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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Tech last to see Le, source tells paper

Raymond Clark III, 24, is driven away from an apartment building by police on Tuesday. Hartford Courant (John Woike Hartford Courant / The Spokesman-Review)
Hartford Courant

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Computer records show that lab technician Raymond Clark III, a “person of interest” in the slaying of Yale graduate student Annie Le, was the last person to see her alive, a law-enforcement source told the Hartford Courant on Wednesday.

Investigators traced Le’s and Clark’s movements through their computerized swipe cards, said the source, who is familiar with the investigation. Le entered the Yale laboratory at about 10 a.m. on Sept. 8. She passed through a basement lab area moments later. Then she swiped her way into a separate room of that lab.

Clark entered that same room a short time later, the source said, citing the computer records. Le was never seen again and her card was never used again.

Clark had moved around the laboratory area quite a bit that day, including entering rooms that he normally would not be expected to be in, the source said.

Clark also swiped into another area – the place where Le’s body was eventually found after five days, stuffed into a 2-foot crawl space behind a wall.

The pattern of movements captured by the computer records are the reason authorities focused almost immediately on Clark, 24, the source said.

The chief state medical examiner ruled Wednesday that Le, 24, who was pursuing a joint doctoral and medical degree, died of traumatic asphyxiation by neck compression.

Clark was released from custody Wednesday after giving police a DNA sample.