Probation officer gives office BJ to boot-camp teen
[UPDATE] Body Found at Yale is Annie Le's; Police Have Suspect
Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 6:47 pm
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Annie Le, a 24-year-old student, was last seen Tuesday at her laboratory at Yale University.
The pharmacology doctoral candidate left behind her identification and hasn't been heard from by friends or family. Police say she left her cell, credit cards and money in her office, but police found no immediate evidence of foul play.
She is described as a 4'11" Asian-female with brown, shoulder length hair, brown eyes and weighs in at 90 lbs. She was set to be married this weekend.
UPDATE I: It's looking more like foul play in the disappearance of Annie Le. Though she was set to be married this weekend when she vanished, this seems more than an innocent case of pre-wedding jitters. Coworker Debbie Apuzzo told the Associated Press that Le was "very excited' about getting married, and that she's regarded as conscientious. And considering that she left her credit cards and IDs behind, this just doesn't sound like a woman with cold feet.
UPDATE II: Though some news reports suggest Annie Le may have been a bride with cold feet, all evidence still points to the contrary. According to KTXL-TV in Sacramento,Le grew up in El Dorado County, California where she was an honor student. She also volunteered at Marshall Hospital in Placerville. Combined with her doctoral pursuit and her volunteer work, it's just getting harder to believe she's a runaway bride.
Says here high school principal, Tony DeVille: "Just a top human being. She was one of the top students in her class and excelled in science. One of her science teachers said that she's the best student she ever had."
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| Police have found bloody clothes in the ceiling of the building where she was last seen. |
Investigators also spent the day scouring dumpsters and using bloodhounds in hopes of picking up a scent. So far, they've turned up nothing.
Annie was supposed to wed Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky on Saturday. But the reception, scheduled for the North Ritz Club in upscale Syosset, Long Island, has been canceled.
UPDATE IV: Police are now interviewing a professor who abruptly canceled hours before Annie was reported missing. The prof hasn't been named, nor has the class. But the coincidence has aroused police suspicion. Then again, the timing could be just that -- a coincidence.
UPDATE V: The mystery surrounding Annie's disappearance heightens. Police have found blooding clothing in the ceiling of the laboratory where she was last seen. This isn't a good sign, especially since they haven't found any sign of her on surveillance video leaving the building.
Witnesses also saw police interviewing a man outside the building this morning. The man covered his face when spotted by reporters, then drove away with two FBI agents. Police wouldn't say how the man was related to the case. But virtually everyone associated with Annie is being interviewed. "If I happened to know this student, they'd interview me," says Yale spokesman Tom Conroy.
At this point, investigators seem to be working with three possible scenarios. Since the laboratory is loaded with valuable equipment, Annie's disappearance could be related to a burglary gone bad. They also say her mother owns nail salons in California, meaning she has access to cash that could make Annie a kidnapping target.
Finally, there's the ever-present chance of the creep who was either stalking her or could selected her at random. But the fact that bloody clothes have been found in the building at least suggests the possibility of a coworker or someone else affiliated with Yale.
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| Annie with her husband-to-be |
UPDATE VII: Cadaver-sniffing dogs and officers in hazardous material suits were searching the Hartford dump yesterday. Connecticut troopers and the FBI reportedly received info that she was buried there.
UPDATE VIII: Police now say the blood-stained clothes found in the ceiling of Annie Le's Yale laboratory building were not the ones she was last seen wearing. There was also only a small amount of blood found on them, raising hope that her disappearance doesn't involve a vicious abduction.
UPDATE IX: Though they haven't made a positive ID, police believe they've found Annie Le's body in an area of her laboratory building that holds utility cables between floors. The discovery was made at 5 p.m. tonight. New Haven police have now assumed control of the investigation and are treating it as a homicide. But they aren't saying why it took so long to discover the body. Earlier reports indicate they'd combed through the building inch-by-inch, going so far as to use blueprints to ensure they hadn't missed anything.
UPDATE X: Though it's easy to go overboard at times like these, it's hard to excessive when talking about the wonderful woman who was Annie Le. She was the valedictorian at Union Mine High School in El Dorado, California. She graduated cum laude at the University of Rochester, receiving a degree in science in cell and developmental biology. She also volunteered at a hospital. Annie was, without a doubt, among our best and brightest.
But more important, she was described as a sweet, bubbly, effervescent friend who always had a smile on her face. Check out this story from the Yale Daily News, a student paper that has crushed its supposedly professional Connecticut rivals in following this story.
UPDATE XI: Police had positively identified the body found in a Yale laboratory building as Annie's. They also now have a suspect in the murder, though they haven't released his name. They say the man has defensive wounds and has failed a polygraph. Some reports have said he's a student, but the New Haven Police have said no students are involved in the case. The also believe the murder wasn't a random act, meaning the killer was likely someone close to Annie.
UPDATE XII: A lot of testing involving animals goes on in the building where Annie worked, and that meant high security as a defense against animal rights activists. Seventy-five security cameras covered the doors, and you can only enter with a key card.
That's led some to speculate that Annie's killer had to be close to her. "I think it's scary, because the building is so secure," Rachel Sirriani, a post-doctoral radiology student, told Bloomberg News. "It's really impossible for it to have been a random person. It had to be someone familiar with her schedule and other people's schedules."
The news service also quotes Jack Levin, co-director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict, who believes Annie's wedding, which was supposed to be held Sunday, is the most likely trigger for the slaying: "The most likely possibility has something to do with her approaching wedding. And that's why I think the No. 1 motive would be jealousy or possessiveness on the part of someone who knew she was going to be married and said 'If I can't have her, no one else can.'"
UPDATE XIII: Police have narrowed their search to a Yale lab technician, according to the New Haven Independent. Sources tell the paper that the suspect works in animal testing in the same building where Annie worked, though he's not a student. The suspect was supposedly in love with Annie, but the paper couldn't verify the allegation. The New Haven Register reported that he failed a polygraph and has lawyered up.
UPDATE XIV: WFSB-TV in Hartford is identifying Yale lab technician Raymond Clark as a suspect. He works in the Animal Resources Center in the building where Annie worked. The TV station isn't naming its sources, and investigators haven't officially released any names, so we don't know how good this information is. But the station quoted the manager of Clark's apartment building as saying that no one's seen him since Thursday. Added neighbor Sana Cotten: "We didn't know what was going on, we saw cops all around here."
Also see "Comment of the Day: Don't Blame Annie Le's Cleavage" and "Comment of the Day: Was Annie Le Abducted by Someone from Yale?"
Tags: Annie Le, Connecticut
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