Remembering Annie Le, One Year Later

A year ago today, Annie Le went missing. The Yale grad student entered a lab in Yale's Amistad building at 10:11 a.m on Sept. 8. Her body was found five days later, stuffed into the wall of a Yale lab, where she worked.

On the anniversary of her death, colleagues of the 24-year-old pharmacology student are still recovering from the brutal slaying and the man charged in her murder is due in court.

Le’s body was found on Sept. 13, 2009, the day she was supposed to be married. She died of “traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression,” a form of strangulation.

Raymond Clark has been charged in Le’s murder. The former lab tech who worked in the building when Le was killed is being held on $3 million bond. He has pleaded not guilty and is due back in court today.

On the Yale campus, students are trying to act as though all is normal.

One student who the Yale Daily News identifies only as a friend of Le said the students have to convince themselves that the Yale lab where Le was killed is “just a building … just a room … just a place.”

“A year later, the whole community remains shocked and appalled at the tragedy that occurred,” University President Richard Levin told the Daily News.

But it is undeniable that the school has changed in the last year.

Students told the school paper that security has increased. Everyone who enters 10 Amistad in New Haven must swipe a keycard at any time and there is now cell phone service the basement.

However, students told the school newspaper, increased security would likely not have prevented Le’s death because the suspect had access to the building as an employee.

Since the murder, Yale has also changed its workplace violence policy and requires all employees to report threatening, intimidating or violent behavior that happens on the Ivy League campus.

But still, students keep the memory of Le alive. On Wednesday night, there will be a private remembrance at Yale to remember Le.
 

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