Police: missing Yale lab technician found safe near home; case unrelated to student’s killing

Missing Yale lab tech found near home

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — Police say they’ve found a missing Yale University lab technician who reportedly works at the building where a graduate student was killed in September.

West Haven police say 47-year-old John DiNello was found safe near his home in West Haven at about 6:30 a.m. Friday. No other details were released.

University spokesman Tom Conroy said DiNello hadn’t shown up for work in four days and hadn’t been seen at his home in nearly three days.

Police say the missing person case was not related to the strangling of Annie Le (LAY’). Another Yale lab technician, Raymond Clark III, is charged with murdering Le at a university research building.

Yale officials couldn’t immediately confirm a report by The Yale Daily News that DiNello works in the same building.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — A lab technician is missing from Yale University, where a graduate student was found slain about three months ago.

John DiNello hasn’t shown up for work in four days and hasn’t been seen at his West Haven home in nearly three days, university spokesman Tom Conroy said late Thursday.

Police are treating the case as a missing person, not a criminal investigation, West Haven police Sgt. Martin Garcia said. The case is unrelated to that of the slain student, Annie Le, he said.

DiNello, 47, takes daily medication and doesn’t have it with him, Garcia said.

The Yale Daily News reported DiNello works at the building where another lab technician, Raymond Clark III, is alleged to have strangled 24-year-old Le and stuffed her body behind a wall.

Conroy couldn’t confirm that DiNello worked there. He said DiNello works for the Yale Animal Resources Center, which offers services in several campus buildings.

Le, of Placerville, Calif., vanished Sept. 8 from the medical school research building where she and Clark worked. Her body was found days later on the day she was supposed to get married on Long Island.

Clark has not entered a plea in the Le case, but his public defender has said he intends to plead not guilty.

DiNello’s aunt Phylliss DiNello called him a marvelous kid who’s “loved by all.”