Family members of Zhang Yingying, the Chinese student at the University of Illinois who was believed to be kidnapped on June 9, have arrived in Champaign, some 200 km south of Chicago, in search of answers.
Zhang’s father, aunt and boyfriend landed in O'Hare International Airport on Saturday and headed to the university’s campus to meet with the administration. They were contacted by local authorities and updated on the case.
The 26-year-old student went missing nine days ago, and FBI confirmed on Wednesday that they are treating her disappearance as a kidnapping.
She was last seen getting in a black Saturn Astra on the east side of Goodwin Avenue just after 2:00 p.m. on June 9. Security footage showed her and the driver speaking for some time before she stepped inside the vehicle.
Zhang is a visiting scholar at the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois and had been in the US for about a month before she disappeared.
According to her father, Zhang was heading out to sign an apartment lease when she went missing.
Her last phone call was made at 2:30 p.m. the same afternoon, and when her agent called her at 2:38 p.m., she did not reply.
The Chinese Consulate General in Chicago, which initiated an emergency plan on Tuesday, has stepped to help Zhang's family reach the US.
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