Annie Le: lab technician Raymond Clark arrested

Police investigating the murder of Yale graduate student Annie Le have arrested laboratory technician Raymond Clark III. According to reports leaked overnight by police sources, his DNA has been linked to traces found at the crime scene.

This follows the news released on Wednesday afternoon that Annie Le, whose body was found hidden in a basement wall of the university's medical building on Sunday, was suffocated, probably through strangling. The Connecticut medical examiner said the 24-year-old died from "traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression".

Clark, also 24, who worked with the lab mice in the Yale medical building, had been described by police as a "person of interest" after he failed a polygraph test earlier this week. After being escorted in handcuffs from his apartment in Middletown, Connecticut yesterday, Clark was released into the custody of his lawyer, David Dworski. He moved Clark to a Super 8 motel in Cromwell, Connecticut, the scene of considerable police and media activity overnight. This morning, at 8.20, a convoy of FBI and police vehicles pulled into the motel car park and arrested him. Bail was set at $3 million.

DNA taken from Clark's hair, fingernails and saliva was being compared yesterday with more than 150 pieces of evidence collected in the basement lab where Annie Le's body was discovered on Sunday, hidden in a cable duct behind the wall. Items of clothing - thought to belong to her assailant - were found tucked above a ceiling tile.

Clark has been described as a muscular, well-built former high school baseball player, while Annie Le was a slight 4ft 11 in and weighed only 90lb. His fiancee, Jennifer Hromadka, his sister and his brother-in-law all worked as lab technicians at Yale.

It is understood that Clark's work with the lab mice brought him into regular contact with Annie Le, a pharmacologist who was part of a team researching enzymes in a bid to find treatments for cancer, diabetes and muscular dystrophy.

According to the New Haven Independent, Clark was reported to police in September 2003 by an ex-girlfriend who claimed he forced her to have sex against her will when the two were attending Branford High School. As a result, police warned him they would pursue criminal charges against him if he contacted the girl. Branford police declined to release the substantiated report yesterday.

Annie Le came to Yale from Placerville, California where she volunteered at a local medical centre after graduating from high school. As The First Post reported earlier this week, Placerville also finds itself at the centre of the Phillip Garrido abduction case.

Teachers at Annie Le's school - Union Mine High School, El Dorado - are now considering plans for a memorial. "The teachers that knew Annie are distraught," said school principal Tony DeVille. "They talk about the terrible waste of potential. It's very sad for everyone." ·