Murder at Yale: The True Story of a Beautiful Grad Student and a Cold-Blooded Crime [NOOK Book]

ONE
The story of Annie Marie Le’s disappearance grabbed the nation by the gut—and from the very beginning, it was a mystery that boded ill.
It began quietly enough. When Le didn’t come home on the night of Tuesday, September 8, 2009, her roommate called the Yale Police Department to report that Le, a grad student at the university, had seemingly disappeared.
By Wednesday, word swirled around campus. Where could Annie Le have gone? Was she out partying somewhere? Wait . . . wasn’t she engaged? Do you think someone did something to her?
On Thursday, September 10, the Yale Daily News published an article: “Graduate Student Goes Missing.” That same day, NYDailyNews.com reported: “Yale grad student Annie Le disappears 5 days before New York wedding.”
On Friday, September 11, the search for Le began heating up in earnest, along with a tumult of media. The New Haven Independent (an online local news site) reported a “$10,000 Reward Posted in Annie Le Case.”
By then, the police had officially labeled Annie Le a “missing person.”
Across the country that morning, the TV screamed the news. In the critical first half hour of their morning broadcasts, CBS, NBC, and ABC focused their reporting on the circumstances surrounding Le’s disappearance. The major networks not only reported from their studios in New York, but they also sent camera crews and reporters to the Yale campus to interview students and faculty.
At 7:01 a.m., on NBC’s Today show, Matt Lauer discussed Le’s disappearance as the second leading story of the day. Then, after moving on to the health care debate taking place in Washington, Today returned to the Yale campus at 7:08 a.m. with more on the missing student. No one who knew Le could offer a single clue as to where she might be. NBC reporter Jeff Rossen went so far as to utter the unthinkable: “Annie Le may be the victim of a violent crime.”
At 7:18 a.m., Good Morning America broadcast live from Yale, and in a segment on the case, told about the deep love and friendship that existed between Le and her fiancé, Jon Widawsky of Long Island, New York. The program put on view stunningly happy photos of the two from Facebook.
At 7:21 a.m., CBS reporters told about the disappearance of the grad student, but saved a fuller segment for the Early Show. The cameras scanned the Yale campus, honing in on 10 Amistad Street, where Le was last seen. Back in the studio, a reporter interviewed Pat Brown, a criminal profiler, who opined that it was “interesting” that the authorities were stating that they did not suspect foul play. As to rumors that Le could be a runaway bride, Brown said that brides-to-be who run off typically have an attention-getting personality, and if Le “doesn’t have that kind of personality, then we’d have to suspect foul play because what else could it be?”
As the day and news reports wore on, so did the mystery. No one knew where Annie Le was—and no one knew what had happened to her.
On Saturday, there was a possible break in the case. The Hartford Courant reported, “Bloody Clothes Found in Yale Building During Search for Missing Student.” The New York Times weighed in with this headline: “Items Seized in Search for Yale Student Who Disappeared Days before Wedding.” Other news media picked up the story, and the frenzy of hearsay and speculation grew only louder as the mystery congealed.
Late in the afternoon on Sunday, September 13, the police and news media dropped a bombshell. Annie Le had been located. There wasn’t going to be any wedding. No rings or vows would be exchanged. Her friends would never catch her bouquet as she excitedly tossed it over her shoulder.
The body of Annie Le was found stuffed into a wall in the basement lab where she worked, at 10 Amistad Street.
She was a homicide victim.
During the week of September 14, 2009, a virtual tsunami of media coverage engulfed the public. Only Barack Obama was featured in more news stories in the United States than Annie Le. In death, Le became a media obsession. In life, she had been a classic American success story and inspiration—the daughter of hardworking immigrants, Le had studied fiercely, followed her dreams, and planned to devote her career to helping others. How could something so terrible have happened to her? And how could such a callous and apparently brutal murder have taken place in the hushed and hallowed halls of Yale University? The walls of this fortress of scholarship and polite discourse had been breached by some unnamed evil. And if evil could worm its way into the cocoon of a place like Yale, was there anywhere it couldn’t reach? All across America, people who followed the news of Le’s disappearance and death were searching for answers.
Excerpted from Murder At Yale by Stella Sands.
Copyright © 2010 by Stella Sands.
Published in 2010 by St. Martin’s Paperbacks.
All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher.