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

[Northern Rose]

News report tonight.  Police had been searching the building for a week.

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/-hhwj69A0tw&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/-hhwj69A0tw&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;</a>

[KCJackie]

http://www.wcbs880.com/pages/137885.php?contentType=4&contentId=251395            Interesting article about the professor 

 

[Northern Rose]

I find it odd that the building was checked several times and today found her in the false wall.   Were the bloodhounds only used today? The way the article reads they were used before.  Where has she been until today? It is also interesting that this was not her lab, but rather the one she used to conduct experiments. 

http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/university-news/2009/09/13/remains-found-10-amistad-street/
<snipped>
Le started her Tuesday morning working in the Sterling Hall of Medicine, where her lab was located, Yale Vice President and Secretary Linda Lorimer said.

Le left the lab around 10 a.m. to walk to 10 Amistad St. three blocks away, where she frequently went to conduct experiments, Lorimer said. A surveillance photograph distributed by the YPD shows Le entering the building at 10 Amistad St. on Tuesday morning. University officials have yet to locate Le exiting the building.

FBI Special Agent Kim Mertz said Saturday that authorities have spoken to "numerous people" who saw Le inside the facility at 10 Amistad St. but declined to give any further details.

A fire alarm that sounded in the Amistad Street facility at 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday is thought to have been a false alarm, Mertz said. Someone working in the lab produced steam that tripped the alarm, she said.

Le, who was scheduled to be married on Sunday, left her purse containing her cell phone, credit cards and money in her office in Sterling, Lorimer said. Her wedding has since been canceled.

Le's family and fiance, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky, are cooperating with the investigation. On Saturday, officials asked that the media respect the family's privacy.

Investigators combed 10 Amistad St. for clues last week, questioning friends, faculty and colleagues. More than 100 law enforcement officials from four different agencies — the New Haven Police Department, the Yale Police Department, the Connecticut State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation — are involved on the case, University officials said.

As part of the investigation, authorities undertook several complete sweeps of 10 Amistad St., bringing in bloodhounds and even combing through trash in a dumpster outside the building.

[Northern Rose]

Yale President's Statement video

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/09/post_480.php#017001more

[klaasend]

How could this happen when there were other persons around ?
I guess that they would know who was in there from the swipe cards.
There has been not much on CNN this evening about this.
Such a sad situation for her family and fiance.
Because it happened so close to her wedding, I am making an assumption that it was a male and it was someone that had been bothering her. We'll find out I guess.

The question would be did it happen during that fire alarm where everyone had to evacuate the building?  We know that Annie didn't evacuate the building, did the killer also stay in the building?  Is that when he killed her and hid her body?

[Tamikosmom]

 

It is too late to read read any of the dialogue of today.  I will catch up tomorrow.  However ... reading the following article causes me to wonder why the dogs did not pick up the scene in the earlier search.

Janet

+++++

Body Found is Likely Missing Yale Student
Monday, September 14, 2009
NEW HAVEN, Conn. —  Police on Sunday said they found what they believe is the body of a Yale University graduate student and bride-to-be hidden inside the wall of a university building where she was last seen five days before.

New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard said officials are presuming the body was that of doctoral student Annie Le, who has been the focus of a massive police search since Tuesday.

"It hasn't been positively identified as of this time," Reichard told reporters Sunday night. "However, we are assuming it is her ... so we are treating it as a homicide."

State police found the body at around 5 p.m. Sunday in an area of the building that houses utility cables that run between floors. The building is in the Ivy League school's medical complex, about a mile from the main campus.

Reichard said police also recovered "a large amount" of physical evidence, but he would not discuss what that included.

Yale President Richard Levin offered support to Le's family and her fiance, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The couple was to marry Sunday in Syosset, New York, on Long Island's north shore.

Police on Sunday would not say if they have any suspects. They previously have said Widawsky is not a suspect and is assisting with the investigation.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549765,00.html

[Tamikosmom]

How could this happen when there were other persons around ?
I guess that they would know who was in there from the swipe cards.
There has been not much on CNN this evening about this.
Such a sad situation for her family and fiance.
Because it happened so close to her wedding, I am making an assumption that it was a male and it was someone that had been bothering her. We'll find out I guess.

The question would be did it happen during that fire alarm where everyone had to evacuate the building?  We know that Annie didn't evacuate the building, did the killer also stay in the building?  Is that when he killed her and hid her body?

... or maybe the deed had already been done and ... the false alarm was the killer's opportunity to flee the building without being detected alone on the security cameras.

Janet

[BluesyGram]

It is too late to read read any of the dialogue of today.  I will catch up tomorrow.  However ... reading the following article causes me to wonder why the dogs did not pick up the scene in the earlier search.

Janet

That was exactly my thought when I saw that she was found inside of the building.  Not to be smart alec...but they need some new cadaver dogs IMO.  And how about their own noses?  I have heard people complain about having dead rats, etc. inside of walls that they could smell..much less having something as large as a person.  Sorry for the graphics everyone..but this should have been 'solved' in one damn day. (I know I have a Type A personality...damanding something close to perfection...and I work on it every day)

[Northern Rose]

Body of Annie Le thought to be found

The Yale graduate student from Placerville, Calif., was to be married Sunday. Police find a body hidden in the wall of a lab research center where Le was last seen.

Reporting from New Haven, Conn., and Los Angeles - Police discovered Sunday what they believe is the body of Yale University graduate student Annie Le, hidden in a wall of a campus research lab where she was last seen five days ago. Sunday was to have been her wedding day, with 160 guests including relatives from her hometown of Placerville, Calif.

The body was found in an area of the lab building where utility cables run between floors. Peter Reichard, New Haven's assistant police chief, told reporters four hours later: "We are assuming that it is her."

MORE...

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-annie-le14-2009sep14,0,4143832.story?page=1

[trimmonthelake]

http://www.wesh.com/news/20885454/detail.html
Police: Found Body Is Likely Missing Yale Student
Officials 'Following Trash' That Left Lab
PATRICK SANDERS, Associated Press Writer

POSTED: 7:27 am EDT September 13, 2009
UPDATED: 6:58 am EDT September 14, 2009
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Just seven months before police found what they believe is Annie Le's body hidden in a Yale University building, the graduate student wrote a magazine article about how to stay safe on the streets around the Ivy League school.

The 24-year-old bride-to-be, who had been missing since Tuesday, apparently met a violent death in a secure Yale building accessible only to students and staff, police said Sunday on what was supposed to be her wedding day.

Authorities have said little about the investigation. They hadn't positively identified the body found hidden in a wall Sunday, but they were assuming it was Le and treating her death as a homicide.

State police found the body in a building in Yale's medical complex, about a mile from the main campus. It was in an area that houses utility cables that run between floors.
Yale President Richard Levin offered support to Le's family and her fiance, Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. The couple was to marry Sunday in Syosset, N.Y., on Long Island's north shore.

"The family and fiance and friends now must suffer the additional ordeal of waiting for the body to be positively identified," Levin said.

Police on Sunday would not say if they have any suspects. They previously have said Widawsky is not a suspect and is assisting with the investigation. New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard said police also recovered "a large amount" of physical evidence, but he would not discuss what that included.

Last winter, Le, a pharmacology student from Placerville, Calif., wrote a magazine article about how to stay safe around Yale's campus.

The article, titled "Crime and Safety in New Haven," was published in February in a magazine produced by the university's medical school. It compares higher instances of robbery in New Haven with cities that house other Ivy League schools and includes an interview with Yale Police Chief James Perrotti, who offers advice such as "pay attention to where you are" and "avoid portraying yourself as a potential victim."
"In short, New Haven is a city and all cities have their perils," Le concludes. "But with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming yet another statistic."

Le, who worked in a laboratory in the five-story building's basement, was reported missing last Tuesday. Surveillance video shows her arriving at around 10 a.m., but police could find no video of Le leaving, despite some 75 surveillance cameras operating around the complex. Her ID, money, credit cards and purse were found in her third-floor office.

More than 100 local, state and federal police had been searching the building for days, using blueprints to uncover any place where evidence or Le's body could be hidden.

Investigators on Saturday said they recovered evidence from the building, but would not confirm media reports that the items included bloody clothing.

On Sunday morning, a state police van drove down a ramp into the building's basement area. Authorities also sifted through garbage at a Hartford incinerator Sunday, looking through trash that was taken from the building in the days since Le went missing.
Le's disappearance weighed heavily on Yale students, who prayed for her safe return Sunday at The University Church on Yale's campus.

"It has brought up a lot of fears for people," the Rev. Ian Buckner Oliver said just before he gave the Sunday morning sermon. "It has brought up a lot of worry and concern for her and for all our safety."

Bjorn Cooley, a 20-year-old Yale student from Oregon, said he heard the news that a body had been found while studying in his room Sunday night.

"Before they found the body, I still had hope she had just disappeared," Cooley said. "I was looking for some sort of quasi-happy ending to this whole thing."

[theboyzmom]

It is too late to read read any of the dialogue of today.  I will catch up tomorrow.  However ... reading the following article causes me to wonder why the dogs did not pick up the scene in the earlier search.

Janet

That was exactly my thought when I saw that she was found inside of the building.  Not to be smart alec...but they need some new cadaver dogs IMO.  And how about their own noses?  I have heard people complain about having dead rats, etc. inside of walls that they could smell..much less having something as large as a person.  Sorry for the graphics everyone..but this should have been 'solved' in one damn day. (I know I have a Type A personality...damanding something close to perfection...and I work on it every day)

I wonder if, since it is a medical lab, the dogs had problems with the smells of other dead things and the chemicals? I wonder if they do necropsy in the building or work with human tissue? I do not know enough about cadaver dogs but it seems like it could be a problem?

[cece]

I am feeling such sadness surrounding this murder.  She was a such a remarkable human being.  It is such a loss.  The timing  must make it even more difficult for her family and fiance.  My prayers for all of them. 

I share your feelings & thoughts AZ. What terrible news.  Even though we all probably thought she met with foul play, I think we were all holding out hope for better news than this.

I can't imagine how her fiance will ever get over the fact that her body was found on the day they were to be married.  I'm at a loss of words.  Prayers for her family and loved ones.

(Thank you all for the updates).

[SunnyinTX]

Rest in  Peace, Annie.   All murders are tragic. Some just hit us harder. This should never have been able to happen!

[tupelohoney]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/evidence-annie-le-murder-lead-killer/story?id=8565647


Evidence in Murder of Yale Student Annie Le May Point to Suspect
Body Believed to Be Annie Le Was Found Sunday, Stuffed Into a Wall of Yale Laboratory
By SHARYN ALFONSI, SARAH NETTER and RUSSELL GOLDMAN
Sept. 14, 2009

A day after the body of a missing bride-to-be was believed to have been found stuffed into a basement wall of the Yale University laboratory where she was last seen, police may have a powerful piece of evidence.

Bloody clothes found in the lab belonged not to Annie Le, but to the likely killer, according to sources. Some law enforcement officials have speculated that police are already narrowing on a suspect -- there is no obvious manhunt for her killer, no warnings to area residents to be on the look out.

But for friends and family who had insisted for days that Le was not the kind to run out on her fiance, the news that police had found a body was devastating. Le was to be married Sunday.

Vanessa Flores, Le's former roommate, said she heard the news on the Internet about her friend's body likely being found.

"I had a very tough time just reading the headline," she told "Good Morning America" today. "It was very difficult."

Le, 24, disappeared Tuesday. She was seen entering the Amistad Street lab around 10 a.m., but none of the cameras caught her leaving. The body was found shortly after 5 p.m. Sunday, shoved into a space in the wall meant to conceal pipes and wiring.

"We did locate the remains of a human. ... We are assuming that it is her at this time," New Haven assistant police chief Peter Reichard told reporters in a brief news conference Sunday.

Flores said she doesn't know why anyone would want to kill her friend, who earlier this year had penned a piece for the University Magazine questioning the safety of the New Haven campus.

"The only thing I can possibly think of right now is maybe a psychopath, an anti-social person who, I don't know, maybe got upset about what she wrote back in February about not being safe," she said.

Wedding gifts had been left outside the family home of Le's fiance Jonathan Widawsky. Their impending nuptials had led some to believe that Le had gotten cold feet and fled.

But Flores said Widawsky was "perfect" for Le.

He's just so wonderful to her. John was so supportive of her, of her dreams," Flores said. "They would talk on the cell phone for hours and they would just be so connected."

The discovery of the body ends a massive search by state and federal authorities that had expanded to a Connecticut waste-processing facility in Hartford, in addition to the Yale lab, in the hopes of finding clues to her mysterious disappearance.

Using cadaver-sniffing dogs in round-the-clock shifts, FBI agents and state troopers dressed in hazardous-material suits began searching the facility in Hartford Saturday night.

Police scanned blueprints of the lab and brought in blood-sniffing dogs, paying particular attention to the building's basement.

Yale had also offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to Le's whereabouts.


See link for video

[cece]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hWDfyOIkd18&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/hWDfyOIkd18&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1</a>

[cece]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/eEGxehUv4uo&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/eEGxehUv4uo&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1</a>

[cece]

(THOMAS CAIN / ASSOCIATED PRESS / September 13, 2009)
Yale University graduate students set up makeshift vigil in front of 10 Amistad Street late Sunday night in New Haven.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/hc-yale-student-missing-annie-le-0910-pictures,0,3779582.photogallery

[cece]

http://www.wfsb.com/news/20899476/detail.html

NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- Yale University officials are planning a candlelight prayer vigil for a graduate student Annie Le after her body was presumably found hidden inside the wall of a university laboratory building.

The vigil was scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday on Cross Campus at the Ivy League university.

(snipped)

[Leroy]

This is the first report I've read that says the clothes found in the ceiling were not Annie's

http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/13/news/new_haven/doc4aad8e5604e7d951608873.txt

--snipped--

Investigators Saturday found blood-stained clothes in a drop ceiling at the Yale University laboratory at 10 Amistad St. where Le was last seen on Tuesday morning.

Law enforcement officials Sunday said those clothes are not the same items Le was seen wearing on Tuesday as she passed a security camera entering the building. They continued to test them and had not linked them to Le as of Sunday afternoon.

It could not be determined if the clothes Le was wearing when she entered the building had been recovered from somewhere other than the ceiling.

--snipped--

[cece]

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/RYeH5gti-Cc&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/RYeH5gti-Cc&amp;hl=en&amp;fs=1&amp;rel=0&amp;color1=0x3a3a3a&amp;color2=0x999999&amp;border=1</a>