Yingying Zhang, a Chinese college student visiting the University of Illinois, has been missing since Friday, June 9.
Zhang’s friends contacted police on Saturday, June 10 after they hadn’t heard from her since she went to an apartment complex to sign a lease on Friday.
On Monday, University of Illinois Police released a video showing the 26-year-old getting off of a bus and into a black Saturn Astra in Urbana around 2 PM on Friday.
University police are currently investigating whether Zhang, an argiculture student, may have use a ride-sharing service before she was reported missing.
via The Champaign News-Gazette:
Police are seeking the public’s help in identifying the vehicle, a black Saturn Astra. Detectives are also examining her cellphone records and working with ride-hailing companies such as Uber to see if Zhang, a visiting scholar from China, may have arranged for a ride, Wade said.
The video released Monday morning, from the B-4 parking garage on North Goodwin, shows Zhang standing on the east side of Goodwin as the vehicle pulls up beside her. She and the driver speak for some time before she enters the vehicle shortly after 2 p.m., which then continues north on Goodwin Avenue.
“The biggest thing right now is we are asking people to watch that video. Our hope is that someone will recognize the vehicle, or have some information about that encounter that we can follow up on,” University of Illiois Police spokesman Patrick Wade said.
Zhang, a visiting researcher with the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, had arrived at UI in April and was staying at the Orchard Downs complex in Urbana.
According to police, Zhang boarded a Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District Teal line bus at 1:35 PM and got off at 1:52 PM at Springfield and Mathews avenues in Urbana, police said.
Police say she was on her way to the One North apartment complex on North Lincoln Avenue in Urbana to sign a lease.
Police are asking with information to call 911 or university police at 217-333-1216.
