Cops Refute Gruesome Details in Yale Student Murder

Murder suspect Ray Clark

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.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By John Del Signore in News on September 22, 2009 9:45 AM

Comments [rss]

slny

ewwwwuuuu!

He crushed her bones and mashed her up and squished her into a shoe box! Yuck!

FinalShaft

I agree with Stripes.

I don't know why the caption led with a tease about gruesome details, only to finish with a story about how FALSE those details are. Gothamist is a funny beast. It is somewhere between the Post with its sensationalism and Vice magazine with its sense of irrelevance.

I can understand wanting page clicks, but often I feel duped into clicking for the 'wrong' reasons. I wish someone did an honest website chronically REAL issues that face New Yorkers and ex-pats.

Not sayin...just sayin.

stripes

what's up with the post reporting rumors, aren't there any repercussions for that? if that "information is false" then whats the real story?

Rocknrope

Lots of armchair detectives here. I'm not sure what could have been done more than has been - they caught the guy, who already killed the woman by the time he tripped the fire alarm. It sounds like once Le was pronounced missing, they watched this guy closely at him home and whereabouts until they could bust him on the evidence acquired at the crime scene.

fuboy

I'm with ProcedureTurn on this one. A fire alarm being tripped 'accidentally' and a nervous, ghost-white man whose answers don't make sense and appears to be hiding something needs immediate investigation.

Like most women learn, don't yell rape, 'cause no one pays attention. Yell fire, because people respond. Too bad the people that responded in this case were idiots.

ProcedureTurn

stupid cops. they knew he was suspicious of something but they didnt investigagte any further? typical pork mentality.

jaycjay

What are they supposed to do? He accidentally tripped the fire alarm, they asked him about it and he seemed nervous and like be might have been hiding something. But there was no report yet of anyone missing, and he had employee ID and an access card for the building. There was no cause to do anything at all other than to speak to him briefly.

Manitoba2

... unless he had been "not-white", in which case they would have taken him to police headquarters for "questioning". Cops have the right to detain or question people as long as they have a reason, and suspicion is always a valid reason.

Sounds like these cops were just being lazy - maybe their shift was ending, and they didn't feel like hanging around to do paperwork.

Spirit of 76

Suspicion of what? They had no probable cause. It's not a crime to be nervous. For all they know, he was just sleeping on the job and worried about getting caught. That would be against university policy, but not a criminal offense. If they had actually started looking around without a warrant and found something, it might have been ruled inadmissible and he wouldn't be behind bars today.

ddlystar86

Wasn't his girlfriend/significant other persistent about what a "good guy" he is? Clearly delusional.

marcasm

Seems to be the same in most of these stories. The girlfriend / fiance usually sticks by the man for a week or two until reality sets in. Must be hard to imagine that you were about to marry someone capable of this.