FBI offers $10K reward to help find missing Chinese scholar
Associated Press
June 18, 2017
URBANA, Ill. (AP) — The FBI is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that'll help locate a visiting scholar from China who disappeared from the University of Illinois.
Twenty-six-year-old Yingying Zhang was about a month into a yearlong appointment at the central Illinois university when she disappeared June 9.
Campus police say surveillance video shows her entering a black Saturn Astra vehicle in Urbana that afternoon. Her friends told authorities she had gone out to sign a lease.
Authorities have labeled the case a kidnapping, but aren't ruling anything out. The FBI announced the reward Saturday.
Zhang was working in the university's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, researching photosynthesis and crop productivity. University officials say Zhang's visiting scholar appointment runs through April 2018. 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-6-19 23:51 标题: 回复 5楼pp_dream 的帖子
Some comments copied below:
James 20 hours ago
Grew up in Champaign and graduated U of I in 67. Campus was a safe place to be if you stayed sober and avoided frat parties. Predators can pop up anywhere. College students do a lot of walking, sometimes late in the evening around campus. I guess that makes them vulnerable to predators. One demented predator or serial offender can do a lot of damage when targeting random victims of opportunity. Ramp up campus police surveillance and girls need to never walk alone or be alone with unknown persons 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-6-19 23:52 标题: 回复 6楼pp_dream 的帖子
MaLa 18 hours ago
I really hope this girl is found safe and sound. After living in China for nearly five years, I can say that although the place has its own problems and issues to work out, it is very safe. A girl can walk alone at night on any street in Shanghai at 2 a.m. and not think twice about her safety. For a city of 30+ million people, that is pretty remarkable. Unfortunately, the average Chinese girl is quite naive and childish until well into her late twenties. They don't know that you can't do the same thing in the US. It is long overdue for us Americans to do some soul-searching. Why is it that the richest and most powerful nation on Earth is so plagued with violence? Why is it that mass shootings are so commonplace when just over the border in Canada (where you can also own guns) they hardly occur? These things didn't happen a few decades ago, and there were just as many guns, so what went wrong with the culture over the past 40-or-so years that has gotten us to this point? Honestly this kind of thing is an embarrassment to the rest of the world and it needs to stop. 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-6-19 23:54 标题: 回复 7楼pp_dream 的帖子
Mike Honcho 18 hours ago
She was dead as soon as she got into the car. Rule number one, in a kidnapping situation, don't get into any vehicle. Fight with all your might, scratch, claw, kick, scream, make a huge scene. Never get into a vehicle. Make them fight you for it, they most likely will feel you aren't worth the trouble. And if you are in a vehicle, if you are able, jump out as soon as possible. Even if the vehicle is still moving. As soon as it slows for a turn or stop, get the hell out, if possible. Better to take your chances with the pavement, than a psycho with a weapon, hellbent on doing bad things to you. 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-6-19 23:55 标题: 回复 8楼pp_dream 的帖子
cl 20 hours ago
America can be a very dangerous place If you don't know our way of life. in many inner cities , during the summer you see people sitting on the front steps looking at you when you drive down. Lots of prayers if your car breaks down there. 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-6-19 23:57 标题: 回复 9楼pp_dream 的帖子
Monte Pair 11 hours ago
I hope this young lady will be found safe and sound. Much of the USA is just as safe for Chinese visitors as North Korea is for young Americans. They are not properly warned of the dangers inherent to living in the USA and political correctness blocks us from explaining it to them. 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-6-20 00:03 标题: 回复 10楼pp_dream 的帖子
看这个评论:
Bugle 20 hours ago
This entire area is trashed! I grew up there and left 37 years ago, and I only go back when I need to. Crime has soared! It's like a giant prison. Everyone is angry, have no manners, have no respect for themselves or anyone else. The little league fields, parks, and schools lay in ruins. There are no jobs even in Chicago. Jealousy is like air. Unfortunately, in the increasing areas of our country like this one, the innocent are victims of the hunters - those who blame others for their lack of morality, community, and future. This is not a racial, political, or gender based critique. When people turn off their phones and come together, we and our families will be more safe. We do not need more cops; we need more of each other. 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-6-20 00:07
On June 29, 2017, “while Christensen was under law enforcement surveillance, agents overheard him explaining that he kidnapped Zhang. Based on this, and other facts uncovered during the investigation of this matter, law enforcement agents believe that Ms. Zhang is no longer alive,” the affidavit contends. It doesn’t reveal whom Christensen was allegedly speaking with at the time. 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-7-1 21:47
According to his LinkedIn page, Christensen is a PhD Student Researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and he has worked there for 3 years and 7 months. That’s the same university where Zhang was a visiting scholar.
Christensen wrote on LinkedIn: “I am a PhD candidate in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently, I fabricate nanoscale-level devices and perform electrical measurements on them in order to discover new things about mesoscopic physics. These measurements are done with a variety of devices; most notably probe stations and cryogenic systems. Along the way, I utilize an assortment of programs and skills, such as Python, LabVIEW, electron-beam lithography, atomic force microscopy, and much more.” 作者: pp_dream 时间: 2017-7-1 21:48