Police await DNA findings in Yale student slaying; medical examiner says she was suffocated

Medical examiner says Yale student was suffocated

CROMWELL, Conn. — Police were awaiting the results of DNA tests on evidence taken from a Yale University animal research technician before determining whether to charge him with killing a graduate student who worked in the same lab.

On Wednesday, the medical examiner reported that Annie Le, whose body was found stuffed in the wall of a university research center, had been suffocated. Police call Raymond Clark III a “person of interest” in the slaying, and they scheduled a news conference Thursday morning to announce developments in their investigation.

Officer Joe Avery, a New Haven police spokesman, told The Associated Press early Thursday that Clark was not in custody and police did not have a warrant for his arrest.

Police in Cromwell late Wednesday were watching a hotel room where a “person of interest” in the killing had been staying, Capt. Roy Nelson said. Broadcast reports said Clark was staying at the hotel. Police in marked and unmarked cruisers kept a steady watch near the hotel off a highway, while a crowd of reporters gathered across the street early Thursday.

Authorities hoped to compare DNA taken from Clark’s hair, fingernails and saliva with more than 250 pieces of evidence collected at the crime scene on the Ivy League campus in New Haven, Conn., and from Clark’s Middletown, Conn., apartment.

“It’s all up to the lab now,” New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said at a news conference Wednesday. “The basis of the investigation now is really on the physical evidence.”

Clark is not talking to police, Lewis said.

“At some point he may be willing to answer questions, but at this point he has invoked his rights,” Lewis said. “He has an attorney. We couldn’t question him if we wanted to.”

Clark’s attorney, David Dworski, said his client is “committed to proceeding appropriately with the authorities.” He would not elaborate.

Police executed two search warrants — for DNA from Clark and for items in his apartment — late Tuesday. They served two more Wednesday morning, for more items from the apartment and for Clark’s Ford Mustang, Lewis said.

Investigators said they expect to determine within days whether Clark should be charged in the killing. He was escorted in handcuffs from his apartment and released early Wednesday into the custody of his attorney, police said.

Lewis said police expect to seek an arrest warrant for anyone whose DNA matches evidence at the crime scene.

A police lab is expediting tests on Clark’s DNA. University of Connecticut genetics professor Linda Strausbaugh says testing can be done in days if a case gets top priority.

Clark’s job as an animal-services technician at Yale put him in contact with Le, who worked for a Yale laboratory that conducted experiments on mice. She was part of a research team headed by her faculty adviser, Anton Bennett, that focused on enzyme research that could have implications in cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy. Members of the team have declined to comment on the case or their work.

Clark, his fiancee, his sister and his brother-in-law all work for Yale as animal lab technicians.

Le’s body was found stuffed behind the wall of the basement where lab animals are kept. The Connecticut state medical examiner said Wednesday that Le died of “traumatic asphyxiation.”

Authorities found her body Sunday, the day she was to be married, but released no details on how Le died. Traumatic asphyxiation could be consistent with a choke hold or some other form of pressure-induced asphyxiation caused by a hand or an object, such as a pipe.

Police are not commenting on a possible motive.

As a technician at Yale, Clark helped clean the cages of research animals used by labs around the Ivy League campus and had other janitorial duties, police said. The technicians help tend to rodents, mostly mice, used in experiments and can help with paperwork.

Since researchers generally try not to move animals from their housing for testing, students and faculty conducting experiments often visit the building where Le was found dead, school officials said.

Hill reported from New Haven, Conn. Associated Press writers Susan Haigh and Dave Collins in Hartford, Conn.; Pat Eaton-Robb in Middletown, Conn.; and news researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York City contributed to this report.