Annie Le Search Warrants: Cops Found Blood on Yale Lab Tech Raymond Clark's Floor
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CBS/AP) Police say they found blood on the kitchen floor of Raymond Clark III, the Yale lab tech who is charged with killing Yale graduate student Annie Le days before her wedding, and they also witnessed him trying to cover up evidence in the lab where her body was later found, according to search warrant affidavits released Wednesday.
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The affidavits, released by the New Haven police, describe in detail how investigators said they found blood "in plain view" on the kitchen floor near the entrance to his apartment. Authorities took plastic door panels and carpeting with "blood-like stains" from the Taurus in which Clark was riding in the hours after Le's disappearance.
Le's body was found stuffed behind a research lab wall in September on the day she was supposed to get married and three days after she was reported missing. Autopsy results show Le was strangled, but the possible motive remains unclear.
Clark has not yet entered a plea.
The affidavits also show that police searched for evidence in Clark's home, two cars that he used and numerous lockers in the laboratory building where Le's body was found.
The suspect "has gone to great lengths to conceal evidence in multiple locations in unusual places," the affidavits said and detailed how one of those efforts was witnessed by two Yale police officers.
According to the affidavit, Officer Sabrina Wood was approached by Rachel Roth, a graduate student and coworker of Le, who "showed Officer Wood a box of 'wipe alls' that had what appeared to be blood splatter," in the room where Le was last known to be working.
While Officer Wood stood guard and waited for agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the affidavit states that she observed Clark come in and walked directly to the cart where the box was, looked at the box of wipes and then "stood between Officer Wood and the cart, and then turned and faced Officer Wood." Clark then moved the box of wipes to try to conceal the blood, and tried to make small talk with Officer Wood to distract her, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit also states that sometime later Officer Wood observed Clark enter the lab "with a box of SOS pads and a bottle of cleaning solution. Mr. Clark then proceeded to clean the floor/grate drain...the grate is located under the only sink in the room." Sergeant Jay Jones, also of the Yale Police Department, corroborated Officer Wood's observations and added, during a later interview with FBI agents, that he didn't think the floor needed cleaning, according to the affidavits.
The affidavits also state that Clark sent emails to 24-year-old Annie Le "in the recent past," and that her email address was found in a laboratory locker labeled "Ray."
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