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Nancy Grace
Human Remains Found at Yale Lab ID`d as Missing Annie Le
Aired September 14, 2009 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight. Live to Connecticut in the sudden disappearance of a gorgeous young Ivy League med student just before she`s set to walk down the aisle, the 24-year-old beauty last spotted on grainy surveillance video walking into a Yale research building. A false fire alarm mysteriously goes off in the research building. People rush out, Annie Le is never seen again.
Bombshell tonight. At nearly the exact hour Annie Le set to walk down the hour -- wedding dress purchased, tailored, flowers ordered -- the girl`s body is found stuffed in a wall there in a Yale University research building, bloody clothes found high over investigators` heads, up above ceiling tiles. Investigators refusing to release the cause of death. With a community and university reeling, a family grieving and a young groom at the altar with a broken heart, tonight, who murdered 24-year-old Annie Le, stuffing her body in a wall of her Yale research building?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Connecticut State Police western district of the major crime squad located the remains of a human secreted in a wall inside the building at number 10 Amistad Street.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) grad student, a body found hidden behind a basement wall and blood-stained clothing. We now learn that the body has been positively identified.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That confirmation just came moments ago. Police found her body in the basement of that building, behind a wall. This was the same day she was to have been married. New Haven police are saying, in their words, that this was not a random act.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are treating it as a homicide investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Items that could potentially be evidence have been seized.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The body of the 24-year-old has been removed from the wall of the campus laboratory build. She was last seen on Tuesday entering the building, which was considered secure and required a key card in order to get in, but was never seen leaving the building.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One professor told us you really get the sense that there is a murderer among us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: And tonight, live to Oakland and the desperate search for a missing 5-year-old boy afflicted with cerebral palsy, little Hasanni reportedly vanishing from the back seat of a car just outside a shoe store at a busy suburban shopping center. How can a child just disappear, nobody sees a thing?
In a stunning twist, police arrest foster dad and mom. The case turns from missing person to homicide. Hasanni`s foster parents walk free, released from jail. Grainy surveillance video of the last known sighting of little Hasanni alive emerges. In the last hour, searchers find a little boy`s clothes buried, clothes that resemble Hasanni`s. Are they connected?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not a missing person`s case anymore. This is a homicide investigation. We do believe that Hasanni Campbell has been murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news in the case of missing 5-year-old Hasanni Campbell, who police now say is presumed dead and a victim of homicide. Police are conducting tests on a gray sweatshirt found buried in dirt about a mile from where Hasanni was reported missing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It`s covered with a lot of dirt. There`s grass on it. It`s ripped in places. We don`t really want to handle it because if there is any evidence, we don`t want to contaminate it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The sweatshirt, along with a red sock, were recovered by volunteer searchers combing an area near an Oakland highway.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oakland police investigators immediately came out to the scene and cordoned off the area. You can see the crime scene technician documenting what could turn out to be evidence.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hasanni was reported missing by his foster father on August 10th. Hasanni was allegedly last seen wearing a gray sweatshirt.
GRACE: Mr. Ross, I understand that you did not pass your polygraph. Is that true?
LOUIS ROSS, FOSTER FATHER: I have been told that my results were that I failed it 99 percent.
GRACE: You failed it, 99 percent of it?
ROSS: Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us. Breaking news tonight in the sudden disappearance of a gorgeous young Ivy League med student. At almost the exact hour Annie Le set to walk down the aisle -- wedding dress bought and tailored, the flowers ordered -- the girl`s body is found hidden, stuffed in a wall there in her Yale University research building.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Breaking news. Just moments ago, Connecticut`s chief medical examiner confirmed a body found in a Yale medical school building is missing student Annie Le. Her body was discovered behind a wall inside a campus lab.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right now, we`ve confirmed that the body found behind the wall at the Yale University Medical Center laboratory, the Amistad Building, is, in fact, Annie Le. We do know that the manner of the death is a homicide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Detectives and investigators right now have a large amount of physical evidence at the scene that we`re going through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Detectives are zeroing in on a key piece of evidence, bloody clothing found at the crime scene, tucked inside ceiling tiles.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just the idea that a Yale student was killed in a busy academic building in broad daylight, it`s just really horrifying I think to everyone in this community.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police say her murder was not random, she was targeted.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... Yale president Richard Levin saying, We know everyone who was in the basement. There was a limited number of people in that basement, and those names have been given to police.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is probably a case of a murderer on the loose on campus, given the fact you needed a Yale ID to get into the basement where Annie`s body was found. And that`s what`s so scary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight out to Mary Snow, standing by at Yale medical school there in New Haven. Mary, what can you tell us?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Nancy, police are keeping very tight-lipped about this, but all signs are pointing to an inside job. And as you`ve reported, the positive identification on Annie Le`s body was made late this afternoon, but the medical examiner is saying that the cause of death right now is not being released. They say this is a temporary thing, but they want to facilitate the investigation.
Tonight, here on the campus of Yale University, a vigil is being held. Security is being tightened. The president of Yale is saying, in his words -- when he`s talked to students and faculty earlier today, he used the words "abundance of evidence." He said that he is confident that the culprit will be caught and arrested but that he did not have a timeframe. Police have been insisting throughout the day that they do not have a suspect in custody. And they are also saying, though, that this was no random act.
GRACE: Well, Mary Snow, I`m glad that the president of Yale University wants the security tightened because wasn`t it just in about 1999 another young woman was stabbed to death very near Yale campus?
SNOW: That is -- that was another case, yes, at Yale. And Nancy, one thing that I did want to point out is that the Amistad Building -- officials have been saying this is one of the newer buildings in the area, and that there has been state-of-the-art technology in terms of security cameras. People here, obviously, are very frightened, as you can imagine, by this.
GRACE: Mary, Mary, Mary, Mary...
SNOW: Yes?
GRACE: State of the art? BS! BS! Target...
SNOW: But here`s the thing...
GRACE: ... Wal-Mart has better cameras...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... inside the building! They have nothing inside the building!
SNOW: Right.
GRACE: Mary, I`m just...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Off the top of my head...
SNOW: ... outside the building, not inside the building.
GRACE: ... aren`t there about 75 cameras and they`re all outside the building?
SNOW: Exactly right. That`s what I was just trying to get at, is that there are, yes, about 75 cameras fixated on that building. But inside, in that basement, there are no known cameras, surveillance cameras.
GRACE: Mary, you say inside in the basement, there`s no surveillance cameras. What about in the rest of the inside of the building? It`s my understanding -- you refer to it as state of the art, but they don`t have any cameras...
SNOW: No, I didn`t...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Yes, you`re right.
SNOW: Right, I didn`t refer to it, Yale officials did. When I asked the Yale official today specifically about the basement, Nancy, because we`re trying to zone in on what was that evidence that led police to the body in the basement yesterday afternoon behind the wall, and was it a, you know, surveillance camera, because officials have been poring over those surveillance cameras for many days now -- and that`s what I learned, that there were no cameras inside that basement facility.
GRACE: Joining me also, Thomas Kaplan, the editor-in-chief of "The Yale Daily News." His newspaper broke the story of the missing student. Thomas Kaplan, are there video cameras inside the research building?
THOMAS KAPLAN, "YALE DAILY NEWS": No, there are not. There are the 70-something cameras, but they`re all on the exterior and in the parking garage, so no video evidence inside the building.
GRACE: OK. Thomas, I believe in my very first jury trial ever, which was in about 1997 -- it was a shoplifting case, even back then -- a K-Mart had surveillance inside the building. So how does Yale University call this state of the art security when they don`t even have cameras in the building? And I guarantee you, Thomas, that the way they found that girl is by a canine cadaver dog. Now, I haven`t read that in a wire, but I`m just guessing that the investigators or the Yale police didn`t find it, that a dog found her. Do you know?
KAPLAN: Yes, they did use cadaver dogs at the building throughout the week. We don`t know specifically if it`s the dog that led investigators to the body, but we could see dogs going in and out of the building for several days.
GRACE: To Rupa Mikkilineni, our producer there on the scene. Rupa, thank you for being with us. Rupa, of course, everyone is heartbroken for the family and the groom, who`s literally, basically left at the end of the aisle, waiting. I mean, this body was found at nearly the exact same time his wedding was to take place within Annie Le.
So Rupa, what can you tell me? They`d had all the video since last week of this false fire alarm going off, everybody rushing out. They knew Annie Le didn`t leave the building. They had the video of every exit. So it takes until Sunday to figure out she`s in the building? We know she went in, we know she didn`t come out, and it took until Sunday to find her body?
RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: That`s right, Nancy. It took until Sunday to find her body. And here`s why. This is a five-story building, including the basement. And I know that Mary Snow and Tom Kaplan earlier mentioned that there were no surveillance cameras inside the building. We don`t necessarily know that that`s true. There are some surveillance cameras, but there are card-swiping security mechanisms for every door on every floor. This is how they are able to determine who went where.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That`s, I think, one of the most disturbing things, is we`re all working -- we`re still working in the building. Like, you know, they only closed down the building on Sunday, you know, to -- and we`ve been working in there, you know, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. And I was in there Saturday, as well. So you know, we`re all there, and she`s still in the basement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s now clear why no one had seen Annie Le leaving this medical research building last Tuesday. She was trapped inside, her body found hidden inside a basement wall. The 24-year-old grad student often worked in a basement lab performing experiments. She was majoring in pharmacology. Le was last seen entering the building Tuesday, her image captured on security cameras. No one saw her coming out, and investigators have been reviewing videos frame by frame and poring over blueprints.
Then a law enforcement (SIC) says they found bloodstained clothes inside some ceiling tiles. Investigators also searching through a recycling plant in Hartford, about 40 miles away. They were looking through garbage hauled there from Yale. Police called it routine. The main focus is the building where Le was apparently murdered.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Detectives and investigators right now have a large amount of physical evidence at the scene that we`re going through to determine if it`s linked to this case or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Straight back to Rupa Mikkilineni, standing by there in New Haven. Rupa, you just suggested that there are videocameras inside the research building. Do you have any evidence to support that, or are you just blurting it out?
MIKKILINENI: I was told that by a contractor that worked in the building on again and off again from February until August. He worked on the various floors. He was not able to tell me whether there were any surveillance cameras in the basement, but what he did tell me is that the basement consists of both offices and laboratories. So the basement is not just a maintenance facility. And in addition to that, other floors in the building had cameras in certain areas, as well as doors going in and out that you could only access using a security identification swipe mechanism.
GRACE: To Thomas Kaplan with "The Yale Daily News." Are there cameras in the building or not?
KAPLAN: I`m not entirely sure about some of the upper floors in the building. I can say unequivocally there are no cameras in the basement. And my understanding in talking to university officials is that they don`t believe that cameras tracked Annie inside of the building. All they really have to go off of is swiping the prox (ph) card which is recorded in a computer system, and also talking to the other people in the building saw her on Tuesday morning.
GRACE: Exactly because that video that we -- that still photo that we keep showing of her coming in, that`s not in the building. That is of her about to go in the building. That`s from one of those surveillance cameras on the many, many entrances and exits.
I want to talk about the false fire alarm. Back to Mary Snow, the CNN correspondent standing by there at Yale medical school. Mary, again, thank you for being with us. Mary, I`m just wondering if the killer set off the fire alarm to dispose of the body, to move the body. I don`t know why exactly he would do it. But tell me, what do you know about this fire alarm going off?
SNOW: Nancy, that is a very good question because there`s been so much focus on that. What we have been able to piece together from people who were in the building is that that fire alarm went off between 12:00 and 1:00 in the afternoon. We last saw Annie Le in that surveillance picture at about 10:10 AM on Tuesday morning. So this would have been about two hours after that.
Yale is saying that it was set off by steam (ph) in the laboratory, and that`s what it had set off. Now, initially, they were saying that this was -- this was last week. They were saying that they thought it was not related, but of course, everything is now under the microscope. And the big question is, of course, was that a distraction? And that is something that has not been answered.
GRACE: Mary, so what I`m understanding is, she`s there alive at 10:10. It`s my understanding the alarm goes off at 12:45. If the killer set the alarm, we know two things. She`s dead at 12:45, or is about to be dead at 12:45, and that the killer would know how to work one of those laboratory hoods to set off the steam to set off the fire alarm. Everybody, you`re seeing photos of Annie Le and her fiance from FaceBook. What about that, Mary Snow?
SNOW: There is a lot of questions of about that. Was this some kind of distraction? But one thing we don`t know for certain, Nancy, is what time she was killed. That is one big question mark. And also, as of tonight, we still don`t know exactly how she was murdered. But you know, so many people who have been on this campus who were in that building, they didn`t think anything of it, initially, of course, last week. But now they`re re-examining that and asking, you know, did that play a factor in all of this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s just really sad. It`s really sad. I`m just going down for -- just to get some lunch and just to see that it could happen, like (INAUDIBLE) to anybody. It`s just a scary situation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Amistad lab where human remains were found inside a basement wall has been cordoned off all day. New Haven police detectives are going through what they are calling a substantial amount of physical evidence in a homicide. Annie Le was last seen Tuesday walking into the Yale lab. On Saturday, police found clothes hidden in a ceiling panel. Investigators say there was blood on those clothes, but they are testing to see if the items belong to Le or perhaps a suspect in the case.
Le`s body was found Sunday inside a wall in the building`s basement area. Students tell Eyewitness News you need a security card to get to that area of the building.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: We are taking your calls live. Out to Carol in California. Hi, Carol.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Nancy. I was thinking about the fact that perhaps this could be an employee or a maintenance person. They would need access to the lab. Whoever did this, whether they knew Annie, or you know, like I say, they were maintenance, they did a lot of research before they murdered this girl. They would even have to know the interior of the walls, the ceiling tiles. That`s just not something the average student or person would think about when they`re in a class. And then, as you say, too, it seems at the opportune time, that alarm went off.
GRACE: Carol, you`re absolutely correct. Who would know about that spot, that area in the basement in which you could hide a body? And who would think of hiding bloody clothes -- we`ve been told they are not the victim`s, that leads me to believe that they may belong to the attacker, in a ceiling -- behind a ceiling block? So it`s someone that really thought it through.
Everybody, you`re seeing photos of Annie Le and her fiance from FaceBook. I want to find out more -- let me go to you, Thomas Kaplan, with "The Yale Daily News" -- about construction workers. Were there construction workers allowed in the building?
KAPLAN: Well, it`s not immediately clear who might have had access. Generally speaking, however, what I think is so scary to people here on campus is the fact that to get into that basement, you need to have a Yale ID card. And to get into specific parts of the basement, you had to be just one of the few researchers allowed down there. So it seems pretty clear, likelier than not, this was a member of the Yale community who did this. And that`s what`s so scary.
GRACE: Everybody, you are seeing private home video of Annie Le in 2005 from ABC`s "Good Morning America." So Kaplan, how can it not be clear if there are construction workers in the building?
KAPLAN: Well, there are some provisions to allow contractors access to research buildings, and that hasn`t been disclosed by police officials here, whether any had access. But it seems unlikely at this point.
GRACE: If they did have access, Thomas -- if they did have access, would they have to use those security cards, or could they come and go freely?
KAPLAN: No, they would have to use a security card, so there would be a record of them.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUPA MIKKILINENI, NANCY GRACE PRODUCER: It was last Tuesday when Annie Le, Yale University medical student and pharmacology student, left her office, just a few minutes up the sidewalk, walked along this sidewalk to her laboratory, 10:00 in the morning.
This is the laboratory that she conducted experiments on animals, that sort of thing, and it is right here, the Amistad Laboratory, where the front entrance located on Amistad Street, is where she entered.
Normally, this is the only entrance available to student and faculty, professors as well as workers and employees of the building. It is the only ingress. There are several other doors on other parts of the building that you can exit, but they are all locked and the main entrance out front, you must require your student identification.
Now, Annie left her office down the street with only her student I.D. She left her purse, her cell phone, her keys, everything behind except for that. And the surveillance cameras caught her arriving at this building in the main entrance approximately 10:00. She was not seen leaving.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: A security camera captured Annie Le walking into the Yale research facility on Amistad Street, but there was no picture of her coming out, which helped focus the search for her body.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: There are more than 70 cameras outside that building, but a Yale spokesman tell us there were no cameras inside the building, in that basement where Annie Le`s body was found.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Welcome back. We are taking your calls live. Straight out to special guest, Vanessa Flores, a very dear friend of Annie Le.
Vanessa, thank you for being with us.
VANESSA FLORES, FRIEND OF MURDERED YALE STUDENT, ANNIE LE: Thank you, Nancy.
GRACE: Her wedding was set for what time on Sunday?
FLORES: 11:30 in the morning.
GRACE: How did she have it planned out? Tell me about the wedding.
FLORES: Well, she was just so excited about this wedding and everything from, you know, her flowers to her wedding dress and just certain details about it, like we talked about this back in like 2000 -- I would say 2008, she was already thinking about the weather, whether June, July was going to be too hot, August, so September, would it be nice?
And so there was just so many things that she thought about because this was her dream day. And so Annie was really looking forward to this. And of course, every one of us was too.
GRACE: Vanessa Flores is with us, a very dear friend of Annie Le`s, found dead in a Yale University research building in a crime that seemingly has baffled police.
Vanessa, tell me, what were her -- what were the details of the wedding? Where did she get her dress? Who were her bridesmaids? Was her family going to be there?
FLORES: Well, of course, like her family, you know, was traveling from California. She had many friends coming over, you know, from different places. She had dear friends from the University of Rochester, also from, of course, Yale.
Well, I was coming from Pittsburgh. But you know she -- as far as the specifics of the wedding, per se, I really didn`t participate in that, so I wouldn`t be able to tell you sort of like where exactly she got her dress or so.
Like, I`m a medical student, and so we -- like Annie and I, we kept pretty much in touch, and I kind of talked to her about stuff like music and vendors, you know sort of things that maybe I could chip in on, because my time was just so difficult, too. I just started third year. So yes, I wasn`t really able to participate as much as other friends did.
GRACE: Vanessa, tell me about her as a medical student. Was she devoted? Did she spend a lot of hours there in the research building?
FLORES: Right. So she`s a PhD student, so she was doing a doctorate in pharmacology. And so, well, right, absolutely. Annie spend time -- well, she takes class and then she would spend time in the lab. So it`s kind of like a mixed time. But Annie was very dedicated.
I mean, ever since I met her, she is -- her code of ethics for professionalism is such that she really enjoyed doing her work well. So she was someone that -- I mean, her mentor, Rocky Twan (ph) from the NIH, he would always say that he felt like he could trust her completely and she was just so wonderful to have in the lab, because she was so hard working, but at the same time, so wonderful and up, outgoing.
Well, she`s just excited about research like she was even.
GRACE: Vanessa, was she a medical student or a pharmacology student or both?
FLORES: She was doing a doctorate for pharmacology and she was working at the medical school in Yale. So it`s -- so she`s not a medical student, like -- so she`s not going for a doctorate of medicine, if that`s what you`re asking.
GRACE: Yes.
FLORES: No, she`s a PhD candidate, so it`s for a doctorate. Yes, in .
GRACE: In pharmacology.
FLORES: Pharmacology. Right. Exactly. Right. Right.
GRACE: With me is Vanessa Flores, a friend of Annie Le`s, also there in the medical school herself.
With me right now, Tracy Sargent. She is with us with Cinco. She is his K9 handler.
Everyone, you`ve been seeing home video of Annie Le`s back in 2005 from ABC`s "Good Morning America."
Tracy, explain to me is how the cadaver dogs operate and go ahead and do your demonstration.
TRACY SARGENT, K9 HANDLER, SEARCH, RESCUE & RECOVERY SPECIALIST: Yes, ma`am. Essentially, these dogs are detection dogs. In this case, these dogs are trained to find what we call human remain scent. We`re going to show you a demo on how this works.
Cinco. What we`re doing here is having him check the different items. And he will tell us, one, is something there, in this case, cadaver, or is there nothing there, which is also just as important.
So now he`s already told us, none of these items smell like the human remains. So we`ll have him check this. So what he`s telling us here by his -- what we call trained alert is that he`s telling me there is human remain scent in this area. At that point, we will reward the dog.
From there, the investigator should follow up on where the dogs alert, and then in this case, I`ll show you where the box -- what`s in the box, but I`ll need to give the dog back to someone, because he will alert to that again.
GRACE: And while you`re walking, Tracy, do they ever mistake human remains for animal remains or some other dead matter?
SARGENT: Essentially, dogs, their noses are so sensitive that it is a situation where when they alert to something, in this case cadaver scent, they`re very, very accurate. Of course, there`s always those days where they might be having a bad day, but their accuracy is just incredible.
And very, very reliable dogs and any kind of detection works. What we have here is material -- this is actually a sheet that has been taken from a cadaver. So there is cadaver scent. And here in the studio, you can actually smell it a little bit when I took it out of the box.
So this is what would happen at the site. With the cadaver dogs once they alert in an area, the investigators would follow up and say, wow, the dogs are telling us there`s something here. They smell the cadaver scent and they would be checking in the room. In this case, it`s very unusual that the body was found behind the wall.
GRACE: Right. Tracy, before you opened up the box, you could not smell the scent?
SARGENT: That`s correct. That`s correct.
GRACE: OK. Everybody, we are taking your calls live. Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining me, felony prosecutor Eleanor Dixon out of Atlanta. Atlanta, defense attorney Peter Odom, and joining us out of New York, defense attorney, Bradford Cohen.
Eleanor, do you have concerns with the investigation?
ELEANOR DIXON, PROSECUTOR: Yes, Nancy. One of the concerns is to make sure you close any loopholes. These cards that students and faculty have to swipe to get into and out of the building and into rooms, you want to make sure somebody didn`t swipe it and then, hey, let me let my friend in, I recognize them. So you want to make sure everyone is accounted for.
GRACE: Peter Odom?
PETER ODOM, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Exactly. You also want to make sure that nobody was missing their card. This could be someone completely unassociated with the university that had someone else`s card that just hasn`t been discovered yet and we really haven`t heard much to talk about that yet. I don`t know why.
GRACE: Bradford Cohen?
BRADFORD COHEN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I just find it unusual that it would be something that had nothing to do with her. I mean I think they`re on the right track. I think they probably do have a suspect, they`re not going to name him right now, but I`m sure they do.
I mean I find it very hard to believe it was someone who discovered this area to put the body behind, to find an area to put their clothes behind. I would think that would be very unusual.
GRACE: Everyone, quick break. We are taking your calls live. We are live in New Haven tonight.
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Drink bottled water on shore. Be aware of your surroundings. Don`t let your guard down because you`re on vacation. Always use insect repellant, sunblock, drink fluids. Know where the cruise ship`s medical facility is. And for more, go to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Major developments in the disappearance of that Yale grad student, Annie Le. Police found a body stuffed inside a wall at the lab building where she was last seen. Le was supposed to be married yesterday. The case is now being treated as a homicide investigation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The big news today, obviously, the fact the body was officially identified as Annie Le.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Now detectives are zeroing in on a key piece of evidence. Bloody clothing found at the crime scene, tucked inside ceiling tiles. Plus, we have this chilling detail. Police say her murder was not random, she was targeted.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One thing we do know, there are, luckily, for investigators, about 70 surveillance cameras around this building. And also, key cards are required to enter the basement where her body was found which means that the combination of those two things, the surveillance tapes as well as the computer record of who swiped their cards where should give investigators an idea of who was where and when in that building on Tuesday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Back out to Mary Snow, CNN correspondent, joining us live there at Yale Medical School.
Mary, I detect an inconsistency. If they say they don`t have a suspect, then how do they know that other people are not in danger? That doesn`t fit together. For them to announce, hey, everybody, don`t worry, you`re safe. How do they know that unless they know who the suspect is?
MARY SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, Nancy. And that is something that`s been echoed by many here on this campus. The fact that there hasn`t been this call to be careful about someone who`s on campus has certainly led many to believe, this is an inside job. Nobody is going to be surprised if it is an inside job.
And police, you know, as you said, have been adamantly saying that they have no suspects in custody. But also, you know, the fact that the medical examiner did not reveal the cause of death right now also leads you to believe that, perhaps, if -- it just leads you to believe that they`re making progress in this investigation.
GRACE: You know, what, Mary? Mary? I don`t like it. I don`t like it because I feel like that they are misleading the public and they are twisting the truth. If they have a person of interest, you know what, fine, spit it out. But don`t tell everybody you`re safe, you`re safe, you`re safe, but we don`t have a suspect. Because that`s clearly inconsistent.
Everyone, you`re seeing private home video of Annie Le back in 2005 from ABC`s "Good Morning America." And, you know, another thing -- let me talk to Mary Snow again, Rosie.
Mary Snow joining us from New Haven.
Mary, and I`m not saying this is not going come to pass, but it seems to me, the first thing I heard was oh, there`s construction workers. Yes, let`s push it off on them. I`m not buying into that. That may very well turn out to be the case, but let`s don`t forget, who would have known this building so well? Who would have known about the basement? Who would have had somebody earlier, maybe it was Rupa Mikkilineni said you have to have key access down in the basement, other than a coworker, one of the Yale family.
SNOW: Right. Someone who knew that area very well and could gain access to that area. So, you`re absolutely right. And that`s why so many people here agree with you, that, you know, that they.
GRACE: Yes.
SNOW: . think that all evidence is pointing towards an inside job.
GRACE: Everyone, joining me right now is a very special guest. Esteemed forensic scientist, he is known worldwide, he is a distinguished professor at University of New Haven. We all know Dr. Henry Lee.
Dr. Lee, it is wonderful to see you again. I only wish it was in person. Dr. Lee, what would forensic investigators be holding back right now? Why would they hold back cause of death?
HENRY LEE, PH.D., FORENSIC SCIENTIST, DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR, UNIV. OF NEW HAVEN: Well, they`re not really holding back. Basically, right now they have to confirm. They have so much evidence to look at.
Basically, this is a three-pronged approach of the investigation. One is (INAUDIBLE), look at the videotape, look at the electronic card entry. Second one is look at her (INAUDIBLE) analysis. And did she have a particular reason to go to basement and what the routine she does.
The third one, of course, whether or not she was sexually assault. If, in fact, it was sexually assault, whose DNA is that. And whether or not her fingernail have some tissue material, because there are reports some individual have some type of injury or, of course, her clothes. Where`s her clothes?
Any knife injury or any damage? And as far as the clothing found in a pile, those have to check whose blood is this. And touch DNA they found. And of course, people have to understand that, say, her body was found inside a wall. It`s kind of misleading, because a lot of basement have false ceiling and false wall.
In between the wall actually like a little closet to hide the electric wire, plumbing. So more likely she was found there. As for the videotape, I don`t know, you know, many institution, the faculty, student against to have an inside monitor to put in the classroom or the office. Whether or not Yale is one of those institutions, maybe that`s the reason no camera inside.
GRACE: Well, Dr. Lee, even if cameras were not inside the actual laboratories, they could be in the hallways of the buildings. I mean, there`s a lot of ways to get around having a camera inside the classroom.
And Dr. Henry Lee, if the bloody clothing, they`re saying they`re not linking it to the victim, yet, if it is linked to the perpetrator.
LEE: Well, I have to see DNA.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: If it is linked to the killer, then you`ve got to have his DNA on file before you can make a comparison unless you get ahold of the suspect.
LEE: Exactly. Then you have to look at a suspect and ask for a search warrant or volunteer to provide a swab sample or saliva sample to do the DNA. This takes couple of days to clear up the issue.
GRACE: Yes.
LEE: Because DNA is not like the CSI by next 14 minutes we get the answer.
GRACE: Exactly. Dr. Jeff Gardere, weigh in.
JEFF GARDERE, PSYCHOLOGIST, AUTHOR OF "LOVE PRESCRIPTION": This is a situation where I think a lot of people feel that, perhaps, the school is not being honest with them, in that they`re saying, hey, everything is safe, you`re OK. I think this might be a misguided attempt on the part of the university to calm the students down, but they`re students, but they`re still young adults, they`re still adults. So they have to do the right thing.
GRACE: Everyone, as we go to break, we are taking your calls live. And happy birthday to our show`s executive producer Dean. He co-created show way back when and he has stuck by us all through thick and thin.
His big birthday bash tonight, going home tonight to kiss his two little boys and his wife good night.
Now, Mr. Dean, I would call that a happy birthday, friend.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GRACE: Is there a break in the case of a missing 5-year-old afflicted with cerebral palsy, little Hasanni.
Matt Zarrell, what do you know?
MATT ZARRELL, NANCY GRACE STAFFER, COVERING STORY: A sweatshirt, Nancy, fitting a similar description to what Hasanni was wearing when he was last seen was found yesterday only about a mile from where he was reported missing. Cops are doing testing right now to see if it is Hasanni`s sweatshirt.
GRACE: John Lucich, what do you think about this case? I mean, the story that the foster dad has given us that he was last seen in the back of a shoe store at a busy mall and the dad went around front and left him in the back, why would you do that?
JOHN LUCICH, INVESTIGATOR, AUTHOR OF "CYBER LIES": Well, maybe he didn`t. When it comes down to it, his story doesn`t wash. And investigators have said that right from the beginning. If you take a look at everything this guy does, in fact, he even failed a polygraph, 99 percent from his own mouth.
So a lot of what he`s saying just don`t match up. The physical evidence doesn`t support what he`s saying. Even -- and I`m very suspicious, by the way, he immediately turned around and said that shirt`s not my son`s, it`s the wrong brand.
I`d like to know if he knows the brand of every piece of clothing his kid wears. It just doesn`t make sense. But I think when it comes down to it, I hope they solve this case very soon.
GRACE: To Sheeba in Illinois, what`s your question, dear?
SHEEBA, CALLER FROM ILLINOIS: Hi, darling. My question is, how did a little boy with braces get that far into a field?
GRACE: What about it, Matt Zarrell?
ZARRELL: Well, what cops are saying is cops are not buying the foster father`s story. They`re saying the boy was never there at the shoe store August 10th and they believe he`s presumed dead.
GRACE: The tip line, 510-777-8572.
Let`s stop and remember Army Sergeant Troy Tom, 21, Ship Rock, New Mexico. A member of the Navajo Nation. Always dreamed of serving his country, had a smile that lit up a room. Loved outdoors, hunting, fishing, herding sheep, art. Dreamed of college to study aeronautical engineering. Leaves behind parents David and Carolyn, two brothers, one sister.
Troy tom, American hero.
Thanks to our guests, but especially to you, and congratulations to defense attorney, former prosecutor, Michael Mazzariello. He launches his own legal show "Street Court" September 21. Judge Mazz taking justice to the street, presiding over cases where they happen, homes, backyards, neighborhoods across America. "Street Court." Monday, September 21. Check your listings for times and stations.
And happy birthday, dear Dean.
Everyone, I`ll see you tomorrow night, 8:00 sharp Eastern. And until then, good night, friend.
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