The net is beginning to close in around laboratory technician Raymond Clark in the murder of Yale student Annie Le. Clark has been named as a “person of interest” in the case and has been the focus of intense scrutiny by law enforcement. Computer records than have been leaked to the Hartford Courant now place him in the same room at the same time as Le on the day she was murdered.
According to the Courant article, Annie Le entered a basement laboratory at around 10 a.m on September 8, using a swipe card to gain entrance to the room. Clark entered the same room a few minutes later. Computer records show Le never used her swipe card again. The entrance records also place Raymond Clark in the basement room where Le’s body was discovered later that day. The article suggests that the computer records made Clark an object of police suspicion from the beginning of the investigation. If the Courant article is true, an arrest can’t be far away.
Raymond Clark Motive
Speculation persists over what Raymond Clark’s motive may have been if he did indeed kill Annie Le. At the moment, police have not revealed their thinking on the matter, but that hasn’t stopped media and other observers from offering their own speculations. Bear in mind that what follows is merely arm-chair theorizing, but the evidence in the case that rests in the public domain now points overwhelmingly at Raymond Clark as the likely perpetrator. It would be shocking at this point if an arrest were not made soon.
E-Mails Between Annie Le and Raymond Clark
The New York Daily News has pointed out the existence of a recent e-mail exchange between Le and Clark. Clark initiated the exchange by complaining that Le was not following established protocols in her treatment of the laboratory mice used in her experiments. Le replied with a conciliatory manner, but police have apparently speculated that the Clark somehow became enraged by the incident, leading to an attack on Annie Le.
This seems like a pretty thread-bare idea without more supporting evidence, but stranger things have happened. The Daily news calls it the “of mice and murder” theory. Clark and his girlfriend kept a menagerie of animals including a pit bull who was reported kept caged in a crate most of the time.
Update 9/17: Raymond Clark has now been arrested for the murder of Annie Le. Police are calling the case one of “workplace violence” which would seem to lend credence to the “of mice and murder” theory. Evidently Clark and Le clashed over some workplace issue which led to the confrontation ending in Le’s murder.
Raymond Clark Frustrated Lover
Raymond Clark’s live-in girlfriend Jennifer Hromadka had a Myspace page, now deleted, on which she defended Clark against charges that he had cheated on her with someone at the lab. Wagging tongues have speculated that Clark and Annie Le may have had a brief affair which led to a bad end as her marriage approached. Hromadka wrote about the alleged cheating:
My boyfriend, Ray, if you don’t know him, has no interest in any of the other girls at [the university research center] as anything more than friends.
“This rumor of a ‘fling’ is probably the most stupid thing i have ever heard and really is not even worth going into detail about.
Clark apparently has a history of unhappy breakups, having been involved in a police report over his breakup with his high school girlfriend in 2003. The ex-girlfriend reportedly told police that Clark had confronted her and forced her to have sex when she tried to end the relationship.
A former neighbor of Raymond Clark and Jennifer Hromadka has also told reporters that he was very controlling towards his current girlfriend. “He would never let her talk to anyone. I would hear a lot of yelling upstairs,” said neighbor Anna Marie Goodwin.
If true, this history of anger and violence towards women would support the frustrated lover theory.
On the other hand, there is no evidence to indicate that Clark and Le ever had a relationship of any kind. The other possibility is that Clark became obsessed with Annie Le from afar, and finally attacked her when she refused his advances. This is perhaps more likely.
Jennifer Hromadka Myspace Page
Jennifer Hromadka kept a Myspace page, which has now been deleted. Bingj.com has preserved a cached version of the page from last May. On the cached version of Jennifer Hromadka’s Myspace page, she greets visitors with the curiously defensive:
Who are you to judge the life I live? I know I’m not perfect and I don’t live to be, but before you start pointing fingers make sure your hands are clean!!
Later on the page, she adds:
I have realized in the last few weeks the kind of people I want and need in my life. I have no time for your drama or your BS take it somewhere else. It is not my problem that you have no life! I am completely done! Don’t come to me when your “friends” stab you in the back I don’t want to know about it cause I don’t care.
On the other hand she was much more positive about boyfriend Ray Clark:
I’m 22 years old and recently moved to Middletown, CT with my wonderful boyfriend Ray (we are just together for financial reason though hahaha). I love animals!! I have 2 horses, a shiba inu and 2 cats. I have been through a lot in the last 5 years and am finally in a place were I can say I’m truely happy.
Cause of Death in Annie Le Murder
After some delay, local county coroner has released the results of the autopsy in Annie Le’s death. The official cause of death is listed as “traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression.” In other words, strangulation caused by pressure from hands or some other object.
Police have reportedly taken extensive DNA samples from Raymond Clark including from beneath his fingernails in hopes of matching his DNA to evidence found on the body of Annie Le.
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Annie Le Suspect: Lab Technician Is Leading Suspect in Yale Student Murder
