Raymond Clark III Arrested for the Murder of Yale University Doctoral Student Annie Le

UPDATE #2: Raymond Clark III was arrested Thursday and charged with the suffocation death of a graduate student whose body was found stuffed in a research building wall on what was to be her wedding day.

UPDATE#1: A Yale University employee has been released from police custody after investigators detained him Tuesday night to collect DNA, said a spokeswoman for the city of New Haven.

Raymond Clark III have been taken into custody by New Haven police as a person of interest in the murder of Yale University doctoral student Annie Le. Clark, a Yale University animal research technician was taken into custody by the police to collect DNA samples. The police searched his apartment last night for evidence that might link him to this horrific crime. The police said he will be released after they obtain the evidence they need from him and his Middletown apartment.New Haven Police Chief James Lewis said Clark has been under watch since Le’s body was found Sunday, which was supposed to be her wedding day.

George Ruhe for the New York Times/

Chief Lewis said they are hoping to compare DNA taken from Clark's hair, fingernails and saliva to more than 150 pieces of evidence collected from the crime scene. The investigators are hoping to ascertain within days whether Clark can be ruled out as the killer. So far, the police have collected more than 700 hours of videotape and sifted through computer records documenting who may have entered what parts of the research building where Ms. Le met her untimely death.

Clark shares an apartment with his girlfriend, Jennifer Hromadka, whom he is reportedly engaged to marry in December 2011, according to the couple's web site. It is unclear how long Clark worked for the university as a lab technician. Officials had hoped to release the autopsy results, but they were blocked by prosecutors out of concern that it could hinder the investigation. No matter how you look at this crime, it is incomprehensible and it should not have happened. No one deserves to meet such a fate.

New Haven Police Says Body Found in the Building Where Yale University Doctoral Student Annie Le Disappeared

Police in Connecticut say a body was found in a building where Yale University doctoral student Annie Le disappeared. This isn't good news for the family. New Haven Assistant Police Chief Peter Reichard said the body hasn't been identified as the student. He did say that he believed the body could be the missing student. Investigators found the body of a female inside a wall in the basement of 10 Amistad St. At a press conference at New Haven Police Department headquarters, Reichard said the remains were found shortly after 5 p.m. on Sunday. He said authorities are now classifying the case as a homicide investigation.

Photo credit:  Yale University Office of Public Affairs

Yale University President Richard Levin sent a campuswide e-mail titled "Tragic News," in which he said an autopsy to identify the body will be performed by the Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. Officials said they seized bloody clothes from a ceiling at the building yesterday. According to Yale Daily News, a source within the Yale Police Department said the clothes are not what Le was wearing when she entered that facility Tuesday and the blood on the material could be either human blood or animal blood, since many animal experiments are conducted in the research facility.

Still developing. More to follow....

Yale University Under Fire For Removing Muslim Cartoons from Upcoming Book "The Cartoons That Shook the World"

Yale University is under fire for removing 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad from an upcoming book, "The Cartoons That Shook the World," written by Brandeis University Jytte Klausen, about how they caused outrage across the Muslim world. The university has drawn sharp criticism from prominent alumni and the American Association of University Professors, a national group of university professors. Yale cited fears of violence for its decision to remove the cartoons. A Danish newspaper originally published the cartoons in 2005, which included one depicting Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban. Other Western publications reprinted them. Caricaturing the Prophet Muhammad was disrespectful and I am sure had that been done to Pope Benedict XVI, there would be outrage, but most likely no violence.

The cartoons triggered massive protests from Morocco to Indonesia in 2006. Rioters torched Danish and other Western diplomatic missions and some Muslim countries boycotted Danish products. Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the prophet, even favorable, for fear it could lead to idolatry.

A protest letter, which was sent to Yale Alumni Magazine, was signed 25 alumni including John Bolton, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush, David Frum, former Bush administration speechwriter and Seth Corey, urged the university to restore the drawings to the book. Yale University Press said it decided to exclude the cartoons after asking the university of assistance on this issue. The university said it consulted counterterrorism officials, diplomats and the top Muslim official at the United Nations.

In one sense, I can completely understand the position of the university's critics. I believe deeply in the First Amendment and academic freedom, but do we really need to incite violence over the cartoons? I remember when Salman Rushdie was condemned to death by the former Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini on February 14, 1989, after publishing "Satanic Verses." It was nothing more than a hijacking of literary expression. He had to literally go underground for years. As much as I understand his right to freedom of expression, the last thing we need in this economic crisis is more violence. Under different economic circumstances, I would be all for the publishing of those cartoons. Prophet Muhammad may have been a decent and peaceful man, but there are many elements in the Muslim world that are bent on inflicting harm to Americans and those caricatures speak truth to power to those fanatics.