A Yale lab technician with an unrequited love for grad student Annie Le emerged as the prime suspect in her coldblooded murder after he failed a lie-detector test and couldn’t explain fresh wounds on his body, according to bombshell reports.
The tech has been under police scrutiny since before Le’s body was found Sunday, stuffed behind a basement wall in a high-security school lab, the New Haven Register reported, citing several police sources.
The unidentified suspect, who had university clearance to work in the lab, raised suspicions early on because he had scratches on his chest consistent with a struggle, the paper reported.
He failed a polygraph exam administered by the FBI and, at some point during a police grilling, stopped answering questions and asked for a lawyer, the sources said.
Cops zeroed in on the suspect — whose love for Le was never mutual, according to the New Haven Independent — as the medical examiner confirmed that the remains found behind a removable wall panel at Yale’s Amistad Building were those of Le, 24, a pharmacology student who vanished a week ago today.
She was to have been married Sunday on Long Island to Columbia University grad student Jonathan Widawsky.
New Haven police spokesman Joe Avery declined comment on media reports that a suspect had been identified.
He said nobody is in custody, adding, “There are no [Yale] students involved.”
But he did say that Le had been targeted by her killer.
“It was not a random act,” he said.
Coroner Wayne Carver would not say how Le was killed, citing the ongoing probe.
Avery also would not say if she had been sexually assaulted.
Access to the lab area where Le’s body was found is strictly controlled and digitally monitored; 75 security cameras surround the building.
Authorities said they know who was in the basement area at the time Le came in on the morning of Sept. 8.
“It certainly would be extremely difficult for someone outside of Yale to get into that space,” Medical School Dean Robert Alpern told the Yale Daily News.
Le’s body was found Sunday afternoon in an area that houses utility and electrical cables that run between the five floors of the Amistad building, police said.
The petite grad student worked in a nearby Yale building, but also used a lab at Amistad.
Jesse Stanley, an electrician who has worked in the building, told The Post that it would be easy to pry open a panel and stash a body.
“There are various panels that can be unscrewed,” Stanley said. “It’s not hard to open — you could do it with a butter knife. Anyone could get access.”
Meanwhile, more than 1,000 students and faculty members held a vigil on campus last night for the beloved victim.
“She was as good of a human being as you could ever meet,” said her roommate, Natalie Powers.
“This tragedy is incomprehensible.”