Police serve warrants in Yale slaying

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. — Police have executed search warrants on a person of interest in the slaying of 24-year-old Yale graduate student Annie Le.

Two search warrants for DNA and other physical evidence were served at the apartment of 24-year-old Raymond Clark III in Middletown. No charges were filed against Clark, who police said would be released after they obtain the evidence they need from him and his apartment.

Clark was handcuffed and escorted out of the apartment building and into a silver car. Neighbors leaned over the apartment buildings iron railings and cheered as police led him away.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis did not describe Clark as a suspect. He said police were hoping to compare DNA taken from him to more than 150 pieces of evidence collected from the crime scene.

"We're going to be making sure there's not other suspects out there," Lewis said.

Investigators began staking out Clark's home on Monday, a day after they discovered Le's body hidden in the basement of a research building at Yale's medical school. She had vanished Sept. 8.

Clark shares the apartment with his girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, whom he is engaged to marry in December 2011, according to the couple's incomplete wedding Web site. Middletown is about 20 miles north of New Haven.

Neither the couple nor Clark's parents returned repeated telephone calls Tuesday.

Clark moved to Middletown from New Haven six months ago, and shares the apartment with his girlfriend and three cats, according to former neighbor Taylor Goodwin, 16.

"I never really talked to him much, he was just some guy," Goodwin said.

It was unknown how long Clark worked at Yale or his duties. Clark's supervisors at Yale would not comment Tuesday.

Le worked for a Yale laboratory that conducted experiments on mice, and investigators found her body stuffed in the basement wall of a facility that housed research animals.

Authorities had been tight-lipped since Le was reported missing Sept. 8, just a few days before her wedding day. Police say they have ruled out her fiancee, a Columbia University graduate student, as a suspect but have provided little additional information.

Officials had promised Tuesday to release an autopsy report that would shed light on exactly how Le died. But then prosecutors blocked release of the results out of concern that it could hinder the investigation.