Annie Le,Yale grad student "Murdered"#2

[Bailey]

Evidence of Violent Struggle Between Annie Le and Her Killer Emerges in Court Records


By EMILY FRIEDMAN and ERIN KEOHANE
Dec. 2, 2009

New affidavits released today show that police found blood in "plain view" in alleged Yale murderer Raymond Clark's Connecticut home just days before he was arrested.

Clark is charged with the September murder of 24-year-old Yale grad student Annie Le.


More details emerged today in the horrific murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le. Ray Clark is currently charged with her murder.

According to the 80-page arrest warrant, New Haven police found a blood-like substance on the floor of Clark's Middletown, Conn., home. It was later tested positive for a presence of blood but the warrant did not specify whether it matched the DNA of Clark or Le.

Also among the more than 700 items of evidence police obtained while searching Clark's belongings were three cellphones, including an iPhone, a blackberry and a pink Motorola phone. The ownership of these items was not made clear in the affidavit.

Several pairs of scrub pants, a fishing tackle kit equipped with a fishing line and tackle, as well as white sneakers with unknown "reddish stains" were also found in Clark's car.

Video surveillance from Sept. 8, the day Le is believed to have been murdered, show Clark wearing white sneakers.

Hairs and fibers were also found in Clark's car, according to the warrant.

These addition details emerge after last month's release of the search warrant, in which authorities described seeing the accused murderer moving a box of wipes to hide a blood spatter in the room where Le was killed, later crouching down in front of surprised investigators to scrub a drainage area with scouring pads.

The arrest warrant also revealed that police found a blood stained medical scrub found along with Clark's boots, that were marked with the letters "Ray-C." Clark's signature green pen was found with the victim's body, the document states.

In addition, Clark's DNA was found on items that were discovered with the body.

In his ruling releasing the warrants, Superior Court Judge Roland Fasano ordered that six segments of the warrants be blocked from public view because they contained information he determined was "inflammatory" and "unfairly prejudicial to the defendant."

Nevertheless, the warrant contained evidence of a very violent struggle between Le and her attacker.

In room G13 where Le was killed, there was a "possible medium velocity blood-like spray pattern on the wall," it states. Blood was found on a sock, a lab coat, rubber gloves and medical scrubs. When Le's body was found, she was wearing rubber gloves that she used while working in the lab, but the thumb on one glove was exposed. Her alleged attacker, Clark, had a scratch on his face and one on his left bicep.

In addition, when her body was discovered, much of the hidden area was smeared with blood-like stains, the warrant states. Details about the state of Le's body are redacted in the warrant.

The arrest warrant also notes that in the week before Le's disappearance, security key cards indicated that Clark has suddenly developed an interest in the rooms where Le worked, entering room G13 and G22 as often as 11 times a day. Previously, Clark entered those rooms only three times a day, the report states.

Le, 24, was first reported missing on Sept. 8, when her roommate said she hadn't returned after class. After days of searching, investigators found her body on Sept. 13 - the day she was scheduled to get married - in the Ivy League lab where she worked.

Clark, who was charged with Le's murder, had worked in the lab with Le where he performed maintenance duties, including feeding and cleaning the cages of mice Le used in her research.

While authorities waited for officers from the FBI to arrive to look at the box of blood spattered wipes, Clark entered the lab and shifted the box so the blood would not be in plain view.

Clark then proceeded to stand in front of the cart where the wipes were placed and make small talk with one of the officers, a move noted in the documents to be a "deliberate attempt by Clark to block her view of the box in question."

Later that day, Clark came back to the lab and "began scrubbing the floor grate/drain with SOS pads and a cleaning solution," according to the warrant. The officer in the room noted that it was "unusual" that Clark was scrubbing the drain because it "did not appear to need cleaning." Other officers also reported seeing Clark scouring the area underneath the sink that also appeared to be clean.

Numerous Blood Stains in Yale Murder

A lab coat marked "XL" with "red-colored stains" was also seized that same day in a nearby recycling box by authorities.

Using a DNA sample from Le, authorities matched the blood on the box of wipes to the victim.

Investigators spoke to Clark, who they say approached them, and told officers that he had only known Le for four months and that he had seen her leave the building on the day she went missing 15 minutes before him and before a fire alarm cleared the building.

Clark also told investigators that the scratch on his face and bicep was from one of his cats, according to the documents.

Investigators found a rubber glove with blood-like stains, a sock with hairs and blood inside a drop ceiling that was in the hallway outside the lab area where the two worked. A pair of boots labeled "Ray-C" was also found in the area.

Chemical analysis uncovered "blood-like stains that had been cleaned off" in one room, and a "possible medium velocity blood-like spray pattern on the wall" in another that the accused murderer had "attempted to clean.

On Sept. 13, investigators inspected the locker room near the lab and discovered "an odor similar to that of a decomposing body," which led them to the lifeless body of Le hidden in the wall behind the toilet.

Upon removing the panel of the mechanical chase -- a hollow section of the wall -- investigators "observed blood-like smears throughout the opening, behind the door frame, on pipe insulation and the access panel. Insulation had been removed from the inside of the wall to make room for Le's body, according to the documents.

Details of how Le's body was found are redacted in the warrant, other than the victim was found wearing surgical rubber gloves on both hands, with only her left thumb exposed. Along with Le's body, a green ink pen, stained lab coat and a sock were also found in the wall cavity.

Ray Clark Due Back in Court Next Month in Yale Murder Case

A colored bead and a broken string were also found on Le's clothing. A similar bead was found in the lab during the investigation.

Surveillance video showed Clark changing his clothing several times on the day Le was murdered – noticed only by the fact that the color of the draw string on his scrubs changed between the time he entered the building to when he left. Bloodied scrubs were found with Clark's boots, according to the documents.

The judge ruled on Nov. 6 that the documents be released, over the objections of both Clark's lawyers and the state attorney.

Clark has not yet entered a plea. His public defenders say they plan to plead not guilty, but they are waiting to see more evidence before they decide whether to request a hearing that would require state attorneys to present proof of probable cause.

ABC News' Don Ennis contributed to this report

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/blood-found...ory?id=9230114

[Bailey]

NEW HAVEN — - On the night of Sept. 15, with television news cameras rolling and journalists poised to report investigators' next move in the search for the killer of Yale graduate student Annie Le, police descended on the Middletown apartment of Raymond Clark III.

There, police found blood "in plain view" on the kitchen floor close to the entrance of Clark's apartment, according to search warrant affidavits released Wednesday in Superior Court.

But it wasn't until a warrant was served on Clark's person — making it possible for detectives to get hair and saliva samples from the 24-year-old lab technician — that police were able to get Clark's DNA and seek an arrest.

Clark is charged with the murder of Le, whose body was found three months ago stuffed inside a wall at the Yale Animal Research Center in New Haven, which is part of the Yale School of Medicine complex where Clark worked and Le did research. He has not entered a plea and is due in court Dec. 21.

The search warrants police used to arrest Clark were among 80 pages of documents made public Wednesday.

In addition to searching Clark's apartment, police also looked for evidence in a 2000 Ford Mustang that Clark used and a 1999 Ford Taurus that police said Clark was a passenger in the day Le disappeared. According to the search warrants, police found sneakers "with unknown reddish stains" inside the Mustang and "blood-like stains" in the Taurus.

Clark and his girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, were seen leaving a coffee shop in the Taurus hours after Le was killed, according to the affidavits.

The Associated Press reported that police have asked for a DNA sample from Hromadka. Robert Berke, Hromadka's attorney, told the AP that it's not clear why authorities want her DNA.

Detectives also looked through lockers at the research center. In one locker, labeled "RAY," police found Le's e-mail address. The search warrants said Clark "has in the recent past" contacted Le through e-mail.

Le, a third-year doctoral student in pharmacology from Placerville, Calif., was reported missing on Sept. 8. For days, investigators searched the research center at 10 Amistad St. They found her body Sept. 13, the day Le was supposed to get married.

Police interviewed Clark after key cards enabling employees to enter the secure facility showed Clark had entered the same lab room Le was in about the time she disappeared.

Clark raised investigators' suspicions when they saw him repeatedly cleaning a laboratory where police later found evidence of the crime. Clark also reported to police that he had seen Le that afternoon gather her belongings and leave, but surveillance cameras never recorded Le leaving the building.

The state medical examiner said Le was strangled, and references to blood found at the scene in both the arrest warrant affidavit and search warrants suggest there may have been a struggle before the slaying. Several paragraphs in the search warrant affidavits that appear to be about the discovery of Le's body have been redacted.

Suspecting that Clark may have tried to conceal evidence at the research center, investigators used a chemical analysis to find bloodstains that police said had been cleaned off walls of two lab rooms, the affidavits said.

Investigators also found medical scrubs, a large empty plastic bag, a rag, tweezers, scissors, several plastic tubes and a screwdriver stuffed into a drain pipe.

Investigators said Clark accessed the Internet several times between Sept. 8 and Sept. 12 using his cellphone, but they were not able to determine which websites he had used. In their application to seize Clark's phone, police said crime suspects use the Internet to "seek specialized information that will assist in the cleaning of blood and other body fluids found in a crime scene."

Police and court records have not revealed a motive for the slaying, but sources familiar with the investigation have told The Courant that the crime stemmed from a work dispute between Clark and Le.

Clark is in custody, with bail set at $3 million, at the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.

By ALAINE GRIFFIN December 3, 2009



http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...0,430070.story

[Bailey]

Published: Monday, December 21, 2009



By Register Staff and The Associated Press

NEW HAVEN — The case against an animal research technician charged with killing a Yale graduate student was continued Monday to Jan. 26..

Twenty-four-year-old Raymond Clark III did not appear today in New Haven Superior Court. The case was continued because the results of tests conducted at state labs have not been received..

Clark's attorney, Joseph Lopez, had said he will likely ask that the case be continued during the hearing.




Clark is charged with killing 24-year-old Annie Le, whose body was found stuffed behind a Yale research lab wall in September. An autopsy determined she was strangled.

Le vanished Sept. 8 from the Yale medical school research building where she and Clark worked, and her body was found five days later, on what was to be her wedding day.

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2...4777098527.txt

[Bailey]

The Hartford Courant

December 22, 2009


NEW HAVEN - Raymond J. Clark III, the former lab technician accused of killing Yale graduate student Annie Le in September, will have to decide by Jan. 26 whether he wants to proceed with a preliminary hearing.

A probable cause hearing, required by state law, must occur when a person is charged with a crime that could lead to life in prison. During such a hearing, prosecutors present evidence to convince a judge that a reasonable person would believe the defendant committed the crime. Clark has the option of waiving the hearing.

Should he decide to proceed, his lawyers, prosecutors and Judge Roland D. Fasano will schedule it during his Jan. 26 appearance.

During a brief hearing Monday in Fasano's courtroom, prosecutor John M. Waddock told the judge that prosecutors are still waiting for reports from the state lab.

There is a substantial backlog at the state lab because of retirements, lab director Ken Zercie said. Technicians are going through 75 to 100 DNA samples from investigators and Yale employees that will be compared to evidence at the crime scene. Such samples are taken to ensure DNA found at the crime scene belongs to people with legitimate access to the area, authorities said.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...,2818142.story

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Yale-Murder Suspect Clark Likely to Plead Not Guilty

January 22, 2010


(Adds call to prosecutor in the fifth paragraph.)

By Thom Weidlich

Jan. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Yale University laboratory worker Raymond Clark, charged with the murder of 24-year-old graduate student Annie Le, is likely to plead not guilty next week, his lawyer said.

“That’s what I anticipate,” Beth Merkin, Clark’s lawyer at the Connecticut Public Defender’s Office in New Haven, said in a phone interview today.

“We’re now in a position where I think we’ve reviewed all the materials.”

Clark’s next court date is Jan. 26. Merkin said she also hopes to be in a position by then to recommend to her client that he waive a so-called probable-cause hearing and move forward with the case. At such a hearing, the government would have to show it had reason to charge Clark.

Clark, 24, was arrested Sept. 17. He is accused of strangling Le, a pharmacology student, five days before her Sept. 13 wedding. Clark cleaned mouse cages in the Yale lab building where her body was found.

Clark, who’s being held on $3 million bail, hasn’t yet entered a plea in the case.
Assistant State Attorney John Waddock didn’t immediately return a call for comment on Clark’s potential plea. Connecticut Superior Court Judge Roland Fasano is overseeing the case.

Le’s body was discovered hidden behind a wall in the basement of the Yale School of Medicine research lab at 10 Amistad Street in New Haven on Sept. 13.

‘Traumatic Asphyxiation’

The Office of Connecticut’s Chief Medical Examiner said in a statement the day Clark was arrested that Le died of “traumatic asphyxiation due to neck compression.”

Clark’s arrest affidavit, unsealed Nov. 13, showed that before his arrest police had found at the crime scene a pen and a blood-stained sock with both Clark’s and Le’s DNA on them.

Investigators searched Clark’s BlackBerry and found Le’s e- mail address in a locker with “Ray” on it in the lab building where they both worked, according to search warrants unsealed Dec. 2.

Le, a Vietnamese-American who was studying for a doctorate in pharmacology, was from Placerville, California, according to a Sept. 25 Yale University statement. She graduated from the University of Rochester, in New York, where she met her fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, now a graduate student at Columbia University in New York City, the university said.

Clark was suspended from his job when he was arrested, Yale University President Richard Levin said in a Sept. 17 statement.

The case is State of Connecticut v. Clark, CR09-97102-T, Connecticut Superior Court (New Haven).

http://www.businessweek.com/news/201...-update2-.html

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Environment School to issue ID stickers after all

Administrators say policy not reversed, discrepancies will add to confusion

By Colin Ross
Staff Reporter
Published Thursday, January 21, 2010

The University’s decision to discontinue ID stickers is proving stickier than administrators expected.

Yale announced in early January that it would no longer use the colorful stickers to indicate that ID cards are valid, but students have complained that the missing stickers would make the IDs appear expired to store clerks and other people outside the University. Now, some graduate schools may choose to issue the stickers after all, and the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies already has.

Victor Stein, executive director of Student Financial and Administrative Services, said the University has not reversed its decision but that several professional schools are considering altering their policies. He added that the changes, which will create inconsistencies among Yale’s many ID holders, will lead to confusion.

Even more confusion, that is, than has already resulted from eliminating the stickers — a decision that administrators acknowledge was not fully considered before it was made. Deputy Provost Lloyd Suttle said in early January that administrators had considered only security, not how the cards would work away from campus.

“We just really didn’t think it was that big a deal,” Suttle said. “They are used for other purposes that we’re learning about, but if it’s critical people should not have been relying on stickers anyway.”

An Environment School student affairs newsletter sent Wednesday said that the continuation of the stickers would allow students to take advantage of discounts during the summer. Joanne DeBernardo, director of student affairs and registrar of the Environment School, declined to comment.

When the decision to eliminate the stickers was originally announced, some students voiced concerns that the lack of new stickers would make local retailers, museums, theaters or other merchants that offer student discounts turn down students with apparently outdated identification.

Administrators said students could remove their “DEC 2009” sticker, though beneath it is the word “VOID” in red letters.

The University said in a statement that students are free to remove the old stickers from their IDs. New cards issued this semester have been redesigned so there is no “VOID” mark where the sticker used to belong.

Security was the main reason for the University’s decision, officials said.

Using stickers as a form of security can present problems, Suttle said in early January after he announced the decision, because they can be easily misplaced, transferred from one card to another or issued to people who leave Yale before their stickers expire. The University had been waiting to make the move until they had technology to support an electronic system, he added.

By replacing visual checks with electronic scans, the University will be able to check every cardholder’s enrollment or employment status against a central database, eliminating security concerns, Suttle said.

Since the murder of Annie Le GRD ’13 in September, the University has made several changes to security policy, though administrators said they intended the removal of ID stickers to improve security in general, not to respond directly to Le’s death. In October, the University revised its workplace security policy, which now delineates unacceptable workplace behavior, such as verbal or physical abuse, and requires employees to report threatening behavior to supervisors or authorities.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/un...ers-after-all/

[Bailey]

January 24, 2010

NEW HAVEN, Conn.—An animal research technician charged with killing a Yale graduate student is returning to court.

A hearing is scheduled for Tuesday in the case involving 24-year-old Raymond Clark III in New Haven Superior Court.

Clark is charged with killing 24-year-old Annie Le, whose body was found stuffed behind a Yale research lab wall in September. An autopsy determined she was strangled.

Le vanished Sept. 8 from the Yale medical school research building where she and Clark worked, and her body was found five days later, on what was to be her wedding day.

Lawyers for Clark are expected to tell the judge whether Clark will waive his right to a probable cause hearing at which prosecutors would have to prove they have enough evidence to justify the charge.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/con...urns_to_court/

[Bailey]

Raymond Clark III Appears In Court, Next Court Date Is March 3

By ALAINE GRIFFIN The Hartford Courant

10:59 a.m. EST, January 26, 2010


NEW HAVEN — - A former Yale University lab technician has pleaded not guilty to killing graduate student Annie Le last September.

Raymond J. Clark III entered not-guilty pleas to two counts — murder and felony murder — during a brief appearance in Superior Court Tuesday morning.

He also waived his right to a probable-cause hearing.

His next court date is March 3.

Also in court Tuesday, the judge agreed to return Raymond Clark's mother's car, a 1999 Ford Taurus, which had been confiscated shortly after Clark's arrest in September. Police said Clark was a passenger in the Taurus the day Le disappeared. According to search warrants, police found "blood-like stains" in the car. Clark and his girlfriend were seen leaving a coffee shop in the Taurus hours after Le was killed, according to affidavits.

Probable-cause hearings, mandatory under state law in cases punishable by death or life in prison, require judges to determine whether prosecutors have enough evidence to proceed. The hearings give both sides the chance to present evidence and call witnesses. Judges rarely rule that probable cause is lacking, and defendants usually waive such hearings.

Le's body was found stuffed inside a wall at the Yale Animal Research Center in New Haven, which is part of the Yale School of Medicine complex where Clark worked and Le did research. Her body was found Sept. 13, the day Le was supposed to get married.

http://www.courant.com/news/connecti...,6180488.story

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Yale, UConn slayings in spotlight on ‘E!’ show


Published: Tuesday, February 23, 2010

By Joe Amarante, Register Television Editor

When producers at E! Entertainment Television were choosing story angles a while back for the cable channel, the nation’s news pages were dominated by reports of the Annie Le murder in New Haven and Jasper Howard slaying at the University of Connecticut.

So “E! Investigates” will use those cases as a jumping-off point (along with the killing of a 20-year-old at UCLA) for an hourlong episode this week on campus crime, according to executive producer Suzanne Ross.

The 10 p.m. Wednesday program will feature an interview with the editor of the Yale Daily News and police chief in New Haven, she said, as it covers the murder in the program’s first segment.

“We felt it was a topic that engages families of students and families of victims,” Ross said.

The show will probe the North Illinois University massacre in 2008, through the eyes of a victim’s father; the case of Jenny Poliakoff, a 19-year-old who died of a drug overdose after a night of partying at San Diego State University; and a UC-Berkeley rape case that led to other victims coming forward, Ross said.

“We look at all aspects of the cases, the sexual aspects, the victims, drugs, alcohol, and we expand out to wider issues. These are secluded environments, and sometimes students feel they’re not vulnerable. ... They may have a false sense of security on campus.”

The show will cover how the cases affected life on those campuses, such as the San Diego school that took a hard line on drugs, leading to the arrest of 100 people in a drug ring there.

“There’s a lot to be learned by students and parents in the case of drugs and alcohol, or walking in groups,” Ross said.

“When it comes to random acts of violence, as in Annie’s case, you can ask later, ‘What could she possibly have done to protect herself in that case?’ In hindsight, everyone is like, ‘What are the signs?’ ... But if it is a random thing, you may not be able to do anything.”

Ross said the show does not just look for a salacious angle, but tries to get “behind the headlines, up close and personal to make it a little more real” in cases that may or may not have an entertainment connection.

Ross, with a documentary and biography background, also produces “True Hollywood Story.” Sometimes there’s no message in that one. But in this case, Ross said, “We look at campus security, what to do to protect yourself. There’s a message to take from it.”

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2...urity_0224.txt

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Lab tech charged in Yale killing returning to court

Published: Monday, March 1, 2010

NEW HAVEN (AP) — An animal research technician charged with killing a Yale University graduate student is returning to court.

Raymond Clark III, of Middletown, is scheduled to appear Wednesday in New Haven Superior Court.

Clark is accused of strangling 24-year-old Annie Le, of Placerville, Calif., in September. Le’s body was found stuffed behind a research lab wall on the day she was supposed to get married on Long Island.

Clark, 24, has pleaded not guilty to murder charges. He has been jailed in lieu of $3 million bail.

Clark was an animal technician in the building on Amistad Street where Le conducted experiments. He was arrested and charged with murder Sept. 17, four days after her body was found behind a wall of the building. Clark is being held in lieu of $3 million bail at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield.

Police warrants allege a bloody sock, which was found in a ceiling at the research building, contains a mixture of Clark’s and Le’s DNA. The documents also allege a green pen found under Le’s body had Clark’s DNA on it.

Police said Clark used a green pen, writing “RC” on schedule sheets for room G-13 and other rooms in the research building, near where Le’s body was found. Police found her body on what was to be her wedding day.

The warrant stated that on Sept. 8, the day Le disappeared, Clark was the only person who used a key card to access room G-22 after Le entered room G-13 nearby. The documents said Clark used his card 55 times to enter those rooms that day during a five-hour period.

http://www.middletownpress.com/artic...2321169565.txt

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Annie Le Warrant To Be Unsealed

Technician Accused Of Killing Yale Student From El Dorado County

POSTED: 2:40 pm PST March 9, 2010

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A judge has ruled that part of a search warrant can be unsealed in the case of an animal research technician charged with killing a Yale University graduate student from El Dorado County.

Raymond Clark III is accused of strangling 24-year-old Annie Le in September. Le's body was found stuffed behind a research lab wall on the day she was supposed to get married.

The 24-year-old Clark has pleaded not guilty to murder charges.

New Haven Superior Court Judge Roland Fasano issued a ruling Tuesday that parts of the search warrant would be unsealed after three business days if attorneys don't appeal. A court clerk said that means the warrant would be unsealed Monday.

Fasano ordered portions of the search warrant that he called "offending material" to be blacked out.

Le graduated from Union Mine High School.

http://www.kcra.com/news/22790166/detail.html

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Final Annie Le Warrant To Be Unsealed On Monday

by Melissa Bailey | Mar 9, 2010 3:19 pm

New details in the killing of Yale grad student Annie Le may be revealed Monday, as a judge has ordered a final search warrant affidavit to be opened to public view.

Superior Court Judge Roland Fasano issued a memorandum Tuesday afternoon calling for a 10th search warrant affidavit to be unsealed in the case of Raymond Clark. Clark, a former Yale lab tech, was charged Sept. 17 with strangling Le and hiding her body in a Yale lab building where they both worked.

Fasano’s ruling concerns a final search warrant executed on or about Nov. 30, after Clark’s arrest. The document has remained under seal at the request of the defense.

Fasano has redacted the affidavit and placed it under seal for three more days to allow for appeals. That means barring any objections, the document will be available Monday morning, according to a court spokeswoman.

Fasano unsealed redacted versions of other search warrant affidavits in Clark’s case in December. The documents revealed a trove of new information on what led police to justify searching the body and possessions of 24-year-old Clark in the days leading up to his arrest. They revealed, for example, that police claimed they found blood “in plain view” on the kitchen floor of Clark’s Middletown apartment.

Fasano said he has redacted limited portions of the 10th search warrant affidavit, as he did with prior affidavits. He removed “specific, offending material.” He didn’t publicly state why he was redacting those portions, because doing so would reveal the substance of the redactions.

Clark entered a pro-forma not guilty plea on Jan. 26 to two charges of murder and felony murder. His next court date is April 7.

Previous coverage of the Annie Le case:

March 3, 2010
Judge Plans To Unseal Final Annie Le Warrant
Tuesday, Jan. 26
• Annie Le’s Alleged Killer Pleads Not Guilty
Wednesday, Dec. 2
• Annie Le Warrants: Blood Found In Kitchen, Car
Tuesday, Nov. 17
• Seal Extended On Annie Le Warrants
Friday, Nov. 13
• Annie Le Warrant: Bloody Boots Read “Ray-C”
Friday, Nov. 6
• Annie Le Documents To Be Unsealed
Tuesday, Nov. 3
• Hearing Continued For Annie Le Suspect; Judge Will Rule By Week’s End On Warrants: Live Blog
Tuesday, Oct. 20
• Annie Le Suspect Enters No Plea; Warrants Remain Sealed
Tuesday, Oct. 6
• Live Blog: Lawyer For Annie Le Murder Suspect Wants To See The Evidence
Friday, Sept. 25
• Warrant In Annie Le Murder To Stay Sealed
Thursday, Sept. 24
• Cops Back At Annie Le’s Lab Building
Monday, Sept. 21
• What Annie Le Story?
• Public Defender: I Don’t Want Annie Le Reporters Investigated
Thursday, Sept. 17
• After Annie Le Murder, Union Chief Sends Rallying Call
• Annie Le Suspect Knew Cops Were On His Tail
• Cops Arrest Lab Tech In Annie Le Murder
• Suspect Arraigned (live blog)
Wednesday, Sept. 16:
• Ex-Girlfriend “Shocked” About Annie Le Target
• Cops Stake Out Annie Le Target’s Motel
• Annie Le Case: It’s Coming Down To The DNA
• Annie Le Was Strangled
Tuesday, Sept. 15:
• City, Yale Learned From Jovin In Annie Le Case
• Suspect In Annie Le Case Has Fiancee
• NBC Producer Trampled At Annie Le “Briefing”
• Cops Take DNA From Annie Le Target
• Was That Annie Le’s Killer?
Monday, Sept. 14:
• Body Identified As Annie Le
• “Serious” Suspect In Annie Le Case
• You Can Get In The Wall With A “Butter Knife”
• Lab Building Shuts Down
Sunday, Sept. 13:
• Remains Of Annie Le Believed Found; “A Time For Compassion,” Levin Says
• Annie Le Hunt Extends To Hartford
Saturday, Sept. 12
• Focus In Annie Le Probe Less On “State Lines”
Friday, Sept. 11, 2009
• City Cops Join Search For Annie Le; $10,000 Reward Posted

http://newhavenindependent.org/index...ealed/id_24359

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WITH DOCUMENTS: Le slaying: No evidence links Clark's fiancee

Published: Tuesday, March 16, 2010



By RANDALL BEACH, Journal Register News Service

NEW HAVEN — Although police sought the DNA sample of the fiancee of an animal lab technician charged in the killing Yale graduate student Annie Le, a search warrant affidavit released Monday does not contain results or evidence linking her to the crime.

Robert Berke, the attorney for Raymond Clark III’s fiancee, Jennifer Hromadka, confirmed Monday that police had obtained a court order to get a saliva sample from her in late November or early December in order to get her DNA. He said he did not know the results.

“As far as I know, she is not a suspect,” Berke said. “But no one has told me either way.”

After Clark was arrested on a charge of murder in Le’s death last September, then-New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said no one else would be charged.

The affidavit, written by Detective Sgt. Alfonso Vazquez and Detective Scott Branfuhr of the New Haven Police Department, said they sought Hromadka’s DNA after they found DNA on the lanyard of her identification card consistent with that found on a green pen and bloody sock at the crime scene.

The warrant was obtained to compare the DNA on her lanyard with DNA on the sock and pen.

A source noted Monday that Hromakda could have come into contact with objects such as the pen and sock during her regular domestic activities at the Middletown apartment she shared with Clark.

Le, 24, of Placerville, Calif., did student work at the Yale Animal Research Center at 10 Amistad St., where Clark, an animal technician, also worked.

Hromadka, another animal technician, usually works at a different Yale medical building at 295 Congress Ave., the affidavit states.

Although Hromadka occasionally is assigned to 10 Amistad St., the document said, a review of her electronic key card usage for Sept. 8-13 showed she did not use her card to access that building in that period. Le was reported missing Sept. 8, and her body was found behind a wall at the research building Sept. 13.

But the affidavit also added, “It is not uncommon for an individual employed and assigned to work at 10 Amistad St. to access the facility by following behind others accessing and using their respective electronic key cards.”

The detectives noted several tested items linked Clark “to key pieces of evidence which ultimately led to his arrest for the murder of Annie Le on Sept. 17.”

Clark, now 25, has pleaded not guilty.

The affidavit stated police searched the Middletown apartment, as well as the basement of 10 Amistad St. Hromadka’s lanyard was seized from the apartment.

“Obtaining buccal swabs from Jennifer Hromadka will either prove or disprove whether or not she is the single source of said DNA profile obtained from the lanyard, the sock and the pen,” the warrant said. “Obtaining a confirmatory DNA sample from the source of the DNA found in these items will help investigators prove or disprove any involvement Jennifer Hromadka may have had in the murder of Annie Le.”

Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney John Waddock, who is prosecuting the case, had no comment on the warrant Monday, nor did Clark’s co-counsel, Beth A. Merkin.

http://www.middletownpress.com/artic...7537357512.txt

[Royalpurple209]

Book on Annie Le slaying speculates on suspect's motives

July 11, 2010 By MATTHEW CHAYES matthew.chayes@newsday.com

A new book about the slaying last year of 24-year-old graduate student Annie Le provides no new information about the case but does call on forensic experts and criminal defense attorneys to speculate why someone like the defendant would have killed her.

Le's body was found hidden behind the wall of a Yale University animal laboratory building on what would have been her Long Island wedding...

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/s...ives-1.2096862