Long Island

ny-annielee-sg

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond J. Clark</a> III pleaded guilty Thursday to the murder of <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a>, the Yale graduate student who was killed in a laboratory building days before her wedding to <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> native Jonathan Widawsky.
Clark, 26, pleaded guilty to murdering Le and attempted sexual assault. His agreement with prosecutors calls for a 44-year sentence.
Clark appeared in the cramped New Haven courtroom wearing a blue shirt, dark pants and no handcuffs. He stood expressionless as prosecutors read a lengthy list of evidence against him. 
He had pleaded not guilty early last year. Had his case gone to trial, he could have faced life in prison without the possibility of parole. 
Prosecutors described Clark's actions after Le was reported missing, including attempts to hide or destroy evidence. Asked whether the facts read by the prosecutor relating to the charge of murder were accurate, Clark nodded and said, "Yes, sir."
Judge Roland D. Fasano also asked Clark whether he understood that he would not be able to seek a trial. Clark answered yes.
Clark's father, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a> Jr., mother, Diane Clark, and fiancee, Jennifer Hromadka, were in the courtroom.
The elder Clark extended his family's condolences to the Le family and said that he was proud of his son for taking responsibility for his actions.
"I can't tell you how many times he sobbed uncontrollably, telling me how sorry he is, telling me how his heart is tortured by the reality that he caused the death of <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie</a>," he said.
Le's family was not in court but plans to be at Clark's sentencing, scheduled for later in the spring, prosecutors said. Widawsky also was not in court.
Clark has been held on $3-million bail at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Conn. 
Le, of Placerville, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., was last seen shortly after 10 a.m. Sept. 8, 2009. A doctoral student in pharmacology, she was to marry Widawsky on Sept. 13, 2009, at Temple Beth El in <a href="/topics/Huntington%2C_NY">Huntington</a>, the same day her body was found hidden in the basement of the lab at 10 Amistad St.
Police found several pieces of physical evidence they said linked Clark to the crime scene, including a bloody sock with Le's and Clark's DNA, hidden above a ceiling tile, according to court documents.
Clark was an animal research technician at Le's laboratory building at the time of the murder.

News

Nation/World

LIYALE18

Man pleads guilty in Yale student killing

Annie Le

A year ago Wednesday, Yale student <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie</a> Le went missing just days before her Syosset wedding to her <a href="/topics/Huntington%2C_NY">Huntington</a> fiance. 
At the time, the college student's frightened family was put up in campus housing, courtesy of the university. Yale officials briefed Le's relatives on daily developments in the case. And when her body was found strangled and stuffed inside a wall of the Yale lab building where she did research, it was a university chaplain who helped them through their grief. 
Twelve months later, despite Yale's overtures after Le's death, her mother has hired a law firm that's investigating whether the university did enough to protect the 24-year-old Placerville, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., pharmacology doctoral student in the first place. 
Earlier this summer, <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie</a> Le's mother, Vivian Le, asked the <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a> law firm to look into the actions of Yale officials leading up to the discovery of her daughter's body. 
Standing outside a New Haven courthouse Wednesday where Le's accused killer, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond J. Clark</a> III, had a scheduled pretrial conference, the attorney, Brian King, said the law firm he works for has begun its own inquiry and has a private investigator digging for answers. 
Depending on what their investigation shows, King said, the family would consider filing a lawsuit against Yale. 
"What was going on the day of her death?" King said. "Were they looking around for her? Why wasn't anyone helping her when this was happening? Where was everybody?" 
Yale spokesman Tom Conroy did not return a call for comment but in an e-mail wrote that the university "has not been notified of any legal action or planned legal action. The Yale community continues to offer support to Annie's family and friends." 
Clark, now 25, worked with Annie Le as a lab technician at the time of her disappearance. In a televised interview last year, Clark's ex-girlfriend said he acted violently toward her while they were in high school. 
King questioned whether the university thoroughly checked out his background before it hired him. 
Wednesday, King also said that Le's family also found "somewhat insulting" the $10,000 reward Yale offered for clues in the case, money he called "a very minimal reward." 
Clark has pleaded not guilty to murder and is jailed on $3 million bond. He was brought to court Wednesday for the routine pretrial conference, but he and his attorney decided he wouldn't appear. 
Authorities have not revealed a motive for the killing. 
On Wednesday, Le's relatives were spending the anniversary together, King said. 
"They're relying on each other as a family and trying to deal with this as a family."

Suffolk

LIYALE09

Annie Le's family may sue Yale over murder case

Yale University

A new book about the slaying last year of 24-year-old graduate student Annie Le provides no new information about the case but does call on forensic experts and criminal defense attorneys to speculate why someone like the defendant would have killed her. 
Le's body was found hidden behind the wall of a <a href="/topics/Yale_University">Yale University</a> animal laboratory building on what would have been her Long Island wedding day, Sept. 13. Four days later, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond J. Clark</a> III, a technician in the lab, was arrested. 
Stella Sands' 247-page paperback, "Murder at Yale: The True Story of a Beautiful Grad Student and a Cold-Blooded Crime" (St. Martin's True Crime, $7.99), chronicles the mysterious disappearance of Le on Sept. 8, when authorities considered her a possible runaway bride: The agonizing search. The grisly discovery. And the arrest of Clark, now 25, who pleaded not guilty and remains in jail on $3 million bond. 
Investigators in the case have provided no motive to the public for the strangulation death. 
Sands quotes experts and attorneys, who are not involved in the case, to provide possible reasons for the killing of Le. 
Among their theories: 
"Clark was obsessed with Le and didn't have the wherewithal to express that obsession." 
Le's Vietnamese heritage may have been an impetus for Clark, who appears in the yearbook as a member of his high school's Asian Awareness Club. 
As a former star athlete, Clark had perched on a "pedestal of entitlement." 
Le was killed in a fit of rage. 
Sands, who has written other true-crime books and is executive editor of Kids <a href="/topics/Discover_Magazine">Discover magazine</a>, began work on the project at the request of St. Martin's about a week after Le's disappearance became news, she said in an interview Friday. 
Amid vivid storytelling, the book contains a few errors, including the timeline of Clark's interrogation and initial cooperation, which occurred before he was named a "person of interest." 
Sands said nobody close to the case had spoken with her. She said she didn't want to reach out to the families of Le or her fiance. Sands traveled to <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> and dissected news stories and transcripts for the project. 
Long Island looms in the background: Huntington, the site of the home of Le's fiance Jonathan Widowsky and the salon where Le's hair and makeup were to be styled, and the Syosset catering hall where the two were to be married.

LIBOOK11

Book on Annie Le slaying speculates on suspect's motives

Raymond Clark arraignment

For the first time since his son was accused of slaying Yale grad student Annie Le, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a> Jr. has made a public statement, calling his accused murderer son "loving, caring" and "kind-hearted," according to published reports. 
The father spoke to reporters after a court appearance Wednesday in <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> by his son <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a>, where the younger man is charged with strangling Le, a Yale doctoral student whose body was found in a wall Sept. 13, the day she was to marry a Huntington man in Syosset. 
The father called his son "a loving, caring, kind-hearted son, brother, fiancee, and friend - unlike the picture that has been painted of him." 
Clark's mom Diane and his fiancée, Jennifer Hromadka, were also in court, where the case was continued. 
"These have been difficult times," the father said, taking no questions. "We have always been, and will continue to be, a strong, loving, and supportive family." 
Clark, 25, is jailed on $3 million bond at the high-security MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn. 
Police have said a green-ink pen under Le's body had her blood and Clark's DNA. Police said Clark signed into the secure building with a green pen on Sept. 8, the day Le disappeared. 
DNA from Le and Clark was on a bloody sock found hidden in a ceiling, authorities say. 
Court papers describe a bloody crime scene and Clark's efforts to scrub floors. Investigators say Clark tried to hide a box of cleaning wipes that later was found to have traces of Le's blood.

Crime

USYALE17

Family of Annie Le slaying suspect at hearing

Yale lab technician Raymond Clark

A judge in New Haven will decide within two weeks whether to unseal the final secret warrant in the case of a man accused of slaying Yale student <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a>, according to a court spokeswoman Wednesday. 
Earlier warrants unsealed in the case have graphically described the state's evidence against the man, Yale lab technician <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond J. Clark</a> III. 
Clark, 25, is charged with murder and has pleaded not guilty. 
Authorities have provided no direct motive for the killing, but DNA and other circumstantial evidence such as blood, key card swipes and Clark's suspicious behavior have linked him to the killing, according to warrants previously made public. 
On Sept. 8, days before Le was to be married to a <a href="/topics/Huntington%2C_NY">Huntington</a> man in Syosset, the 24-year-old Placerville, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., native disappeared from the lab where she and Clark worked. 
On Sept. 13, what would have been her wedding day, Le's body was discovered in the lab building, stuffed in a wall behind a toilet. 
A green pen Clark reportedly used to sign into work the day of the killing was found under her body, according to the unsealed warrants. 
Clark chose to skip the hearing at Superior Court Wednesday, one of Clark's public defenders, Joseph Lopez, told The Yale Daily News. Clark is jailed on $3 million bond at the high-security MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn. 
In unsealing previous warrants, Judge Roland Fasano blacked out some portions to protect the privacy of Le's family and Clark's right to a fair trial, the court has said.

LIYALE04

Decision soon on last secret warrant in Yale slaying

Four months after Annie Le was found dead, an animal research technician charged with killing the Yale graduate student has pleaded not guilty to murder. 
<a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a>, 24, entered his plea Tuesday morning in Superior Court in New Haven, Conn., said one of Clark's public defender attorneys, Joseph Lopez. 
"He entered a not guilty plea," Lopez told Newsday. 
Clark also waived his right to a probable cause hearing, at which prosecutors would have to prove they have enough evidence to justify the murder charge. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/photos-yale-student-slain-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Yale student slain before LI wedding</a> 
Also Tuesday, Clark was hit with an additional charge of felony murder. A person can be convicted of felony murder if a victim dies while certain felonies are being committed, such as rape and violent assault - even if the offender didn't intend for the victim to die. 
Clark is accused of killing Le, 24, of Placerville, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>. Her body was found behind a Yale research lab wall in September, on the day she was to marry a Huntington man, Jonathan Widawsky, in a <a href="/topics/Syosset%2C_NY">Syosset</a> ceremony. An autopsy determined she was strangled. 
Le vanished Sept. 8 from the Yale medical school research building where she and Clark worked. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/memorial-held-for-annie-le-1.1469613">&gt;&gt;VIDEO: Click here to watch a recap of the story</a> 
Clark has been jailed in the high-security MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn., where his fiancee has visited him nearly every week since his arrest, according to the facility's records obtained by Newsday. 
&nbsp; 
Like Clark's parents, fiancee Jennifer Hromadka has made the frequent trips, sometimes at night and on weekends, to the prison where the accused killer is jailed on $3 million bond. 
&nbsp; 
The visitor logs are among more than 150 pages of Clark's <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> Department of Correction file that detail Clark's time in lockup since his arrest on Sept. 17. 
&nbsp; 
The facility's records show that since Clark's arraignment just blocks from Yale's Gothic-style campus, he has been subjected to the everyday indignities of prison life, from being forced to wear a bulky anti-suicide smock upon intake to being strip-searched multiple times in a single day when he got to jail - procedures guards preserved on videotape, the records show. 
In prison paperwork, Clark wrote in neat penmanship that his nickname was "Ray Ray," that he is not a drug user, and that he's held jobs at <a href="/topics/Wal-Mart">Walmart</a> and <a href="/topics/Yale_University">Yale University</a>, where he worked as an animal technician. 
"Nervous," "very respectful," and asking "many questions" is how one jailer described Clark, according to records. 
Fearful that other inmates might extort, abuse or assault Clark, officials kept him largely secluded at first, but now he shares a cell. 
Using an abbreviation, another document said of the 5-foot-9, 190-pound Clark: "I/M could become a victim due to his slight frame and because it's his 1st incarceration. . . ." 
"Inmate Clark's case has generated a tremendous amount of media coverage throughout Connecticut and across the nation, to include National TV stations and media," one official wrote. "General Population placement may result in inmate Clark being assaulted due to inmates wanting to gain notoriety for themselves." 
Clark has acclimated to his new life behind bars, another document said: "I/M Clark observed quickly interacting with other - I/Ms." 
Clark, who turns 25 on Thursday, has been assigned a regular group of inmates for recreation. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/photos-yale-student-slain-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Yale student slain before LI wedding</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-annie-le-slain-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">&gt;&gt;PHOTOS: Click here to see photos from Annie Le's funeral, and the latest photos of Raymond Clark</a>

LIYALE27

Annie Le slay suspect pleads not guilty

The fiancee of accused Yale killer <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond J. Clark</a> III has visited him in prison nearly every week since Clark's arrest last year in connection with the grisly slaying of <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a>, according to prison records obtained by Newsday. 
Like Clark's parents, fiancee Jennifer Hromadka has made the frequent trips, sometimes at night and on weekends, to the high-security MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn., where the accused killer is jailed on $3 million bond. 
The visitor logs are among more than 150 pages of Clark's <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> Department of Correction file that detail Clark's time in lockup since his arrest on Sept. 17. 
Clark's case is to be heard Tuesday in Superior Court in New Haven. He is expected to plead not guilty, according to an Associated Press report. Joe Lopez, Clark’s attorney, said Clark plans to waive his right to a probable cause hearing at which prosecutors would have to prove they have enough evidence to justify the murder charge, the report said. 
The prison records show that since Clark's arraignment just blocks from Yale's gothic campus, he has been subjected to the everyday indignities of prison life, from being forced to wear a bulky anti-suicide smock upon intake to being strip-searched multiple times in a single day when he got to jail - procedures guards preserved on videotape, the records show. 
In prison paperwork, Clark wrote in neat penmanship that his nickname was "Ray Ray," that he is not a drug user, and that he's held jobs at <a href="/topics/Wal-Mart">Walmart</a> and <a href="/topics/Yale_University">Yale University</a>, where he worked as an animal technician in the lab building where Le, 24, did her research and was later found dead behind the wall that's behind a toilet. 
"Nervous," "very respectful," and asking "many questions" is how one jailer described Clark, according to records. 
Fearful that other inmates might extort, abuse or assault Clark, officials kept him largely secluded at first, but now he shares a cell. 
Using an abbreviation, another document said of the 5-foot-9, 190-pound Clark: "I/M could become a victim due to his slight frame and because it's his 1st incarceration. . . . 
"Inmate Clark's case has generated a tremendous amount of media coverage throughout <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> and across the nation, to include National TV stations and media," one official wrote. "General Population placement may result in inmate Clark being assaulted due to inmates wanting to gain notoriety for themselves." 
Clark has acclimated to his new life behind bars, another document said: "I/M Clark observed quickly interacting with other - I/Ms." 
Clark, who turns 25 on Thursday, has been assigned a regular group of inmates for recreation. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-annie-le-slain-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">&gt;&gt;PHOTOS: Click here to see photos from </a><a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a>'s funeral, and the latest photos of <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a>

LIYALE26

Yale murder suspect gets regular visits from fiancee

Jennifer Hromadka

An animal research technician charged with killing a Yale graduate student is returning to court. 
A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in the case involving 24-year-old <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a> in New Haven Superior Court. 
Clark is charged with killing 24-year-old Annie Le, whose body was found stuffed behind a Yale research lab wall in September. An autopsy determined she was strangled. 
Le vanished Sept. 8 from the Yale medical school research building where she and Clark worked, and her body was found five days later, on what was to be her wedding day. 
Lawyers for Clark are expected to tell the judge whether Clark will waive his right to a probable cause hearing at which prosecutors would have to prove they have enough evidence to justify the charge.

ny-liclark0125

Annie Le slay suspect Raymond Clark back in court

The fiancee of a lab technician accused of fatally strangling Yale grad student Annie Le will have to give a DNA sample to the police, her defense attorney said Wednesday. 
It's not clear why the authorities have sought the sample from Jennifer Hromadka, 23, but several search warrants for Clark executed in September and unsealed Wednesday indicate that investigators found blood in the Middletown, Conn., apartment she shared with the suspect, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a>. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/julianna-buttner-in-photos-1.1624435" target="new">PHOTOS: Yale student murdered before LI wedding</a> 
Hromadka, who also worked at the lab building where Clark is accused of murdering Le, intends to comply with the signed search warrant compelling her to give the DNA sample, said Robert Berke of Bridgeport, her lawyer. 
Clark was arrested Sept. 17 and charged with killing Le, the 24-year-old doctoral student in pharmacology who was to wed a <a href="/topics/Huntington%2C_NY">Huntington</a> man in Syosset days after she went missing. Le's body was found hidden behind a wall on what would have been her wedding day. 
Much of the case against Clark relies on DNA evidence linking him to both the crime scene and Le's body, according to the warrants. 
Clark hasn't entered a plea, but one of his public defenders has said Clark will plead not guilty. He is jailed at the high-security MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn., on $3-million bond. 
Hromadka "isn't a suspect," her attorney, Berke said authorities told him. 
Berke described the impact of Clark's arrest on his client as "terrible" and "devastating." Berke declined to say if the two have broken off their engagement to be married in 2011. 
The unsealed search warrants for Clark, who documents say had e-mailed Le on his <a href="/topics/BlackBerry">BlackBerry</a>, reveal that Clark and Hromadka were seen leaving a coffee shop together near the lab hours after Le's Sept. 8 disappearance. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/julianna-buttner-in-photos-1.1624435" target="new">PHOTOS: Yale student murdered before LI wedding</a>

LILE03

DNA sought from Raymond Clark's fiancee in Annie Le slay

Jennifer Hromadka and Raymond Clark

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Police found blood on the kitchen floor of the home of a Yale University lab technician charged with killing a Yale graduate student days before her wedding, according to search warrant affidavits released Wednesday. 
<a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a> sent e-mails to 24-year-old <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a> “in the recent past,” the affidavits said. Her e-mail address was found in a laboratory locker labeled “Ray,” the documents said. 
The warrants do not indicate the source of the blood found in Clark’s apartment. Le’s body was found stuffed behind a research lab wall in September on the day she was supposed to get married on Long Island. Autopsy results show Le was strangled, but the motive remains unclear. 
Clark has not yet entered a plea. His public defender, Joe Lopez, did not immediately return a phone call Wednesday. 
The affidavits show that police searched for evidence in Clark’s home, two cars that he used and numerous lockers in the laboratory building where Le’s body was found. 
The suspect “has gone to great lengths to conceal evidence in multiple locations in unusual places,” the affidavits said. 
Two days before Clark was arrested, investigators said they found blood “in plain view” on the kitchen floor near the entrance to his apartment. Authorities took plastic door panels and carpeting with “blood-like stains” from the Taurus in which Clark was riding in the hours after Le’s disappearance. 
Investigators found a white rag, tweezers, scissors, a screwdriver and several plastic tubes in a clogged drain pipe in the building where Le’s body was found, the affidavits said. 
Portions of the affidavits released Wednesday were blacked out. 
Police had previously revealed that they discovered other items linking Clark to Le’s death, including a green-ink pen under Le’s body with her blood and Clark’s DNA. Police have said Clark signed into the secure building with a green pen on Sept. 8, the day Le disappeared. 
They had also said DNA from Le and Clark was on a bloody sock found hidden in a ceiling. Elsewhere in the building, they found a pair of work boots labeled “Ray-C” that had blood-like stains on them, and a hospital scrub shirt with blood-like stains that was similar to the shirt Clark wore that day, police had previously said. 
In arrest warrant affidavits released last month, Clark told investigators that he never socialized with Le or had contact with her outside of work. He told investigators that he knew Le for about four months, according to court papers. 
Clark told police that Le left the building 15 minutes before him, carrying her notebook and two bags of mouse food. An extensive search of the crime scene failed to locate Le’s notebook or her shoes. 
Court papers previously released describe a bloody crime scene and Clark’s efforts to scrub floors. 
Investigators say Clark tried to hide a box of “Wipe-Alls” that later was found to have traces of Le’s blood. 
Clark was also seen by investigators scrubbing floors with SOS pads and cleaning solution even though the floor appeared to be clean, according to the affidavit. He was also spotted “on the floor” inside Le’s lab scrubbing under a sink with a brush or cleansing pad, the affidavit said. 
Investigators uncovered “a possible medium velocity blood-like spray pattern” on the wall that tested positive for blood and showed apparent efforts to clean the blood off the wall. 
The blood at the scene suggests there was a struggle, experts said, noting the scratches on Clark’s body and the surgical gloves Le was wearing that left her thumb exposed.

ny-usyale1203

Affidavits: Blood found in Yale murder suspect’s home

Yale Killing

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — An animal research technician charged with killing a Yale graduate student raised suspicions when he began scrubbing floors after the crime and tried to move a box of bloody wipes from the view of an investigator, according to an arrest warrant released Friday.
The body of 24-year-old <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a> was found stuffed behind a Yale research lab wall in September. An autopsy determined she was strangled.
Authorities say in the warrant that a green-ink pen found under Le's body had her blood on it, as well as DNA from suspect <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a>, on its cap. Police have said Clark signed into the secure building with a green pen on Sept. 8, the day Le disappeared.
The warrant says DNA from both Le and Clark was on a bloody sock found hidden in a ceiling.
The document also says Clark moved a box of wipes to hide blood spatters on it. Clark had a scratch on his face and left biceps that he said came from a cat, according to the affidavit.
Joe Lopez, Clark's public defender, declined to comment Friday.
Clark, 24, is charged with murder. Le vanished Sept. 8 from the Yale medical school research building where she and Clark worked, and her body was found five days later, on what was to be her wedding day. She was wearing surgical gloves with her left thumb exposed, according to the affidavit.
Clark has not yet entered a plea, but his attorney has said he will plead not guilty.
Clark said he knew Le for at least four months and did not socialize with her. He told police Le left the building 15 minutes before him carrying her notebook and two bags of mouse food.
The warrant, which does not offer a motive, describes a bloody crime scene and Clark's efforts to scrub floors.
Two days after Le disappeared, a graduate student showed a Yale police officer a box of "wipe alls" on a cart in a lab that had what appeared to be blood splattered on it. The officer watched Clark move the box of wipes and turn the box so that the bloody spots were not visible, authorities said.
"Once Clark moved the box of wipes, he then leaned up against the cart and made small talk" with the officer, the affidavit states.
The blood spatter on the wipes matched the victim's DNA, authorities said.
Clark later came back into the room and began scrubbing the floor with SOS pads and cleaning solution even though the floor appeared to be clean, according to the affidavit. He was also spotted "on the floor" inside Le's lab scrubbing the floor under a sink with a brush or cleansing pad, according to the affidavit.
Investigators uncovered "a possible medium velocity blood-like spray pattern" on the wall that tested positive for blood and apparent efforts to clean the blood off the wall.
The blood at the scene suggests there was a struggle, experts said, noting Clark's scratches and the possible damage to Le's glove.
"I think there is a big likelihood of a struggle," said forensic pathologist Michael Baden, who has been an expert witness in cases involving <a href="/topics/John_Belushi">John Belushi</a> and <a href="/topics/O_J_Simpson">O.J. Simpson</a>.
A victim can also cough up blood when being strangled, Baden said. Some of the blood could also be from the body being stuffed in the wall and deteriorating.
Authorities said Clark changed his clothes at least once when the <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> was processing the scene, citing video surveillance of the building.
Authorities said they also found in the building a pair of work boots labeled "Ray-C" that had blood-like stains on them, and a hospital scrub shirt with blood-like stains that was similar to the shirt Clark wore.
Le entered her lab, known as G13, at 10:11 a.m. Sept. 8. Clark's card shows he accessed the victim's lab at about 10:40 a.m. and again at 11:04 a.m. and no other locations for 46 minutes.
Clark's key card was the only one used to access a room where blood was found after Le entered the building, according to the affidavit.
"Clark's movements after this entry are considered uncharacteristic for his normal movements throughout his work day," the affidavit states.
He used his key card to gain entry into the room where Le worked and another room 55 times from 10:40 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. the day Le disappeared, according to the affidavit.
A judge last week ordered portions of the court documents to be unsealed.

US-Yale-Killing

Yale suspect's floor scrubbing raised suspicions

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Even before Yale student <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a>'s body was discovered hidden in a wall, the lab technician later arrested in her death aroused suspicions by lingering in Le's laboratory, where cops watched him scrub the floor and try to hide a box of bloody wipes splattered with Le's DNA, according to a warrant released Friday by a <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> judge.
Despite the alleged efforts of suspect <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond J. Clark</a> III to hide evidence, authorities found enough items with both Clark's and Le's DNA, including a bloody sock and a bloody green-ink pen, to charge Clark with strangling Le, 24, the warrant says.
Le's body was found hidden in a wall behind a toilet on the day she was to be married on Long Island, the affidavit says.
Authorities haven't offered a motive.
Clark hasn't entered a plea, but one of his public defenders, Joseph Lopez, said Clark would plead not guilty. He is charged with murder and is at the high-security MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn., on $3-million bond.
The 13-page affidavit was released Friday morning after an appeal by news organizations, citing open-government principles. Lopez opposed the release, arguing that releasing it would be prejudicial to potential jurors. The prosecution had argued that the warrant's release unduly invaded the privacy of Le's family.
Clark, 24, was the only named person of interest in the case because of his actions in Le's lab, video surveillance showing he was wearing clothes thought to be worn during the crime and an electronic trail left by his key card swipes putting him at the scene, the warrant says.
Clark, who was put under police surveillance for several days before his arrest, was charged Sept. 17 - after New Haven police announced they would make an arrest upon a DNA match to crime scene evidence.
The stained sock matching both Le's and Clark's DNA was found hidden in a ceiling; a similar one was found with Le's body. The green-ink pen was under Le's body; Clark initialed a roster in green ink on Sept. 8 - the day Le's roommate reported her missing to police, according to the warrant. 
Two days after Le went missing, a police officer watched what the warrant termed "a deliberate attempt" to conceal evidence: Clark tried moving a box of bloody wipes so the blood wasn't visible. Clark then put his body in front of the steel cart containing the wipes, which was in Le's lab, and "made small talk" with the cop.
Clark was also seen "on the floor" scrubbing with SOS pads, the warrant says. 
"[T]his was odd because the floor was clean," it says.
The room Clark was scrubbing was among several found by forensic investigators to have been cleansed of bloodstains.
Clark told cops he'd known Le for at least four months but did not "socialize" with her.
In one of his last entries on a sign-in sheet the day Le died, the warrant says, he used black ink.

LIYALE14

Affidavit links lab tech to Yale student's death

A judge ruled Friday to release some of the evidence next week in the case of a man suspected of strangling Yale graduate student <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a>. 
But New Haven Superior Court Judge Roland Fasano said certain sensitive information will remain confidential, and his ruling to release the remainder gave attorneys for the prosecution and the accused, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a>, enough time to appeal if they wish. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/secret-annie-le-slay-evidence-to-be-released-friday-1.1585632">&gt;&gt;UPDATE: Click here to see the 11/13/09 update, "Annie Le secret evidence released Friday"</a> 
Wednesday is a state holiday in <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a>, and it was not immediately clear whether the documents would be released earlier. Joseph Lopez, one of Clark's public defenders, told The <a href="/topics/Associated_Press">Associated Press</a> Friday he did not think his client would appeal. 
Fasano said the information that will be kept confidential includes "material that is inflammatory; material of significant import that is unfairly prejudicial to the defendant; and material that constitutes an invasion of privacy unnecessary to the public's understanding of the criminal process." 
The ruling follows a request by news organizations, including The Associated Press, The Hartford Courant and <a href="/topics/New_York_Times_Company">The New York Times</a>, to open up sealed warrants against Clark. They argued the documents are subject to public view under Connecticut and common law and that much of the information already had been leaked to the media. 
Since his Sept. 17 arrest, the government has not made public why police believe Clark, 24, was the one who killed Le and hid her body in the basement of a university laboratory. Both Clark and Le worked at that lab, Clark as an animal technician, Le as a doctoral researcher in pharmacology. 
Information leaked anonymously said Clark's DNA matched crime scene evidence, that he had defensive marks on his body, sent a message to Le the day of her disappearance and that electronic-lock records show he was the last person to see her alive. 
Both the prosecution and Clark's defense team opposed the warrants' release. Prosecutors argue that making the warrants public would unduly invade the privacy of Le's family; the defense argues that publicizing them would jeopardize Clark's right to a fair trial in a case that already has attracted ferocious media attention.

LIYALE07

Judge agrees to release evidence in Yale strangling case

NEW HAVEN, CONN. - Accused killer Raymond Clark III did not appear at a court hearing yesterday, where a judge said he would decide later this week whether to unseal evidence authorities say proves Clark strangled <a href="/topics/Annie_M._Le">Annie Le</a> and hid her body in a laboratory wall at <a href="/topics/Yale_University">Yale University</a>.
In a jailhouse visit Monday, Clark and his public-defender, attorney Joseph Lopez, met for several hours, when Clark decided he'd stay in jail rather than make the trip from the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn., Lopez said. Clark's presence was not mandatory.
Clark, 24, has not entered a plea, but his attorney says he will eventually plead not guilty. Clark has been jailed on a $3-million bond since being arrested Sept. 17 on a murder charge in the death of Le, the Yale pharmacology graduate student who police initially suspected was a runaway bride. Her body was found on what was to be the day of her <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> wedding to a <a href="/topics/Huntington%2C_NY">Huntington</a> man. 
"He's going along with our advice," Lopez told Judge Ronald D. Fasano, referring to the decision not to attend Superior Court in New Haven. 
Authorities have not made public their evidence linking Clark to the killing. 
Anonymous law-enforcement sources have said the case against Clark, a former animal lab technician in the Yale lab where Le did research, includes key card swipes linking him to the scene of the crime, DNA matches, messages sent between Clark and Le, and proof that Clark tried to clean up the crime scene in the days after her disappearance. 
Fasano said his decision on whether to unseal the four arrest and search warrants - a decision in response to a motion filed by media organizations - would come this week.
The hearing yesterday afternoon lasted less than 5 minutes.
The next hearing in the case was rescheduled for Dec. 21 at 2 p.m.

LILE04

Yale slaying suspect a no-show at hearing

The Yale lab technician charged in the strangulation of graduate student Annie Le will eventually plead not guilty, his public defender said.
<a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a>, who has been jailed on $3 million bond since he was arrested last month on a murder charge, appeared Tuesday before a judge in New Haven Superior Court, but did not enter a plea, The <a href="/topics/Associated_Press">Associated Press</a> reported.
"Raymond will enter a not guilty plea," <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> public defender Joseph Lopez of Bridgeport said earlier Tuesday.
The judge scheduled a probable cause hearing for Oct. 20, in which each side will have the right to introduce evidence and call witnesses, the AP said. Under Connecticut law, defendants accused of murder have the right to the hearing within 60 days of their arrest to decide if the case will go forward.
Records of warrants served against Clark have been sealed because of the police investigation, and the public defender's office wants them to stay sealed beyond the 14-day period initially ordered to avoid influencing potential jurors.
Le's strangled body was found hidden behind the wall of a research lab building on Sept. 13, the day she was to be married on <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a> to a <a href="/topics/Huntington%2C_NY">Huntington</a> man. 
The disappearance of Le, 24, of Placerville, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., from the <a href="/topics/Ivy_League">Ivy League</a> school five days before her <a href="/topics/Syosset%2C_NY">Syosset</a> wedding had set off a massive bicoastal search. 
Authorities focused on Clark, also 24, because he failed a lie-detector test, his DNA matched crime scene evidence and key card swipe records at the lab showed him to be the last person in the room where Le was found, according to published reports. 
An autopsy showed Le died of traumatic asphyxia caused by "neck compression," according to the Connecticut medical examiner. 
Authorities have said the case is one of "workplace violence," but have not elaborated on the motive. 
Clark cleaned cages, set up experiments and euthanized animals in the lab building where Le did her doctoral research in pharmacology.

Lawyer: Suspect in Annie Le slaying to plead not guilty

YALE KILLING

EL DORADO HILLS, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>. - Slain Yale doctoral student Annie Le, laid to rest Saturday in a small town near where she grew up, was remembered for her character. 
"It was the silly girl that she was that made us all love her," said her cousin Dan Nguyen at her funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church here, about 30 miles east of <a href="/topics/Sacramento">Sacramento</a>. It was "her silliness and friendliness, and not her academic achievement, that made the most impression on us." 
Nearly 600 people attended the funeral, which was followed by a private burial service. 
Le's mother Vivian Van Le, speaking in Vietnamese, recited a poem she wrote upon hearing of her daughter's death. 
"Farewell, my child . . . the most wonderful gift that God had sent to me," Le's mother said, going on to describe her daughter's death as being "like a knife searing through my soul." 
During the eulogy, Le also addressed her daughter's fiance, Huntington resident Jonathan Widawsky, who sat in the third row but did not speak. 
"Jon, even now Annie's gone, but I still have you and love you very much," she said. "You are my son." 
Msgr. James Kidder, who was Le's pastor until she graduated from Union Mine High School near Placerville and left for college, called her "the type of rare person you will meet . . . who is naturally good." 
"Her life was so busy, yet always having time for others," Kidder said. 
Sept. 8, five days before her planned wedding, Le went missing. The 24-year-old had last been seen in a Yale University building where she did research 
On the day she was to be married, Le's body was found behind a basement wall in the research facility. She died of "traumatic asphyxiation" caused by "neck compression," authorities said. 
Days later <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond J. Clark</a> III, 24, was arrested and charged with the murder. Clark was a research technician in the building and knew Le from work. Investigators said it was a case of workplace violence. 
A DNA sample from Clark matches one taken at the crime scene, authorities say. Sources said he returned to the lab to clean up evidence in the days after he choked Le. Clark, who is being held with bond set at $3 million, hasn't yet entered a plea. He is due back in court Oct. 6. 
Le, who met Widawsky, when they were undergraduates at the University of Rochester, came to Yale in 2007 to pursue a doctorate in pharmacology, the school said. She was studying metabolic disease and was to earn her doctorate in 2013. 
Widawsky is now a <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a> grad student. 
Le, born in <a href="/topics/San_Jose">San Jose</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., and raised in Placerville, had been a star student since grade school, graduating from Union Mine High in 2003 at the top of her class of 362, Yale said in a statement. 
"Annie was loved by everyone who knew her and special to all those who came in contact with her. She was a kindhearted human being who was devoted to her family and friends, always sacrificing her time to help others. Her laughter was infectious and her goodness was ingenuous," the family said in the Yale statement. 
Yale, which will hold a memorial service for Le at 5 p.m. Oct. 12 in the campus Battell Chapel, has established a scholarship fund in Le's memory. Donations may be sent to the Annie Le Scholarship Fund, Yale Office of Development, P.O. Box 2038, New Haven, Conn., 06521. 
With Matthew Chayes

Yale grad student Annie Le buried in California

EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. (AP) — Family members of the <a href="/topics/Yale_University">Yale University</a> doctoral student found murdered on what was to be her wedding day said they’ll always remember the beaming smile and fun-loving spirit of the brilliant woman who hoped to change the world through her medical research. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">&gt;&gt; PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Annie Le's memorial services in California and on Long Island</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">&gt;&gt; COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a> 
“She always brought a smile to our faces,” said Annie Le’s cousin, Dan Nguyen, one of several speakers who eulogized Le at her funeral Saturday in California’s <a href="/topics/Sierra_Nevada">Sierra Nevada</a> foothills, near where Le grew up. 
Le’s mother, Vivian Van Le, read a poem she had written in Vietnamese that was translated by another brother, Chris Le. 
“Farewell my child ... the most wonderful gift that God had sent to me,” Le’s mother said, going on to describe her daughter’s death as being “like a knife searing through my soul.” 
The service at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in <a href="/topics/El_Dorado_Hills">El Dorado Hills</a>, about 30 miles east of <a href="/topics/Sacramento">Sacramento</a>, follows a memorial service earlier in the week at the Long Island synagogue of Le’s fiance, Jonathan Widawsky. 
As about 600 mourners filed in Saturday, the church’s pastor, Monsignor James Kidder, called the service conducted in English and Vietnamese “a chance for the family itself to come to reconciliation with what humanly is irreconcilable — not only the fact that Annie died but the way she died.” 
Kidder called Le “a rare person ... a person who is naturally good.” 
Le was busy but always had time for others, he said. “She was lots of fun and she had a wicked sense of humor.” 
Kidder had been Le’s pastor until she graduated from Union Mine High School near Placerville and left for college. He said her family was seeking healing from Saturday’s funeral and burial. 
Lab technician <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a> has been charged with killing Le, 24, five days before her body was found on Sept. 13, the Sunday she was to marry Widawsky. She had been stuffed inside a wall in the basement of a research building in Yale’s medical school complex. 
“Jon, even now Annie’s gone, but I still have you and love you very much. You are my son,” Vivian Van Le told her daughter’s fiance during a eulogy. Widawsky and members of his family attended Saturday’s service but did not speak. 
Le was born to Vietnamese parents Hoang and Vivian Van Le in <a href="/topics/San_Jose">San Jose</a>, according to a statement issued Friday by the university. He remarried after a divorce, but the university did not say where he or Le’s mother live. 
Le and her brother, Chris Le, a student at the University of California, Davis, were raised by an aunt and uncle near Placerville, in a home deep in the woods and miles from the nearest town. 
They are described by the family as her “guardian parents.” The guardians, Robert Linh Nguyen and Ngoc-Tuyet Bui, had three children of their own, including Dan Nguyen, whom Annie considered to be her brother. 
Family spokesmen could not say when Le’s parents came to the U.S. from <a href="/topics/Vietnam">Vietnam</a> or why she was raised by her aunt and uncle. 
Annie Le excelled in high school and took a special interest in science and medicine. She graduated as valedictorian in 2003, and classmates voted her “most likely to be the next Einstein.” 
Her drive led her to spend hours applying for college scholarships, eventually being awarded nearly $160,000 worth. She attended the University of Rochester in New York, majoring in bioscience, and met Widawsky, now a graduate student in physics at <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a>. 
Le began attending Yale as a graduate pharmacology student in 2007 and was on track to earn her doctorate in 2013. She was working on research with enzymes that Yale said could help with treating cancer, <a href="/topics/Diabetes">diabetes</a> and muscular dystrophy. 
“Hers were great achievements and there were more to come,” Kidder said during the service. “She wanted to do the best and be the best to keep people from having their lives cut short. Ironic, isn’t it, that her life was so sadly cut short.” 
Colleagues and family members said Le had an outsized personality and a determined will that belied her 4-foot-11, 90-pound frame. 
“Although Annie was small in size, she had a large heart and a personality that filled the room,” her laboratory colleagues wrote in the university statement. “No challenge ever seemed too large for her to overcome.” 
Yale officials are planning an Oct. 12 memorial service on campus and said they are establishing a scholarship in her memory. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">&gt;&gt; PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Annie Le's memorial services in California and on Long Island</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">&gt;&gt; COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

ny-liann0927

Annie Le buried, remembered in California

A memorial service marking the life of murdered Yale grad student Annie Le attracted hundreds of mourners Wednesday to the Huntington synagogue where her fiance's family worshipped. 
There, friends and family of Le and her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, remembered the 24-year-old as an intensely loving and giving woman, who often remarked how lucky she was to be marrying her best friend. 
Le's was "a life cut too short," Janet Widawsky, Jonathan's mother, told the gathering. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-annie-le-slain-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Widawsky family, hundreds mourn Annie Le at LI&nbsp;memorial</a> 
Jonathan's sister Lauren Widawsky addressed the spirit of Le directly, making her remarks through tears. "We have many long days ahead and I pray my brother can recover from your loss," Lauren Widawsky said. "You did not deserve this." 
The body of Le, a Yale graduate student in pharmacology, was found hidden behind a wall in the lab building where she did animal research. Authorities made the discovery on the day she was to be married on Long Island. A lab technician, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a>, has been charged in her slaying. 
Le's closest friends remembered her as a serious student who loved shopping and shoes, and was happy to make fun of herself and her tiny, high voice. 
The service, which began at 7 p.m. and lasted just over an hour, was punctuated by sniffles and muted signs of grief from the mourners. 
Mary Hall, a Beth El congregant, said her family came to show support for the Widawsky family. Their children attended religious school together, Hall said, recalling how the children would sing the Hebrew song "Avenu Malkenu" together. 
Referring to Le's grisly slaying, Hall said: "I'm shocked. It's the cruelest, most evil thing." 
Jonathan Widawsky sat with his family, but did not speak publicly. 
The service at Temple Beth El, officiated by the synagogue's rabbi, Jeff Clopper, began with a choir singing "Eili Eili," one of Le's favorite Hebrew songs. The rabbi pointed out that it was written decades ago by a young woman who had died tragically at age 23. 
"Oh God, we pray to have the strength to make it through this time of grief and sorrow," Clopper said. 
Cantor Sandra Sherry, who was to have officiated at the couple's wedding in Syosset on Sept. 13, described meeting with the eager couple to plan the ceremony. "Annie said about Jon, and I quote, 'I never felt this depth of love for anything or anyone. I want to make him happy all the time,' " Sherry said. 
Then she addressed Jonathan: "May the memory of Annie Marie Le and who she was help to bring you some semblance of peace in this imperfect world." 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-annie-le-slain-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Widawsky family, hundreds mourn Annie Le at LI&nbsp;memorial</a> <a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-murder-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Yale student Annie Le found murdered</a>

LIANNI24

Annie Le's fiance, hundreds mourn at LI memorial

Jonathan Widawsky

The woman who says she is an ex-girlfriend of the man jailed in the strangulation of a Yale graduate student said Wednesday he became so menacing after she dumped him that she needed a police escort to and from high school. 
Jessica Delrocco said in a television interview that she broke up with <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark III</a> six years ago because he suddenly started ordering her around, telling her what to wear, where to go and who to associate with. 
" 'Don't go here and don't be friends with these boys. . . . You're talking too much,' " Clark would say, Delrocco told <a href="/topics/Diane_Sawyer">Diane Sawyer</a> on ABC's "Good Morning America." 
After the breakup, Clark repeatedly threatened her, Delrocco said, so police escorted her to and from school for a period of time. 
Clark was arrested last week on a murder charge, accused of choking Yale bride-to-be <a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a> and hiding her body behind a wall in the off-campus research lab where they worked. 
He is jailed on $3 million bond. 
Delrocco said that during her relationship with Clark at Branford High School in <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a>, Clark would "fly off the handle," hitting, shouting and grabbing her. 
Delrocco didn't return messages left by Newsday seeking comment, and Clark's public defender, Joseph Lopez, couldn't be immediately reached for comment.

USYALE24

Yale slay suspect was controlling, ex-girlfriend says

Jessica Del Rocco

Even after police suspected lab technician <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a> was the man who killed a Yale University graduate student and stuffed her body behind a wall, he had unfettered access to the <a href="/topics/Ivy_League">Ivy League</a> campus — but was under constant surveillance, officials confirmed Monday. 
Yale spokesman Tom Conroy said Monday that the school didn’t disable an identification card that gave Clark access to campus buildings until after his arrest Thursday, four days after 24-year-old Annie Le was found strangled in the lab building where they both worked. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of </a><a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a> and Annie Le 
 Yale referred further questions to the New Haven police. Police said Monday that investigators knew where Clark was at all times after Le’s body was found. 
 The university had said the day after Le’s body was found that there was no danger to the public. 
 Police say Clark killed Le, a pharmacology graduate student who did research on the mice that it was Clark’s job to care for, on Sept. 8. Her body was found five days later, on what was to be her wedding day on <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a>. 
 Clark was under constant surveillance even before Le’s body was found and the case was ruled a homicide. Conroy wouldn’t say whether Clark continued to work in the days before he was arrested. 
 New Haven police said Monday that they don’t expect to make more arrests in Le’s killing and rebutted media reports that police were considering whether Clark had an accomplice. 
 “It’s still my belief I don’t expect anyone to be charged,” Police Chief James Lewis said. “But I don’t know where the evidence may take us.” 
Lewis confirmed that a car towed by police Saturday from the Cromwell, Conn., hotel where Clark was arrested belonged to his father, <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a> Jr. Clark was either driving his father’s car or was in it at some point, police spokesman Joseph Avery said. 
 An attorney for the younger Clark didn’t return a call Monday. 
 Clark was an animal lab technician, cleaning floors and mouse cages in the lab where Le conducted research. Her team experimented on mice as part of research into enzymes that could have implications for treatment of cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy. 
 A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that co-workers described Clark as fastidious and territorial about the mice whose cages he cleaned. 
 Police are investigating whether that attitude might have set off a clash between Clark and Le, originally from <a href="/topics/Placerville">Placerville</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>. 
 Le will be remembered Wednesday at a private memorial service at the temple that her fiance’s family attends, said Rich Pilatsky, whose wife is the cantor at Temple Beth El in Huntington, N.Y. 
 Le’s funeral is planned for Saturday at Holy Trinity Church in <a href="/topics/El_Dorado_Hills">El Dorado Hills</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., said the Rev. <a href="/topics/Dennis_Smith">Dennis Smith</a>, acting as family spokesman. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of </a><a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a> and Annie Le 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

ny-yaleaccess-0922

Yale: Annie Le slaying suspect had building access until arrest

A date has been set for a memorial service for slain Yale student Annie Le at her fiance’s synagogue. 
Synagogue member Rich Pilatsky says the service will be Wednesday night at Temple Beth El in Huntington. 
Temple leaders were to officiate at Le’s wedding to Jonathan Widawsky at a catering hall on Sept. 13. 
That’s the day her body was found in a wall at a Yale meWednesday memorial for Annie Le at LI templedical research building, five days after she was reported missing. 
Lab technician <a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a> is charged with killing the 24-year-old Le. Her body was returned to Northern <a href="/topics/California">California</a> last week in advance of a private funeral. &nbsp; 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">&gt;&gt;PHOTOS: Click here to see photos of Annie Le and Jonathan Widawsky, and the latest photos of </a><a href="/topics/Raymond_Clark_III">Raymond Clark</a>

ny-limemo0922

Wednesday memorial for Annie Le at LI synagogue

An attorney for <a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a> slaying suspect Raymond Clark III will file a formal complaint about law enforcement leaks to the news media, the attorney said Saturday. 
Public defender Joseph Lopez, who said his office will file the complaint with the state attorney's office, said the leaks raise "serious concerns" and are a "very serious and disturbing situation." 
Media organizations, including Newsday, have reported details provided by law enforcement sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, including Clark's apparent DNA matches to crime scene materials, key card swipes by Clark in areas of the Yale lab building where Le was murdered, and Clark's apparent attempts to surreptitiously clean and destroy evidence at the lab. 
"That can jeopardize the integrity of the investigation and of the judicial proceedings . . . particularly when some of the leaked information may not be true," Lopez said. 
He did not elaborate and declined to otherwise comment on the case. 
Defending Clark against what appears to be a mountain of evidence might also mean trying to convince jurors that the scene was contaminated because police didn't immediately shut down the lab where the victim was eventually found, legal experts told The Associated Press. 
Le vanished Sept. 8; her body was found hidden in a lab wall recess five days later, the day she was to marry a Huntington man in a ceremony in Syosset. 
Police charged Clark after reviewing 300 pieces of evidence, including DNA samples taken from Clark a day before he was arrested. His bond was set at $3 million; he did not enter a plea. 
The evidence is so overwhelming that police believe they don't necessarily need a motive to convince jurors of his guilt, according to a law enforcement official who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. 
Clark's attorneys may have to go after how that evidence was gathered - rather than what it showed - and have prosecutors defend their decision not to seal the lab building until Le's body was found, the legal experts said. 
"You attempt to attack the investigative process as well as the conclusions," said William Dow III, a <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>-based defense lawyer who does not represent anyone in this case. 
Prosecutors won't be able to deny that the area where the body was found was different from the scene when the murder took place, attorneys said. And Yale students were allowed into the basement of the research building for at least three days after Le disappeared. 
"DNA can be transferred in many, many ways, and when people work together, DNA can be transferred in ways that are very legitimate," said <a href="/topics/Hartford">Hartford</a> defense attorney Michael Georgetti. With AP

Nassau

USYALE20

Yale suspect's attorney to file complaint on new leaks

The New Haven police chief said Friday that authorities may never know the reasoning behind the killing of a Yale University graduate student whose body was found hidden behind a wall on what was to be her wedding day. 
"The only person that really, truly knows the motive in this crime is the suspect," Chief James Lewis told a local TV station Friday. "What made him do what he did, we may not know until trial. We may never know." 
An investigator conducting interviews not long after the disappearance of <a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a> first became suspicious of her accused killer, Raymond Clark III, when he was seen trying to hide equipment that was later discovered to contain blood spatters, the Hartford Courant reported Friday. 
A police source told Newsday that Clark returned to the lab early in the search for Le to try to cover his tracks and clean up the crime scene. "He's that arrogant," the source said. 
The Courant reported that Clark was observed cleaning areas that Le was in before the 24-year-old researcher was even reported missing Sept. 8, citing a law enforcement official. 
That and other apparent telltale signs led investigators to view Clark, 24, of Middletown, Conn., as their primary suspect, according to the Courant. 
Investigators found the DNA of both suspect and victim in the ceiling and in the wall recess where Le's body was hidden, an official told the Courant. 
Clark was arrested Thursday at a Super 8 Motel in <a href="/topics/Cromwell">Cromwell</a>, Conn. "There are no other arrests forthcoming," a New Haven police spokesman told Newsday on Friday. 
Clark, 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds, did not enter a plea on charges he choked to death the 4-foot-11, 90-pound Le. 
Le was a researcher at the lab. Clark was a technician who some sources have called "a control freak." 
<a href="/topics/New_York_Times_Company">The New York Times</a>, citing a researcher who asked not to be identified, reported that Clark sometimes grew angry if lab workers did not wear slip-on covers on their shoes. 
Le's body was found last Sunday stuffed into a wall chase in the basement of the Yale Animal Resources Center, the same day she was to be married in Syosset to <a href="/topics/Columbia">Columbia</a> grad student Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington. 
Now being held on $3-million bond, Clark was represented in court by two public defenders. One, Joseph Lopez, told The Associated Press on Thursday he is still reviewing the case and declined to comment further. 
ABC News reported that Clark sent a text message to Le on the day she disappeared, requesting she meet with him to discuss the cleanliness of mouse cages in the lab. 
Widawsky's temple, Temple Beth El in Huntington, is planning "to create a private memorial service" for Le, who had "not yet" converted to Judaism, Cantor Sandra Sherry told the AP. 
The service is planned for between the upcoming High Holy Days, starting with Rosh Hashanah on Friday and ending Sept. 28 with Yom Kippur. 
With Matthew Chayes and AP.

LIYALE19

Cops: Motive in Yale killing may never be known

The family of Jonathan Widawsky, who was set to marry Annie Le (pictured above) this past Sunday, released this statement Thursday: 
We want to express our gratitude to all our friends and relatives, our temple family and our neighbors, our colleagues and schoolmates, and all the good people out there who have offered their good wishes, sympathy and support during a difficult time. We share in the grief of the family of Annie Le and are, collectively, doing our best to deal with our tragic loss. 
We want to thank the various law enforcement agencies and the administration and chaplaincy of Yale University for their massive effort, as they continue to help get us through this. Our lives have been a whirlwind from the moment we first knew that Annie was missing, working and meeting and praying with them. 
We want to thank all those who have been involved in our preparations for a wedding that was not to be, for their quiet understanding. 
If you would like to make donations in memory of Annie, we are asking that you consider the I Have a Dream Foundation, the institution that Annie and Jonathan chose and suggested on their wedding registry. Alternatively, your own church or synagogue, temple or mosque. . . . 
And we ask that you pray for the soul of Annie Le, and for healing, for her family, for Jonathan and for our family. . . . Annie will live in our hearts forever.

TXTWID18

Family of Annie Le's fiance issues statement of thanks

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A lab technician who cleaned cages and prepared experiments in the same building as slain Yale graduate student Annie Le was arrested on charges that he strangled her in what authorities are calling a case of "workplace violence." 
Police say the suspect, Raymond Clark III, knew Le because he worked in the science building where she did animal research on mice - the same building where her body was left hidden behind a wall. Her body was found Sunday, the day she was to be married in Syosset to a Huntington man. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">&gt;&gt;PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
Clark, who was apparently tied to the crime by DNA evidence recovered at the scene, did not enter a plea here at Superior Court, where Judge Jon Blue ordered him held on $3 million bond in what he called "obviously . . . a serious case." 
The 24-year-old from Middletown, Conn., whose forearm tattoos were visible in his shirt-sleeve polo shirt, did not enter a plea. Leg shackles manacling Clark, who is 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds, jangled as he entered the courtroom. 
Thursday morning - moments after Clark's dramatic arrest earlier at a Super 8 motel that police had staked out all night in anticipation of an arrest warrant - New Haven Police Chief James Lewis offered no detailed motive for the slaying, but he said he does not believe the two were romantically involved. "This is not about urban crime. It is not about university crime or domestic crime, but an issue of workplace violence," Lewis said. 
The 4-foot-11, 90-pound Le, also 24, died of what the state medical examiner earlier this week called "traumatic asphyxiation" caused by "neck compression." 
Published reports have said that Clark failed a lie-detector test given early on in the investigation and had defensive wounds on his body; <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> Special Agent Kim Mertz wouldn't confirm or deny those reports. She would say only that the agency's polygraph unit was involved in the investigation. 
The <a href="/topics/Associated_Press">Associated Press</a> reported that co-workers told police that Clark was a "control freak" who viewed the laboratory and its mice as his territory, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the ongoing probe. 
While in jail on the $3 million bond, Clark will be held in solitary confinement for his own protection because of the case's notoriety, a correction officer at the New Haven Community Correctional Center said Thursday. 
"We don't know who's out there maybe wanting to take action against him," said Lt. <a href="/topics/John_Bernard">John Bernard</a>, the correction officer. 
Clark was to be taken to another state facility, the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in South Suffield, Conn., because his bond, $3 million, is so high, authorities said. 
"He's just somber. It's his first time in jail," said Bernard. "He hasn't spoken. He didn't cry. This is all new to him," Bernard said. 
The body of Le - who was to be married to Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington - was found behind a narrow basement wall housing wires and plumbing. 
Clark appeared to be the focus of the investigation from the beginning although authorities said they did not have "tunnel vision." 
With John Valenti 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">&gt;&gt;PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">&gt;&gt;COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories in the Annie Le murder case</a>

Authorities: Annie Le death was 'workplace violence'

Yale suspect

<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/yale-slay-suspect-to-be-held-in-solitary-confinement-1.1455388">Click here for the latest news in the Annie Le slaying case</a> 
Police moved in on a <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> motel room Thursday morning and arrested Yale lab technician Raymond Clark III for the murder of grad student Annie Le, in what they called a case of "workplace violence." 
<a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> Police Department Chief James Lewis said that Clark, 24, of Middletown, Conn., was arrested at about 8 a.m. at a Super 8 Motel in <a href="/topics/Cromwell">Cromwell</a>, Conn. 
“This is not about urban crime. It is not about university or campus crime,” Lewis said. “This is about workplace violence.” 
Clark, who worked as a technician at the Yale Animal Research Center in the building where Le was last seen entering on Sept. 8, is being held on $3 million bond, Lewis said. 
Clark was removed from the motel in handcuffs Thursday and placed into a patrol car for his transport to <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>, about 30 miles away. “He’s on his way” to police headquarters, Lewis said. 
The body of Le was found stuffed into a basement wall in the lab building on Sunday, the same day she was to be married in Syosset to Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington. 
The Rev. <a href="/topics/Dennis_Smith">Dennis Smith</a>, a spokesman for the Le family, said earlier on <a href="/topics/NBC">NBC</a>’s “Today” show Thursday that police saying an arrest is expected soon is “wonderful news” to the family and will help give some closure. 
“It’s such a terrible thing to have lost Annie as they have and not know who did it. That adds to the grief,” he said. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
Clark had been questioned late Tuesday, after police executed search warrants for both his apartment at 40 Ferry St. in Middletown and one for his body, and then was brought to a state police lab, where DNA samples were taken. He was then released. 
Wednesday, two additional warrants were served — one for a red <a href="/topics/Ford_Mustang">Ford Mustang</a> driven by Clark, the other to search his apartment for items not included in the first search. 
Police have said they have about 250 pieces of evidence that are being analyzed and police sources said DNA results had linked Clark to at least some of that evidence. 
Lewis said at a news conference Wednesday dozens of <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> and <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> troopers swarmed Clark’s apartment Tuesday to take him to extract that DNA, adding: “If we have one match on a person that we know was at that location, we will be going for an arrest warrant. It’s all up to the lab now.” 
Noting that investigators have been careful to not have “tunnel vision” and focus on one suspect prematurely, Lewis still said of Clark: “He is the only person that we have gotten any type of search warrant on at this time.” 
Meanwhile, The Hartford Courant, citing to a law-enforcement source, reported Wednesday night that computer records show Clark was the last person to see Le alive. 
Investigators traced Le’s and Clark’s movements through their computerized swipe cards, the source said. 
Those records showed that Clark entered the same basement room in the lab a short time after Le did and that Le was never seen again and her card was never used again, the Courant reported. 
With Zachary Dowdy and The Associated Press. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

Lab tech Raymond Clark arrested in Annie Le slay

CORRECTION Yale Killing

<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/yale-slay-suspect-to-be-held-in-solitary-confinement-1.1455388">Click here for the latest news in the Annie Le slaying case</a> 
Hours after a medical examiner's report was released saying Yale graduate student Annie Le was strangled, <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> police said they will seek an arrest warrant for anyone whose DNA is a match to any of hundreds of items seized in the investigation. 
<a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> Police Chief James Lewis said at a news conference Wednesday that the dozens of <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> and <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> troopers who swarmed Raymond Clark's Ferry Street apartment in Middletown, Conn., Tuesday night were taking him in by court order to extract DNA samples from his body. 
"If we have one match on a person that we know was at that location, we will be going for an arrest warrant," he said. "It's all up to the lab now." 
They executed search warrants at Clark's home and car in Middletown and the Amistad Street building in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> where Clark, 24, worked as a staff technician and where Le's body was found Sunday, the day of her scheduled wedding in Syosset. 
"He is the only person that we have gotten any type of search warrant on at this time," Lewis said, despite noting that investigators are careful to not have "tunnel vision" and focus on one suspect prematurely. 
But he said police know where Clark is at all times. 
&nbsp; 
Last to see her alive 
The Hartford Courant reported last night that computer records show that Clark was the last person to see her alive, according to a law-enforcement source. 
Investigators traced Le's and Clark's movements through their computerized swipe cards, said the source. Clark entered the same basement room in the lab a short time after Le did and Le was never seen again and her card was never used again, the Courant reported. 
Late Wednesday night, the Courant was reporting that <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> police officers were staking out the Super 8 motel on Route 372 in Cromwell, keeping an eye on a "person of interest," in the event that an arrest warrant was signed Wednesday night, according to Cromwell police Capt. Roy Nelson. 
Searching for one attacker 
Lewis said he was not prepared to say whether Le, 24, died on Tuesday, Sept. 8. But he did say that police believe they are searching for one attacker. 
Clark was cooperative when he was taken in Tuesday, Lewis said, but added that he had earlier invoked his right to remain silent and has retained an attorney. 
"We couldn't question him if we wanted to," Lewis said. 
Clark's attorney, David Dworski of Fairfield, declined to comment on Clark's location. "We're committed to proceeding appropriately with the authorities, with whom we are in regular communication," he said. 
Clark, who police maintained was not under arrest though he was handcuffed when led out of his home at about 10:15 p.m. Tuesday, was released at 3 a.m. Wednesday. 
Lewis said the handcuffs were used to prevent possible tainting of evidence, such as any scrapings under Clark's fingernails. 
<a href="/topics/Robert_Gottlieb">Robert Gottlieb</a>, an attorney in <a href="/topics/Commack%2C_NY">Commack</a> and <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a>, said the handcuffs were part of normal procedure and did not immediately raise constitutional questions since Clark's body was subject to search. The securing of his hands was as normal as sealing off a room during a search for evidence. 
But, Gottlieb said, "If it was done improperly and without probable cause, the evidence would have to be suppressed."

LIYALE17

Cops in Annie Le case to seek arrests via DNA matches

<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/police-raymond-clark-arrested-in-annie-le-slaying-1.1455388%20<">UPDATE: Click here for the lastest in the Annie Le slaying at Yale.</a> 
From his home in a Middletown, Conn., apartment complex, Raymond Clark is just steps away from the town's picturesque Main Street, where he and his fiancee, Jennifer Hromadka, frequently shop, according to local merchants. 
Hromadka is regarded as friendly and outgoing by the staff at the Public Market Italian deli, where last week she bought tomatoes, while Clark often says hello to cashier Rosa Ramirez while buying his Newport cigarettes from the <a href="/topics/Downtown%2C_NY">Downtown</a> Food Market on the same block. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and his fiancée Jennifer Hromadka, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
Tuesday night, police cars surrounded the complex and Clark was escorted out by police, who executed a search warrant there in connection with the death of Yale graduate student Annie Le, 24. Clark, a lab technician at the Yale Animal Resources Center where Le worked, has not been charged. 
At Clark's previous residence at a <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> apartment where he and Hromadka lived until spring, downstairs neighbor Annmarie Goodwin had nothing but bad things to say about Clark. 
She said Clark was "very controlling" of his girlfriend, and that he once screamed at her 17-year-old son and unleashed a curse-laden tirade at him. 
But a player in the same <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> softball league that Clark plays in said he thought Clark was being unfairly singled out. 
"He's a good kid," said J.T. Thomas of <a href="/topics/East_Haven">East Haven</a>, who plays on a different softball team and whose wife is very friendly with Clark's sister. "I don't think he could have done this at all. I think they don't have any other leads." 
At Branford High School, Clark played football, baseball and ran winter track, according to his senior yearbook. He was a member of the Asian Awareness club and two charity clubs. 
Clark played third base for the Wild Hogs, a <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> softball league, for the past year, said a league official who didn't want to be identified. His signature was a <a href="/topics/David_Wright">David Wright</a> jersey and that, plus his resemblance to the <a href="/topics/New_York_Mets">Mets</a> player, made him stand out, the official said. 
Hromadka would watch his games, the official said. The couple was to be married in 2011, according to a wedding Web site. 
Hromadka, who also works at the lab, wrote on her MySpace page about rumors of Clark's infidelity: "My boyfriend, Ray, if you don't know him, has no interest in any of the other girls at YARC as anything more than friends." 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and his fiancée Jennifer Hromadka, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

LITECH17

Neighbor: Raymond Clark 'very controlling' of girlfriend

<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/police-raymond-clark-arrested-in-annie-le-slaying-1.1455388">UPDATE: Click here</a> for the latest in the <a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a> slaying at Yale. 
The fiancee of a lab technician questioned in the slaying of a Yale student admonished readers in a blog post last year that he was not interested in other women. 
In a May 2008 MySpace post that has since been taken down, Jennifer Hromadka said rumors that Raymond Clark was interested in other women who worked with them at the Yale Animal Research Center were false. 
"My boyfriend, Ray, if you don't know him, has no interest in any of the other girls at YARC as anything more than friends," wrote Hromadka, who also works at the lab. "To anyone that thinks otherwise you might be a bit dillusional and may need to take some medication for it." 
"He is a bit naive, doesn't always use the best judgement, definitly is not the best judge of character but, he is a good guy," she wrote. "He has a big heart and tries to see the best in people ALL THE TIME!" 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and his fiancée Jennifer Hromadka, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
The two are to be married Dec. 20, 2011, according to a listing on a wedding Web site. 
Yale graduate student Annie Le, whose body was found in a lab Sunday, died of "traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression," the medical examiner's office said Wednesday. 
Hromadka wrote on her MySpace page that she's not perfect, but cautioned people not to judge her. 
"Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I'm not perfect and I don't live to be, but before you start pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean!!! " the 23-year-old wrote. 
The date of the MySpace posting is unclear. The page has since been taken down. 
In her MySpace profile, Hromadka wrote that she considers herself "a very kind and loving person, but don't think that you can walk all over me." 
"I have no time for your drama or your BS take it somewhere else," she wrote. "Don't come to me when your 'friends' stab you in the back I don't want to know about it cause I don't care." 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and his fiancée Jennifer Hromadka, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

LIBLOG17

Lab tech's fiancee: He's not interested in other women

jenray

<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/police-raymond-clark-arrested-in-annie-le-slaying-1.1455388%20">UPDATE: Click here for the lastest in the Annie Le slaying at Yale</a>. 
Pressed to clarify whether animal lab technician Raymond Clark is a "suspect" or "a person of interest" in the slaying of a Yale graduate student, a <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> assistant police chief raised his arms and twice flexed his index and middle fingers to make air quotation marks. 
"Uh," <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> Assistant Chief Peter Reichard said, "person of interest." 
The three-word label, often invoked by law enforcement agencies to stop short of calling a person a suspect, has sometimes led to words of regret from authorities and court settlements. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
Clark, 24, police insist, is not a suspect in Annie Le's killing, though he was seized late Tuesday in handcuffs from his home by police with a warrant that publicized his name and address, then scraped under his fingernails, cut locks of his hair and swabbed for his saliva. That DNA will be compared to evidence from the lab where Le's body was found Sunday. 
Asked by Newsday why the authorities publicly named Clark as a "person of interest" in a police news conference, the state's attorney in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>, Michael Dearington, replied that he hadn't seen the event but that it was the media that first leaked Clark's name. 
<a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>'s police chief, <a href="/topics/James_Lewis_%28politician%29">James Lewis</a>, declined to comment on why Clark is a person of interest. 
In 1996, law enforcement used the term to describe <a href="/topics/Richard_Jewell">Richard Jewell</a>, a security guard who authorities wrongly tied to the bombing at the Olympics in <a href="/topics/Atlanta">Atlanta</a>, He was later exonerated but said his life was ruined by the public association. 
<a href="/topics/Steven_Hatfill">Steven Hatfill</a>, the government scientist referred to by that term by authorities in the post-9/11 <a href="/topics/Anthrax">anthrax</a> mailings, was proved innocent years later and eventually sued, then settled his suit against the government. 
And in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>, the last time a Yale student was slain - a 1998 unsolved stabbing of student <a href="/topics/Suzanne_Jovin">Suzanne Jovin</a>, who was found dead on a street corner - police named Yale teacher James <a href="/topics/Van_de_Velde">Van de Velde</a> as a person of interest, according to the Yale Daily News. He has never been charged with the crime. 
With Keith Herbert 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark and the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

LIPERSO17

Cops in Annie Le case won't call Clark a suspect

Authorities executed two search warrants Tuesday night on a Yale University lab technician who has become a "person of interest" in the death of a graduate student who went missing days before her <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> wedding. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/police-release-yale-lab-tech-questioned-in-annie-le-slay-1.1452068">UPDATE: Click here for the updated story, "Raymond Clark released from police custody in Annie Le slay"</a> 
More than a dozen police and <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> agents at about 10:15 p.m. stormed a Middletown, Conn., apartment building that's home to Raymond Clark, 24, an animal research technician whom New Haven authorities said Tuesday night was a focus of their investigation into the death of Annie Le. Investigators led Clark out of his apartment into a car, and took him into custody. Clark declined to respond to reporters' questions. 
New Haven police chief <a href="/topics/James_Lewis_%28politician%29">James Lewis</a> said Clark had not been charged and if he cooperated, he would be released. 
Clark had access to the highly secure basement laboratory where Annie Le's body was found in a space behind a lab wall on Sunday, the scheduled day of her wedding to a Huntington man. Le, 24, had been missing since last Tuesday. 
Two search warrants were issued, Lewis said, one for Clark's home and another for samples of his blood, hair and skin. 
"We're also making sure there are not other possible suspects out there," Lewis said. 
Lewis said police had narrowed the list of suspects down based on who had access to the building, what time they entered, and where security cameras placed those people inside the building at various times. 
The New Haven Register reported that the technician had failed a polygraph test, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights during a police interview and had scratches on his chest, possibly indicating a struggle. Lewis declined to confirm those details. 
Meanwhile, the <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> chief medical examiner's office pulled back Tuesday from announcing what killed Le, saying police and prosecutors specifically asked that the information be withheld to aid the probe. The Hartford Courant reported last night that Le died of asphyxiation, but Lewis declined to reveal the cause publicly. 
Le was scheduled on Sunday to marry Jonathan Widawsky, a <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a> student from Huntington, but she disappeared a week ago. A pharmacology student, Le worked in the lab where her body was found and she was seen entering the facility Sept. 8 but apparently never left. 
Police have said Widawsky is not a suspect and is cooperating. 
Yale president Richard Levin told students and teachers Tuesday that police have narrowed the number of potential suspects to a very small pool because building security systems recorded who entered the building and what times they entered, according to the Yale Daily News. He said the appropriate people are being monitored, the newspaper said. 
Speaking for the Le and Widawsky families, <a href="/topics/Dennis_Smith">Dennis Smith</a> appeared before reporters Tuesday and read a statement thanking police, Yale students and community "for the thoughts and prayers expressed by so many." 
"Our loss would have been immeasurably more difficult without their support." 
Widawsky's temple, Temple Beth El in Huntington, released a statement Tuesday saying its community was "heartbroken." 
With Zachary R. Dowdy, Deborah S. Morris and Sophia Chang 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/police-release-yale-lab-tech-questioned-in-annie-le-slay-1.1452068">UPDATE: Click here for the updated story, "Raymond Clark released from police custody in Annie Le slay"</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

LIYALE16

Raymond Clark, Yale lab tech, in custody in Annie Le slay

The parents of a Yale University undergraduate killed more than a decade ago have called for more funding of <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a>'s state forensic lab, saying its money woes have hindered investigations old and new. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark, and photos of </a><a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a> 
With the death of Yale grad student <a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a> reviving memories of the 1998 unsolved slaying of <a href="/topics/Suzanne_Jovin">Suzanne Jovin</a>, 21, the undergrad's parents are speaking out, saying the <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> Forensic Science Laboratory's funding problems have prevented it from using new technology to close cases. 
"One should not compound the tragedies of <a href="/topics/Suzanne_Jovin">Suzanne Jovin</a>, <a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a>, and other victims by failing to apply the necessary recourses for resolving the circumstances of the crimes committed against them," said parents Thomas and Donna Jovin, American scientists living in Germany, in an open letter to <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> Gov. <a href="/topics/M._Jodi_Rell">M. Jodi Rell</a>. 
The Jovins said they learned of the funding problems on a recent trip to <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> to check on the probe into their daughter's death. They said they were told by lab officials of "understaffing and inadequate funding" and unspecified other "shortcomings." 
"[T]he unit is struggling to satisfy the needs of ongoing and emerging investigations, not to speak of 'cold cases' such as the murder of our daughter," the Jovins said. 
In a statement Tuesday, Rell said the state dedicated $2 million in federal stimulus money for solving cold cases, allowing the addition of four new positions at the lab, the retention of 10 more and the purchase of kits for taking DNA samples. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos of Raymond Clark, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

LILAB16

Parents blame money woes in unsolved Yale murder

In planning their wedding, Annie Le and Jonathan Widawsky planted the seeds of a hopeful legacy together. 
They had no way of knowing what the future would bring when the couple signed up for a gift registry on WeddingChannel.com. 
But they dreamed. 
And they did what young couples usually do. 
They selected a store, <a href="/topics/Macy%27s">Macy's</a>. They picked the silverware, towels and the bed linens. They picked out a vacuum cleaner, a sewing machine and a colorful gravy boat. 
And they did something special. They also selected a charity - the I Have a Dream Foundation, which works to guarantee that all children can pursue a higher education - from a list of more than 100 compiled by WeddingChannel.com and a second, Washington, D.C.-based group called the I Do Foundation, which links engaged couples to charities. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos from the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
The couple's gift registry, a hopeful sign of the future they wanted together - and should have had - was still online Monday. 
And, in one place, it carried a computer-generated announcement that the couple had been "Married for 1 Day." 
That wasn't true, of course. 
The wedding was canceled after Le was reported missing. And on Sunday, when the couple and their families should have been celebrating, a body was discovered behind a utility panel in a Yale University building. 
And Monday, when the couple should have been "Married for 1 Day," the body was determined to be Le's. 
It was a sad, shocking turn of events. A couple, so much like every other young couple, worked toward their dream of a life together. And it was so brutally and cruelly denied. 
And that makes their registry so hard to read. There, on one page, there's a note about the I Have a Dream Foundation - "our charity of choice." 
The foundation helps children in low-income communities achieve higher education by providing skills, knowledge and habits they need. 
The foundation, which has programs across the nation, starts with children in early elementary school and stays with them through high school. And guarantees tuition support for college. 
"They wanted to use their day to help others, to give back," said Charli Penn, managing editor of WeddingChannel.com. "They're so young and they're starting out doing philanthropy. It says a lot about them as people." 
Penn did not know that the couple had registered at <a href="/topics/Macy%27s">Macy's</a> through her site. Neither did Peter Murray, co-founder of the I Do Foundation, which works with Penn's site to channel contributions to charities. 
"Wow, it's just so sad," he said. "They clearly wanted to give back as they were moving forward." 
WeddingChannel donates up to 3 percent of the total of gifts bought on registries through its Web site to the designated charity. The checks usually go out to charities about six months after the wedding, Penn said. 
There's a chance the I Do Foundation never would have known about Le and Widawsky's decision to include the charity in their wedding plans. 
"Sometimes we are notified and we write the bride and groom a note," said Iris Chen, the foundation's president and chief executive, who, like Le, attended Yale. 
"To have a couple who is still in school think about pulling up the next generation is exceptional," she added. 
WeddingChannel.com and the I Do Foundation have yet to determine what to do with the couple's online registry or their charity request. 
Chen said she wants to send a thank-you note to the couple's families. 
"This is a tragedy and I haven't had time to digest it," she said. "To do what they did makes them both exceptional." 
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Columnists

Joye Brown

ny-joye-0915

Annie Le, fiance aimed to give back, wedding registry shows

The state medical examiner’s office said Tuesday that it would release the results of an autopsy of a Yale University graduate student amid indications that police were preparing to make an arrest in her killing. 
A spokeswoman for the chief state medical examiner’s office told The Associated Press that the cause of Annie Le’s death would be released after 3 p.m. Tuesday. The office had been withholding its report to assist the police investigation. 
New Haven police did not return calls Tuedsay morning. They have said that Le’s killing was not a random act and that no students are believed to be involved in the death. 
Authorities Monday officially identified the remains as those of Annie Le, 24, the Yale doctoral student in pharmacology who had been missing since last Tuesday and whose body was discovered Sunday hidden inside a wall in a basement lab building where she worked in the medical school complex. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos from the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-mourns-annie-le-at-candlelight-vigil-1.1448199">Click here to read, "Yale Mourns Annie Le at candlelight vigil"</a> 
The medical examiner in <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> is withholding Le's cause of death "for investigative purposes." 
Meanwhile, the New Haven Register reported that detectives were focusing on a lab technician who works in the building where the body was found. 
The newspaper reported that the technician had failed a polygraph test and had scratches on his chest, as if he were in some type of a struggle. 
Nearly all of the basement animal research floor where Le's remains were found can be accessed only by students, faculty, staff and lab technicians who have been given specific permission to be there, student researchers said. 
In an earlier statement e-mailed to the <a href="/topics/Ivy_League">Ivy League</a> school Monday, Yale Police Chief James A. Perrotti tried to tamp down rumors circulating on the shaken campus. 
"There are no suspects in custody," Chief Perrotti said. "We ask for your patience as we thoroughly investigate this crime." 
Authorities would not answer questions about a suspect, but say they are sure that there are "no students involved" in Le's killing, Perrotti said. 
New Haven police spokesman Joe Avery said Monday that because the death did not appear to have been committed at random, there was no need for alarm on campus. 
'It wasn't a random act," Avery said. "It doesn't appear to be a random act." 
Sari Levy, 18, a freshman at Yale from Great Neck, said, "Everything is a little bit shaken up. It's more like emotionally distressing than actually fearing for your own safety." Levy and her roommates planned to attend a candlelight vigil for Le at Yale Monday night. 
Le, who is from <a href="/topics/Placerville">Placerville</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., east of <a href="/topics/Sacramento">Sacramento</a>, was to marry Jonathan Widawsky, also 24, a <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a> graduate student from Huntington, on Sunday at Syosset's North Ritz Club. The 11:30 a.m. nuptials were canceled Friday, after she was reported missing on Tuesday. 
Widawsky is not a suspect and is working with investigators, police said. 
Avery said police at first thought Le might have been a runaway bride. That theory was soon debunked as investigators were not able to find any surveillance video of Le exiting the Amistad lab, and she was seen on the video at about 10 a.m. walking into the building for a research lab appointment. 
Yale officials say every entrance and exit to the building on the school's medical school complex is captured on video by a series of 70 cameras. The basement where Le was found in a part of a wall used for utility cables and plumbing is highly secure, university officials said, and only students, faculty and staff with a need to be in the basement are able to go there. 
At Le's off-campus home about a mile and a half away, three plainclothes Yale police officers spent about 10 or 15 minutes in the residence Monday afternoon, then emerged with a camera. They would not answer reporters' questions. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos from the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/annie-le-fiance-aimed-to-give-back-wedding-registry-shows-1.1447887">Click here to read our columnist, "Annie Le, fiance aimed to give back, wedding registry shows"</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-mourns-annie-le-at-candlelight-vigil-1.1448199">Click here to read, "Yale Mourns Annie Le at candlelight vigil"</a> 
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LIYALE15

Annie Le autopsy to be released

Annie Le candels

<a href="/topics/New_Haven">NEW HAVEN</a> - As investigators hunted for her killer, hundreds of Yale University students, faculty and staff came together Monday night in a somber candlelight vigil to mourn a graduate student whose violent death has shaken the campus community. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Click here to see the latest photos from the investigation, and photos of Annie Le</a> 
"As scholars, as learners, as seekers and as human souls with empathy and compassion, we find it incomprehensible that life can be so unjust," said Yale president Richard Levin of the death of Annie Le, 24, who was killed just days before her wedding to a Huntington man. Her body was found stuffed inside a wall in a medical lab building on Sunday, several days after she went missing. 
Le's roommate, Natalie Powers, spoke haltingly of the young woman she shared an apartment with for two years. 
"She was as good a person as you'd ever hope to meet," Powers said. "She was tenacious and had a sense of humor that was never very far away." 
The vigil in the Cross Campus quad lasted only 20 minutes, but mourners lingered for more than a half-hour after it ended. At one point, the crowd hummed "Amazing Grace." 
Moments later, a student sitting alone on a bench began playing the song on a violin. When she was finished, she sat silently, head bowed, before quickly packing up her instrument, slinging it over her shoulder and walking away. 
"I wanted to be here and see this," said Tara Mayeau, a graduate student in geophysics. "I'm not from the medical school and I don't know her, but I wanted to be here and see this. 
Le, from <a href="/topics/California">California</a>, went missing Tuesday, leaving her purse, cell phone, money and credit cards in her office. Her body was found in the basement of a nearby lab building on the day she was set to marry Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington at the North Ritz Club in Syosset. 
"What happened to Annie has served as a wake-up call for all of us," said Jourdan Urbach, 17, a Yale freshman from Roslyn, a neuroscience major who is interning on a research project at the medical school twice a week. 
"It's a reminder, but it's not a game-changer," he said. "We live in an urban area where bad things sometimes happen." 
Monday afternoon, students and faculty packed the auditorium at Sterling Hall of Medicine for a briefing on security in which Levin sought to reassure them that the basement area of the building where Le's body was found is safe, according to the Hartford Courant. 
"No amount of hardware can overcome the darkness of the human soul," Levin said, according to the Courant. "Some person did something terrible." 
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LISIDE15

Yale mourns Annie Le at candlelight vigil

Yale vigil

Though the killing of a Yale University graduate student on campus had not prompted any calls of concern from parents or students, some <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> college officials said they would likely review security procedures. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Yale student disappears before LI wedding</a> 
"What happened at Yale University is tragic but is still being investigated," said Gene Palma, executive director of public safety and transportation at <a href="/topics/Adelphi_University">Adelphi University</a> in Garden City. "As the details become public, we will continue to review our own safety initiatives and adjust them accordingly, if necessary." 
Although "we haven't really had any reaction to the Yale murder," Kathy Coley, spokeswoman for <a href="/topics/Farmingdale_State_College">Farmingdale State College</a>, said ". . . we are continually looking at our safety measures." 
The Yale slaying brings college security to the fore yet again, nearly 21/2 years after a mentally ill student at <a href="/topics/Virginia_Tech">Virginia Tech</a> killed 32 students and professors, then himself. 
Officials at several <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> colleges said Monday they regularly discuss safety issues with students. 
"This is actually the time of year where it's predominately top of mind because people are coming back to us," said <a href="/topics/Michael_Kinane">Michael Kinane</a>, spokesman for <a href="/topics/SUNY_Old_Westbury">SUNY Old Westbury</a>, referring to the start of the fall semester. He said the college's residential life staff discusses safety with students "on a recurring basis." 
News reports have said that Annie Le, the Yale student, was last seen on a video surveillance camera entering a campus building that required a security swipe card for admittance, officials said. Such cards are commonplace at many <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> campuses. In addition, several <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> campuses use video surveillance cameras in dormitories and academic buildings, particularly research labs. 
Kali Chan, a spokeswoman for <a href="/topics/Adelphi_University">Adelphi University</a>, said officials try to impress on students the dangers of holding open doors where access is supposed to be limited to people with security swipe cards. 
<a href="/topics/Stony_Brook_University">Stony Brook University</a> posts signs on the exterior of all 55 residence halls. The signs, said university spokeswoman Lauren Sheprow, say "Safety starts at this door. Please don't prop." 
John J. Enright, chief security officer for Firestorm Solutions LLC, a security consulting firm based in <a href="/topics/Roswell">Roswell</a>, Ga., and Golden, Colo., said "swipe card technology is absolutely the best practice in the industry, no question about it." 
But Enright noted any effective program must make clear how students and teachers can report concerns and have an administration that follows up on those concerns. 
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LICAMP15

Annie Le slaying has local campuses eyeing security

Annie Le police

Yale will hold a candlelight vigil Monday night in honor of slain grad student <a href="/topics/Annie_Le">Annie Le</a>, and the university has heightened security as its staff aids in the investigation of her death, school officials said.
The Amistad Building, where a body believed to be Le's was found Sunday evening hidden in a wall, was closed Monday "so that the police can continue their investigation," university officials said in a prepared statement.
"Those with essential research responsibilities are being accompanied into the building by a police officer," the statement said. "Others in the building are being given an extra day of paid time off."
An autopsy is being conducted to confirm that the body is Le's, authorities said Monday. Le, 24, was reported missing Tuesday night. She was to marry a Huntington man in Syosset on Sunday, the day the body presumed to be hers was found.
"We are cooperating in all possible ways with the police to ensure they find every shred of physical evidence in the building so they can solve this horrible crime without delay," the <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> university said.
The <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> set up a local tip line for the New Haven, Conn., investigation, and the university planned Monday to set up a Web site to provide news on the case. The site, which offered no information as of Monday afternoon, is at opa.yale.edu/investigationupdate.
Yale president Richard C. Levin met Monday morning with a group of community members in Annie Le's academic areas and briefed them on the status of the investigation and the steps Yale has taken to assist the authorities.
Levin was joined by the university's chaplain and mental health services director; and deans of Le's graduate school and the medical school.

Candlelight vigil as Yale heightens security

Investigators found a body hidden in a wall Sunday in the Yale University building where a missing graduate student was last seen. 
Police believe the victim is Annie Le, 24, reported missing Tuesday night, assistant police chief Peter Reichard said at a hastily called news conference Sunday night. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Yale student disappears before LI wedding</a> 
He said the body was found about 5 p.m. Sunday in a chase -- a vertical space used for ducts, pipes or wires -- in the basement of the building at 10 Amistad St. in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>. It was discovered on the same day Le was to be wed in Syosset. 
Assuming it is Le "We are assuming that it is her," said Reichard, who said the investigation into Le's disappearance has now become a homicide case. "We have been in contact with family members of Annie Le and our sympathy goes out to the family." 
Yale president Richard C. Levin said afterward, "Our hearts go out to the family of Annie Le, to her fiance, to her friends." 
They "now must suffer the additional ordeal of waiting for the body to be positively identified," he said. 
Le, a doctoral student in pharmacology from <a href="/topics/Placerville">Placerville</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., was to marry Jonathan Widawsky, also 24, a <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a> graduate student from Huntington, at Syosset's North Ritz Club Sunday. The nuptials were canceled Friday. 
Earlier Sunday, the <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> and <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> State Police had been searching trash at a <a href="/topics/Hartford">Hartford</a> incinerator for Le's remains. 
<a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> agent Bill Reiner had said investigators were "following the trash" that left the university laboratory, but declined to comment further on the search at the <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> Resources Recovery Authority's trash-to-energy plant in <a href="/topics/Hartford">Hartford</a>. 
Paul Nonnemacher, spokesman for the Recovery Authority, said agents wearing hazmat suits had been searching by hand and using small Bobcat tractors late Saturday night and continued through the day Sunday. 
The garbage being searched at the <a href="/topics/Hartford">Hartford</a> facility, Nonnemacher said, was not medical or specialized waste, but rather typical residential trash.&nbsp; 
Trash facility searched Nonnemacher said authorities had not asked the facility to halt its incineration, which typically stops on the weekend but would resume Monday. 
No one was home Sunday at the Widawsky family's home in Huntington. Police have been saying Widawsky is not a suspect in the case and is cooperating. 
Outside the North Ritz Club Sunday, security guards in suits and sunglasses said they had been hired for the day by the club, and added that no one related to the wedding had shown up. 
The <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> Register reported Sunday that bloody clothing&nbsp; found in a ceiling of the lab where Le was last seen Tuesday were not the clothes she was wearing the morning she disappeared. 
Le used her student ID to enter a lab where she worked Tuesday morning but 70 surveillance cameras did not record her leaving. Le's ID, credit cards and purse were found in her office in another nearby building. 
In <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> Sunday, one of the five women with whom Le shared a three-story house in the city's historic district said the last time she saw Le was Tuesday between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. as the bride-to-be was walking to a campus shuttle bus stop with two of their housemates.&nbsp; 
Housemate wished her luck "I said, 'If I don't see you before Sunday, congratulations and good luck,' " said the housemate, who asked not to be identified because Yale officials have insisted students, faculty and staff not speak to the press about the case. "I do know how very excited she was about the wedding." 
The housemate said Le was wearing the green top and brown skirt seen in surveillance video taken around 10 a.m. at the Amistad Street research lab where she worked. 
The housemate described Annie as always very well dressed, recalling how she would always hear "the click-clack of her heels as she walked around. 
"She looked very polished and put together," the housemate said. "She is bubbly and cheerful. She always had a big smile on her face." 
The housemate said Le was fretting about a package she expected for the wedding from a <a href="/topics/Kentucky">Kentucky</a> retailer. The package arrived Thursday. 
With Jennifer Barrios, Jennifer Maloney and AP 
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Cops: Annie Le's body believed found

Authorities Saturday found items that they said could be evidence in the case of a Yale University graduate student who disappeared days before her wedding in Syosset. 
The news followed reports by a local newspaper, citing police sources, that bloody clothes and other evidence of a crime scene were found in a ceiling at a Yale building where Annie Le, 24, was last seen on surveillance video Tuesday morning. 
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Kim Mertz, the <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> special agent in charge of the case, would not directly address those reports at a campus news conference, but confirmed that "items that potentially could be evidence have been seized" and would be tested. "None have yet been associated with Annie Le at this time," she said. 
"We are not in the position today to conclude whether this is a missing person's case or whether criminality is involved," Mertz said. 
"I will categorically say a body has not been found," she said. 
Investigators scoured the university research building Saturday, with dozens of officials going in and out of the lab on Amistad Street and searching it with German shepherds. 
A person attending a science conference on campus said the investigation appeared to be concentrated on the lower level - the floor that housed the lab where Le had scheduled a 10 a.m. slot to do some work Tuesday, school officials said. Her roommate reported her missing Tuesday night when she did not return to their apartment. 
Police have said that Le's fiance, Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington, a graduate physics student at <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a>, is not considered a suspect and is cooperating with police. 
A representative for North Ritz Club in Syosset, where the couple was to be wed Sunday, said the wedding has been canceled. 
Le used her university ID card to enter the building about 10 a.m. She left her purse, cell phone, credit cards and cash in her office in another Yale building about three blocks away. 
Investigators continued reviewing surveillance video, using image enhancement software to see if they had missed the 4-foot-11, 90-pound Le leaving the building. Yale officials said about 70 cameras are mounted outside the building and an adjacent parking structure. 
Yale Vice President Linda Lorimer said "there is no reason to believe" Le's disappearance had anything to do with her wedding and implored reporters to respect the families' privacy. 
A billboard over I-91 and missing-person posters around campus and at a nearby methadone clinic show pictures of Le, including one of her entering the building on the morning she went missing. 
The doctoral student in pharmacology, originally from <a href="/topics/Placerville">Placerville</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., "has not been seen or heard from by family, co-workers and friends," according to the poster. 
Another sign across the street from the lab building Saturday said: "Annie, we hope you are okay!!" It was signed "Yale grad students." 
Yale is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Le's whereabouts. Anyone with information can call a 24-hour <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> hotline at 877-503-1950. 
- With Alfonso A. Castillo and AP 
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LIYALE13

Officials find items possibly related to missing Yale student

Missing Yale Student

Yale University announced it is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the whereabouts of one of its own, Annie Le, a graduate student from <a href="/topics/California">California</a> who vanished from a college lab on Tuesday - less than a week before she was to be married on <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a>. 
&gt;&gt; <a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">Click to see photos from the Annie Le disappearance case</a> 
Officials announced the reward late Friday afternoon, urging people with information to call the 24-hour FBI hotline at 877-503-1950. 
The monetary incentive comes after three days of searching for Le, 24, who was last seen entering a building housing the university laboratory where she worked on Amistad Street in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>. 
More than 100 law enforcement officials from the Yale Police Department, the <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">Federal Bureau of Investigation</a>, the <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> State police and <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> Police Department have scoured the environs and even searched through garbage cans for clues. Last night, police brought two German shepherds into the Amistad Street building. 
They labored in the rain Friday, but reported no new information about their probe. 
Le's roommate reported her missing Tuesday night when she didn't return home to their Lawrence Street apartment. 
Missing-person posters with photos of Le dotted the campus Friday, where they were taped to the windows of the Yale research lab where she was last seen at about 10 a.m. Tuesday. 
One of the photos in the posters shows her entering the building, carrying papers on the morning she went missing. 
The doctoral student in pharmacology "has not been seen or heard from by family, co-workers and friends" since then, according to the poster. 
Police have said that Le's fiance, Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington, a graduate student in physics at <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a> in <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a>, is in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> cooperating with police. A representative for North Ritz Club in Syosset, where the nuptials were to be held Sunday, said Friday that the wedding has been canceled. 
"A family member called," said Vasilios Nerantzinis, a manager at the North Ritz Club, which is located on <a href="/topics/Jericho2">Jericho</a> Turnpike. "It would have been canceled anyway because if we don't hear anything at this point a few days before the wedding, we cancel it." 
Le used her university identification card to enter the lab building about 10 a.m., but left her purse, cell phone, credit cards and cash in her office, located in another Yale building about three blocks away, according to published reports. 
Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman, told the <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> Register Thursday that "there's no evidence" at this time of foul play. 
On the Columbia campus, Widawsky lives with roommate Theodore Kramer at 118th Street and Amsterdam Avenue. Kramer was not available Friday. 
Le, from <a href="/topics/Placerville">Placerville</a>, Calif., met Widawsky when they were undergraduates at the University of Rochester, said published reports. 
She was a lively, hardworking student then, according to her mentor, Rocky Tuan, who supervised a selective <a href="/topics/National_Institutes_of_Health">National Institutes of Health</a> undergraduate scholars program. 
"She was a very happy person," Tuan told the Register. "Everybody got along with her. She's always smiling, laughing." 
Le, 4-foot-11 and weighing 90 pounds, was last seen wearing a brown skirt, green short-sleeved T-shirt, brown shoes and a brown necklace. 
Her cell phone voice message says: "Hey. You've reached Annie. Please leave your name, number and a brief message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Bye." 
- With Sophia Chang and Pervaiz Shallwani 
&gt;&gt; <a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">Click to see photos from the Annie Le disappearance case</a>

LIYALE12

Yale offers $10,000 reward for info on Annie Le

missing Yale student

Yale University graduate student Annie Le was an academic standout at her alma mater, Union Mine High School in <a href="/topics/El_Dorado">El Dorado</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., where at least one science teacher raved that Le was the best student she ever had.
"She was the kind of student you dream of having in your class," said Tony DeVille, principal of the 1,000-student high school from which Le graduated in the top 2 percent of her class in 2003, quoting Le's anatomy and physiology teacher, Audrey Goodis. "An outstanding student."
Those words of praise for the 4-foot-11 Le, who went missing while on Yale's <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> campus Tuesday, were echoed by others who saw Le as a promising researcher who attended the University of Rochester and was later accepted into a challenging graduate program at one of the nation's most prestigious universities.
Le was a pharmacology student and a candidate for the joint MD-PhD degree at Yale.
"She was involved in the Culture Club, a well-rounded and well-liked person, very vibrant and down to earth, too," DeVille said of her days at Union Mine.
Le and her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington - a graduate student at <a href="/topics/Columbia">Columbia</a> University - were in love and looking forward to their nuptials, friends said.
Bianca Marcolino, a third-year graduate student at <a href="/topics/Columbia">Columbia</a> who lives next door to Widawsky in <a href="/topics/Manhattan">Manhattan</a>, said she has seen the couple together looking happy.
"I have seen her a couple of times," she said. "I have seen them doing laundry together. I know a couple of people at Yale who knew her."
Quoting Le's uncle, Minh Nguyen, the Yale Daily News wrote that he was shocked to hear of her disappearance. The newspaper continued that Le wrote on her <a href="/topics/Facebook_Inc.">Facebook</a> page that she was excited about her wedding.
"Less than one week til the big day!" it said.
Le was a fixture in the lab where she worked. But she also found time to contribute to a newspaper catering to graduate students in biological sciences. She penned an article in February about how not to become a victim of violence in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>.
"She seemed like a real hard worker," Scott Bussom, a researcher in the pharmacology department, told the campus paper. "Always here, always doing something."
With Pervaiz Shallwani

LIPROF12

High school says missing Yale student was an outstanding pupil

Missing Yale Grad

Annie Le, the Yale graduate student who disappeared days before her planned wedding to a <a href="/topics/Long_Island">Long Island</a> man, authored a student magazine story on how to avoid being a campus crime victim. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Yale student disappears before LI wedding</a> &nbsp; 
"Most students are all too familiar with e-mails with the subject: 'Message from Chief Perrotti' detailing the latest robbery," Le wrote in the February B Magazine story, titled "Crime and Safety in <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>." She was referring to the James Perrotti, the Yale police chief who now leads the search for the missing 24-year-old researcher. 
"What can one do to avoid becoming another unnamed victim in these e-mails?" Le wrote. 
Yale sees far more serious crimes than other nearby schools such as Quinnipiac University and Southern <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> State University - which is further from <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a>'s downtown, Le said. 
Using thefts as an indicator, in 2006 <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a> had about the same number of thefts - though Columbia's urban campus has a far larger student enrollment, she said. The University of <a href="/topics/Pennsylvania">Pennsylvania</a>, also an urban campus, had only 53 thefts though it has twice Yale's enrollment, she said. 
From Le's magazine article it is not possible to tell whether she is referring to larcenies, robberies, or both. 
"Such numbers do not bode well for Yale," Le's article said. "According to <a href="/topics/CNN">CNN</a> <a href="/topics/Money_Magazine">Money Magazine</a>, the City of <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> has 7 times as much personal crime compared to the average for 'safe' cities in the <a href="/topics/United_States">United States</a>." 
In spite of door-to-door escort and shuttle services, Le wrote, "the Yale community is still plagued with thefts, some involving frightening confrontations." 
For the article Le interviewed the campus police chief to talk about crime, and he told her the department had increased its late-night patrols. Perrotti offered some tips for keeping safe: Pay attention to where you are. Don't act as if you are a potential victim. Do not be distracted by iPods and phone calls. And "reduce your exposure (use the Yale escort and shuttle services)... (and) walk with a purpose." 
Chief Perrotti's final point was that "crime prevention is nothing more than recognizing a risk and taking steps to prevent it." 
He added, "in short, <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> is a city, and all cities have their perils, but with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming yet another statistic." 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/yale-student-disappears-before-li-wedding-1.1437883">PHOTOS: Yale student disappears before LI wedding</a> 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/complete-coverage-annie-le-disappearance-case-1.1444257">COMPLETE COVERAGE: Click here to read more stories on Annie Le</a>

LIANNI12

Annie Le wrote about how to prevent becoming campus crime victim

Yale student

The <a href="/topics/Federal_Bureau_of_Investigation">FBI</a> and <a href="/topics/New_Haven">New Haven</a> police on Friday continued their intensive search for a Yale University graduate student who disappeared just days before she was to marry a Huntington man this weekend. 
On campus early Friday, missing-persons posters with photos of Annie Le were taped to the windows of the Yale research lab where she was last seen on Tuesday morning. One of the photos in the posters shows her entering the building, carrying papers, the morning she went missing.
The 24-year-old doctoral student in pharmacology "has not been seen or heard from by family, co-workers and friends" since then, according to the poster.
Le is to wed Huntington native Jonathan Widawsky, 24, a <a href="/topics/Columbia_University">Columbia University</a> graduate student in physics, at the North Ritz Club in Syosset on Sunday morning, according to a neighbor who is invited to the ceremony. A reception hall manager said Friday the wedding has not been called off.
"I heard she was a nice girl and very much in love with him, and he with her," said Lucille Mayer, who lives next door to the Widawsky family on Bittersweet Place in Huntington.
No one answered the door at the Widawsky home Thursday night, and Jonathan Widawsky could not be reached for comment. On Friday morning, a bouquet of flowers leaned against the front door.
A manager at the Syosset reception hall where the couple is supposed to get married Sunday said the wedding is still on - so far.
"We spoke to their parents last week, and we have no idea if they want to cancel," said Vasilios Nerantzinis, a manager at the <a href="/topics/Jericho2">Jericho</a> Turnpike venue. "No one has called us to cancel."
Yale officials told the Yale Daily News that Widawsky is in New Haven, cooperating with authorities investigating Le's disappearance.
Entries on her <a href="/topics/Facebook_Inc.">Facebook</a> page indicated a young woman excited about her upcoming wedding, the New Haven Register reported. "Lucky I'm in love with my best friend," Le posted.
Le swiped her university identification card to enter the lab building about 10 a.m., but left her purse, cell phone, credit cards and cash in her office, located in another Yale building about three blocks away, the Yale Daily News reported. The university stepped up security in that building Thursday, according to published reports.
Tom Conroy, a Yale spokesman, told the Register last night that "there's no evidence . . . at this time" of foul play in Le's disappearance.
State police used bloodhounds to search the area where Le was last seen, and the FBI was assisting the investigation, Yale Police Chief James Perotti told The Associated Press. Authorities also are reviewing images from closed-circuit cameras.
"It's an intense, ongoing investigation," Yale spokeswoman Dorie Baker told the Hartford Courant.
Photocopied missing person posters featuring photos of Le and a police tip line phone number are posted across town - from the main campus to the research building where the bride-to-be was last seen to the downtown <a href="/topics/Dunkin%27_Donuts%2C_LLC">Dunkin' Donuts</a>. 
On Friday morning, the block around Amistad Hall, the research building, was lined with satellite trucks and press vans. 
On the quiet, tree-lined block where Le lives, gone is the throng of reporters who had camped out when news broke of her disappearance, neighbors said. 
A package in the bride-to-be's name was left at the stoop of her New Haven home, where she lives on the third floor. The package was from Rue La La, which bills itself as "an exclusive online destination of premier brand, private sale Boutiques."
A resident of the house declined to comment Friday morning.
On the Columbia campus, Widawsky lives with roommate Theodore Kramer on the sixth floor of a six-story beige brick building at the corner of 118th and Amsterdam streets. Kramer was not available Friday morning.
Le, originally from <a href="/topics/Placerville">Placerville</a>, <a href="/topics/California">Calif</a>., met Widawsky when they were undergraduates at the University of Rochester, according to published reports.
She was a lively, hardworking student then, according to her mentor, Rocky Tuan, who supervised a highly selective <a href="/topics/National_Institutes_of_Health">National Institutes of Health</a> undergraduate scholars program.
"She was a very happy person," Tuan told the Register. "Everybody got along with her. She's always smiling, laughing."
Le, 4-foot-11 and weighing 90 pounds, was last seen wearing a brown skirt, green short-sleeved T-shirt, brown shoes and a brown necklace.
Her cell phone voice message says: "Hey. You've reached Annie. Please leave your name, number and a brief message, and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Bye."
With Zachary R. Dowdy, Joseph Mallia, Pervaiz Shallwani, Karla Schuster and Chau Lam

'Intense' search for missing Yale student, set to wed on LI

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