Raymond Clark III (Scumbag) Charged With Murdering Yale Student Annie Le...Motive???

(New Haven Police arrest Raymond Clark in connection with the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le. Raymond Clark III (Scumbag) should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law for committing this heinous crime!)

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(Autospy reports state Annie Le was strangled to death.)

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Lab technician held in Yale student’s slaying


NEW HAVEN, Conn. - A Yale University lab technician was arrested Thursday and charged with the suffocation death of a graduate student whose body was found stuffed in a research building wall on what was to be her wedding day.

New Haven police said they arrested 24-year-old Raymond Clark III at the the Super 8 hotel in Cromwell, about 25 miles north of the Ivy League campus. Clark had been staying at the hotel since he was released early Wednesday by police, who had served search warrants looking for evidence linking him to Annie Le's death.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said there are no other suspects. Authorities would not comment and a possible motive, other than to call it workplace violence. The arrest warrant was sealed by a judge.

"It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country," Lewis said.

Relentless dedication

More than 150 people have been interviewed in connection with the killing, Lewis said.

"The Yale community is grateful for the collaborative efforts of New Haven Police, state police and the FBI for their relentless dedication over the last eight days," Yale Police Chief James Perrotti added.

Le, 24, was found dead on Sunday, her body stuffed in the basement wall of a campus research building where she worked, just days before she was to marry her college sweetheart, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The Connecticut state medical examiner said Wednesday that Le died of "traumatic asphyxiation."

Authorities released no details on how she died, but traumatic asphyxiation could be consistent with a choke hold or some other form of pressure-induced asphyxiation caused by a hand or an object, such as a pipe.

The investigation has centered on Clark, the only person publicly named by New Haven police in the case. Authorities served four search warrants this week to compare DNA taken from his hair, fingernails and saliva with more than 250 pieces of evidence collected at the crime scene on the Ivy League campus and from Clark's Middletown, Conn., apartment.

Clark's attorney, David Dworski, did not immediately return calls seeking comment on Thursday. He has previously said Clark is "committed to proceeding appropriately" with police.

Speaking earlier on Thursday, The Rev. Dennis Smith, a spokesman for the Le family, told NBC'S TODAY that any arrest would be "wonderful news" to the family and would help give relatives 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.



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Yale Student Homicide "Person Of Interest" Quizzed & Released...Rich Kid Perhaps?

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(A 24-year-old lab technician at Yale University was taken into custody for questioning. NBC’s Jeff Rossen reports.)

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Lab tech released from custody in Yale killing

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - New Haven police say they have released a Yale University animal research technician they questioned in the killing of a graduate student after collecting DNA samples from him and searching his apartment.

A police department spokesman, Officer Joe Avery, says Raymond Clark left the station with his lawyer at about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

Clark has not been charged in the killing of 24-year-old Annie Le, whose body was found stuffed behind a wall Sunday in a Yale laboratory building where both she and Clark worked. Police are calling him a "person of interest."

On Tuesday, Clark was escorted out of an apartment building in Middletown, Conn., and into a silver car. Neighbors leaned over the apartment building's iron railings and cheered as police led him away.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said police were hoping to compare DNA taken from Clark's hair, fingernails and saliva to more than 150 pieces of evidence collected from the crime scene. That evidence may also be compared at a state lab with DNA samples given voluntarily from other people with access to the crime scene.

"We're going to narrow this down," Lewis said. "We're going to do this as quickly as we can."

Police have collected more than 700 hours of video tape during the probe and sifted through computer records documenting who entered what parts of the research building where Le was found dead.

Investigators began staking out Clark's home on Monday, a day after they discovered 24-year-old Annie Le's body hidden in the basement of a research building at Yale's medical school. She had vanished Sept. 8.

Just some guy

Clark shares the apartment with his girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, whom he is engaged to marry in December 2011, according to the couple's incomplete wedding Web site. Middletown is about 20 miles north of New Haven.

Neither the couple nor Clark's parents returned repeated telephone calls Tuesday.

Clark moved to Middletown from New Haven six months ago, according to former neighbor Taylor Goodwin, 16.

"I never really talked to him much, he was just some guy," Goodwin said.

It was unknown how long Clark worked at Yale or his duties. Clark's supervisors at Yale would not comment Tuesday.

Le worked for a Yale laboratory that conducted experiments on mice, and investigators found her body stuffed in the basement wall of a facility that housed research animals.

Autopsy report withheld

Authorities had been tightlipped since Le was reported missing Sept. 8, just a few days before her wedding day. Police say they have ruled out her fiancee, a Columbia University graduate student, as a suspect but have provided little additional information.

Officials had promised Tuesday to release an autopsy report that would shed light on exactly how Le died. But then prosecutors blocked release of the results out of concern that it could hinder the investigation.

Investigators usually have reasons for keeping information secret during a criminal probe, said David Zlotnick, a former federal prosecutor who now teaches law at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island.

Secrecy helps police confront possible suspects with little-known evidence about a crime and makes it harder them to fabricate a cover story.

Le's body was found Sunday, the day she would have been married on New York's Long Island. Her remains had been crammed into a wall recess where utilities and cables run between floors.

Family asks for privacy

The Le family issued a statement Tuesday through a family friend, the Rev. Dennis Smith, that thanked friends and the Yale community for their support during their grieving. The family also asked for privacy.

"The entire Yale community as well as our extended families and friends have been very supportive, helpful and caring," said Smith, speaking for the family. "Our loss would have been immeasurably more difficult to cope with without their support."

The secrecy surrounding the case has bred confusion in some quarters, and officials have repeatedly denied media reports.

Along the way, various media have reported that Le was stabbed, that police found her bloody clothes and that a professor was a prime suspect — virtually all claims unconfirmed by police or met by flat denials.

The lack of information has also led to some measure of fear at Yale, which last dealt with a homicide in 1998 — the sensational and still-unsolved stabbing death of 21-year-old Suzanne Jovin about two miles from campus.

Completely senseless

New Haven police said they would restrict information even more in coming days after an NBC producer was injured Tuesday as reporters outside the police department pushed to surround a spokesman during a briefing.

The building where Le's body is accessible to Yale personnel with identification cards. Some 75 video surveillance cameras monitor all doorways.

Her body was found in the basement, which houses rodents, mostly mice, used for scientific testing by multiple Yale researchers, Alpern said.

"That this horrible tragedy happened at all is incomprehensible," said Le's roommate, Natalie Powers. "That it happened to her, I think is infinitely more so. It seems completely senseless."



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Yale Student Murder Possibly Committed By Another Yale Student...What's The Motive?

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Clues point to inside job in Yale killing

(Although police haven’t made an arrest, they are reported to be closing in on a suspect. NBC’s Jeff Rossen reports.)

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(TODAY’s Ann Curry talks to one of Le’s high school friends, Laurel Griffeath.)

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NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Clues increasingly pointed to an inside job Monday in the slaying of a Yale graduate student whose body was found stuffed inside a wall five days after she vanished from a heavily secured lab building accessible only to university employees.

Police on Monday sought to calm fears on the Ivy League campus, saying the death of 24-year-old Annie Le was a targeted act but would not say why anyone would want to kill the young woman just days before she was to be married.

"We're not believing it's a random act," said officer Joe Avery, a police spokesman. No one else is in danger, he said, though he would not provide details other than to say that police believe no other students were involved. He also said no suspect was in custody.

Law enforcement sources told WNBC-TV their main suspect is a lab technician who works at the building. He was interviewed by police earlier in the week and failed a polygraph test. He also had scratches on his chest that made cops suspicious when they first spoke to him, according to WNBC.

Sources told the station they aren't sure about the motive yet, but an arrest is expected to happen as early as Tuesday.

Students on alert

Yale officials said the building where Le worked would reopen under increased security. Still, some students worried about their safety.

"I'm not walking at nights by myself anymore," said student Natoya Peart, 21, of Jamaica. "It could happen to anyone, anytime, anywhere."

Michael Vishnevetsky, 21, of New York, said he did not feel safe when he made a late trip to his lab Sunday in a different building. "It felt very different than how I usually felt," he said.

Twenty-year-old Muneeb Sultan said he's shocked that a killing could take place in a secure Yale building.

"It's a frightening idea that there's a murderer walking around on campus," said Sultan, a chemistry student.

Police found Le's body about 5 p.m. Sunday, the day she was to marry Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky, lovingly referred to on her Facebook page as "my best friend." The couple met as undergraduates at the University of Rochester and were eagerly awaiting their planned wedding on Long Island.

Police have said Widawsky is not a suspect and helped detectives in their investigation.

Never left building

The building where the body was found is part of the university medical school complex about a mile from Yale's main campus. It is accessible to Yale personnel with identification cards. Some 75 video surveillance cameras monitor all doorways.

The body was found in the basement in the wall chase — a deep recess where utilities and cables run between floors. The basement houses rodents, mostly mice, used for scientific testing by multiple Yale researchers, said Robert Alpern, dean of the Yale University School of Medicine.

Le was part of a research team headed by her faculty adviser, Anton Bennett. According to its Web site, the Bennett Laboratory was involved in enzyme research that could have implications in cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy. Bennett declined to comment Monday on the lab or Le's involvement with it.

Le's office was on the third floor of the five-story building, where authorities found her wallet, keys, money and purse.

Campus officials have said that the security network recorded Le entering the building by swiping her ID card about 10 a.m. Tuesday. She was never seen leaving.

Yale closed the building Monday so police could complete their investigation, according to a message sent to Yale students and staff. Scientists are being allowed in only to conduct essential research projects, and only under the supervision of a police officer.

Police activity continued at the crime scene early Monday evening, as uniformed officers with police dogs and workers wearing white suits to protect them from hazardous materials went in and out of the building.

Extra Security

When the building reopens, there will be extra security both inside and outside, said Yale Secretary and Vice President Linda Lorimer.

Police are analyzing what they call "a large amount" of physical evidence.

A friend said Monday that Le never showed signs of worry about her own personal safety at work, though she did express concerns about crime in New Haven in an article she wrote in February for the medical school's magazine.

"If she was concerned about (it) she would have said something to someone, and they would have known," Jennifer Simpson told CBS' "The Early Show." "And Jon (her fiance) would have known, her family would have known, friends would have known."

Simpson said Le, a pharmacology student from Placerville, Calif., was friendly to everyone.

"A People Person"

"She was a people person," Simpson said. "She loved people. She loved life. We just can't imagine anybody wanting to harm Annie."

In the Sierra foothills community east of Sacramento where Le went to high school, she was seen as a high achiever who knew early on that she wanted a career in medicine.

In a Union Mine High School yearbook from 2003, Le said her long-term goal was to become a laboratory pathologist and said it would require about 12 years of higher education.

"I just hope that all that hard work is going to pay off and I'm really going to enjoy my job," she said.

No one answered the door Monday at the Widawskys' gray, ranch-style home in Huntington, N.Y.

"He is a very nice young man," next-door neighbor George Mayer said of Jonathan Widawsky, a 24-year-old seeking his doctorate in physics. "His family, they're all just wonderful people — very, very nice people."

The university held a candlelight vigil Monday evening.

The death is the first killing at Yale since the unsolved December 1998 death of Yale student Suzanne Jovin. The popular 21-year-old senior was stabbed 17 times in New Haven's East Rock neighborhood, about 2 miles from campus.



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