I wonder why it's so complex? Glad to hear they have a lot of leads to follow up on.
Safety concerns rise over missing student
"The FBI has been involved, which is routine in missing persons cases," Patrick Wade, communications director of the UIUC Police Department, told China Daily. "
But that they have identified the plate number is incorrect information, which gained traction on social media."
After seeing UIPD's comment about the search being complex, honestly, the first thing that came to my mind was that perhaps the vehicle Yingying got into had stolen plates. My reasoning for that was because as posted by others, the model of the car appears to be quite rare -produced only for two years- and thus current registered owners should be relatively easily identified, yet no statement has been in this regard has been made at least publicly, leading me to believe that the vehicle had been stolen and plates switched.
Maybe the car is actually registered in another state but now with plates that are registered and have been stolen in IL. In this scenario, it's quite possible that the out-of-state-registered vehicle belongs to someone affiliated with UI who is from out of state or abroad, and LE has most likely identified the legitimate owner, but unless there is a clear image that shows the perp in possession of it -and if LE has found such footage, I'm sure they have released it by now-, it would be extremely difficult to find the driver, IMO. It's also possible the perp already had a second set of stolen plates even before kidnapping Yingying for post-abduction purposes.
So hopefully, someone in the community -though it's also possible that the perp is based nowhere near UI, or has no connection to the university- will contact LE about someone who, uncharastristicly, disappeared for an extended period of time beginning around the time Yingying went missing or has been gone since. If the perp is a student, especially, it would be very easy to use a visit home or a research trip as an excuse, however, and I'm afraid Yingying's story hasn't reached wherever he may be by now. I also hope that even with incorrect plates, with the issuance of the FBI notice, a LEO will notice the vehicle, and/or there will be some kind of location information obtained from her phone.
Right now, I feel that the set-up of the crime was carefully planned, but Yingying was likely picked out randomly, other than that the perp was perhaps looking for someone not very familiar with the US culture and a non-native speaker of English, thus spending some time talking to her before luring her into his vehicle.
I feel that time is of the essence here.