Recently, a new clue broke out in this case: On July 9, KMOV, a local TV media in St. Louis, Missouri, reported that in a small town called Salem, Illinois, many people reported to the authorities that they had seen YINGYING ZHANG, and the FBI was investigating these reports.
Salem is a small town, one and a half hours' drive east of St. Louis, about 200 kilometers southwest of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where YINGYING ZHANG disappeared. According to these witnesses, on June 65438+6, 2006, YINGYING ZHANG appeared in the small town of Salem and sold them jewels to help her continue her studies. Another person claimed that YINGYING ZHANG was in her shop on June 16, wearing the same clothes as the photos released by the FBI. The local police in Salem said that they had read these reports, but found no specific clues. The FBI says it is following these clues.
In the first trial on July 3rd, YINGYING ZHANG's family met the suspect in court for the first time. July 4th is the National Day of the United States. The second trial on July 5 decided that the suspect should not be released on bail. After YINGYING ZHANG disappeared, the local Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) and China Association quickly organized themselves to help the police find YINGYING ZHANG. They spread information through WeChat, organized volunteers, built a website looking for Yingying to update their progress, and set up accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Weibo to call people's attention to this matter. Although hope faded with time, they didn't give up.
Recently, Feng Lili, a doctoral student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who participated in the search, said that everyone must hope that she is still alive, but both the police and the FBI believe that she is probably dead. But at least the final conclusion has not come out yet, so we will continue to wait hopefully.