Who Is Raymond Clark III

[LiveLaughLuv]

Raymond Clark III, a Yale University animal research technician, was arrested Sept. 17, 2009 and charged with murdering Yale grad student Annie Le. Le's body was found stuffed behind a wall on Sept. 13, 2009, in the same laboratory where Clark worked.

http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/09/16/crimesider/photoessay5314972.shtml

[LiveLaughLuv]

Raymond Clark III, a Yale University animal research technician seen with fiancée Jennifer Hromadka, was arrested and charged with murdering Yale grad student Annie Le on Sept. 17, 2009. Le's body was found stuffed behind a wall on Sept. 13, 2009, in the same laboratory where Clark worked. Investigators are hoping to figure out within days whether Clark can be ruled out as the killer.

http://www.cbsnews.com/elements/2009/09/16/crimesider/photoessay5315436.shtml?tag=related

[LiveLaughLuv]

Raymond Clark III "Control Freak"; Did It Lead to Annie Le's Murder?
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CBS/AP) There's a man in custody, but is there a motive for murder?

Photos: Who is Raymond Clark III?
Photos: Raymond Clark & Fiancée in Love
Photos: Yale Holds Vigil for Slain Student
Photos: Student Found Dead on Wedding Day

Staffers in white coats reported to work Friday at a Yale University laboratory as police considered whether graduate student Annie Le's grisly death there might have stemmed from a dispute with a lab technician described as an overbearing "control freak."

A law enforcement official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing and many details remain sealed, said Yale workers told police that Clark was a "control freak" who clashed with scientists and their proteges in the lab where they both worked at the Ivy League school.

The official said police are looking into the possibility that Raymond Clark III's attitude led to a deadly workplace confrontation with 24-year-old Annie Le. She vanished Sept. 8, and her body was found in a utility compartment in a Yale medical school building five days later, on what was to be her wedding day.

Investigators haven't decided if the theory will ultimately lead to a motive, but don't believe that they'll need to establish one when Clark goes to trial because they have an abundance of strong forensic evidence, the official said.

The New York Times reported that Clark at times grew angry if lab workers did not wear shoe covers. "He would make a big deal of it, instead of just requesting that they wear them," said a researcher who asked not to be identified.

ABC News reported that Clark sent a text message to Le on the day she vanished requesting a meeting to discuss the cleanliness of mouse cages in the research lab.


Police charged Clark, 24, with murder on Thursday, arresting him at a motel a day after taking hair, fingernail and saliva samples to compare with evidence from the crime scene.

Bond was set at $3 million for Clark, who kept his head down and said "Yes, your honor," when asked whether he understood his rights. He did not enter a plea.

Reached at their homes after work Thursday, several of Le's co-workers at the lab declined to comment on her or Clark.

Authorities are offering few details about the crime. They would not discuss a motive, largely because Clark will not talk to police, and would not disclose the DNA test results or how they connected Clark to the slaying.

Security guards continued their street patrols Friday morning and news crews set up for another day of staking out the college's medical complex. A makeshift memorial of candles and flowers was arranged at the entrance to a park across the street from the lab building, in an area of squat, utilitarian buildings about a mile from the majestic main campus.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/18/crimesider/entry5319451.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

[LiveLaughLuv]

September 18, 2009 9:43 AM
"This is Not the Raymond Clark That I Know," Says Friend
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (CBS/AP) Two childhood friends of Raymond Clark III, the lab technician charged with murdering Yale University graduate student Annie Le, say they are shocked by the charges.

Bobby Heslin and Maurice Perry appeared on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Thursday night.

(Personal Photo)Photo: Raymond Clark III.

They identified themselves as friends of Clark, who is charged in the killing of 24-year-old Le. She was found stuffed in a wall in the campus research building where she and Clark worked. The day her body was found was supposed to be her wedding day.
Perry said, "I can't say that I believe he's guilty. I just can't picture him doing something like this."

Heslin says Clark is his best friend. Perry says he's known Clark since first grade. Perry describes Clark "to be outgoing, happy, athletic, fun" and not at all "violent."

"This is not the Raymond Clark that I know," Perry said.
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/09/18/crimesider/entry5319511.shtml?tag=contentMain;contentBody

[SavannahStar]

LLL, I'm going to add this article I found today, and that I posted on the other thread already. It gives some insight into his job. I found it very interesting.

September 18, 2009
Demanding Job in a Divided Lab, Then a Murder

By JAVIER C. HERNANDEZ and SERGE F. KOVALESKI

Before there was blood, the high-tech lab at 10 Amistad Street at Yale University was a model of efficiency. The mice and rats and rabbits stayed locked in cages. The technicians responsible for their well-being circulated like emergency room nurses. Researchers hunched over the cages for hours, intent on claiming a breakthrough.

The two groups interacted in professional if perfunctory ways, but on Thursday, the authorities charged a technician, Raymond Clark III, with murdering one of the graduate researchers, Annie M. Le. Ms. Le, 24, was strangled on Sept. 8, and her body was found on Sunday hidden behind a wall, out of view from the immaculate corridors of the lab.

Mr. Clark, 24, was arrested just after 8 a.m. Thursday in Room 214 of the Super 8 Motel in Cromwell, Conn. He had been staying there with his father, at the end of several days in which the authorities interviewed him, tailed him, took DNA samples and then kept him under surveillance. He was charged with murder and driven back to New Haven, where he was arraigned but said little and did not enter a plea. Bail was set at $3 million.

The authorities said his DNA matched crime scene evidence, but did not elaborate.

Chief James Lewis of the New Haven police would not speak about a possible motive, but said, “It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime, but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country.”

The chief sought to dispel any notion that Ms. Le, who was about to be married, had been stalked by Mr. Clark or that Yale itself was unsafe. But the arrest opened a window into a peculiar work environment, populated by thousands of animals, driven researchers and the technicians who perform the lab’s menial but essential work.

Those technicians are given a special order: to serve as advocates for the animals and guardians of regulation about how they should be treated.

“There is a certain stress that builds with the job,” said David Russell, who worked as an animal technician at Yale from 1997 to 2008. “If there’s something wrong, you are the one who is on the hook.”

They come from a variety of backgrounds: former veterinary technicians; laid-off workers from pharmaceutical companies; men and women fresh out of high school and college and looking for a decent-paying job.

The jobs are competitive, and many get through the door with the help of a friend or relative. Mr. Clark’s brother-in-law and sister also work as animal technicians, and she recommended Mr. Clark for a position in the washing center in 2004, the year he graduated from high school in nearby Branford.

The university asks that technicians have familiarity with animals. Mr. Clark confided in one co-worker that he had listed on his résumé that he had worked on a farm, even though he had not, the co-worker said. The co-worker spoke on the condition of anonymity because Yale officials had instructed employees not to speak with the news media.

Yale’s Web site says it conducts criminal background checks of its employees, and since 2007, it has required all educational and employment credentials be verified.

With its cutting-edge facilities, the Amistad building, which opened in 2007, is a place technicians dream of working. It is home to about 4,000 mice alone, Mr. Russell said, on a campus that also keeps hamsters, gerbils, cats, dogs, pigs, sheep, fish and monkeys.

The washroom job is considered one of the toughest. It involves scraping dirty cages and loading them onto a conveyor-belt washer, and lifting 40-pound bags of food and bedding.

On a daily basis, technicians must also make the rounds looking for green neon tags — the mark signifying that an animal needs to be euthanized. They take the animals to the basement, lock them in a cage, and turn on the carbon dioxide machine.

“It is very easy to get attached to the animals,” Mr. Russell said. “It wears on you.”

Mr. Clark’s co-worker said the technicians “definitely do get a little desensitized.”

“But I don’t know anyone who is bothered and upset on a daily basis,” the co-worker said. The university provides counseling to help employees cope with having to kill animals on a regular basis.

Mr. Clark was promoted to full-time animal technician, a position that pays $12 to $25 per hour. That job required him to serve as caretaker for the animals, moving them into clean cages and checking to make sure they were not dehydrated, sick or dead.

Animal technicians must also be watchdogs, making sure that in the bureaucratic world of animal research, all documents have been filed and all ethical standards obeyed. They might remind a student to put on a gown before entering a room, or chide a researcher for failing to separate a litter of mice or clipping a mouse tail for a DNA sample, a practice the university forbids.

They live in fear of being held responsible for somebody else’s sloppiness; a single lapse like a dehydrated animal or unsanitary work space could mean weeks of disciplinary hearings.

“A lot of them tend to view us as janitors,” the co-worker said. “But we’re more than that. We are policemen. We are there to make sure everything is done humanely and ethically.”

Some thought Mr. Clark went beyond the bounds of his position. A team leader in the Amistad building said that several of his researchers complained last year that Mr. Clark was rude to them, prompting the team leader to alert Mr. Clark’s supervisor.

“He would berate them for minor infractions,” said the man, who requested anonymity. “Everyone enforces rules, but he enforced them in an officious manner.”

In a statement, Richard C. Levin, the Yale president, said the supervisor “reports that nothing in the history of his employment at the university gave an indication that his involvement in such a crime might be possible.”

Mr. Russell and other technicians said Mr. Clark had significant authority in his position, and said it would not be strange for somebody in his position to directly call or send e-mail to students about their lab work. He estimated there were about 200 employees in two dozen animal labs at Yale, and that supervisors, particularly Mr. Clark’s, did not have time to get involved in the day-to-day operations of the labs.

While most technicians do not forge close relationships with students, they do get to know each other. They can spend a few minutes to a few hours together daily, depending on how many animals are in the lab room.

Students said that relations between researchers and technicians were cordial, for the most part, although the technicians were clearly there for the more tedious aspects of any scientific investigation.

“They clean and maintain lab supplies and prepare chemicals — it’s a job,” said Frank Liu, a postdoctoral associate in Yale’s School of Medicine. “We don’t have that much interaction with them.”

On Thursday, the authorities provided no details about what had prompted the killing. The arrest warrant — which Chief Lewis said ran to more than 1,000 pages — was sealed for two weeks because the investigation was continuing.

For Ms. Le’s family, the arrest brought some answers after nine days of uncertainty, going back to when Ms. Le was reported missing and her purse was found in her office, in a Yale building a few blocks from the lab building. She was about to be married to Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student at Columbia she met when they were undergraduates at the University of Rochester.

Dennis Smith, the pastor of the New Haven Seventh-Day Adventist Church, who has been speaking for the Le and Widawsky families, appeared on the “Today” show on Thursday and called the arrest “wonderful news.”

“They are very appreciative of the thoughts and prayers of everyone during this terrible time of grief and loss,” he said in an e-mail message later in the day.

Mr. Clark came under suspicion last week, partly because of scratches on his chest and scratches and bruises on his arms. Wearing khaki pants and a striped polo shirt that exposed tattoos that circled both his arms, he appeared in court with two public defenders.

Mr. Clark kept his head down during the five-minute arraignment in Superior Court in New Haven. When Judge Jon C. Blue asked Mr. Clark to acknowledge that he had been read his constitutional rights, Mr. Clark nodded and said quietly, “Yes, sir.”

Mr. Clark was taken to a state prison described on its Web site as a “high/maximum security level multimission facility” for men, including those who need “pretrial protective custody.”

Many Yale students and employees seemed shaken that one of their own was accused of the crime. In his statement, Mr. Levin, the Yale president, echoed the police chief’s concern about workplace violence.

The killing “could have happened in any city, in any university,” he said. “It says more about the dark side of the human soul than it does about the extent of security measures.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/nyregion/18yale.html?_r=2

[LiveLaughLuv]

Mr. Clark was promoted to full-time animal technician, a position that pays $12 to $25 per hour. That job required him to serve as caretaker for the animals, moving them into clean cages and checking to make sure they were not dehydrated, sick or dead.

Animal technicians must also be watchdogs, making sure that in the bureaucratic world of animal research, all documents have been filed and all ethical standards obeyed. They might remind a student to put on a gown before entering a room, or chide a researcher for failing to separate a litter of mice or clipping a mouse tail for a DNA sample, a practice the university forbids.

They live in fear of being held responsible for somebody else’s sloppiness; a single lapse like a dehydrated animal or unsanitary work space could mean weeks of disciplinary hearings.

“A lot of them tend to view us as janitors,” the co-worker said. “But we’re more than that. We are policemen. We are there to make sure everything is done humanely and ethically.”

Some thought Mr. Clark went beyond the bounds of his position. A team leader in the Amistad building said that several of his researchers complained last year that Mr. Clark was rude to them, prompting the team leader to alert Mr. Clark’s supervisor.

“He would berate them for minor infractions,” said the man, who requested anonymity. “Everyone enforces rules, but he enforced them in an officious manner.”

Thanks Savannah, great article, it gives insightas to WHO is RCIII.


Seems to me, after learning of his allegedly being a control freak, actually took his title/job function way over the top..Since he is ultimately responsible for the caretaking of this lab animals (which should be animal free, IMO :g:) sending Annie that email, he didn't like how she was keeping the cages and animals in it..More than likely, he didn't like the way she responded to that and he totally lost it..doesn't make it right but now can make sense of the WHY he killed her factor...

[sunstar]

Thanks so much, SS ~ it's a very insightful article and it details a lot of his job responsibilities beyond just cleaning up after the lab animals. Honestly I don't know if I could do it, especially when it came time for them to be euthanized. :girl_sad:

[Faith]

Police say no more arrests planned in Yale killing

September 21, 2009 9:35 AM

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Police are insisting that investigators don't expect to make more arrests in the killing of a Yale graduate student in her lab building.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said Monday that police do not plan to charge anyone other than Raymond Clark in the death of Annie Le (LAY').

Le was strangled Sept. 8 and her body hidden in a wall in a Yale medical school research building. Her body was found five days later on what was to be her wedding day.

Lewis confirms that police confiscated a car belonging to Clark's father over the weekend. The younger Clark was arrested at the hotel early Thursday.

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090921/A_NEWS/909219993/-1/rss01#STS=fzvp0mcj.1rsh