Raymond Clark

Raymond Clark

muscular Yale lab technician was arrested and charged with murder Thursday morning in the slaying of grad student Annie Le, authorities said. Raymond Clark 3rd, his head bowed, was led out of a Super 8 Motel in handcuffs and placed in an unmarked police car about 8:30 a.m. Traffic was halted on two major boulevards outside the Cromwell, Conn., motel as Clark was transported to the New Haven police stationhouse. "Based on numerous interviews, forensic evidence, and information learned from viewing video surveillance, detectives have secured the arrest warrant for Clark," New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said. Lewis said Le, 24, was not sexually assaulted. He called her strangulation death a case of "workplace violence," but would not elaborate on what might have triggered the attack.

The New Haven Register reported that authorities have linked DNA from Clark, 24, who worked in the same Yale building as Le, to the murder. Undercover investigators were massed in the parking lot overnight - and one motorist passing by shouted, "Get him, get him!" at police. Clark apparently decamped to the motel after cops hauled him from his home in handcuffs Tuesday, obtained DNA samples and let him go. While police were waiting for DNA results, they had gathered circumstantial evidence. Clark reportedly failed a lie detector test and had scratch marks on his chest. And computer records from Yale suggested he was the last person to see Le. Swipe cards Le and Clark used to move through different areas of college buildings showed they were in the same room shortly after 10 a.m. on Sept. 8, The Hartford Courant reported. Le, 24, wasn't seen alive after that, and her card wasn't used again. But Clark swiped into the area where she was found strangled five days later in a crawlspace, a law enforcement source told the paper.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis refused to give details of Clark and Le's relationship, saying only that they worked in the same building and passed each other in the halls. Cops interviewed Clark several times in the days after Le disappeared, but then he stopped talking with detectives and asked for a lawyer. Clark's lawyer, David Dworski, said yesterday the muscular technician was cooperating with the investigation. "We are committed to proceeding appropriately with authorities with whom we are in regular communication," Dworski said. State police officers impounded Clark's red Mustang yesterday. They also took about 150 pieces of forensic evidence from the Yale lab, where he mostly did janitorial work. Le's body was discovered stuffed behind a basement wall inside the lab on Sunday - the same day she had planned to get married on Long Island. The official cause of her death was ruled as "traumatic asphyxiation due to neck compression."