Yale Murder Student Annie Le’s Funeral
(CNN) — Mourners gathered Saturday in a California church to remember slain Yale graduate student Annie Le, 24, whose body was found on the day she was to be married. “You were born in my loving embrace,” said Le’s mother, Vivian Van Le, reading a poem she’d written in Vietnamese to those gathered for the funeral at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in El Dorado Hills, California.
Chris Le — her son and Annie Le’s brother — provided a translation.”The most wonderful gift that God had sent to me. … You left life at too young an age, at the beginning of many great things. All the dreams and hopes of your future gone with you to your resting place,” Vivian Van Le said, according to her son.
Le, a pharmacology graduate student, was last seen alive on September 8, the day she appeared in a surveillance video as she entered the four-story lab at 10 Amistad St., about 10 blocks from Yale University’s campus.Her body was found inside the basement wall of the building on September 12, the day she was to be married.
Authorities have charged Yale lab technician Raymond Clark, 24, with Le’s murder. Bond has been set at $3 million, according to police. Vivian Van Le addressed her daughter’s fiance, Jonathan Widawsky, on Saturday at the funeral, saying, “Even now, Annie is gone. But I still have you and love you very much, like my son, Christopher.”
Widawsky is a graduate student in physics at Columbia University, according to Monsignor James C. Kidder told the mourners that “the worth of Annie’s life was not its length, it was its intensity of love.”Yale released a statement Friday, saying that a university memorial service would be held on October 12. The university is also establishing a scholarship in Le’s memory.
It released a statement from her family, saying “Annie was loved by everyone who knew her and special to all those who came in contact with her. … Her laughter was infectious and her goodness was ingenuous. … We will always remember her beautiful smile, her fun-loving spirit, and the joy that she brought to us all.” Source: CNN September 27, 2009
So terribly sad and horrible.
They seem like such a dignified family.
May God’s grace be with them all.
Annie may you rest in peace in Gods loving arms. Gone to Soon
This is so sad. My heart goes out to this family!
Another young person gone too soon!
Annie, so many of us in the world long for your justice to prevail. In our hearts forever, not to be forgotten. Gone too soon.
Yes i to agree.Your gone to soon. Family left behind to ask why??? Justice for you murder.Peace of God that surpasses all understanding.For your family,an loved ones. To the man who was going to be your Husband. I feel for you,an your pain.At the loss of someone you planned to spend your life with.
I pray Annie’s family and fiance can find peace and comfort after their tragic loss…….Rest in Peace Annie……….
Rest in peace, dear Annie Le. O:)
Poor Annie Le. So many have suffered because of this twisted killer who committed such a senseless crime. My heart goes out to her family. It is clear that she was dearly loved and will be missed by so many. This is another horrific crime that just makes one wonder what has gone wrong with so many young people who have little so respect for others.