Annie Marie Le: Body Found Behind Wall on Planned Wedding Day

Just a day after the FBI unequivocally denied a body had been found, remains of a small female believed to be missing Yale student Annie Marie Le were found inside the wall of a lab building in the Yale medical complex where she was last seen. The body was found around 5 p.m. Sunday. Annie Marie Le, a Yale pharmacology doctoral student, had been last seen Tuesday entering the building in which she was found. A surveillance camera had captured her image going into the lab building but she had not been observed leaving the facility, although authorities had been poring over 75 cameras-worth of video footage.

"We assume it is Annie Le," New Haven Police Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard said at a short press conference. Police are now treating the case as a homicide, although tests have not yet determined whether or not the body found was indeed that of the missing Yale student.

Annie Marie Le was to have been married Sunday.

FBI and local authorities, fully equipped with hazmat suits, were scouring a local landfill Saturday and Sunday where trash is converted into electricity to determine whether or not Annie Le had left the lab building via a refuse container. But blueprints had been ordered for the building, those in charge of the searching there wanting to ensure that every possible room or space was properly searched.

Reichard stated that investigators have a good deal of physical evidence to go through but would not give details.

The New Haven Register and other reporting agencies claimed a source that said bloody clothing had been removed from the building Saturday but the FBI refused to confirm the claim. An unidentified male seen speaking to FBI agents outside the lab building who got into the passenger side of an unmarked vehicle before it drove away has yet to be identified as well. The FBI refuses to comment on the ongoing investigation.

At present, authorities have not released the name or names of any suspects.

Jonathan Widawsky, Annie Le's fiance, was ruled out as a suspect early in the missing Yale student's case. Widawsky began cooperating with authorities from the outset.

Annie Marie Le disappeared Tuesday, five days before her wedding date. There had been some speculation that she may have become a runaway bride, but her friends and family did not consider it likely. Although police had found no evidence of foul play, Annie Le's entrance into a lab building without the appearance of exiting, this despite an array of at least 75 cameras trained on the doorways of the buildings in Yale's medical complex, kept the investigation focused primarily on the building at 10 Amistad Street in New Haven.

Though seemingly a strange place to secrete a body, placing remains within or behind a wall is not unheard of. Back in July, WPIX.com reported that the body of a missing cleaning woman was found in the air ducts of a building in New York's financial district. Eridania Rodriguez, 46, mother of three, was found face down, wrapped in yellow and black industrial duct tape. Just days after the discovery of the body, 26-year-old freight elevator operator Joseph Pabon was arrested and charged with Eridania Rodriguez' murder.

According to The Age, an Australian man allegedly hid the body of his estranged wife behind a wall in her own home in August. Jiagen Pan, 43, was arrested for allegedly murdering his soon-to-be ex-wife.

New Haven authorities said Monday that an autopsy would be performed on the remains found at the Yale lab building but had no definite time frame.

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Sources:

WPIX.com
NHRegister.com
TheAge.com.au