Candlelight vigil as Yale heightens security

Yale will hold a candlelight vigil Monday night in honor of slain grad student Annie Le, 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 Connecticut university said.

The FBI 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.