Missing Yale student found dead behind wall on day of her planned wedding.

[Caliga]

I wish my high school had an Asian Awareness club.  Why, if I had such a club I might have perhaps been aware that Asians existed!

[DisturbedPervert]

I wish my high school had an Asian Awareness club.  Why, if I had such a club I might have perhaps been aware that Asians existed!

My high school had like 5 different brands of Asian clubs. 

[merithyn]

Personally, my guess leans more toward the unrequited love thing.

That's just because you're a hopeless romantic.

[Camerus]

Actual real life Asian chicks rarely lived up to the submissive stereotype, however.

My personal research into the matter supports your conclusion.

My findings also support this opinion.

[alfred russel]

Actual real life Asian chicks rarely lived up to the submissive stereotype, however.

My personal research into the matter supports your conclusion.

My findings also support this opinion.

If you put GHB in their drinks I've heard they are submissive.

[garbon]

What decade are you in? Nothing at all odd for colleagues to have each other's cell numbers these days, especially 20-somethings. I bet they were even friends on Facebook.

While I have the cell numbers of many co-workers, there's only one that I've ever texted and that was because we are friends outside of work.  Otherwise, I limit contact to phone calls.  I would say, from my short time in England, it seemed as though people were more likely to text than call one another (in the college set).

[Jaron]

What decade are you in? Nothing at all odd for colleagues to have each other's cell numbers these days, especially 20-somethings. I bet they were even friends on Facebook.

While I have the cell numbers of many co-workers, there's only one that I've ever texted and that was because we are friends outside of work.  Otherwise, I limit contact to phone calls.  I would say, from my short time in England, it seemed as though people were more likely to text than call one another (in the college set).

is she (or he) hot

[HisMajestyBOB]

I wish my high school had an Asian Awareness club.  Why, if I had such a club I might have perhaps been aware that Asians existed!

My high school had like 5 different brands of Asian clubs.

And they all hated each other. 

[Caliga]

Safety Will Never Be a Guarantee
By Josh Plotnik

I never thought the death of a graduate student, whom I have never met and who lived more than a thousand miles away, would have such an effect on me personally. But the death of Yale student Annie Le this past week is one of the most unbelievable, single murders ever on a college campus and one that should make us all stop and, again, reconsider.

In a case that has overwhelmingly gripped the nation, Le, a 24-year-old Vietnamese-American studying for her MD/Ph.D. in pharmacology, was murdered last week, presumably inside her laboratory, and then stuffed inside a wall in the laboratory's basement. Video showed Le entering the lab at 10 a.m. last Tuesday, but incredibly, none of the 70 surveillance cameras captured her ever leaving.
Le, by all accounts an intelligent, sweet, gentle woman and hard-working graduate student, was murdered presumably during working hours inside her medical school laboratory. She left behind friends, family, a devastated fiance and an entire country shocked at such a brutal crime. Yesterday, a lab technician that worked in her laboratory building was arrested and charged with murder.

It's difficult to explain why I have become so captivated by this one heinous murder, but as a graduate student myself, it is hard to imagine such a disgusting case happening in what most of us have always thought was a rather safe environment. After all, her laboratory building was highly secure, with cameras focused on all the entrances and multiple access cards and keys required to enter the various areas of the building. Many news organizations reported that the multiple keys needed to gain entrance into the basement where Le was most likely murdered suggest that only a select few could have been in the basement with her at the time of her death; thus, the implication is that her killer was an acquaintance and/or a member of the Yale community.

Simply put, it seems unfortunately apparent that even at an elite university, in broad daylight and in a secure facility, safety should never be assumed. I often work late nights at the new psychology building, and even as a male, I wonder whether or not the small noises I hear in the halls come from the air conditioner or someone who shouldn't be there. How do we protect ourselves if Le, who ironically wrote a Yale magazine column only a few months ago about campus safety and seemed to know exactly how to protect herself, could be murdered in such an unlikely place and time? I wish the answer was simple, but it isn't.

One possible consideration concerns the access card points, which are abundant on our campus. According to the Emory Police Department (EPD), these cards do in fact record information about the user once the card is swiped. Thus, whether you enter a building with a friend or someone you don't know, you should insist that the other person also use their card to gain access to the building. This may sound ridiculous but this is the only way there is an official record of everyone entering the building at a given time. Especially after normal working hours, such a record could be crucial in any criminal investigation. Even if you were not directly involved, information you provide could be important. In addition, EPD offers programs on personal safety for the community, which provide further information on how to stay safe on campus.

In a statement sent to students yesterday, the Yale University President Richard Levin wrote: "We must not let this incident shatter our trust in one another. ... The work of the University requires us to engage with each other in the classroom, to collaborate in the laboratory and to trust one another in workplaces across the campus."

I agree wholeheartedly; many would argue that safety on college campuses is quite good, even at big-city universities, and that changing lifestyles and activities because of a relatively few number of violent crimes simply isn't necessary.

Although clearly not all acts of violence can be prevented — and paranoia is unhealthy — members of the Emory community must, at the very least, remain vigilant. The murder of Annie Le suggests that universities should regularly re-evaluate these talking points and assess whether or not all that is being done to protect their communities is actually being done. Her death was senseless and shockingly horrific, but it has captured the public's attention primarily because it suggests that even in the supposed safety and sterility of a secure university laboratory, no one is ever totally and completely safe.

Josh Plotnik is a sixth-year graduate student in psychology from New York.

[Malthus]

Although clearly not all acts of violence can be prevented — and paranoia is unhealthy — members of the Emory community must, at the very least, remain vigilant. The murder of Annie Le suggests that universities should regularly re-evaluate these talking points and assess whether or not all that is being done to protect their communities is actually being done. Her death was senseless and shockingly horrific, but it has captured the public's attention primarily because it suggests that even in the supposed safety and sterility of a secure university laboratory, no one is ever totally and completely safe.

Heh, sure incidents like this prove that all the safety precautions in the world won't make you 100% safe; but what practically does that mean?

[Caliga]

ABC: Clark texted Le to meet at lab on day of killing

ABC News reports that Raymond Clark III, the lab technician charged with killing Yale graduate student Annie Le, sent her a text message on Sept. 8, the day she disappeared, asking Le to meet at the lab to discuss the cleanliness of the cages of the mice, which Le used for her research.

ABC, quoting its sources, says the message said: "We need to meet."

Le, 24, was found stuffed into a recess in a basement wall at the medical research building where they both worked. The Connecticut medical examiner says she died of "traumatic asphyxiation" from being choked.

New Haven police have been tight-lipped about a possible motive in the killing, except to call it an issue of "workplace violence."

Clark, who was not a student, played more of a "custodial role" at the lab, ABC says, adding that, according to unidentified sources, he had "expressed frustration to Le over the dirty cages before."

The 24-year-old former high school athlete was viewed by many co-workers as a "control freak" who often clashed with researchers and considered the mice cages his personal fiefdom, the Associated Press reports. It quoted unidentified law enforcement sources who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because many details of the case remain sealed.

The New York Times says Clark at times grew angry if lab workers did not wear shoe covers. "He would make a big deal of it, instead of just requesting that they wear them," said a researcher who asked not to be identified, The Times reports.

While the police have not indicated a specific motive in the killing, they have told reporters that have collected considerable physical evidence in the case. Clark was arrested one day after he was required to provide a DNA sample.

The Daily News, of New York, quotes unidentified investigators as saying DNA tests showed Le's blood on Clark's boots, which have his name on them. The Hartford Courant reports that Clark's DNA was also found in the crawl space where Le's body was stuffed.

The paper also says police believe that Clark dropped his green ink pen into a crevice at the crime scene. The News says investigators believe that Clark brought wire, fishing hooks and bubble gum to the lab on the day after the killing in an apparent effort to fish out the pen.

WTIC TV, quoting sources "close to the case," say a second arrest in possible in the case and could involve someone helping the killer dispose of Le's body. WTIC provided no additional details.

Aw, how cute.  Maybe they can get married in prison.

[Malthus]

From that article, they are making it sound like the killing really *was* all about rodent cage rage.

I guess one lesson is "when the lab tech tells you to clean up your mouse shit, you do it". 

[DisturbedPervert]

The News says investigators believe that Clark brought wire, fishing hooks and bubble gum to the lab on the day after the killing in an apparent effort to fish out the pen.

A real Dexter we got here

[The Minsky Moment]

From that article, they are making it sound like the killing really *was* all about rodent cage rage.

I guess one lesson is "when the lab tech tells you to clean up your mouse shit, you do it". 

Just goes to show why motive often really isn't that important. 

[saskganesh]

so its just the psycho janitor who did it?

I've seen enough horror and thriller movies to suggest this is likely not the case.