24 year old annie lay was born in san jose california and grew up in a big family described by those that knew her as conscientious polite and friendly to everyone she met with a lot of tenacity and a great sense of humor from a young age she was known as an exceptional student she was the valedictorian of her graduating high school class and her classmates voted her the most likely to be the next einstein annie earned 160 000 in scholarships and went on to obtain her undergraduate degree in cell development biology from the university of
rochester it was here she met jonathan wadowski the young couple were inseparable from the get-go annie said he was her best friend and before long jonathan asked her to marry him september 13th 2009 was set as the big day and the wedding plans quickly got underway [Music] after all those years of very intense and hard work annie was accepted into the prestigious ivy league school yale university hoping to earn her doctorate in pharmacology she was always hands-on within her campus getting involved in various extracurricular activities she even wrote an article about campus safety titled crime
and safety in new haven for yale medical school's b magazine jonathan and annie were living 76 miles apart at the time jonathan was at columbia university working on his own doctorate and this only made their reunion for the wedding on the 13th even more special september 7th 2009 annie was now in her final year at yale it was five days until the wedding and it was safe to say annie was as busy as ever she was definitely feeling the stress of everything and called her friend jennifer for some friendly words of encouragement jennifer said annie
asked if she thought they were too young to get married but knowing this was normal nerves combined with the stress of yale jennifer said she and jonathan were absolutely making the right decision annie thanked her friend for telling her what she needed to hear hung up and carried on with her day [Music] september 8th 2009 annie still had lots of work to do around the campus before she set off to long island she left her apartment that morning and took the yale transit to her office located on campus she then walked to her lab where
she would conduct most of her research and this was about a minute away at 10 amistad streets room g13 [Music] the day on campus soon drew to the close students were leaving to head home and various buildings were locking up annie's roommates had been expecting her home hours ago but she was nowhere to be seen it got to 9pm and with no one able to get hold of her her roommates called the new haven police department and reported her missing her friend jennifer said that annie always made sure she was safe she didn't walk around
at night by herself and if she ever had to work late she would make sure someone would come and pick her up or walk home with her so the fact that no one had received a call from her that day was very concerning police went to annie's office where they found her wallet keys purse and phone but there were no signs of a struggle inside her belongings still being in there indicated she had likely left that morning with the intention of returning to her office fairly soon after none of her credit or debit cards had
been used and her phone had no activity on it since she left it in the office her yale id card seemed to be the only thing from her purse that went with her that morning and it had been used to get into the labs cctv confirmed it was annie using her own id card and the footage captured her walking into 10 amistad streets at around 10 am she was carrying something that can't really be made out but it's assumed it was something to do with her research although cctv can't always convey a full story it
didn't look like anything was wrong with annie that morning she wasn't running away from anyone she didn't seem to be in a rush and no one stopped to talk to her on the way in by all accounts it seemed like a very typical morning for her unfortunately there was only one camera on the basement level where annie's lab was located and it didn't show her walking past or through the door at all at 12 50 pm that day a fire alarm sounded in the building and everyone was evacuated one of the lab technicians assigned to
maintain room gene 13 was a man named ray and he came forward with information he didn't attend yale but had worked there for a little while he told authorities that he had clocked in at 7am and had seen annie in g13 he then said he thought he had seen her leave the lab just before the fire alarm went off that afternoon the footage continued to be looked at and authorities went into the building to see if they could see anything every hallway room cupboard and outside bin were searched [Music] but nothing was there although rey
said he remembered her leaving they couldn't see anything on the 70 cameras around the area that confirmed this yale offered a 10 000 reward for any information leading to annie's whereabouts her fiance flew in from new york and her family traveled over from california to help with the search annie's odd disappearance quickly became big news reporters were all over the campus and over 100 law enforcement officers joined the search too authorities weren't initially sure if they were dealing with an abduction or something even more sinister but some believed annie had maybe got cold feet about
her wedding and run away this was quickly refuted by her friends and family however annie had been planning the wedding for over a year and hadn't ever shown any signs of changing her mind about it one of her friends said she was doing weather patterns to make sure the weather would be perfect on her wedding day she wanted everything to be perfect everything down to the table napkins to flowers and he was very very excited about this day her disappearance just days before the wedding made no sense with still nothing from annie a second search
of the building was conducted and this time a closer look at room g13 uncovered a drop of blood on one of the shelving units and in a back storage room g22 some beads that were determined to have been part of annie's necklace were also found on the floor on september 12th after finding the bloods police started a more in-depth search of g13 lifting up one of the ceiling tiles they found a bloody sock and a single blue surgical glove [Music] they then brought in luminal which was used across the neighbouring labs including g22 more blood
was found in there there was also a distinctly terrible smell developing around the locker rooms and toilets near to g22 a smell that some of the officers knew all too well cadaver dogs were brought in to try and locate the source of it and the whole building was declared a crime scene in the heart of new haven yale is one of the city's oldest institutions and one of the largest with more than 20 thousand students faculty and staff and its own police force but the mysterious and troubling disappearance of doctoral student annie lee with intensive
media coverage of the investigation is most unwelcome publicity in a series of emails university officials urge the yale community not to speak to reporters who can be very aggressive in situations like this where there are more questions than answers instead of us thinking of an ivy league institution and an excellent education we're thinking about crime and safety four days after lee's disappearance the university's police chief sought to reassure the yale community the concern reaches far beyond the new haven campus parents are like calling in like checking you know you're safe today authorities continue to work
in the laboratory where annie lee was last seen authorities reportedly have discovered bloody clothing in the ceiling of the building published reports say the clothing is not lee's investigators are also pouring through garbage at a hartford waste facility looking for clues the fbi continues to head up the investigation numbering some 100 law enforcement authorities from yale the city of new haven and the state of connecticut in an all-out effort to find annie lee a day later 5 p.m on september 13 2009 annie lay's decomposing body was found stuffed upside down inside a wall behind a
metal utility panel in the basement of the building near the lockers and room of g22 september 13th was the day that annie should have been walking down the aisle and it was a tragic end to the five-day search the state medical examiner determined that annie had died from traumatic asphyxiation by neck compression she had a broken jaw and broken collarbone and these injuries happened to her when she was alive further examination showed evidence of a sexual assault near to her body was her key card and a blue surgical glove the paired with the one found
under the ceiling tile dna samples were taken from her clothes and the area around her body and sent off to see if there was a hit on the combined dna index system codis vigil was held for annie on campus and the loss of one of their own hung heavily over the staff and students the school made grief counsellors available for everyone as well as a 24-hour helpline to anyone that needed it because of the access codes and ids that people needed to get around the campus officer joe avery said they were not investigating this as
a random act instead believing it to be an inside job he also said they didn't believe that any of the students were involved and no one else was in any danger this was reiterated by robert alpern dean of the yale school of medicine he said i think that it suggests it was someone who could get into that space it certainly would be extremely difficult for someone outside of yale to get into that space not impossible but extremely difficult this only added to the foreboding feeling hanging over the already fighting campus students were scared about moving
from class to class some said they were now travelling in big groups even during the middle of the day others were turning down shifts at work around the university for fear that whoever had done this was likely still walking around the campus too it wasn't long before a hit came back on the dna a match came back to a convicted felon named kieran robinson this was not actually the clear-cut answer the police had been looking for it was soon confirmed that kieran had been shot and killed a long time before anything in annie's case had
ever happened and his dna being near her body could be easily explained kieran had actually been one of the people that helped with some construction on that particular building in the years before he died and with no other matches on the codis database police were still searching more days would pass and by this point detectives had reviewed about 700 hours of video and interviewed over 150 people there was one more person that had been on the detective's radar since the start but they didn't quite have enough to prove anything just yet using the key card
data it was confirmed that only two other people had swiped into room g13 that day one was a third party contractor that was ruled out very quickly and the other was 24 year old raymond clark the lab technician that told police he had seen annie leaving the building that day little did ray know this one claim to police had put him straight in their eye line as the cameras had already confirmed she absolutely did not leave he had a reputation of being controlling and often quite nasty to any students that left the lab dirty ray
had in fact emailed danny to complain about her leaving dirty mice cages behind after one of her studies that being said yale had no record of disciplinary action taken against him at any point others however said ray was pleasant and personable between 10 40 am that morning until around 3 45 pm ray had gone in and out of g13 and g22 a total of 55 times and this was confirmed using his keycard and the cameras they also captured ray leaving when the fire alarm went off that afternoon and coming back in at 10 past one
he walked around the basement area wearing slightly different scrubs before clocking off just before 4 pm at one point during the day ray went out onto the streets and sat down on the steps with his head in his hands when police spoke to him they noticed scratches on his face and arm along with some fairly fresh bruises he said the scratches came from a cat he was asked to come in for a polygraph test which shows signs of deception but as always a polygraph test is not admissible and this wasn't enough for them to hold
him they asked him to submit a dna sample before he left which he did and with this he was let go while they awaited the results new haven police have made an arrest in the killing of a yale university graduate student annie before the sun came up this morning unmarked cars had surrounded this motel 8 in cromwell connecticut fbi agents local police all gathered here waiting for word from new haven's police chief they knew the arrest warrant was coming for 24 year old raymond clark iii the lab technician who worked in the same building where
yale grad student annie lay did her research he was inside a motel room here with his father authorities got the green light shortly after eight this morning immediately barricades went up on the highway in front of the motel and a team of fbi agents raced up the back stairs straight to room 214. there they found raymond clark in a white shirt tan pants and soon he was wearing handcuffs hidden behind tinted windows he was brought into the new haven police department hey big man and then just two hours after clark's arrest all right this is
number 15 raymond clark he was arraigned in court in the murder of annie lay abc news has learned authorities have been closely following clark for days first quietly following him then the surveillance soon became more overt as clark quickly became the primary person of interest it needs something to link renowned forensics expert dr henry lee served as state police commissioner in connecticut now he runs his own forensic center at the university of new haven he helped advise the forensics team working this case in recent days and says those access cards have provided a timeline inside
that lab building on the last day annie lay was seen alive revealing any opportunities a suspect would have had to harm annie lay what could those swipe cards tell us they tell us they have a means and opportunity these two going to be together and there are reports of the cards the swipe cards put them both in that room sure the last room where she was that's become a very crucial information and there was one more thing police were waiting for the dna last night with raymond clark clearly the prime suspect and yet still a
free man the new haven police chief said it would take just one thing if we have one match on a person that we know was at that location we would be going through an arrest warrant and then this morning dr lee learned of the arrest when you heard of that arrest this morning yes did that say to you right away there must have been a dna match yes i know dna had a match and of course it's a relief tonight raymond clark has been moved to a maximum security prison in suffield connecticut and new haven's
police chief continues to believe there was only one killer in this case the chief said today that annie lay and raymond clark never had any kind of romantic relationship today the family of annie lay's fiance the man she was supposed to have married last weekend released a statement saying we want to thank all of those who were involved in preparations for a wedding that was not to be for their quiet understanding a total of four search warrants and the results of the dna test had finally confirmed that he was annie's killer the bloody sock found
in the wall and the lab coat ray was wearing contained both sets of dna ray had signed into the building that day with a green pen a green pen was found under annie's body with both hers and ray's dna on it this along with the keycard data and camera footage cemented everything they believe annie was killed just before the fire alarm went off ray quickly changed his scrubs which had blood on them and left annie in the lab before heading out when the alarm went off before hurrying back in moving her body through g22 and
then forcing her behind the panel investigators say they have more than enough physical evidence to convict clark and may not even need to establish a motive you know the only person that really truly knows the motive in this crime is the suspect what made him do what he did and we may not know till trial we may never know today's new york post reports lay's body was so mangled with broken bones it wasn't recognizable and that raymond clark may have accidentally tripped a fire alarm with his or lay's security swipe card clark's attorney joseph lopez
plans to file a complaint over what he claims are excessive leaks from police to the media as annie lay's family prepares for their final goodbyes pastor dennis smith asked for prayers for two families in need who knows what happened exactly if he is the individual that did it he certainly needs our prayers and his family needs our prayers all police could find that might have pointed to some sort of motive was an email on the day annie was killed she sent out a mass email to the whole building saying that she was getting married on
the 13th and will be away for a few days on her honeymoon rey had opened this email rey was engaged to be married too and police could only speculate on this but they wondered if rey had had a secret obsession with annie for a while and reading this email spiraled into a fit of jealousy and rage he was held on a three million dollar bond and his lawyer told people he was expected to plead not guilty annie would soon be late to rest and her funeral was broadcast live online her mother vivian made an emotional
speech john even now annie is gone but i still have you and love you very much like my son christopher i think that i speak on behalf of all of us gathered here when i say that i will never fully understand why this has happened or what happened to my sister but since those questions are beyond our understanding i think it is best to consign ourselves to the will of god and put faith in providence over the past few weeks i have been reflecting on the role of my sister in my life and only now
do i realize how important she was to me annie was always the same little girl that has and will always be in our hearts and in our prayers i miss you and i will always love you jonathan also wore the wedding ring annie should have given him despite initially pleading not guilty ray clark soon changed his play he pleaded guilty to murder in exchange for a 44-year sentence he was also found guilty of attempting to commit a sexual assault the sexual assault plea was entered into connecticut's alfred doctrine which means the defendant doesn't agree to
the facts but acknowledges that the states has enough evidence to gain a conviction ray clark is scheduled for release in 2053 he will be almost 70 years old rey's father raymond clark jr said it is with a heavy heart that i stand here before you today we will live out our life knowing that he is behind bars but we are proud of rey for taking responsibility for his actions and pleading guilty i want you to know that rey has expressed extreme remorse from the very beginning i can't tell you how many times he has sobbed
uncontrollably telling me how sorry he is telling me how his heart is tortured by the reality that he caused the death of annie annie's mother did not attend the sentencing because it was too painful but she said her family were happy with the result although annie's killer was caught and convicted the real reason behind her death remains a total mystery as rey has never said or explained why a yale spokesman michael moran said as the criminal proceedings come to a close we renew our commitment to honor the memory of annie lay whose joy of life
and learning is an inspiration to faculty students and staff at yale now and for the future annie had a bright future ahead of her in so many ways just days away from marrying her best friend and soon to complete a doctorate she had worked so very hard for annie's friend natalie said she was as good a human being as you'd ever hope to meet [Music] you
