(Updated) Two days before police arrested Ray Clark for murder, they found blood “in plain view” on the kitchen floor of his Middletown apartment.
Police later found blood stains inside a red Ford Taurus in which Clark was seen riding away from the scene where Yale grad student Annie Le was killed.
These details were revealed in one of eight search warrant affidavits released to the public Wednesday morning after a two-and-a-half-month delay.
Click here to read the affidavits, which were made public at Superior Court on Church Street.
The 73 pages of affidavits recount what led police to justify searching the body and possessions of 24-year-old Ray Clark in the days leading up to his arrest on Sept. 17 on a murder charge. The documents also list the specific evidence police found during several searches.
Clark, a Yale lab tech, was charged with killing 24-year-old Le (pictured) and hiding her body in a basement wall at the Yale medical building where they both worked. He has entered no plea. He is being held on a $3 million bond and faces court again on Dec. 21.
Le went missing on Tuesday, Sept. 8. Police dogs found her body hidden in a void in the wall of 10 Amistad St. on Sunday, Sept. 13. Loose insulation was placed on top of her body in attempt to hide it, court records show.
On Sept. 13, police found Annie Le’s email address inside a locker labeled “RAY” at 10 Amistad, according to the affidavits.
On Sept. 15, cops executed a search and seizure warrant at 40 Ferry St. Apt. 1 in Middletown (pictured), where Clark lived with his fiancee. They found “blood like stains, in plain view on the kitchen floor” near the entrance to the apartment. A later test showed the stains were indeed blood, court records show.
Documents show that throughout the investigation, several key pieces of evidence proved elusive: A brown leather computation notebook belonging to Annie Le. The clothes Clark was wearing when he entered the building. The laces on his workboots, which were found hidden in a ceiling. The brown mule shoes she was wearing when she entered the building. And several missing beads from a necklace she was wearing.
The hunt for those items led police to search Clark’s home, two cars, a locker and a laundry bag and work, his body, and files stored in his Blackberry phone. The latest search warrant was granted on Oct. 1, when police got permission to turn on his Blackberry and read his emails and phone records.
The arrest warrant in the case was released on Nov. 13. It stated that DNA evidence on a sock and a pen allegedly linked Clark to the suspect: Click here to read about that.
The search warrants were sealed separately at request of the state prosecution. After Clark’s arrest, Judge Roland Fasano approved several two-week seals on the search warrants. The last seal expired this morning.
Cops zeroed in on Clark early in the investigation, after he tried to hide a blood-splattered box of Wipe Alls from a cop, then was spotted cleaning up stains on the floor, the affidavits allege.
Getaway
On Sept. 18, after Clark was arrested, cops searched the car in which he allegedly escaped from the murder scene.
Clark’s movements after the murder were tracked on surveillance footage, according to the affidavits. He was seen walking north on Cedar Street at 4 p.m. on Sept. 8. At 4:01 p.m., he stepped into a coffee shop at Congress Avenue and Cedar Street. He left four minutes later with his fiancee and another adult woman. All three got into a red Ford Taurus. The woman drove the car. Clark sat in the passenger’s seat and his fiancee sat in the back. They went to Clark and his fiancee’s apartment.
Cops later searched that getaway car and found numerous bloodstains on the carpet and door panel, according to the affidavit.
The affidavit doesn’t say who owns the car. That part is blacked out. But an FBI agent testified that Clark was later seen traveling “quite frequently” in the car.
Pulled Hairs
On Tuesday Sept. 15, police went over Clark’s apartment with a fine-toothed comb. That same day, cops also collected extensive evidence from Clark’s very body.
Police executed a search warrant that allowed them to collect DNA swabs and hair samples from Clark. They left no stone unturned.
According to court documents, cops took a total of four “buccal swab,” collecting DNA from the inside of Clark’s cheek. They scraped his fingernails and took clippings. They pulled hairs from his legs, chest, abdomen, arms, armpit, eyebrows, eyelashes, head, and pubic area. They took palm prints and two sets of fingerprints. They also took digital photos of Clark and made a digital audio recording of the entire process.
After this extensive process, police released Clark on the evening of Sept. 15. They arrested him two days later.
Clogged Drain Pipes
Even after Ray Clark’s arrest on Thursday Sept. 17, cops returned to remove evidence from 10 Amistad, the lab building where he and Le worked. On two different occasions, police found potential evidence suspiciously stuffed into drain pipes in the building. According to the affidavits:
On Sept. 20, the building’s night sanitation crew discovered a clogged drain in the Animal Research Center. The crew reported it to detectives, who recovered medical scrubs stuffed into the drain pipe.
On Sept. 22, the detectives were again called to the building on reports that there was potential evidence in a drain pipe in the lab auto-clave room. They found a large plastic bag, a white rag, tweezers, a pair of scissors, and several plastic centrifuge tubes. A screwdriver was also found in the drain pipe.
The affidavits were written by city cop Scott Branfuhr, the lead detective on the case.
Previous coverage of the Annie Le case:
Tuesday, Nov. 17
• Seal Extended On Annie Le Warrants
Friday, Nov. 13
• Annie Le Warrant: Bloody Boots Read “Ray‑C”
Friday, Nov. 6
• Annie Le Documents To Be Unsealed
Tuesday, Nov. 3
• Hearing Continued For Annie Le Suspect; Judge Will Rule By Week’s End On Warrants: Live Blog
Tuesday, Oct. 20
• Annie Le Suspect Enters No Plea; Warrants Remain Sealed
Tuesday, Oct. 6
• Live Blog: Lawyer For Annie Le Murder Suspect Wants To See The Evidence
Friday, Sept. 25
• Warrant In Annie Le Murder To Stay Sealed
Thursday, Sept. 24
• Cops Back At Annie Le’s Lab Building
Monday, Sept. 21
• What Annie Le Story?
• Public Defender: I Don’t Want Annie Le Reporters Investigated
Thursday, Sept. 17
• After Annie Le Murder, Union Chief Sends Rallying Call
• Annie Le Suspect Knew Cops Were On His Tail
• Cops Arrest Lab Tech In Annie Le Murder
• Suspect Arraigned (live blog)
Wednesday, Sept. 16:
• Ex-Girlfriend “Shocked” About Annie Le Target
• Cops Stake Out Annie Le Target’s Motel
• Annie Le Case: It’s Coming Down To The DNA
• Annie Le Was Strangled
Tuesday, Sept. 15:
• City, Yale Learned From Jovin In Annie Le Case
• Suspect In Annie Le Case Has Fiancee
• NBC Producer Trampled At Annie Le “Briefing”
• Cops Take DNA From Annie Le Target
• Was That Annie Le’s Killer?
Monday, Sept. 14:
• Body Identified As Annie Le
• “Serious” Suspect In Annie Le Case
• You Can Get In The Wall With A “Butter Knife”
• Lab Building Shuts Down
Sunday, Sept. 13:
• Remains Of Annie Le Believed Found; “A Time For Compassion,” Levin Says
• Annie Le Hunt Extends To Hartford
Saturday, Sept. 12
• Focus In Annie Le Probe Less On “State Lines”
Friday, Sept. 11
• City Cops Join Search For Annie Le; $10,000 Reward Posted
Pictured: Raymond Clark being brought to his arraignment on the day of his arrest.