Tragedy at Yale

On Sunday, September 13, 2009, Annie Le was supposed to be married.  It should have been the happiest day of her life.  But instead of walking down the aisle to her new groom a forensic team was removing her body from a wall inside a Yale lab.

After disappearing on Thursday Le’s image was found on security camera footage entering the lab building but never leaving, leading the police to refocus their extensive search on the lab the footage was taken from.  The building was also equipped with a magnetic card-swipe lock.  The records from that device confirmed that Le had entered but not the lab.

Details on the crime are sketchy at this point; since this is a very active investigation that is totally understandable.  The few facts we do know answer very few questions.  The cause of death was, according to the state’s medical examiner “traumatic asphyxia due to neck compression”; in layman’s terms, the young graduate student was strangled to death.  As of 1:15 pm Wednesday (September 16, 2009) there was no other information about the condition of the body available.

The next day, Thursday, a Yale employee was arrested for the crime.  Raymond Clark III (who is shown in a photo from Facebook here) had been called a “person of interest” for days by authorities.  He is now, after two search warrants were executed (one on his person and one on his residence), in jail charged with the murder of Le.  Investigators are calling this a case of “workplace violence”.  Initial reports had claimed a possible motive of Clark having a romantic interest in Le, which was rebuffed.  The statement by authorities about it being “workplace violence” may indicate those initial reports were incorrect.

As I mentioned in the introduction to this article, I imagine many things consumed Ms. Le’s thoughts that day, none of which were “this is the last day of my life’.  The Bible teaches that our lives are like a vapor of water, here now and gone in a relative instance.  I can’t help but wonder what this 24-year old grad student might have said or done differently had she had an inkling that her days on Earth were about to come to a violent and abrupt end.  We are not guaranteed one single second longer in our lives.  If anything good can come from this young life being taken away in such a seemingly random manner we each ought to count our blessings always.  Never put off that kind word to a loved one, or that apology you feel you owe.  We need to live each day as if it is our last, being mindful we could in the next instance have left our families, friends and possessions behind and be standing in front of God with Him awaiting us to account for our lives.

Just as true, it could be a loved one that leaves this world suddenly.  Or a dear friend.  And then we are left to wish and weep why; why didn’t we do what we wanted or needed to while they were still with us?

Never leave one single thing we deem important undone.  As soon as you are aware of something you need to do or say, just act.  You may never have the chance to again.