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Cops Refute Gruesome Details in Yale Student Murder
By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 22, 2009
Modified Sep 22, 2009
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By
John Del Signore
Published Sep 22, 2009
Modified Sep 22, 2009
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Please do heed the word "gruesome" before deciding whether to read further. Seriously. Police sources have told the Post that the body of slain Yale graduate student Annie Le was horrifically broken and mangled in order to fit through a wall opening the size of a computer screen. The corpse was found in a utility space in a bathroom wall near the basement lab where Le had been working the day she vanished.
A police source says, "He just crushed her in there. She was like mush—she was so smashed up you couldn't recognize her." Appalling, but is it true? New Haven police Chief James Lewis insists, "This information is false. This myth must be dispelled at the request of the State’s Attorney." A memorial service for Le will be held on Wednesday, in Huntington, Long Island, with the funeral on Saturday.
The suspect in the murder, Le's lab co-worker Raymond Clark, was arrested last week. Police say that in his haste to hide the body, Clark tripped a fire alarm, drawing two rookie cops to the lab who had no idea what heinous crime had just occurred. But they immediately knew something was suspicious about Clark, because "he was acting weird, he was ghost white. His answers weren't making any sense. He was stuttering, and trying to stand in front of a chemistry tray with his arms crossed, trying to hide something." He'd also been observed trying to clean the lab and hide equipment that later turned out to contain blood splatters.
Clark's co-workers in the lab have told investigators that Clark was a "control freak" and territorial about the mice whose cages he cleaned. Investigators are exploring whether that attitude might have sparked an altercation between him and Le.
Update: another sad detail- Le's fiance is still wearing his wedding ring.
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Yale Graduate Student Murder
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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