Held just weeks after Yingying Zhang's killer was convicted and sentenced to life in
prison and just two days after the family's attorneys held a news conference to explain why recovery of the dismembered remains believed to be buried deep in a landfill will likely never be recovered, her father, Ronggao Zhang, told stories that he hoped would convey what made his daughter so special.
In Mandarin, his words translated for those sitting before him at the First Baptist Church in Savoy, just a few miles from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana campus where Zhang attended school, he talked about how hard she worked at school and how she excelled despite the financial struggles of a family that could simply not afford to pay for the tutors that are available to wealthier students.