Officials find items possibly related to missing Yale student
A sign posted by two Yale graduate students hangs in front of 10 Amistad St., while police patrol the entrance to the building in New Haven, Conn. on Saturday, Sept 12, 2009. The laboratory at 10 Amistad St. is the last place Annie Le, a Yale graduate student was seen, since her disappearance on the morning of Sept. 8. Credit: AP
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.
PHOTOS: Yale student disappears before LI wedding
Kim Mertz, the FBI 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 Columbia University, 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 Placerville, Calif., "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 FBI hotline at 877-503-1950.
- With Alfonso A. Castillo and AP
PHOTOS: Yale student disappears before LI wedding
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