Student a suspect in Yale murder probe

Source: MSNBC

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Police have identified a suspect in the killing of a person whose body was found stuffed behind a wall in a high-security laboratory building at Yale University, law enforcement sources told NBC News on Monday.

The suspect, a student, has defensive wounds, and failed a polygraph test, police said.

The body found Sunday in the Yale Medical School building is believed to be that of Annie Le, a 24-year-old native of Placerville, Calif. She was last seen in the building on Tuesday.

Police found the female body around 5 p.m. Sunday. An autopsy is being performed to verify that the body is Le's.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32810822/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts?ocid=twitter

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Saw this link on Twitter.

my heart goes out to her family, fiancee, and friends.

it's scary that it happened in a secure building. i work in a building which requires electronic passes for entry and sometimes work really late into the night. hearing about this makes me nervous.

A secure room leaves a trail that gives up the perp!

g

Polygraphs are not admissible as evidence and failing to submit to one is not a worse outcome than taking one and failing.

This individual regardless of involvement or non-involvement in this murder got bad legal advice.

because the results can be used against you. I don't know the details as to why that might be the case, but apparently some innocent folks who submitted to those tests did not fare so well.

despite all the evidence against them and the fact that they are NOT admissible in court. If you refuse to take one, you are suspect #1. If you pass it, you are still not taken off the list, and if you fail it, you are suspect #1.

Once you refuse or fail, the police will stop investigating anyone but you. In fact, they will re-double their efforts since they are now convinced you are guilty. If you pass, and the police don't like you, they will claim you "beat the test" (you are a sociopath after all) and again, stop investigating everyone else and come after you.

Polygraph tests are about as indicative of the truth as flipping a coin.

It does not tell you that the stress is due to lying.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8z7NC5sgik

"Any lawyer worth his salt will tell the suspect in no uncertain terms to make no statement to the police under any circumstances." Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson

If you speak to the police long enough you WILL say something they can use against you

If you are innocent and pass a polygraph, the police aren't going to rule you out as a suspect.

If you are innocent and fail a polygraph, the police are going to rule out every suspect BUT you.

There is no legal advantage for any innocent person to take a polygraph. A polygraph isn't evidence, and they aren't going to charge you without some proof. If you genuinely didn't do it, you have nothing to worry about.

His ego could have told him he'd be able to adequately control his physiological responses.

as speculated in the original thread.

That was quick.

had a legitimate reason to be in the building, all the security in the world couldn't save her.

in the basement, etc.

I have to wonder about all the years that I used to work late in the lab, as a grad student and then on the job... yes, I would be careful on my way to the apartment (on campus) or to my car but always thought about robbery, not about such hateful attack..

with the lone lab worker, to find the situation safe. Every student needs to remember there is safety in numbers.

Eerie and creepy. Urban college campus. Bloody clothes in ceiling, body behind wall. Bright, beautiful grad student and, probably, a freakish stalker.

...many people around. We used to have a guy in the lab who took exercise breaks at 2 or 3 AM by riding his bicycle up and down the deserted halls.

NEW HAVEN — Detectives have strong leads in the slaying of Yale graduate student Annie Le and interest is focused on a lab technician who works in the building where the body was found Sunday, multiple police sources confirmed Monday.

The Yale employee has been under the law enforcement microscope since before Annie Le's body was found Sunday in a mechanical chase in the basement of the 120,000 square foot building.

He had scratches on his chest, as if he were in some type of a struggle, which drew police attention, the sources confirmed.

He also took and failed an FBI-administered polygraph exam, they said, and at some point during questioning invoked his right to an attorney present and stopped answering questions. Over the last week, police interviewed and re-interviewed roughly 100 people who work or have access to 10 Amistad St., and the person at whom police appear to be zeroing in was among them.

NEW HAVEN REGISTER: http://www.nhregister.com/articles/2009/09/14/news/doc4aae5d57ae145175622155.txt

from The New Haven Independent:

"Police officials definitively denied Monday afternoon that they’ve centered suspicion on a Yale student in the probe — or that any student is 'involved' in the case.

However, a source familiar with the investigation said the probe has zeroed in on a single 'serious' suspect.

Another law enforcement source familiar with the probe identified the suspect as a lab technician who works with animal testing at Yale. That technician’s campus phone number was disconnected Monday afternoon and he couldn’t be reached for comment. The technician allegedly had an unrequited love interest in Annie Le, according to that source. That suggestion couldn’t be independently verified Monday afternoon.

The New Haven Register’s Bill Kaempffer reported that the suspect failed a polygraph test and refused to answer cops’ questions, with a lawyer present."

http://www.newhavenindependent.org/archives/2009/09/serious_suspect.php

Ughhhh, what a freak and an idiot that too, for even bothering to take the polygraph in the first place. Yeah, I'm a suspect and I know I've done it so I'll take a polygraph! Wow, he has geniuses for lawyers.

What a horrifying story. Really sad and scary. It's even more crazy, because you usually want to trust the people you work with.

and he just wanted the cops to leave him alone, so he volunteered for the polygraph test?

I re-read my post and jumped to the conclusion he's guilty.

And your reasoning makes sense. As another post said, once you're asked to do it, you're in a Catch-22 of sorts.

Biting tongue.

Does using rats to help fight cancer make her less of a victim in your eyes?

Scratches on his back, defensive wounds. In addition, I bet there are also log books, records of logins, fingerprints, maybe dna eveidence.

I've often believed that when you use a keycard-that there is a second record being kept of times that card is used somewhere. Remember that the card is assigned to someone who has authorization to use it. That person has a name, all of the people do. It should be relatively easy to narrow down suspects.

Now it is possible someone stole the card or was let in by someone who has a valid card. In both cases, the first place to look are people who are authorized to be there and check to see if someone reported a card stolen or lost. If no report of a suspicious stranger or such a report surfaces, then you narrow it further.

When I used to go to evening classes in College, the labs were one of the loneliest and often creepiest places around. Even the stacks in the library late at night had more people and were better lit.

Only someone who has a personal interest would bother walling up the body that way-and only someone who has a valid, uncontested reason to be there would even attempt to do so. I remember that a professor was originally suspected-and I bet it is a professor. A faculty member would be able to travel uncontested anywhere in the building, and Le would have trusted him enough to leave her purse and other personal items. A fellow student would have more of a barrier to trust-she certainly wouldn't have gone with him without an alibi.

A random killer would prefer to wait until she left the building after which she could have been taken anywhere with less surveillance. Then she could be anywhere in the city or the state.

no professor was ever a suspect in this case.

Someone being questioned doesn't mean someone is a suspect.

But it is relatively easier than some people think to narrow the prospects down. First you can eliminate people who can definitely prove they were elsewhere-out of the building, working on their computers, those who clearly left before anything could have taken place. Did she have an assistant or a study buddy? Were there clues in her cell phone, blackberry? Did she file a complaint or call the police on someone already?