Chapter 5: The Abduction and Murder of Annie Le
Chapter 5: The Abduction and Murder of Annie Le
America’s Ivy League colleges are known for their strict academic requirements and as factories that produce world leaders in the fields of business, science, and politics. The campuses of Ivy League universities are full of history as the halls are named for famous Americans and their architecture is often centuries old. Truly, Ivy League schools are in a world of their own. The residential neighborhoods that have grown up around the nation’s Ivy League schools are usually pretty safe. For instance, Dartmouth is located in the bucolic setting of New Hampshire and Harvard and Princeton are located in low crime suburbs of major cities. Columbia is located in Manhattan, but since the 1990s the crime rate has been very low in that city. Yale University is a different story. Yale University, like its Ivy League brothers, is an incredibly fine academic institution that has graduated a number of brilliant minds from around the world; but it is also located in the middle of New Haven,
Connecticut. Since the Puritans first arrived there in the seventeenth century, New Haven has attracted several waves of immigrants. Irish, Italian, and Jewish immigrants immigrated there in large numbers during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and then groups from within the United States, such as blacks from the South, and Puerto Ricans, have moved there in the later twentieth century. The immigrants made New Haven a hard-scrabble, blue collar city that has experienced growing pains over the years. One of the growing pains New Haven has experienced is a high crime rate. Gang and drug violence has contributed to place New Haven in the top twenty of the most dangerous American cities per capita, where it enjoys the dubious distinction of being grouped with some of America’s more notorious cities, such as Detroit, Chicago, and Memphis. New Haven’s high crime rate has been a source of problems for Yale University for a number of years and made national headlines when Yale graduate student Annie Le mysteriously vanished from an on-campus laboratory on September 8, 2009. A Woman with a Promising Future In September, 2009, Annie Le was a woman with an incredible future in front of her. At twenty-four years old, Le was a doctoral student of pharmacology who was engaged to be married on September 13. She enjoyed being a student at Yale and was well liked by her friends and colleagues. Le was looking forward to marrying her fiancĂ© Jonathan Widawsky and beginning her life in “the real world.” The petite Le was a highly ambitious young woman who grew up in the San Jose, California area. Le was from a traditional, yet Americanized Vietnamese-American family that placed a high value on education and family, which she dutifully followed in her own life. From an early age Le showed a keen interest in science and medicine. She volunteered in her community, studied hard, and was always there for family members. Eventually, her hard work paid off, as she graduated as the valedictorian of her high school class and was accepted to the University of Rochester where she earned a BA in bioscience in 2007. The bright and ambitious Le was then accepted into the pharmacology graduate program at Yale where she was studying enzymes in order to develop treatments for diabetes and
cancer. But all of the hopes and dreams of this bright young woman were needlessly dashed in a bizarre crime that became the focus of national attention. The Crime Despite being located in the middle of a high crime city, Yale University is equipped with several levels of security. University police regularly patrol the campus looking for any student in need of help and investigating anything that may seem out of the ordinary. Property crimes have been high at Yale compared to other campuses in the state of Connecticut, but violent assaults and homicides are almost unheard of, which is no doubt at least partially the result of campus police patrols. Yale University also has other security measures in place to protect its students and staff. A number of close circuit television cameras strategically placed around the campus record the movements of people in and out of the campus buildings, and many of the buildings can only be accessed with a current Yale University identification card. Both of the last two security measures played an important role in the Annie Le case. The morning of September 8 began just as any other for Annie Le. She woke up, had breakfast in her apartment, and then took public transportation to Sterling Hall on Yale’s campus where she had an office. She left her purse, phone, and other valuables in her Sterling Hall office and then went to conduct research at the on-campus laboratory around 10 a.m. Cameras in the laboratory captured images of her entering the building, but not of her leaving. Le usually returned home in the afternoon, so when she failed to come back to the apartment, her roommate reported her missing around 9 p.m.. Campus, local, and state police, along with the FBI, immediately locked down the campus laboratory and began an exhaustive search for Le. It appeared that one of Yale’s brightest stars had been abducted from campus. The case immediately attracted media attention. A bright, attractive Ivy League student had disappeared from campus with no trace. Le’s anguished family and her fiancĂ© appealed to the public for help in press conferences, but as the country watched and hoped for the safe return of the graduate student, some doubted the circumstances. Some people began to question if she was really abducted and began to propose that maybe she willingly chose to disappear. Perhaps the stress of her rigorous studies combined with doubt about her impending marriage made Le become a runaway bride. Those closest to Le dismissed such theories by pointing out that she only showed hope and excitement for her future and never displayed any signs of doubt towards her marriage. There was no way that Annie Le would have ruined her future and hurt family and friends in such a way, they said. Unfortunately, on September 13, the day of Annie Le’s planned wedding, the thoughts of her family and friends were confirmed – the young graduate student’s body was discovered in a basement wall of the laboratory. The Killer An examination of Le’s partially decomposed body revealed that the young woman had been strangled to death and was sexual assaulted. Initially, authorities cast a wide net in their potential suspect pool, which included friends, co-workers, and acquaintances of Le’s, but once her body was discovered in the basement of the lab they knew that the killer was someone she worked with. On the afternoon of September 10, before Le’s body was discovered, graduate student Rachel Roth, who also worked in the lab, noticed what appeared to be a blood smear on a box of towels. Roth alerted authorities to the find, and while she waited for police to arrive she noticed twenty-sixyear-old lab technician Raymond Clark acting strangely. She said he repositioned the box of towels so that the apparent blood smear was not visible and then cleaned a drain that did not appear to need cleaning. Clark then told Yale police that he talked to Le in the lab on September 8, but that she left the building just after noon. The video surveillance clearly showed that Le never left the building, and Raymond quickly became a person of interest in her disappearance. The police also noticed some scratches on Clark’s face, but he claimed that he received the injuries from a cat. Although arrows of suspicion began to clearly point towards Clark early in the investigation, authorities still did not know if they had an abduction, homicide, or runaway bride on their hands. Further investigation of the laboratory turned up a discarded lab coat that was stained with what was later determined to be blood, some bloody clothing, and work boots with Clark’s initials. Le’s body was eventually discovered when the odor from decomposition became apparent to investigators, who then brought in cadaver dogs that located her corpse. Authorities obtained a warrant for Clark’s hair, blood, and fingernails on September 15 th , which was then matched to some of the items discovered in the lab and on Le’s body. The lab technician was arrested on September 17 th when he then failed a polygraph examination, which pr
The Abduction and Murder of Annie Le
September 17 th when he then failed a polygraph examination, which proved to be the final nail in his homicidal coffin. After a series of pre-trail motions, at the urging of his parents Clark pleaded guilty to Le’s murder in March, 2011. The judge sentenced Clark to fortyfour years in prison with his release date in the year 2053. If Clark survives natural causes and the clutches of hardened career criminals, he will be seventy years old when he is released. Unanswered Questions The abduction and murder of Annie Le is both a tragic and bizarre tale on so many levels. The tragic nature of the case is obvious: a bright young woman who had so much to offer the world was viciously murdered before her life had a chance to get underway. The case was bizarre from start to finish. Her apparent abduction from the supposed safe confines of an Ivy League science lab to the revelation that she was murdered and “hid” inside the lab were all details that make sure this case will never be forgotten. But perhaps the most mysterious aspect of the case revolves around the killer, particularly what drove Clark to kill Le. At his sentencing, Clark appeared genuinely contrite as he fought back tears and made a statement to the court. 'Annie was and will always be a wonderful person, by far a better person than I will ever be in my life. I'm sorry I lied. I'm sorry I ruined lives. And I'm sorry for taking Annie Le's life,' said Clark at sentencing. Despite showing remorse for the horrific act, Clark never told the court why he killed Le. Raymond Clark was a lab technician who did not get along well with the graduate students and scientists that worked in the lab, as some described him as a “control freak.” One lab researcher said that Clark would get upset if others did not follow the smallest rules of the lab, such as wearing shoe covers. "He would make a big deal of it, instead of just requesting that they
wear them," said one of the scientists. Some believe that Clark, a man with limited education who was little more than the laboratory’s janitor, felt extremely inadequate around the graduate students and scientists and therefore would make a major issue about minor problems in order to exert some power. On the day he killed Le, Clark sent her a text message requesting a meeting to discuss the sanitary conditions of the cages of the mice that were used for experiments. Did Le meet with Clark and say something that set the man off into a murderous rage? If that is the case, there is little in his past to suggest such a thing, and the two worked together for about four months with no signs of turmoil or acrimony. Friends of Clark’s were all quick to point out that they were extremely shocked when they learned he murdered Le. "This is not the Raymond Clark that I know," said Clark’s childhood friend Maurice Perry. "I've known him so long. I just can't picture him doing something like this." Neighbors also described Clark, who lived with his girlfriend and a dog, as thoughtful and considerate. Yale University president Richard Levin also showed surprise, although his statement was no doubt to at least partially cover himself and the university from a law-suit by Le’s family. Levin stated: “His supervisor reports that nothing in the history of his employment at the university gave an indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible.” Unfortunately, Raymond Clark proved that when it comes to murder, anyone is capable and anything is possible. An Eerie Footnote We all know that words we say, if not chosen correctly, can have a tendency to come back to haunt us, but in Annie Le’s case, words she wrote continue in many ways to haunt Yale’s administration. In February 2009, just months before she was murdered, Annie Le wrote a short article in Yale Medical School’s B Magazine titled: “Crime and Safety in New Haven.” Le’s article focused on what Yale students can do to p
in New Haven.” Le’s article focused on what Yale students can do to protect themselves from the crime in New Haven. She wrote: “In short, New Haven is a city, and all cities have their perils, but with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming another statistic.” Unfortunately for Annie, no amount of street smarts could help her avoid the peril in the laboratory that ultimately made her a statistic.
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