Father's Day gift would be return of daughter, dad says

The father of a Chinese student missing from a Midwestern university campus since June 9 met with law enforcement and university officials on Saturday after arrival in the US on the same day.

Zhang Yingying's father Zhang Ronggao, her aunt and her boyfriend Hou Xiaolin met with law enforcement and university officials accompanied by officials from China's consulate general in Chicago, according to the University of Illinois police website.

Zhang told media that finding his daughter as soon as possible would be the best gift for Father's Day, which he would spend in Illinois, the first time for him to be in a foreign country.

Staff of the Chinese consulate cited police as saying that major breakthrough has been made in the investigation, but no details were revealed, Xinhua reported.

The University of Illinois Community Credit Union has set up an account to raise money to cover the family's living expenses on campus. According to World Journal, as of June 18 the fund had reached $36,463 with contributions from 1,070 people, exceeding the goal of $30,000.

A tweet from The Federal Bureau of Investigation said it is now offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information leading to the location of Zhang, 26, who was last seen near the north end of the campus when she boarded a Champaign-Urbana mass transit bus on June 9.

Police confirmed Zhang was wearing a charcoal-colored baseball cap, a pink and white long-sleeved flannel shirt, jeans, white tennis shoes and was carrying a black backpack, and exited the West Springfield and North Mathews avenue at 1:52 pm.

Zhang was then captured on security cameras talking to a white male through the window of a black Saturn Astra, five blocks from where she got off the bus, the same day. Zhang got into the vehicle and it drove off.

The FBI, which has joined Illinois State Police and the University of Illinois Police Department in the search for Zhang, listed the case as kidnapping on its website.

Concerned residents and students have, under the direction of the UIUC Chinese Students and Scholars Associations (UIUC CSSA), distributed flyers around the city in what they describe as a "carpet search mission".

"On Thursday, volunteers embarked on eight different routes throughout the greater vicinity of Champaign County to hang up flyers in surrounding villages," a UIUC CSSA representative said.

The University of Illinois Police Department, the Office of the Dean of Students and the International Student and Scholar Services held a forum to share information about the ongoing investigation on June 15.

Patrick Wade, spokesman of the UIUC Police Department, said officers were working around the clock for Zhang's return.

"We have officers coming in on their days off and staying late after their shifts to review the video, in order to identify and speak with potential witnesses and analyze electronic information," he said.

"There are dozens of police officers working on this case."

The university police department's website said that detectives have been using vehicle records to identify a number of registered owners of the type of vehicle in the video.

"Investigators continue to utilize image enhancing technology available through the FBI," the website said.

Xiao Jiaqiao in New York contributed to this story.

China Daily

(China Daily USA 06/19/2017 page2)