"Person Of Interest" Arrested In Yale Grad Student's Murder

This morning, New Haven police arrested Raymond Clark for the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le. Clark, 24, an animal lab technician in the Yale facility where Le did research, was taken from the Motel 8 in Cromwell, Connecticut where he had been staying since yesterday. Sources say his DNA matches evidence from the crime scene while there were apparently text messages between him and Le about meeting at the lab on Tuesday, September 8—the last day Le was found. Her asphyxiated body was found in a crawl space in the research building's basement on Sunday, September 13, the day she was to be married.

Clark was charged with murder and is now being held on $3 million bail. New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said that Le, whose hard work brought her $160,000 in scholarships for her college education at University of Rochester and then to Yale as a doctoral student in pharmacology, "was a young woman with unlimited potential." He characterized the killing, "This is not about urban crime, university crime, or campus crime. It's about workplace violence, a growing concern across the country."

Some of the other evidence found: Clark's "Yale swipe card indicated he was the last person to see Le alive. The electronic trail left by his card indicated he had entered the same lab where Le was last seen. Clark also reportedly swiped his identification card at least 10 times in the hours surrounding Le's disappearance, the paper reported. The deep scratches on Clark's body came to light as the Connecticut medical examiner released Le's cause of death as strangulation, or as it was officially described, 'traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression.' Police also found a pair of bloody surgical gloves."

The NY Times' article on Clark begins, "As a high school student in the shoreline town of Branford, Conn., Raymond Clark III joined the Asian Awareness Club, which made spring rolls for a faculty lunch and organized a trip to Chinatown for the Chinese New Year. He joined the Interact Club, which focused on community problems like homelessness. And he played football and baseball, throwing long bombs as a quarterback and knuckleballs as a pitcher." But the Post paints a slightly different picture of Clark back in high school—he is "accused in a 2003 police report of forcing his high-school girlfriend to have sex with him — and vandalizing her locker when she dumped him, it was revealed yesterday."

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By Jen Chung in News on September 17, 2009 9:57 AM

Comments [rss]

robingee

So this kid is a nutcase, and capable of horrible murder. Does someone like this always have the potential, or do they suddenly develop it? Was he abusive to women?

He looks like a little friggin' rat coward to me. I would like to pummel his face.

slny

What if he's big, brave and ugly, will you still pummel his face?

Bort

He's now been officially charged with murder.

slny

Its obvious that he kill the tiny little girl out of some knee-jerk reaction.

I wonder if his girl friend Hromadka will still defend him.

NannyState

Now who will take care of the rats?

robingee

He had her phone number. They were at least acquaintances.

Spirit of 76

I'm sure that she left her number in case of emergencies in the lab.

sheia

Why kill her in a highly secured environment? He probably knows she'll never meet him elsewhere other than the workplace. Knowing the victim well enough as being very serious when it comes to her profession, he knew it would be easier to lure her in the lab. I don't think they have any personal relationship at all, other than being co-workers. Motive for the killing? His pride :)

robingee

Why would they be texting to meet if he was not a fellow student? I didn't catch the fact that he was a maintenance guy and not a Yalie himself. Not that students shouldn't text workers, but why meet?

theevilone

Reports now say his texted her requesting a meeting about the condition of the mice cages.

theevilone

I think he's probably just a straight up power tripping asshole. I'm guessing a bigtime inferiority complex, working at Yale, with all of these grad students who were his own age that come, are smart and move on to bigger and better things. He's the Lab Mouse Sheriff and got his jollies over being a nitpicking dick about lab protocols to put those Yalies in their place. I'm guessing that since he warned her once and she apologized, if she didn't act apologetic and deferential enough to this douchebag, he snapped. After all, why should he put up with some girl giving him lip? Show some respect for the Rat King!

stollef

I think the girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, did it. She also worked in the same lab, and had posted stuff on her blog about not being jealous of other women in her boyfriend's lab (lady doth protest too much)

slny

Pfffff sheesh!

pissflaps

...a golden shower would have sufficed

pissflaps

HERRO! A deadly strain of yellow fever, indeed...

Potty Boy

It's "fried rice", you plick! lol

charshiu

Asiaphile... Let this be a warning for white guys and Asian girls.

JenChungsBaby

Yes white guys, when you kill an Asian girl don't do it in a secured and locked down environment where the police will easily track it back to you.