A Murder Story

The discovery of Les body only intensified public interest in the case. On Monday, September 14, the Independent published no less than five stories on the case, including two exclusives: first a minor one, then a major one. On Monday morning, Independent reporter Thomas MacMillan visited the area outside the lab in case the police released new information. There, amid a slew of reporters, he met an electrician taking a break from work in a nearby building who had knowledge of the lab. The body had been found in a mechanical chase, or void, behind panels that, the electrician said, could easily be opened. You Can Get in the Wall with a Butter Knife, was the Independent s headline. [1] It wasnt an earth-shattering story, but it was certainly news. Stuff was falling in our lap, Bass says.

Also Monday morning Independent reporters, contacting official sources, got the story that every media outlet wanted: the police had a suspect. Our sources said this is the guy who did it, this is his name, this is where he works, Bass says.

To name or not? The Independent had a policy of not naming suspects until they were charged, and sometimes not even then. The policy allowed for exceptionsif the suspect was a public figure, if the Independent had the suspects side of the story, if there was some other compelling reason to release the namebut none seemed to apply in this case. Bass saw the polices mishandling of the Jovin case as a cautionary example. They called him [the professor] a person of interest, and they ruined this guys life, he says.


Raymond Clark.
Courtesy New Haven Police Department

On Monday afternoon, Bass published a story saying the probe has zeroed in on a single serious suspect. [2] The story identified the suspect as a lab technician who works with animal testing, but included no details that would allow people to easily identify him. The following day, police released the name of the suspect, Raymond Clark, but the Independent still didnt use his name. At his popular blog Media Nation , press critic Dan Kennedy called the Independent s decision futile, given that the rest of the media were using Clark s name. [3] In an email response, which Kennedy posted on his blog, Bass said, [W]e wanted to be consistent We might be wrong, for sure. Lotta back and forth. Maybe a futile high horse thing. [4]

Independent reporters also felt responsible, and accountable, to the community they served. Says Bailey:

Our mentalitys really different, being more like a grassroots community newspaper. Were not just flying in to do the story and leaving, so I think were more sensitive to the people were covering We dont want to be known as the paper that ruined someones reputation Were here every day and we need to build relationships with people and have them trust us. And I think thats part of why that policy makes sense, not naming people.

Listen to Bailey describe the importance of relationships to a small community news site.

National notice. As the Annie Le murder story gathered steam, and the Independent stayed consistently ahead of the media pack, the rest of the reporting community began to pay attention. On Sunday night, for example, everynews outlet had learned simultaneously about the discovery of Le's body, but the Independent 's coverage had stood out; its story had been comprehensive and online less than an hour after the police announcement. That, as well as the Sunday morning scoop about the police searching the incinerator, attracted national attention. On Monday morning, Bass began to field calls from out-of-state reporters, and online traffic increased to an unprecedented level.

The Independent s report that the police had a suspecta scoop that eluded dozens of other outlets, from tabloids to TV stations to the New York Times solidified its position as a go-to source for this story. The Independent was, Bass says, inundated on Monday by national media wanting to know the name of the suspect, or at least his initials. It was a big deal for us, Bailey says. It really put us on the national stage.



[1] Thomas MacMillan and Melissa Bailey, You Can Get in the Wall with a Butter Knife, New Haven Independent, September 14, 2009.

[2] Paul Bass, Serious Suspect in Annie Le Case, New Haven Independent , September 14, 2009.

[3] Dan Kennedy, Ethics, competition, and a high-profile murder, Media Nation , September 16, 2009.

[4] Paul Bass, Paul Bass on (not) naming names, Media Nation , September 16, 2009.