Yale Student death
Yale Student Strangled To Death
ale University student Annie Le
A woman identified by police as Yale University student Annie Le is seen walking into a research building at 10 Amistad St. on the Yale campus in this surveillance camera photo from September 9, 2009 released by the Yale University Police Department in New Haven, Connecticut. Le, a 24-year-old pharmacology student from Placerville, California, who had planned to marry her college sweetheart on Sunday, was last seen walking into the research building at the University on September 9 before disappearing. Police said September 14, 2009 that they were hunting for a killer who hid a body that investigators found inside a laboratory wall of the building Sunday and that they believe the body to be that of the Le.
Annie Le, the Yale University graduate student killed days before her wedding, was strangled and a laboratory worker remains the only “person of interest” in the case, Connecticut authorities said today.
The cause of Le’s death was “traumatic asphyxiation due to neck compression,” said a statement from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Connecticut.
Police earlier today released Raymond Clark, a laboratory technician named in the investigation of the death of the 24- year-old Le, whose body was found Sept. 13 in a basement at the lab where she conducted research.
Clark, 24, who worked in the animal research lab where Le studied, had been held by police in New Haven, while they obtained a sample of his genetic material, New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said at a news conference. Clark left the station with his lawyer at about 3 a.m. today after he was held for five hours, the police said.
Clark did “custodial-type work” in the lab building, such as cleaning mouse cages, Lewis said.
The police chief declined to characterize any relationship between Le and Clark, other than to say, “They worked in the same building; they passed in the hallways.”
Police are working under the belief that Le died at the hands of one killer, Lewis said. The authorities are testing hundreds of items for possible DNA traces, and an arrest warrant could be obtained within a couple of hours if a match is returned, Lewis said.
No Prior Complaints
New Haven police said they hadn’t received any prior complaints about Clark.
“Never,” said officer Joseph Avery, a spokesman for the department, when asked in an interview if Clark had ever come to the department’s attention.
Asked if there were other suspects or people of interest police were investigating, Avery said, “We are looking at a lot of possibilities.”
Police left Clark’s apartment in Middletown, Connecticut, this morning after an overnight search. Clark was taken away from the apartment last night while neighbors leaned over a railing and cheered, residents said. Authorities towed away a red Ford Mustang that neighbors said Clark used, the Associated Press reported.
Police Warrant
Police had a warrant to take samples of Clark’s hair, saliva and fingernails for DNA testing, Lewis said. Clark will be arrested or cleared of the crime by the end of the week, the newspaper said, citing Lewis.
Le was last seen Sept. 8. Her body was found in a Yale School of Medicine research lab at 10 Amistad St. in New Haven five days later, on the day she was scheduled to be married.
Clark left his apartment with his companion, another technician at the Yale lab, around the time Le’s body was discovered, getting into a Ford Taurus and driving away, the New York Times reported, citing neighbors.
He hadn’t been at work for several days, the newspaper said, citing a researcher at the Yale lab who asked not to be identified. His sister and brother-in-law also work as animal research technicians at the laboratory, the Times reported.
Lewis said he wouldn’t speculate on a motive for the killing of Le.
Evidence Seized
Investigators pored over 700 hours of videotapes from surveillance cameras around the laboratory, interviewed more than 150 people and seized 250 pieces of evidence, much of which has been sent to forensic labs for testing, Lewis said.
Le, who was studying for a doctorate in pharmacology, was from Placerville, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, the Yale Daily News reported. She graduated from the University of Rochester, in New York, where she met her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, now a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City, the newspaper said.
The night of Monday, Sept. 14, about 2,000 Yale students, faculty and staff attended a candlelight vigil on the Cross Campus, where the University President Richard Levin said, “Our hearts go out to the family of Annie Le, to her fiance and his family, and to her many friends. We pray for their comfort and well-being, as we honor and remember Annie.”
Staff and students arriving at the Amistad Street building are being escorted to their offices by police officers, and patrols by city and campus police have visibly increased. Mary Miller, dean of students, sent an e-mail to parents of Yale students that said the campus was safe and that last year crime was at its lowest level since 1985.
The murder was the first at Yale since 1998, when Suzanne Jovin, 21, was stabbed 17 times in the head, neck and back about 2 miles from campus. The case remains unsolved, according to stories in the student newspaper.
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