Family of missing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying petitions US President

The family of missing Chinese scholar Zhang Yingying has petitioned the US President Donald Trump seeking federal assistance in Zhang’s search, her father said at a press conference held in Champaign Illinois on Tuesday local time.

"With each passing day, the chances of finding Yingying alive decreases. We fervently request that you direct all available federal law enforcement and investigatory resources be used to find our daughter as soon as possible," the petition letter states.

It has been over two months since Zhang disappeared on June 9 after getting into a black Saturn Astra car at a bus stop on the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign campus.

On June 30, the FBI arrested and charged Brendt Christensen, a Champaign resident and former physics graduate student at the university, with kidnapping Zhang. Christensen has pleaded not guilty in the court.

(CGTN)