Affidavit links lab tech to Yale student's death

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Even before Yale student Annie Le'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 Connecticut judge.

Despite the alleged efforts of suspect Raymond J. Clark 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.