Annie Le, Yale Grad Student, Disappears Less That A Week Before Her Wedding 9-16 Raymond Clark Update

Mysteriously a Yale graduate student disappears and no one knows what happened? Something is fishy. Annie Le, 24, is missing. There is no reported sign of struggle. There is no video evidence of an attack. The Yale University Police Department is asking for the public's help but one wonders why the med school was not more involved in the initial search? (The school has its own security and surveillance system.)Annie Le, 24, has not been seen since September 8, 2009. She is a 4'11" Asian-female with brown, shoulder length hair, brown eyes and weighs in at 90 lbs. She was last seen wearing a brown skirt, a bright green short-sleeved t-shirt, brown shoes and a brown necklace. A surveillance photo is apparently the last time anybody has seen Le. Le swiped a security card to get into the building on the day she disappeared. She never swiped a card to leave the building.

Le is a pharmacology student at Yale and was on her way to the lab on Amistad Street in New Haven. (If surveillance tape never shows her exiting the building, than they should look harder in the building. If surveillance tape shows her outside of the building as has been leaked, than the initial focus should have immediately included the FBI and forensic units.) To be missing in a building and not be initially found is not a novel idea. Leah Hickman a student at Marshall University who went missing in December of 2007 and Eridania Rodriguez, who went missing at a Manhattan office building last July are both examples of victims hidden in buildings. The focus of law enforcement and of the public ought to be educated. Surveillance tapes are not that complicated. Publish what they show and direct the focus accordingly.



This does not sound like a planned disappearance. Le left behind all her belongs, including her pocketbook and cell phone in the lab. She has not been home nor has she called her fiance. She was to be married on Sunday. By all accounts, her fiance is a good guy and is helping with the search. He is not a suspect.

If you have any information on Annie Le's whereabouts, please contact the Yale Police Department at (203) 432-4400 or Legalpub@legalpub.net.


Update 9-10-09: More details have surfaced. The Connecticut State Police and the FBI have joined the hunt for Annie. Annie is engaged to Jonathan Widawsky. Widawsky is a graduate student at Columbia University. He has fully cooperated in the search for Annie. Annie is originally from Placerville, California. She is a doctorate student in pharmacology at Yale's Med School. She graduated from University of Rochester in 2007. She was apparently working on a project in the Yale lab when she went missing. She used her Yale ID to enter the lab at 10:00 a.m. A fire alarm was pulled at the building at 1 p.m. Video is being searched to see if Le left when the building was evacuated. (One source has leaked that there was a photo of Le outside the building, but it has not confirmed.)

Update 9-11-09: Despite a search of the area and dumpsters around the lab, there has been no evidence discovered of a struggle. Dogs apparently were unable to provide any help. Le's apartment was also searched. No information has been shared to confirm any evidence of violence as of this date.
Update 9-14-09: Sunday evening, a body was found inside a wall at 10 Amistad Street, according to Peter Reichard, New Haven, Connecticut, assistant police chief. While the body was not identified yet as Annie Le, there is little doubt that it is in fact Annie. Bloody clothing was also found BUT NOT the clothing that Annie was wearing. The trash bin is being searched for further evidence.
Update 9-15-09: Expect an arrest real soon. While police deny it, several news outlets have reported that police have interviewed a possible suspect who allegedly failed a polygraph test. The person of interest apparently also has some defensive wounds. ABC News, WNBC-TV, The New Haven Register and the New Haven Independent are relying on "anonymous sources." The possible suspect is believed to be a lab technician. Police are merely saying that the investigation is ongoing and that there is a "large amount" of physical evidence.

Update 9-16-09: Police have taken Raymond Clark III into custody (but not yet officially under arrest) and searched his apartment. Clark has apparently lived with a girl friend in the apartment for the last six months. (Police executed two warrants concerning Raymond Clark III, an animal research technician at Yale.) Clark was handcuffed and brought to the police station in a silver car. (He then was apparently allowed to stay at a local motel under heavy police guard.) Mr Clark is believed to have known Le. However, he has not been charged with any crime. DNA results are still pending. He is to be presumed innocent until otherwise proven in a court of law.

Update 9-16-09: Connecticut's state medical examiner says a Yale University grad student died of traumatic asphyxiation. (Strangulation.) Currently, Clark is only a person of interest.

Update 9-17-09: Clark is represented by attorney David Dworski of Fairfield. Meanwhile, the Hartford Courant has reported that computer records show Clark was the last person to see Le alive. Le’s and Clark’s movements were apparently traced through their computerized swipe cards. Clark apparently entered the same basement room in the lab a short time after Le had entered. Le was never seen again. Le's card was never used again. According to ABC, the suspect may have defensive wounds (circumstantial evidence.) In addition, the suspect may have failed a lie detector test (this has yet to be verified and if true, was probably given before the involvement of counsel.)Bloody clothing removed from the lab may or may not be linked to the crime. Final DNA results should be available soon. Clark pictured above from MySpace..

Update June -6-2011:  Clark, 26, received a 44-year prison sentence that will likely keep him jailed until September 2053. "Assuming he survives his incarceration,"who will be there waiting for him? Most, if not all, of his family will be gone. He will have no real future." explained Supervisory Assistant State's Attorney John Waddock to the press.