Seventy three pages of search warrants connected with the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le offer a few new details of the police investigation into her murder. Also Wednesday, an attorney representing Clark's girlfriend, Jennifer Hramadka, confirmed that authorities asked for her DNA, though he adds that police have told him that his client is not a suspect.
As police searched for Le in a Yale lab building in September, much of the activity seemed to revolve around rooms G-13 and G-22 of the laboratory, the rooms Le primarily worked in.
During the initial investigation, police say, Clark came in and out of G-13 and was scrubbed the drain, which police found odd “since it did not appear to need cleaning.”
Inside the room was a “medium velocity blood-like spray pattern on the wall which had been cleaned off,” the documents show.
Clark told police officers that he was the last person to see Le on Sept. 8 before she disappeared.
On Sept. 13, the day she was to be married and days after she was reported missing, the 24-year-old Le was found stuffed in a wall cavity behind a locker room toilet. Loose insulation had been placed on top of her body to conceal her, documents state.
Two days later, when police searched Clark’s Middletown apartment, they discovered blood on the kitchen floor, as well as a bait box that contained fishing supplies including a reel of fishing line and two pairs of hospital scrubs. It’s unclear if police are connecting any of those items to the death of Le.
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Outside, in the backseat of a 2000 Ford Mustang that Clark drove, police saw a pair of white sneakers with “unknown reddish stains,” as well as a dark-colored garbage bag. Police also were granted a warrant to search the car police believe Clark’s girlfriend drove.
On Sept. 22, police found evidence that appears someone was trying to hide items inside the Animal Lab Research Center.
A large empty plastic bag, a white rag, tweezers and several plastic tubes were found stuffed into a drainpipe.
“These items were past the debris basket which meant that ... someone would have to remove the debris basket and discard said items into the drain pipe,” the warrant says.
Yale staff realized on Sept. 11 that the drain was clogged but did not report it until Sept. 22, when there were more problems with the drain. It was only then that plumbers found those items, along with a screwdriver at the bottom of the pipe.
As of Sept. 23, police were still searching for some key pieces of evidence, including Clark’s electronic keycard, the shoes Le had been wearing the day of her disappearance, shoelaces and the brown notebook that Le used to record experiments. She had been seen with it the day she went missing.
The Chief Medical Examiner's office determined Le was strangled -- the manner of death ruled a homicide.
On releasing his arrest warrant weeks ago, Clark's public defender says "the judge tried to balance different interests and we respect his opinion."
Clark has not yet entered a plea.
