Police Work 'Multitude of Leads' in Search for Michelle Le

Hayward police say they have identified several “persons of interest” in their ongoing investigation into the disappearance of , and one former friend of Le’s was detained for questioning.

Police served a search warrant at the home of this friend, who has not been identified, and seized her cell phone and computer.

“We did detain a person of interest, we talked to that person, and ultimately released her,” Hayward police Lt. Roger Keener told Patch.

Keener said this and several other persons of interest are among a “multitude of leads” investigators are following up on, though they are unwilling to elaborate at this point in the investigation.

“Until we find Michelle it’s very difficult for us to exclude anything because we don’t know what happened to her,” he said.

Many observers have pointed to the murder last year of 24-year-old Phuong Le of Fairfield, whose case bears some striking resemblances to that of Michelle Le. But Keener said police from both cities are not seeing a solid connection at this time.

“Both we and the investigators of Fairfield (Police Department) feel that the chances of there being a connection are extremely slim,” Keener said.

Phuong Le was a 24-year-old nursing student whose body was found 12 days after she disappeared in Fairfield, located 38 miles from Hayward. Both women had similar appearances, drove similar cars and vanished in a similar manner. Phuong Le’s case remains unsolved.

Police are also scouring surveillance footage from the parking garage at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Hayward, which was the last place Michelle Le was seen by her friends. Although there is footage of her white Honda being driven out of the garage, the cameras do not clearly identify who was driving.

Le was last seen Friday at about 7 p.m. at the medical center, where she was due to finish up her clinical rotation that night. According to Hayward police, her car was driven out of the parking structure that night but was found just a few blocks away. Calls to her cell phone have gone unanswered.

According to fellow students, Le said she was planning to drive to Reno that night after her clinical rotation ended at the Kaiser facility. But she never came back after the 7 p.m. break.

Although the police investigation has involved parts of San Mateo – where Le lived and also attended classes at  – San Mateo police say the case is being handled by the Hayward Police Department.

Le’s family has also put up a  for information leading to her safe return.

Michelle Le is described as 5 feet 6 inches tall with black hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about her whereabouts is urged to call the Hayward Police Department at (510) 293-7000. Online, a few Facebook pages have sprung up in an attempt to get the word out about Le. From this page, a flier can be downloaded for posting.