Yale student disappears before wedding, body found (update page 5)

[fabgrabs]

^ Just saw that on the news. How tragic. I feel for her family and fiance.

[CGS]

Originally Posted by fabgrabs

^ Just saw that on the news. How tragic. I feel for her family and fiance.

And this was supposed to be her wedding day- just tragic-

[Roo]

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/...yoRiQD9AMPJIG4

Police: Body found inside Yale lab building

(AP) – 11 minutes ago

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Police in Connecticut say a body has been found in a building where a Yale University graduate student vanished.

New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard says the body has not been identified as doctoral student Annie Le, who has been the focus of a massive police search since she vanished in the building on Tuesday.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Investigators sifted through garbage at an incinerator Sunday, looking for clues into the disappearance of a Yale University graduate student who was supposed to be celebrating her wedding day.

FBI agent Bill Reiner said Sunday that investigators are "following the trash" that left the university laboratory in New Haven. He declined to comment further on the search at the Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority's trash-to-energy plant in Hartford.

Annie Le, 24, was last seen Tuesday morning at the lab. More than 100 state, local and federal law enforcement agencies are looking for her but have not yet determined if Le's disappearance is a missing person's case or an act of foul play.

Authorities say Le, a pharmacology doctoral student originally from Placerville, Calif., swiped her identification card to enter the lab. But there is no record of her leaving despite some 75 surveillance cameras around the complex. Her ID, money, credit cards and purse were found in her office.

Investigators on Saturday said they recovered evidence from the building that houses Le's laboratory, but would not confirm reports by media outlets that the items included bloody clothing.

In a story published Saturday, the Yale Daily News quoted an unnamed New Haven Police Department official as saying the bloody clothes were found in a ceiling at the building. The official spoke to the newspaper on the condition of anonymity so the official would be free to discuss an ongoing investigation.

On Sunday morning, a state police Major Crimes Squad van drove down a ramp into the basement area of the building where the lab is located. Officials had no immediate comment.

Yale is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Le's whereabouts.

On Sunday, students prayed for Le's safe return at The University Church.

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

The student-dominated congregation offered a moment of silence and prayer, "for Annie, and her family, who have arrived here in New Haven, for her fiance, on this, what would have been their wedding day. Let's lift them up in our prayers," Oliver said.

Le's family arrived in New Haven on Saturday, Oliver said after the service. He said the church doesn't have any other events or prayer services planned specifically for Le.

"There is nothing else at this point because the university and police have said there is no criminal investigation, there is no proof of a crime. So at this point, we are just praying," Oliver said.

Le, who's of Asian descent, stands 4 feet 11 inches and weighs 90 pounds. She was to marry Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky on Sunday at the North Ritz Club in Syosset, N.Y., on the north shore of Long Island.

Police say Widawsky is not a suspect and is assisting with the investigation.

[NoSnowHere]

Omg so sad. What's the motive? Her poor family and fiancé. Tragic.

[shanam]

I just keep seeing the face of this happy girl who had such a bright future ahead of her and had so much to look forward to..... love, a career, success in so many of life's dreams. It sickens me to read that they are at the point of searching where they are (cannot bring myself to write it)
For so many reasons and so many posts.... i do not understand this world i live in.

[Roo]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/body-found-...8560293&page=2

Body Found Assumed to Be Missing Yale Bride Annie Le
Cops "Assuming" Body Found in Wall to Be Annie Le

By RUSSELL GOLDMAN and COURTNEY CHAPMAN

Sept. 13, 2009—

Investigators searching for missing Yale graduate student Annie Le found what they believe to be her remains in the walls of a Yale laboratory, police said tonight.

"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 press conference.

Le was to be married today.

Reichard said the body was found in the wall of the Yale research laboratory on Amistad Street where Le was last seen Tuesday. She was seen entering the lab, but never leaving.

The find could end a massive search by state and federal authorities that scoured a Connecticut waste-processeing facility and 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 have been searching the facility in Hartford since late last night.

Le and fiance Jonathan Widawsky were to be married today at a ceremony on Long Island, N.Y. Wedding gifts were left outside Widawky's family's home.

Investigators confirm they are now examining items recovered from inside the lab building. But they have not confirmed published reports that those items included bloody clothing, reportedly found inside the ceiling of the lab.

Law enforcement agents said they scoured a Yale University building, interviewed dozens of witnesses and removed unspecified items for analysis, but had not found the body of missing graduate student Annie Le. Investigators have not identified any suspect or determined whether any foul play was involved.

The mystery of Le's disappearance intensified Saturday as FBI agents said again that videotape evidence showed Le entering the Amistad Building on Yale's campus, but never left. Her body had not been found inside, investigators said.

Despite some media reports Saturday that Le's body was found in the building, FBI Special Agent Kim Mertz said, "I will categorically say a body has not been found. Items that could potentially be evidence have been seized. Nothing that can associate with Annie Le at this time."

Mertz said, "Our goal is to find Annie Le and determine what happened to her. ... We are not in a position today to conclude whether this is a missing person case or whether criminality is involved.

"The last video clip we have is her entering the building," said Mertz, who added that analysts were again going through video taken by 70 cameras in the area to determine if Le was ever seen leaving.

"We are still undergoing a review and have not yet confirmed an exit. I don't know that it's definitive if she has left the building," said Mertz.

She said the building had been thoroughly searched by law enforcement officials and blood-sniffing dogs.

Mertz said investigators would look into determining if perhaps the videotape had been tampered with, to explain why she could not be found in the building or seen on tape exiting.

Le was due to marry Jonathan Widawsky today, leading to questions about whether the 24-year-old pharmacology student had gotten cold feet and ran away, or whether she was the victim of foul play.

Mertz said a number of items had been removed from the building for analysis, but would not confirm what they were, where they were found or how they might pertain to Le.

"We don't where she is, we don't know what happened," Yale spokesman Tom Conroy plainly told reporters. "We don't know if a crime was committed or not."

In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America" Saturday, a friend of Le's who came to New York to attend the wedding said the bride-to-be was excited about getting married and would not have run away to avoid the wedding.

"Everything was good. There was nothing that would make us believe that she was having second thoughts or anything like that," said Vanessa Flores, a close friend and former roommate of Le's.

"She's a very conscientious person. This thing has been planned for more than a year, and she was just very excited about it," Flores said.

The Long Island wedding was canceled just as more than 100 local, state and federal law enforcement officials descended on the university, pouring over video footage from some 75 cameras near where Le was last seen.

"They are going frame by frame, looking at every image," Yale spokesman Conroy told The Associated Press.

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

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

A Prescient Article Written by Le

Adding to the intrigue surrounding the case is a magazine article Le wrote for a campus magazine earlier this year about how to stay safe on the Ivy League campus.

The article, titled "Crime and Safety in New Haven," was published in February in a magazine produced by Yale's medical school and compares higher instances of robbery in New Haven to other cities with Ivy League universities.

"In short, New Haven is a city and all cities have their perils," Le wrote. "But with little street smarts, one can avoid becoming yet another statistic."

Le, who is 4-foot-11 and 90 pounds, was least seen entering the laboratory around 10 a.m. Tuesday.

Her purse, cell phone and other belongings were left in the lab.

"She left her pocketbook, her cell phone, everything in the lab," Le's co-worker Debbie Apuzzo said.

Le's Facebook page shows the 24-year-old student posing in wedding dresses and smiling with fiance Widawsky, a Columbia University graduate student in physics whom she described as her best friend.

"He's an amazing kid, just a wonderful, wonderful boy, and he must be heartbroken," said Widawsky's friend Linda Matychack. "I just can't imagine."

Le's face is plastered on missing persons posters and an electronic billboard along Connecticut's Interstate 91.

[Roo]

I have read about her love of designers and I am seriously wondering if she was a member here?? We have so many members it would not surprise me... this is so so sad

[aquarius4u]

^ i was thinking about that too...

[LVLux]

I did not see the news conference-did they say they have a suspect in custody? I don't like that they say remains instead of a body-did she get dismembered in the ceiling in the dark by this professor-wish they would just say so that my mind could quit thinking of horrid possibilities-I need to never read the news again-it upsets me to my core-May she fly with the Angels now!

[shanam]

Heartbreaking

[Velvet Blue]

So sad. Such a tragedy, to find her body today. Her poor family.

[Jahpson]

oh no!

[Megs]

This is such a horrible and disgusting tragedy.

[HauteMama]

Any time a person is killed it is a tragedy, but this seems so incredibly senseless. She was a bright young woman, planning her wedding day, studying at university. She wasn't killed by her partner, as is the case in so many of these situations; who could possibly have wanted her dead, and for what purpose? Was it random? That seems unlikely, given that a person needed to scan into the building. Yet for another bright student, filled with potential to kill her? For a professor to risk his career, his esteem, his life to victimize her? I just cannot wrap my head around this.

[envyme]

WTF is up with all the violence against women??? Its making me sick!! Something needs to be done, because its scary. Am I the only one thinking that violence against women is pandemic, and a task force needs to be set up??? I am really scared, because its seems like enough isn't being done to protect us...