Critical Clues in Case of the Murdered Yale Student
How did cops at Yale University find their suspect in the murder of medical student Annie Marie Le?
Newly released documents provide a vivid description of the suspicious actions that led them to university lab technician, Raymond Clark, 24, who was arrested after Le's body was found stuffed into a ceiling duct at the building of the New Haven, Conn., campus where she worked.
On Sept. 10, two days after Le went missing days before her wedding, Rachel Roth, a graduate student she had worked with, approached Yale Police Officer Sabrina Wood and showed her a box of sanitary wipes that appeared to have a blood spatter on it, according to arrest warrant affidavits.
Suspicious Behavior
Wood told police she had found the box on a steel push cart outside the room Le was last known to have entered. Meanwhile Clark, not yet a suspect, entered and exited the room several times, and at one point stopped and looked at the box of Wipe Alls. Subsequent DNA tests determined the blood on the box was Le's, according to the documents.
Clark's behavior turned even more questionable. Back in room G13, he positioned himself between Officer Wood and the metal cart and, while turning toward the police officer, "moved the box of wipes from the corner to the far right corner and turned the box so that the blood spatter was facing the right hand side of the cart away from plain sight," the court documents say.
That was the beginning of the end for Clark, who was arrested seven days later and charged with strangling Le to death. (His lawyer says he intends to plead not guilty.) The arrest warrant affidavits detail other evidence the cops gathered against him including a green pen found under Le's body that had both Le and Clark's DNA on it, and a bloody sock with both Clark and Le's DNA on it. Tests on other items -- including work boots with missing shoelaces and "blood-like stains" on them and the words "Ray C" written on the back -- are still pending.
So far, none of the documents released suggest a motive for the murder. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 21.
You know, we were in New Mexico a couple of years after Patrick had broken both his legs in a life-threatening horse accident while filming Letters from a Killer. We walked out into the fresh mountain air, and he had taken off his shirt to enjoy the sun as we strolled into our beautiful fifty-acre pasture to visit with our five spirited Arabian horses. Patrick was rubbing one of the horses on her neck and I had walked off a ways for some reason or another. And I turned around just in time to see him grab a handful of mane and swing himself up on the mare's back. No saddle, no bridle, nothing. She and the other horses started to trot off together and then, in a tight group, they launched into a full gallop, Patrick riding bareback in the middle of them through the open field. I couldn't believe it.