On the day Annie Le was supposed to celebrate her wedding, a grim discovery overshadowed the occasion.
Annie Le, a PhD candidate at Yale, was found deceased within the walls of a bathroom in the Amistad Clinical Research Facility. This shocking discovery was made just days after her sudden disappearance from the campus.
The 24-year-old was brutally beaten and strangled in a chilling case that has since been featured on the Oxygen series The Killer Among Us.
“She was incredibly thrilled about getting married,” recalled her friend, Jennifer Simpson. “The day was meant to be grand and beautiful, a moment now stolen from her forever.”
Who Was Annie Le?
Le, born into a Vietnamese immigrant family, was recognized as a brilliant mind. She advanced her studies in pharmacology at Yale’s esteemed research institute, where she focused on the development of lifesaving medications.
“She was a fireball,” Simpson remembered. “She was naturally curious.”
By all accounts, Le couldn’t wait to marry fiancé Jonathan Widawsky.
“She was dedicated to John,” Simpson shared. “She loved him so much and they had such a great relationship.”
What Happened to Annie Le?
But, those dreams would never become a reality. On the evening of Sept. 8, 2009, Le’s roommate reported her missing to police after she failed to return home.
“The roommate hadn’t heard from her all day,” investigative reporter Dave Altimari explained. “They texted normally multiple times a day, and so she was concerned that something had happened.”
When police got in touch with Widawsky—who authorities confirmed was 80 miles away attending classes at Columbia University—he also hadn’t heard from his bride-to-be.
“What adds an extra layer of mystery to all of this is that she’s supposed to be married that very weekend,” retired Connecticut State Police Det. Peter Valentin recalled. “The fact that this is out of character for her, and this would not be how she would conduct herself in the days leading up to her wedding, this gave it some more urgency than it otherwise would have had.”
Annie Le Never Seen Leaving Yale Laboratory
Le’s roommate told investigators that the 24-year-old left her apartment earlier that day, wearing a bright green top and brown skirt. She was planning to head to her office and then go to the lab where she conducted her animal experiments at the Amistad Clinical Research Facility.
Police discovered her wallet, credit cards and cell phone at her office, but there was no sign of Le anywhere in the building.
Her last known contact was at 10 a.m. when she sent a message to her coworkers saying she was getting married and would be out of the office for several weeks. The message had been sent by a computer at the lab and investigators confirmed that she’d used her keycard to enter the building at 10:11 a.m.
Her arrival was also seen on surveillance footage—but strangely, Le was never seen leaving the building, even after it was evacuated for a fire drill around 1 p.m.
“There was no sign of her at the fire alarm,” retired FBI task force member Karl Jacobson explained. “It was clear that something had happened between that 10 o’clock and 1 o’clock time.”
Investigators Find Blood, Seminal Fluid in Search For Annie Le
Authorities began to suspect that Le may have been met with foul play after encountering someone within the highly-secured building.
“It’s a tight-knit community,” Simpson explained. “Everybody’s who there, they want to change the world.”
During a sweep of Le’s lab, they found what looked like seminal fluid on the wall and blood spatter on a box, giving them their first clues that Le was likely the victim of a violent attack. Yet, there was still no sign of Le herself, even as days passed.
Ray Clark Emerges as Suspect in Annie Le’s Disappearance
Using data from the building, investigators learned that after she used her key card to swipe in, four other people accessed her lab room that day.
One of the people was Ray Clark, an animal care technician and long-time employee.
Clark—who was also engaged to another lab staff member—told police that he’d left for lunch that day around 12:45 p.m. and that Le had left about 15 minutes before him.
Yet, investigators knew that couldn’t possibly be true. Not only had Le never been seen leaving the building, but Clark was seen exiting the building at 1 p.m. with other employees during the fire alarm. As he waited for the building to be cleared, he was seen on surveillance footage, walking to some exterior stairs, sitting down and putting his head in hands, seemingly distraught.
Three days into the investigation, Yale custodian Mellisa Dunkley also discovered something unusual in a basement storage closet. It looked like someone had used bleach—a forbidden substance at the all green lab—to clean out a drain and notified investigators.
Using a chemical re-agent, authorities discovered evidence that there had been blood in the area. Detectives learned that Clark had used his key card to enter the rarely used storage closet 11 times on the day Le disappeared.
Where Was Annie Le Found?
The final pieces of the puzzle didn’t come together until September 13, when a Yale police officer noticed a foul smell coming from the men’s restroom around midnight.
Though there were no obvious signs of what was causing the smell, a cadaver dog the next day led police to a bathroom stall. There, they found a small metal door in the wall.
“[It’s] an access panel behind the toilet,” Valentin said. “The door was about 1 foot square.”
After opening it, they discovered Le’s body stuffed inside the small space.
“This is the first time any of us have ever seen a body hidden in the wall,” Valentin remarked. “And there’s no protocol for this.”
After carefully removing Le’s body to preserve the evidence, a medical examiner determined that she had been beaten and strangled to death.
Who Killed Annie Le?
News quickly spread to Le’s family and friends.
“It was quite disturbing and painful,” Simpson recalled. “She’s supposed to be getting married on this day, and yet, it turns out to be a day that they find her.”
After matching Clark’s DNA to evidence found on Le’s body, the animal technician was arrested and charged with Le’s murder.
As for motive, investigators learned that Clark had once asked Le to get a drink with him, but she declined his advances.
“I think her email announcing that Friday’s her last day before her wedding might have been a precipitating factor here,” Valetin said. “Perhaps Ray went to talk to her in her lab and I think that either she went to leave or she asked him to leave and I think a situation got out of hand.”
Clark ultimately pleaded guilty to murder and attempted sexual assault.
“To have her life cut short like that for really no reason, I think, is the real tragedy here,” Altimari said. “It was just such a sad loss of a brilliant mind.”