Murder of Yale student Annie Le hits close to home and I'm not worried about my daughter
Monday, September 14th 2009, 4:00 AM
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The question my daughter asked when she called Sunday night was not one you expect ever to hear when your kid is at Yale.
"Can you check if they found the body?"
I knew she meant the body of Annie Le, the Yale graduate student who had gone missing five days before she was to be married. I figured rumors must be flying around campus.
I made a quick call and then dialed my daughter's cell phone. I said something you do not expect ever to say when your kid is at Yale.
"They did find the body."
Right about then was when I would have been expected to be afraid for her safety. I was not.
And the discovery of Le's body did not make me worry for my daughter at Yale.
The added shock of it happening at Yale was not because I feared more bad things would happen there, but because so many good things happen there. It truly is a place of learning and truth. A killing there is as upsetting as a killing in a church.
More than anything, I felt exactly what my daughter was feeling when she later called back.
"It's so sad," my daughter said. "They found her on her wedding day."
I asked her if she was all right.
"I'm just crying," she said.
I would've hugged her if she were still at home.
I said what I would have said if tragedy struck down the block.
"I love you, my Monkey," I told her.
"I love you," my Brooklyn Yalie replied.
Yale graduate students leave after setting up a vigil for Annie Le on Sunday.
Article:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/200...le_hits_close_to_home_and_im_not_worried.html
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Students express shock after grisly discovery
Published Monday, September 14, 2009
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As news spread Sunday night that a body had been found at 10 Amistad St., the Yale building where Annie Le MED ’13 was last seen, students across campus expressed fear and uncertainty about their safety.
“It’s really sad, and it’s also really terrifying for campus mentality because it was in a Yale building,” Laura Vrana ’11 said, standing in a small group of students in the lower courtyard of Davenport College.
While the medical school campus was quiet as police established a one-block perimeter around 10 Amistad St., Levin’s message elicited shock from many students walking around central campus.
“I’m kind of creeped out because it happened probably less than half a mile from my dorm,” Zach Dean ’13 said as he left the Branford College library for his Old Campus suite.
Meanwhile, on the otherwise quiet medical school campus, four graduate students left bouquets of carnations, roses and daisies and two burning candles by the entrance to Amistad Park, across the street from Le’s laboratory.
A prayer vigil for Le will take place in the Davenport courtyard today at 8 p.m.
Police set up a one-block perimeter around 10 Amistad St. late Sunday night. Human remains were discovered inside the laboratory building around 5 p.m. Sunday.
Article:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/u...-students-express-shock-after-grisly-discove/
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Vigil planned for Yale student (with multimedia)
Published: Monday, September 14, 2009
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Yale University officials are planning a candlelight prayer vigil for a graduate student whose body is believed to have been found hidden in the wall of a university laboratory building.
The vigil for 24-year-old Annie Le is scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday at the Ivy League university. The Yale Daily News says an e-mail to the Yale community invites participants to "bring a candle and join us in solidarity."
Photo slideshow of investigation
http://nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/14/news/new_haven/doc4aae4ceea8665492563485.txt
Article:
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/14/news/doc4aae42998705d444081654.txt
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Police shoot down report about polygraph
Monday, September 14, 2009
9:20 a.m.
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The past few days have seen a number of incorrect rumors about Annie Le MED '13, including that a professor was the prime suspect in her disappearance (reported Friday), that her body had been recovered (reported Saturday) and that she was buried somewhere in a landfill in Hartford (reported Sunday).
Today brought another such report: The New York Post and the New York Daily News suggested in their stories that a student may have failed a polygraph regarding Le's disappearance — a report that police officials quickly shot down.
“It’s absolutely not true,” New Haven Police Department Assistant Chief Stephanie Redding said by telephone late last night.
Article:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/crosscampus/2009/09/14/police-shoot-down-report-about-polygraph/
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Body found in 'chase' at Yale lab, police sources confirm
Published: Monday, September 14, 2009
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Police sources today confirmed the female body recovered in a Yale lab building was discovered stuffed inside a mechanical chase.
A chase is an enclosed vertical channel inside a wall that holds utilities for a building, like electrical wiring and plumbing. It typically goes from the basement to the roof and has “fire stops” between each floor. There also usually are access doors on each floor.
The body was found in the basement area, Yale University reported.
A construction worker who said he worked at 10 Amistad said chases in the building typically are about 5-feet-by-5-feet. He was working Monday on a private job across the street from where Le lived on Lawrence Street in the city’s East Rock neighborhood.
If the body was discovered in a chase, he said, whoever put it there likely was familiar with the layout of the facility.
“You have to have that knowledge of the building,” the man said. He only would identify himself as Carlos V.
“I think that it suggests it was someone who could get into that space,” he told the newspaper. “It certainly would be extremely difficult for someone from outside of Yale to get into that space. Not impossible, but extremely difficult.”
Article:
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/14/news/doc4aae5d57ae145175622155.txt
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As TV cameras stand sentry, 10 Amistad St. remains cordoned off
Monday, September 14, 2009
8:02 a.m.
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The authorities are maintaining a one-block perimeter around 10 Amistad St. this morning as the investigation continues into the apparent killing of Annie Le MED ’13, who was found yesterday hidden behind a wall in the building’s basement.
Predictably, the area behind the police cordon is something of a media circus, with camera crews packing virtually every inch of the sidewalk near the intersection of Cedar Street and Washington Avenue. Le’s apparent killing was the top story on NBC’s “Today” show, which had a correspondent broadcast live from Washington Avenue at precisely 7 a.m., and representatives from all of Connecticut’s local television stations were also on hand.
Article:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/crossc...eras-stand-sentry-10-amistad-st-remains-cord/
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‘An idealistic young woman’
Published Monday, September 14, 2009
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She was upbeat, friendly, always armed with a smile. Since going missing Tuesday afternoon, Annie Le MED ’13 has been sorely missed by all who knew her.
Following the discovery of a female body presumed to be Le in the building at 10 Amistad St. on Sunday evening — the same day Le was to wed her college sweetheart — friends, family and colleagues are mourning her loss.
Described as sweet, spunky and smart, the 24-year-old pharmacology student and Placerville, Calif., native was scheduled to be married Sunday to Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student at Columbia University whom she met at the University of Rochester.
Associate professor of pharmacology Anton Bennett, Le’s faculty adviser, said Le — who received a National Science Foundation grant in 2008 — had “tremendous potential.”
“I can tell you that we are fond of all our graduate students, and among them Annie was a bright spot,” pharmacology professor Gary Rudnick wrote in an e-mail message Sunday night. “She almost always had a smile when I saw her in the hallways. … This is a very tough loss for all of us in the department.”
Classmate Tiffany Filice described the close relationship Le developed with Filice’s grandmother, who was a patient at the Marshall hospital. Le logged extra hours visiting the woman, who gave Le a graduation gift in appreciation.
Pursuing her passion for science at the University of Rochester, Le received a bachelor of science in cell and developmental biology in 2007. She graduated *advertiser censored* laude with awards for her achievements in biology and her leadership on campus, a spokeswoman for the university said.
But despite her heavy academic workload at Rochester, Le always found time for her friends, who called her energetic and “the happiest girl you’d ever know,” as college friend Mark Biery said in a phone interview around noon Sunday. “She would work those crazy hours, but she would still take time out of her day to come see us, or we would come see her.”
Grad students place flowers outside Amistad Park in honor of Annie Le.
Article:
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/features/2009/09/14/idealistic-young-woman/
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Body found in Yale lab, police focus turns to homicide probe (with story archive)
Published: Monday, September 14, 2009
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It was supposed to be the day she would marry her college sweetheart and celebrate at a reception in a tony section of Long Island.
In a four-minute press conference attended by top ranking local, state and federal authorities, New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard confirmed human remains had been found by the state police “secreted inside a wall” at 10 Amistad, and that New Haven police had assumed the lead role as the case moved “from a missing persons case to a homicide investigation.”
Law enforcement officials Sunday said those clothes were not the same ones Le was seen wearing 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.
It could not be determined Sunday if the clothes Le was wearing when she entered the building had been recovered from somewhere other than the ceiling.
Article:
http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/14/news/new_haven/a1-yalekid.txt
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STORY ARCHIVE: The Annie Le case
Published: Monday, September 14, 2009
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NEW HAVEN — A body believed to be that of missing Yale graduate student Annie Le was found Sunday hidden inside a wall at 10 Amistad St., the building where she was last seen alive. Here is a story archive of the case.
Article:
http://nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/14/news/new_haven/doc4aae526207902229089635.txt
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