Annie Le was voted “most likely to be the next Einstein.” She graduated as class valedictorian and attended the University of Rochester in New York where she met the love of her life, Jonathan Widawsky. The couple planned to say “I do” on September 13, 2009, followed by a lavish honeymoon in Greece. Sadly, a sick monster had other plans for Annie.
After earning an undergraduate degree, Annie moved to New Haven, Connecticut to study Pharmacology at the Yale School of Medicine. Jonathan stayed in New York to study Physics at Columbia University.
On September 8, 2009, 24-year-old Annie Le took the Yale shuttle bus to the research lab on 10 Amistad Street. When she failed to return home by 9 pm, her roommate called the police and reported her missing.
Annie’s purse and phone were in her office, but she was nowhere to be found. Since it was five days before her wedding, the police believed that she got cold feet and took off. But after combing through 70 hours of surveillance footage, it was clear that wasn’t the case.
Footage showed that Annie entered the research lab at 10 am and never left. Five days later, a horrific discovery was made inside the building.
On what would have been Annie’s wedding day, investigators smelled a foul odor coming from the basement of the research lab. Using cadaver dogs, they followed the stench to an 8-inch hole inside a wall.
Stuffed inside the wall cavity was Annie’s mangled body; her bones had been broken to make her fit, and she was barely recognizable.
Annie’s bra was pushed up to her neck, and her panties were near her ankles. An autopsy would later determine that the killer broke her jaw and collarbone while she was still alive and then strangled her to death.
Underneath Annie’s body was a bloodied sock and a green-inked pen. Hidden in the ceiling, investigators found the matching sock, a lab coat, and a pair of work boots missing a shoelace. All were doused in blood, and on the bottom of one of the work boots was a label that read, “Ray C.”
Since a Yale ID card was needed to get into the research lab, everyone who accessed the building the day Annie disappeared was questioned.
An employee of the research lab, 24-year-old animal lab technician Raymond Clark III, was responsible for sterilizing lab equipment and disinfecting mice cages used for experiments and research.
Ray worked in the research lab alongside his fiancée, Jennifer Hromadka.
Ray was the only person to use his Yale ID card to access the basement of the research lab on September 8th. Additionally, he once sent Annie an angry email, scolding her for leaving behind dirty mice cages.
Annie apologized and assured Ray that it wouldn’t happen again but he was enraged. Could a dirty mouse cage truly be the catalyst for cold-blooded murder?
Apparently, it could.
The evidence showed that on the day Annie disappeared, Ray sent her a text asking her to meet with him to discuss the cleanliness of the cages.
Ray’s DNA matched sperm found at the crime scene and on the green pen and sock found underneath Annie’s body.
Following Ray’s arrest on September 17th, several lab employees reported that he was an aggressive “control freak” who treated the lab as his personal property and that he often scolded them over cleanliness.
Others reported that Ray was possessive and controlling of his fiancée, Jennifer and that he barred her from speaking to others in his presence.
Ray’s high school girlfriend, Jessica Del Rocco, had a similar experience. She claimed that he was physically abusive during their relationship, and that stalked her after their break-up until she got the police involved.
Annie’s mother, Vivian Le, filed a lawsuit against Yale University. They denied culpability, citing there was no way to predict that Ray was capable of committing such a violent act. The suit was settled out of court and the research lab eventually re-opened with heightened security, enhanced background checks, and an updated policy on workplace violence.
Ray pleaded guilty to murder and entered an Alford Plea for the charge of attempted sexual assault. He was sentenced to 44 years and is currently imprisoned at the Cheshire Correctional Institution with a projected release date of September 16, 2053, at which time he will be 70 years old.
Although Ray apologized to Annie’s loved ones in court, he has never explained why he cruelly took the life of a beautiful, young woman.
