Murder at Yale

So this is kind of crazy. A student at Yale was missing for a few months until her corpse was discovered walled up in one of the classrooms. Well it seems finally that the police have reportedly found a match on DNA that shows Raymond Clark III might be involved. You can read the original article here.

DNA matches; Arrest appears likely

By William Kaempffer, Register Staff

NEW HAVEN – Police have obtained a DNA match that implicates Raymond Clark III, 24, in the slaying of Yale graduate student Annie Le, police sources said late Wednesday.

Police have obtained, or are in the process of obtaining, an arrest warrant, the sources said.

Police were in Cromwell, where Clark was staying in the Super 8 motel.

This comes hours after police served two more search warrants Wednesday on their “person of interest” in the slaying of a Yale graduate student.

The warrants were for a red Ford Mustang that suspect Raymond Clark drove and a second warrant for his apartment at 40 Ferry St. in Middletown for items not included in the first search warrant executed Tuesday night.

The state’s medical examiner’s office confirmed Wednesday that the Yale graduate student, Annie Le, was strangled.

The office of the Chief Medical Examiner termed the cause of death “traumatic asphyxiation due to neck compression.”

This confirmation came hours after the man described as “person of interest” in the killing provided police with DNA samples and was released early Wednesday, police said.

With now 250 pieces of evidence being analyzed, the investigation is now in the hands of the state crime lab, which is operating 24-hours a day, Chief James Lewis said Wednesday evening.

If a DNA hit comes back linking Clark, 24, to the crime, Lewis said he expected an arrest warrant would be issued within a few hours.

“We know where Mr. Clark is at all times,” he added.

While police continue to investigate other people — so as not to be accused later of tunnel vision — he acknowledged that, at this point, there were no other persons of interest in the case.

He expressed confidence that the case would end in an arrest.

Clark was taken into custody Tuesday night after police secured search warrants for both his apartment and his body. Police said he was brought to a state police facility, where he complied with the warrant.

Police said he was released at about 3 a.m.

A source said detectives were investigating a testy e-mail Clark may have sent Le over protocols she wasn’t following.

According to a source, Clark drew the attention of authorities even before Le’s body was found stuffed inside a wall near the lab in which he worked at 10 Amistad St.

When he was questioned by the FBI, agents took note of numerous injuries on his body, the source said, including what appeared to be bruises and abrasions on his arms, a mark under his eye, a scratch on his right ear, and a bruise or deep scratch to his chest.

When questioned, he said some of the injuries were a scratch from a cat. Others he attributed to playing softball.

“He had excuses for everything,” the source said.

It was when officials started taking pictures of his injuries that Clark reportedly appeared to get nervous and asked for an attorney.

The motive for the slaying remained unknown. Police have theories, but authorities stressed that they were nothing more than that. They range from unrequited romantic advances by Clark toward Le to Clark being upset over the handling of the mice that he was in charge of caring for. The animals are used in experiments.

Clark has hired a Fairfield lawyer to represent him and has invoked his right to remain silent. He did not provide a statement to police after he was taken into custody on the DNA warrant.

Attorney David Dworski declined to answer questions about the his client or the case, including whether his client denies having anything to do with the Le homicide.

He issued only a one-sentence statement: “We’re committed to proceeding appropriately with the authorities with whom we are in regular communication.”

Also, two New Haven public defenders, Joe Lopez and Beth Merkin, are providing assistance.

New Haven Public Defender Thomas J. Ullmann declined comment but did say that it is not unprecedented for his office to provide pre-arrest assistance.

“I can say as a general matter, if someone sought our assistance and was qualified for the public defenders officer in terms of income levels, we would offer advice and assistance.”

The samples now were going to be compared with forensic evidence collected at the scene of the killing 10 Amistad St., a Yale laboratory in the medical district. Police Chief James Lewis has said that more than 150 pieces of evidence were collected in the building. The hope and belief is that some of that contains DNA of the killer.

“The results of the forensic analysis from the crime lab will either rule in or rule out our person of interest in this case,” New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard said Wednesday morning. “If he’s ruled out, it’s back to the drawing board” where detectives will examine other people who had contact with Le, 24, a graduate student in pharmacology.

“If he’s ruled in, the course of action would be seeking a custodial arrest of the subject.”

Le disappeared on Sept. 8 after entering 10 Amistad St. Her clothed body was found stuffed in small mechanic chase in the basement of the building.

She was supposed to have been married Sunday, the day she was found.

Clark, an lab technician who worked at 10 Amistad, also is engaged, to a co-worker. They were set to be married in December 2011, according to the couple’s wedding Web site A young man who answered the door at her parent’s house in Hamden declined comment Wednesday morning. The couple met working at Yale, a source said.

Asked about Clark’s side of the story, he only said, “I guess that will come out.”

In New Haven, Clark had lived in an apartment with his fiancee at 1554 Ella T. Grasso Blvd. until earlier this year. Former neighbor Annmarie Goodwin described Clark as “very controlling” of his girlfriend and that she would sometimes hear shouting upstairs.

At the Wharfside Commons Apartment complex in Middletown Wednesday, where Clark lives, neighbor Ed Banning, said the last time he saw Clark was Tuesday night when he was being put into a police car.

Banning said he wasn’t friends with Clark but saw him and had conversations in passing. He said that there was nothing about the interactions that would lead him to believe Clark would be capable of the crime for which he is a suspect.

“It’s really scary,” Banning said, of Clark being a suspect in the case.

Clark is a 2004 graduate of Branford High School.

A student who attended Branford High School with him said, ”I’m in total shock. He was the nicest kid – very quiet, but everyone liked him. I can’t believe…this. I’m sick to my stomach.”

Clark shares a MySpace page with his fiancee and she described him as a “Wonderful boyfriend.”

In May 2008, she wrote about a rumor that Clark was cheating on her with another co-worker at tech lab.

“My boyfriend, Ray, if you don’t know him, has no interest in any of the other girls at YARC as anything more than friends.”

YARC is the Yale Animal Resource Center.

The most recent entry was Friday, in which she writes, “Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I’m not perfect and I don’t live to be, but before you start pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean!!”