9/8 Annie Marie Le missing from Yale University (BODY FOUND)

[Tamikosmom]

Another source ....

Professor questioned by police in case of missing Yale student Annie Le
BY Matthew Lysiak In New Haven and Henrick Karoliszyn and Samuel Goldsmith
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Saturday, September 12th 2009, 4:00 AM

Cops questioned a Yale professor Friday in the case of a graduate student who went missing just days before her New York wedding, a police source told the Daily News.

Annie Le, a 24-year-old doctoral student in pharmacology, was supposed to attend the professor's class on Tuesday afternoon.

But the class was abruptly canceled - and hours later, Le was discovered missing.

The sudden cancellation near the time when Le is believed to have disappeared aroused suspicions among law enforcement, a New Haven police source said.

It was unclear what class was canceled or if the professor is a suspect. Yale officials would not comment, and a police spokesperson did not return calls.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/09/12/2009-09-12_professor_questioned_by_police_in_case_of_missing_yale_student_annie_le.html

[Blonde]

Missing Yale Student Not Seen Leaving Building


By DAVE ALTIMARI, VANESSA DE LA TORRE and CHRISTINE DEMPSEY The Hartford Courant

11:44 p.m. EDT, September 11, 2009

   

NEW HAVEN — - Federal investigators called in more than a dozen state police detectives Friday to help interview people known to be in the research building that missing Yale student Annie Le was last seen entering Tuesday morning.

Authorities have been unable to find any evidence on surveillance tapes that the 24-year-old graduate student, who was to be married this weekend, left the building that day, sources said. They are now going through the slow process of interviewing everyone who they believe was in the building after 10 a.m. to see if anyone saw her or saw anything suspicious.

As a fourth day passed with no sign of Le, sources said that investigators were leaning away from the theory that she was a bride-to-be with cold feet and more toward the possibility that she was the victim of a violent crime.

Yale University Chief of Police James A. Perrotti announced Friday evening that the university is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Le's whereabouts.

Sources said that more than 100 investigators from the FBI, state police and Yale police are working on the case.

Le was last seen entering a Yale research lab at 10 Amistad St. about 10 a.m. on Tuesday.

Investigators have spent the past few days poring over surveillance tapes of everyone entering and leaving the building and have been unable to identify Le ever leaving the building, sources said.

Federal agents and state police using bloodhounds combed the inside and outside of the research lab for the past two days but had not found any clues. They also dug through garbage dumpsters in the area.

Le was scheduled to marry Jonathan Widawsky, a Columbia University graduate student, on Sunday in New York. Widawsky went to New Haven on Wednesday to help in the search for his fiancée. Yale officials told the Yale Daily News that he is not a suspect in her disappearance.

At the North Ritz Club in Syosset, an upscale Long Island venue where Le was to hold her wedding reception, an employee confirmed Friday evening that the wedding had been canceled earlier in the day.

"It would have been very nice, I can tell you that," a sales representative at the club said Friday.

"It's pretty bad," the employee said, adding: "We've had cancellations, but nothing like this."

Le was reported missing to Yale police shortly before 10 on Tuesday night. Police said they quickly discovered that she had left her cellphone, apartment keys and wallet at the Sterling Hall of Medicine building on Tuesday morning and then walked the three blocks to the research lab.

Le is pursuing a joint doctoral and medical degree at Yale after graduating from the University of Rochester, where she met her fiancé and received her undergraduate degree in bioscience in 2007.

While attending Rochester, she did summer research at the National Institutes of Health on bone tissue engineering, with a goal of regenerating tissue for people with degenerative bone diseases. She said that her career goal was to work as an NIH investigator or as a professor.

Rocky Tuan, Le's mentor at the NIH, who teaches at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said Friday afternoon that he had cautioned her about the neighborhood near Yale's medical school.

Tuan had written numerous letters of recommendation for Le as she applied to top graduate schools, and when Le told him she had decided on Yale, "I said, 'Hmm, that area is not known for being the best of town. ... Be careful.'"

"She said, 'Oh, I know what I'm doing,'" Tuan recalled. "She likes the school, she likes the people. She was very excited."

"At that stage of her life," Tuan continued, "there's not anything you can't overcome. It would be surprising to me if she said, 'Oh, I'm scared.' Thinking positive and everything, that's her character."

But Tuan, while not allowing himself to think the worst, also said he believes that it would seem "completely out of character that she would disappear like that, voluntarily."
http://www.courant.com/community/new-haven/hc-yale-missing-0912.artsep11,0,4181908.story

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549527,00.html
Yale Professor Questioned in Graduate Student's Disappearance

Saturday, September 12, 2009
 Detectives questioned a Yale professor Friday who suddenly canceled class about the same time graduate student Annie Le vanished, a police source told the New York Daily News.

Le, 24, a doctoral student in pharmacology at the Ivy League university, was supposed to attend the class Tuesday afternoon. But the course was canceled shortly before Le was reported missing, according to the News.

A New Haven police source told the paper that investigators grew suspicious about the timing and questioned the professor. It wasn't known whether that person is considered a suspect or what came out of the interview.

Meanwhile, Le's family canceled her Sunday wedding on Long Island, N.Y., according to a supervisor at the hall where the ceremony and reception were to have taken place.
"The wedding is off," Nadeen Fotopoulos, a manager at the North Ritz Club in Syosset, told the News. She said 160 guests were supposed to attend.

"It's very said," she told the paper. "The hall will be dark Sunday morning."

Authorities previously said they had no evidence to indicate foul play in Le's disappearance.

On Friday, Yale offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to the missing student. Investigators searched her office, the lab facilities where she did research and her apartment.

Le was last seen about 10 a.m. Tuesday morning on surveillance camera outside a lab in the Yale School of Medicine complex, less than a mile from the main campus in New Haven, Conn.

About the same time, she swiped her Yale ID at the facility's entrance. There was no footage of her leaving the building, in spite of a fire alarm that went off about 12:40 p.m. The alarm isn't thought to be connected to her disappearance.

Her purse, cell phone, credit cards and money were found in her office, a few blocks from the lab. She has not contacted her fiance, family or friends since Tuesday.
The California native was to be married to Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student in physics at Columbia University. The two met as undergraduates at the University of Rochester. Widawsky has been cooperating with the investigation and is not considered a suspect.

Le is 4-foot-11, 90 pounds and of Asian descent with brown hair and brown eyes.

Anyone with information on Le’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Yale Police Department at (203) 432-4400.

[Blonde]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/11/2009-09-11_family_cancels_planned_wedding_ceremony_of_missing_yale_bridetobe_annie_le.html



Annie Marie Le, 24, with her fiance Jonathan Widawsky. She was reported missing on Tuesday from a lab in Yale University, where she is a Ph.D student.




I'm wondering if someone didn't want her to get married?

I have been thinking the same thing.
 Was this fire drill planed by Yale or did someone pull the fire alarm?

[San]

On the CBS Saturday Morning show they were talking to Clint Van Zandt.  He said there is a parking garage attached to the building I believe.   Someone could have taken her out that way.  He was also very suspicious of the fire alarm going off.

[San]

Missing Ivy League Bride-to-be: Kidnap Victim or another Runaway Bride?

http://clintvanzandt.newsvine.com/_news/2009/09/10/3250213-missing-ivy-league-bride-to-be-kidnap-victim-or-another-runaway-bride

Local and state police in Connecticut as well as the FBI are searching for missing 24-year-old Yale University graduate student Annie Marie Le. On Tuesday morning the missing woman worked in her lab at Yale's Sterling Hall of Medicine, but later that morning left to walk the three blocks across campus to a facility where she could work on an experiment. Although she left her purse, cash, credit cards and cell phone in her office, she took her college ID card with her and used it at 10 a.m. to gain entrance to the Amistad Street facility. It was from this 120,000 square foot building that she disappeared in the late morning or early afternoon. Le, who is engaged to be married this coming Sunday in New York, has not been seen or made any known attempt at contact with her family, friends or fiancée since her mysterious disappearance.

Annie Le, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, is 4’11” and weighs 90 pounds. She was reported missing by her roommate when she failed to return to their apartment Tuesday night. She is an academic success story, a dual medical and doctoral student in her third year in pharmacology. The topic for her dissertation is "understanding how certain proteins are involved with metabolic diseases such as diabetes."

While her purse and other personal possessions were all found in her campus office, a search of her apartment by the FBI and the use of tracker dogs has been unsuccessful in locating her to date. A review of campus surveillance camera footage showed her entering the research lab where she spent 10+ hour days, but she was not seen to leave and she is not known to have a car on campus. One challenge is that a fire alarm was activated in the Lab at 12:40 p.m., causing everyone inside to evacuate the building via numerous doors at the same time. Many who simultaneously left the building were wearing white lab coats similar to that Le may have been worn over her clothes. This would frustrate investigators as they look for Le on the tapes of over 75 surveillance cameras located in the vicinity of the laboratory. But did she actually leave the lab at that time, perhaps assuming it was a false alarm and that she would quickly return, only to be taken by an assailant somewhere out of the camera’s eye? And did the false alarm have anything to do with Le’s disappearance and if so, could she have simply been a victim of opportunity, or did some unknown kidnapper specifically target the bride-to-be in this manner?

Le’s fiancée, Jonathan Widawsky, attended undergraduate school with Le at the University of Rochester and is currently a graduate student at Columbia University. As usual he has been questioned by authorities, but so far he has not been implicated in any way in Le’s disappearance. Referring to Widawsky on her Facebook account, Le said “Lucky I’m in love with my best friend.” Meanwhile Yale University has offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to her return, this while over 100 university, local, state and federal investigators continue the hunt for Annie Le.

Why some Students Disappear

Now authorities must consider the various possibilities that could explain her disappearance. She may have slipped out of the lab undetected and thereafter had an accident and simply not been found to date, or she may have been assaulted and/or kidnapped, perhaps concealed within the massive campus lab or somehow surreptitiously removed from the building, again without being seen. Finally, could she have simply been overwhelmed by the stress and pressure of graduate school and her impending marriage and simply left of her own volition to get time to herself to allow her to get her thoughts and life together? The pressures of a relationship has been the catalyst that allowed others to run away from scholastic, social, and emotional commitments in the past. For example:

In March 2004, 20-year-old University of Wisconsin student Audrey Seiler disappeared from her apartment without taking her purse or coat. She was found four days later lying in a nearby marsh, curled up in a fetal position and alleging she had been kidnapped. Police quickly obtained a store videotape that showed her buying a knife, duct tape, and the rope she claimed her kidnapper had used to restrain her. Investigators concluded she had faked her own abduction in a frantic attempt to get the attention of her boyfriend. “I set up everything,” she would say. “I’m just so messed up. I’m sorry.”

And most will remember the 1999 movie “The Runaway Bride” that starred Julia Roberts as a woman who couldn’t bring herself to fulfilling her commitment to walk down the isle of marriage. Six years later 32-year-old Jennifer Carol Wilbanks disappeared in rural Georgia, this just four days before her wedding day. Due to the circumstances she was presumed kidnapped and her fiancée became one of “the usual suspects.” One day before her planned wedding she called from New Mexico, claiming she had been kidnapped, sexually assaulted and transported to that distant state. Her story quickly came unglued and she soon admitted she had lied about the whole thing. “I was running away from myself” she said, and all the media hoopla that was created by her disappearance quickly disappeared with her promise to pay for the law enforcement investigation. Shortly thereafter her fiancée saw the light and moved on from his histrionic former bride-to-be.

Crimes on College Campuses

Since 1991 all colleges and universities, public and private alike that have any type of federal student aid program, must report the past three years worth of campus crime statistics. While most schools comply, some have hidden crimes to save the reputation of their school. Date rape continues to be the most under reported crimes on such campuses, and all types of crimes are committed on our nation's college campuses by both students and non-students alike. Current statistics suggest that on the average 10 people are murdered each year on our college campuses. In 2007 Yale University reported 8 forcible sexual assaults and 103 burglaries on campus with no murders.

Missing Person Reports

876,213 men, women and children were reported missing last year in the United States, representing an average of 2,400 missing person reports that were filed every single day of the year. Most (upwards of 90%) of the missing are juveniles under the age of 18, with the vast majority of all reported missing persons eventually being accounted for by law enforcement. We also know that over 16,000 murders take place in America every year. It was Le who wrote an article on student safety in a Yale School of Medicine publication in February in which she stated, "Despite safety measures such as door-to-door escort and shuttle services, the Yale community is still plagued with thefts, some involving frightening confrontations." She concluded by stating "In short, New Haven is a city, and all cities have their perils, but with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming yet another statistic." The challenge for investigators in their attempt to determine if Le has become one of the statistics about which she wrote begins with their ability to follow any trail that she may have left. While some follow footprints in the dirt, today’s modern footprints are usually electronic, to include the use of the Internet, telephone calls, bank transactions and credit card purchases.

The Investigation to locate Annie Le

Many have said that Le must have been kidnapped, but others recall the stories of Audrey Seiler and Jennifer Wilbanks and many other men and women before and after them who ultimately became victims of themselves and their own circumstances. In this case investigators will conduct a two- track investigation, much like a set of railroad tracks that run parallel to each other. Track one will consider the possibility that she was a victim of an unknown offender, either assaulted and hidden in or nearby the lab, perhaps during the fire alarm, or that she was somehow spirited out of the large building without anyone, to include the ever present surveillance cameras, seeing her being taken by her assailant. The presence of a 1,000 space parking garage connected to the lab building from which Le disappeared has also been of interest to investigators, noting, of course she could have left via such an exit or been taken from the building, placed in a vehicle, and transported off campus.
Meanwhile track two of the investigation will consider the possibility that she was a victim of herself, somehow caving in to the overwhelming pressures associates with her graduate studies, her doctoral work, and her rapidly approaching marriage, perhaps one she wasn’t quite ready for. In this case she would be hiding out, perhaps with a friend, trying to figure out how to gracefully return after all of the unanticipated media attention her disappearance has generated. Her high school class voted her the student most likely to be the next Einstein, an impression that she has carried throughout her college career and one that could suggest the continuing pressure she was functioning under. Her close friends, however, say she was looking forward to her wedding, but for now investigators just don’t know and as usual in such cases, the clock may be ticking against them in their search for the missing bride-to-be.

[Blonde]

That  parking garage is a nightmare OMG.
 I went to Hairdressing school in that area and parked there.

[San]

That  parking garage is a nightmare OMG.
 I went to Hairdressing school in that area and parked there.

With all the comotion of the fire alarm being set off do you think someone could have taken her out that way?

[klaasend]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/09/12/2009-09-12_professor_questioned_by_police_in_case_of_missing_yale_student_annie_le.html

Comment made that mirrors my thoughts somewhat:

scribeguy
6:39:01 AM
Sep 12, 2009

Maybe I have an overactive imagination, but I suspect this professor lured the young lady to the lab, something tragic happened and then he pulled the fire alarm, creating a distraction that allowed for him to remove all evidence of a crime. (The young lady left her pocket book and other stuff behind because, well, she trusted this guy and probably figured she would see what he wanted before dashing back to his office.) Another possible twist is that they had been having an ongoing affair and when she told him the jig was up because of her pending nuptials he snapped, unable to deal with the rejection -- and that lead to a tragic, sudden end. Like I said, this is just the ruminations of an overactive mind, but I suspect, in the end, my hunch will prove to be much more than just that. Stay tuned. I feel terrible for the gal's boyfriend and family. Mark my words: this is NOT like the runaway bride.,,,,

[cookie]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/09/12/2009-09-12_professor_questioned_by_police_in_case_of_missing_yale_student_annie_le.html

Comment made that mirrors my thoughts somewhat:

scribeguy
6:39:01 AM
Sep 12, 2009

Maybe I have an overactive imagination, but I suspect this professor lured the young lady to the lab, something tragic happened and then he pulled the fire alarm, creating a distraction that allowed for him to remove all evidence of a crime. (The young lady left her pocket book and other stuff behind because, well, she trusted this guy and probably figured she would see what he wanted before dashing back to his office.) Another possible twist is that they had been having an ongoing affair and when she told him the jig was up because of her pending nuptials he snapped, unable to deal with the rejection -- and that lead to a tragic, sudden end. Like I said, this is just the ruminations of an overactive mind, but I suspect, in the end, my hunch will prove to be much more than just that. Stay tuned. I feel terrible for the gal's boyfriend and family. Mark my words: this is NOT like the runaway bride.,,,,

interesting....does anyone know the name of this professor or have a photo of him? what do we know about him....

[San]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/09/12/2009-09-12_professor_questioned_by_police_in_case_of_missing_yale_student_annie_le.html

Comment made that mirrors my thoughts somewhat:

scribeguy
6:39:01 AM
Sep 12, 2009

Maybe I have an overactive imagination, but I suspect this professor lured the young lady to the lab, something tragic happened and then he pulled the fire alarm, creating a distraction that allowed for him to remove all evidence of a crime. (The young lady left her pocket book and other stuff behind because, well, she trusted this guy and probably figured she would see what he wanted before dashing back to his office.) Another possible twist is that they had been having an ongoing affair and when she told him the jig was up because of her pending nuptials he snapped, unable to deal with the rejection -- and that lead to a tragic, sudden end. Like I said, this is just the ruminations of an overactive mind, but I suspect, in the end, my hunch will prove to be much more than just that. Stay tuned. I feel terrible for the gal's boyfriend and family. Mark my words: this is NOT like the runaway bride.,,,,

I agree with this also.

[Tamikosmom]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/09/12/2009-09-12_professor_questioned_by_police_in_case_of_missing_yale_student_annie_le.html

Comment made that mirrors my thoughts somewhat:

scribeguy
6:39:01 AM
Sep 12, 2009

Maybe I have an overactive imagination, but I suspect this professor lured the young lady to the lab, something tragic happened and then he pulled the fire alarm, creating a distraction that allowed for him to remove all evidence of a crime. (The young lady left her pocket book and other stuff behind because, well, she trusted this guy and probably figured she would see what he wanted before dashing back to his office.) Another possible twist is that they had been having an ongoing affair and when she told him the jig was up because of her pending nuptials he snapped, unable to deal with the rejection -- and that lead to a tragic, sudden end. Like I said, this is just the ruminations of an overactive mind, but I suspect, in the end, my hunch will prove to be much more than just that. Stay tuned. I feel terrible for the gal's boyfriend and family. Mark my words: this is NOT like the runaway bride.,,,,

I agree with this also.

Me too!

Janet

[Blonde]

does anyone know the name of this professor or have a photo of him? what do we know about him....

I can't find that information anywhere,still looking

[Tamikosmom]

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/11/2009-09-11_family_cancels_planned_wedding_ceremony_of_missing_yale_bridetobe_annie_le.html



Annie Marie Le, 24, with her fiance Jonathan Widawsky. She was reported missing on Tuesday from a lab in Yale University, where she is a Ph.D student.




I'm wondering if someone didn't want her to get married?

I have been thinking the same thing.
 Was this fire drill planed by Yale or did someone pull the fire alarm?

I listened to a spokeperson from Yale (?) last night claim the false alarm was not set of by anybody ... it had something to do with wiring.

Janet

[San]

does anyone know the name of this professor or have a photo of him? what do we know about him....

I can't find that information anywhere,still looking

I haven't seen his name mentioned.

[Blonde]

She did not feel safe in New Haven," Schlessinger told the Yale Daily News

I hated that area myself and never walked alone, even in the daytime.

[AZSunny]

Janet, I heard the same thing regarding the fire alarm.  Timing is interesting though. 

[Blonde]

[klaasend]

Blonde - I haven't found the name of the professor yet.  I'm very suspicious of that.

[klaasend]

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/new_haven_cty/news_ap_new_haven_fbi_questioned_man_outside_yale_lab_200909121120

BREAKING NEWS - according to this website:

FBI questioned man outside Yale lab
Updated: Saturday, 12 Sep 2009, 11:52 AM EDT
Published : Saturday, 12 Sep 2009, 11:24 AM EDT

New Haven (AP/WTNH) - Investigators outside the laboratory where a missing Yale University student worked have driven away from the scene with a man they were questioning.

Two agents were seen questioning the man just before 10:30 a.m. Saturday outside the lab where 24-year-old Annie Le was last seen. When they finished talking, the man got in the front seat of the unmarked car and one of the agents got in the back seat. The car then drove away.

Le, a doctoral student from Placerville, Calif., was last seen Tuesday at the Yale Medical School complex, less than a mile from the main campus.

She was planning to be married Sunday on Long Island.

An agent said the FBI wouldn't answer any questions about the investigation while it's ongoing.

A spokesman for the Yale public information office didn't immediately return a phone call Saturday.

Speaking to the The Yale Daily News Friday, Yale University Chief James Perrotti said authorities “still have no idea” what happened to Le of whether she ever left the research building.

On ABC's Good Morning America Saturday, Vanessa Flores, a former roommate of Le's who came out from California for the wedding, said Le was a very conscientious person and was excited about her upcoming wedding.

"There was nothing that would make us believe that she was having second thoughts or anything like that," Flores told ABC.

Citing a police source, the New York Daily News reported that police on Friday questioned a Yale professor in Le's disappearance. According to the report, Le was supposed to attend the professor's class on Tuesday, but the class was canceled and Le was discovered missing a few hours later.

It was unclear what class was canceled or if the professor is a suspect, the paper reported.