Murder of Annie Le
| Murder of Annie Le | |
|---|---|
Images from missing person flier released by New Haven police. Right: 8 September 2009 surveillance image taken upon Le's entrance of research facility where she worked. Left: Undated and uncredited closeup of Le also on flier
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| Location | 10 Amistad Street New Haven, Connecticut |
| Date | Tuesday, September 8, 2009 |
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Attack type
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Strangulation homicide |
| Victim | Annie Le |
| Perpetrator | Raymond J. Clark III |
| Annie Le | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Annie Marie Le July 3, 1985 San Jose, California |
| Died |
September 8, 2009 (aged 24) New Haven, Connecticut |
| Cause of death | Traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression |
| Body discovered | September 13, 2009 |
| Residence | New Haven, Connecticut |
| Nationality | American |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Education | Yale University (Ph.D. student in Pharmacology) |
| Alma mater |
Union Mine High School University of Rochester |
| Known for | Murder victim |
| Home town | Placerville, California |
| Height | 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m) |
| Weight | 90 lb (41 kg) |
The murder of Annie Le occurred September 8, 2009, on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Annie Marie Le (July 3, 1985 – September 8, 2009) was a 24-year-old American doctoral student at the Yale School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology. She was last seen in a research building on the New Haven campus on September 8. On September 13, the day she was to be married, she was found dead inside the building. On September 17, police arrested a suspect, Raymond J. Clark, III, a Yale laboratory technician who worked in the building. Clark pleaded guilty to the murder on March 17, 2011. Clark was sentenced to 44 years imprisonment on June 3. The case generated frenetic media coverage, with a news producer trampled in a rush to a briefing.
On the morning of September 8, Le left her apartment and took Yale Transit to the Sterling Hall of Medicine on the Yale campus. At about 10 a.m., she walked from Sterling Hall to another campus building at 10 Amistad Street, where her research laboratory was located. Le had left her purse, cell phone, credit cards, and cash in her office at Sterling Hall. She entered the Amistad Street building just after 10 a.m., as documented on footage from the building's security cameras. Le was never seen leaving the building. At approximately 9 p.m. on the evening of September 8, when Le had still not returned to her home, one of her five housemates called police to report her missing.
Because they were puzzled that security camera footage did not show Le exiting the building at Amistad Street, police closed the whole building for investigation. Police also searched through refuse at the Hartford dump, where Yale's garbage is incinerated, looking for clues as to Le's whereabouts. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the New Haven Police Department and the Connecticut State Police were all involved in the search. On Sunday, September 13, her planned wedding date, authorities discovered Le's body in a cable inside the wall of a basement laboratory in the Amistad Street building. Bloody clothes had previously been found above a ceiling tile in the same building. The building and the area are monitored by about 75 security cameras and the entrance to the building and the rooms inside the building require Yale ID cards in order to be opened and accessed. The basement where Le's body was found houses animals (mostly mice) that are used for experiments and research. Due to the high security measures in the building, authorities and Yale officials maintained that it would be extremely difficult for someone without a Yale identification card to enter the basement laboratory where Le's body was discovered, leading them to focus their investigation on Yale employees and students.
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