Documents offer Yale killing details

USA TODAY - December 3, 2009

An animal laboratory technician accused of murdering Yale graduate student Annie Le days before her wedding had blood on his shoes and on the kitchen floor of his apartment, according to court papers made public Wednesday.

Police on Sept. 13 found Le's strangled body stuffed in the wall behind a toilet in a Yale University Animal Research Center building. Police have charged lab tech Raymond Clark III, 24, with her murder.

The documents, which allowed police to secure warrants to search Clark's car, home and locker, provide new details about the police investigation and encounters with him that led to Clark's arrest Sept. 17.

In Clark's Middletown, Conn., apartment, police found blood "in plain view" on the kitchen floor, the documents say. Investigators also seized a tackle box with fishing line from the apartment.

Police found white sneakers with reddish stains, hospital scrubs and a garbage bag on the back seat of Clark's red Ford Mustang, the documents said.

The documents do not say whether the blood came from Clark, Le or someone else.

Police searching a locker room at the lab found boots labeled "Ray C" that appeared to be spattered with blood, the documents say. They say that Clark made a clumsy attempt in front of a police officer to hide a box of medical wipes with a streak of blood on one side.

Investigators also found evidence that someone had tried to clean blood from a wall. The blood "spray" found at the scene indicates a struggle, investigators wrote in the documents.

Clark told police he knew Le for about four months and did not have contact with her outside of work. He told police he saw her leave the lab the day she disappeared. When police questioned him about a scratch on his arm, he blamed his cat, the documents say.

Police also noted Clark used his lab access card more often than usual the day Le disappeared. Investigators found Le's e-mail address in a lab locker labeled "Ray," the documents say.

In the arrest warrant released Nov. 13, police said they had found in the lab's ceiling a bloody sock that had DNA from both Le and Clark.

Clark's attorney Joe Lopez, an assistant public defender, says the evidence presented in the newly released documents may be enough for a judge to allow a search but isn't enough to convict Clark.

"We have a pile 8 inches thick of police reports. We're expecting boxes. Until we look at everything, we won't know the big picture," Lopez said in an interview Wednesday. "They have established enough probable cause to get a search warrant. That's all far short of proof beyond a reasonable doubt."

Clark is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 21 to tell the judge whether he will request a probable-cause hearing on the murder charge, Lopez said. Clark has not entered a plea.

Le, 24, a third-year pharmacology student from California, was last seen Sept. 8 entering Yale's Amistad lab building. Le's roommate reported her missing that evening when she did not return or contact friends or her fiance as she would normally have done, police said.

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