Raymond Clark III, a 24-year-old Yale lab technician was arrested on Thursday and charged with the murder of Annie Le. Police labeled the crime an example of "workplace violence," as opposed to the crime of passion many thought it could be.
After all, Annie Le, the 24-year-old pharmacology doctoral student originally from Placerville, CA, whose body was stuffed in a research building wall after she was killed by traumatic asphyxiation, was scheduled to be married last Sunday to Columbia University graduate student Jonathan Widawsky. A theory which seemed plausible was that the crime occurred because of some unrequited love interest, as opposed to workplace violence.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Health and Safety Administration, workplace violence in its most extreme form, homicide, is the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the U.S. Statistics indicate there were 564 workplace homicides in 2005 in the United States, out of a total of 5,702 fatal work injuries.
The federal OSHA fact sheet about workplace violence describes it as follows:
Workplace violence is violence or the threat of violence against workers. It can occur at or outside the workplace and can range from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and homicide, one of the leading causes of job-related deaths. However it manifests itself, workplace violence is a growing concern for employers and employees nationwide.
Annie Le was last seen a week ago Tuesday. She was seen on surveillance videos using her passcard to enter the lab, but was not seen leaving. Her body was found stuffed into a wall in the Yale lab on Sunday, the day she was to be married. It's unclear if Annie Le reported any fear of workplace violence to her Human Resources department.
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