$50,000 in rewards offered in hunt for Chinese scholar

A local CrimeStoppers chapter in Illinois offered a reward of $40,000, while the US Federal Bureau of Investigation offered $10,000, on Monday for information leading to the arrest of any individual involved in the apparent kidnapping of 26-year-old Zhang Yingying, a visiting Chinese scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It is the largest reward that Champaign County CrimeStoppers has ever offered in its 31-year history, according to the group's president, John Hecker, at a news conference at the university's Illinois Fire Service Institute.

The reward money was raised through individual donations and is administered by CrimeStoppers, a nonprofit organization not affiliated with the police.