators wouldn't spend the time and money on putting up a billboard they didn't believe could be beneficial.

But, what if this piece of the puzzle is a corner piece? It's already set in place. What if that's all we're looking at really, maybe 3-4 corner pieces of a 5000 piece jigsaw puzzle?

Oh, and the puzzle box is hidden.

This is a tough one, I think.

 

[daisy.faithfull]

I know it's easy to lose patience. But hang in there, people. Don't let it get to you. Just be kind. When people lash out, it makes me sad for our world. We all want the same thing. Put your energy where it needs to be. I'm just hoping for a miracle for Yingying and all missing people. May your shining light help to bring them home.

This. :loveyou:

 

[Satchie]

Me too, Holdysi. I wish LE would come out and say whether or not it is still a car of interest.

I can't find a statement on the FBI site, but the actual wording on the U Illinois police Facebook page is: "The FBI has announced that investigators located the black Saturn Astra used in the abduction of Yingying Zhang.”

So it is still considered an abduction by someone driving that particular car.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[daisy.faithfull]

I can't find a statement on the FBI site, but the actual wording on the U Illinois police Facebook page is: "The FBI has announced that investigators located the black Saturn Astra used in the abduction of Yingying Zhang.&#8221;

So it is still considered an abduction by someone driving that particular car.

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

A mere "thank you" click isn't enough, thank you so much for pointing that out to me Satchie!:loveyou:

 

[Nick_1]

Full FBI statement

Champaign, IL. - Yingying Zhang, a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois waslast seen on Friday, June 9, 2017 in Urbana, Illinois. Security cameras captured hergetting into a car at the corner of West Clark Street and North Goodwin Avenuearound 2:04 p.m. that day.The car was described as a black Saturn Astra four-door hatchback. The University ofIllinois Police Department and FBI have received numerous leads regarding thevehicle, and we are announcing we have located the vehicle. We will not need anyfurther information from the public regarding the Black Saturn Astra.We have developed several additional leads and would like to remind the public thatthis is still an active investigation. We continue to ask the public for information thatcould lead to locating Ms. Zhang. The FBI continues to offer a reward of up to $10,000for information leading to the location of Yingying Zhang. Anyone with informationcan contact 1-800-CALLFBI (1-800-225-5324).You may also contact your local FBI office or the nearest American Embassy orConsulate.

Link: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/kidnap/yingying-zhang/@@download.pdf