This undated photo provided by The University of Illinois Police Department shows Yingying Zhang. Police said the FBI is investigating the disappearance of Zhang, a Chinese woman from a central Illinois university town, as a kidnapping. Zhang was about a month into a yearlong appointment at the University of Illinois' Urbana-Champaign when she disappeared June 9, 2017. (Courtesy of the University of Illinois Police Department via AP)
The family of a 26-year-old Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois has joined officials offering $40,000 for information leading to an arrest in the disappearance of Yingying Zhang.
Zhang was from Jianyang, China, and was about a month into a yearlong appointment at the University of Illinois when she disappeared.
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Surveillance video showed Zhang entering a black Saturn Astra in Urbana June 9, campus police said. Her friends claimed she had gone out to sign a lease.
Zhang’s relatives announced Monday night they were working with Champaign County Crime Stoppers to offer the reward in addition to the FBI’s reward of up to $10,000 for information to help locate Zhang.
“We have never offered a reward of this magnitude,” Crime Stoppers President John Hecker said.
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Hecker said they raised the money through a GoFundMe account and are still accepting donations, The News-Gazette reported.
Authorities have labeled the case a kidnapping, but haven't ruled anything out.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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