The FBI says the search for a visiting Chinese scholar missing from the University of Illinois is a national priority for the agency.
Jon Holloway, assistant special agent in charge of criminal investigation at the Springfield FBI office, discussed the FBI’s efforts Thursday night at a campus meeting attended by over 100 people about 26-year-old Yingying Zhang’s disappearance.
Holloway says updates are being regularly sent to the office of the FBI’s acting director and 56 U.S. field offices. He said that more agents are working on this case than would normally be in the entire Springfield area.
“There are going to be a lot of questions about the investigation that I cannot answer. Anything I say here will be heard by the abductor,” he said. “It would jeopardize our efforts to locate her and to bring her abductor to justice.”
A University of Illinois police spokesman said Chinese language posters were being put together with information about the case.
Zhang was last seen on a surveillance video getting into a black Saturn Astra in Urbana on the afternoon of June 9. Police have labeled the case a kidnapping but haven’t ruled out other scenarios.
Her father, aunt and boyfriend, Xiaolin Hou, are staying in university housing as the search continues, and the family has been joined in Champaign-Urbana by her close friend, a PhD candidate at Syracuse University, The News-Gazette in Champaign reported.
Hou expressed concern about the pace of the investigation, telling the newspaper, “We’re hoping to learn about the progress of the case.”
Zhang arrived at U. of I. in April as a visiting scholar in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences. Her goal is to become a professor in the United States or China, according to the friend.
Earlier Thursday, her father Ronggao Zhang made an emotional appeal for his daughter’s safe return in an interview with The News-Gazette.
“Give my daughter back,” Ronggao Zhang said through an interpreter. “Ying, be strong, Dad is waiting for you here.”
Ronggao Zhang said the family intended to stay in the United States as long as needed: “We’re not leaving without her.”
Chicago Tribune staff contributed.
