The remains found on Saturday in Niles Canyon have been positively identified as missing nursing student, Michelle Le. Attempts will be made now to determine the cause of death, although the remains are said to be badly decomposed. Carrie McGonigle, who heads up Team Amber Rescue, was the person who actually discovered the remains.
From the looks of news footage, the area where Ms. Le was found is brushy, wild and hilly, isolated from civilization. This would be a good reason for why the killer chose this area to hide the body. And yet the precision of the cell phone pings from May 27th armed these volunteers with a certitude that the remains must be within a reasonable radius of the Niles Canyon.
As hard as it must be for the Le family, a meager fragment of closure can be obtained, in knowing that the road to justice may be more easily traversed with the existence of a body. The case against Giselle Esteban is already strong, and will get even stronger with this new evidence.
The fact that Michelle Le is so widely loved, underscores the harsh contrast of this painful discovery over this past weekend. This morning I watched footage of a tribute to Michelle (and a rally to commit to search for the missing nursing student), that was put together shortly after Michelle went missing.
With many Asian students wearing Michelle Le T-shirts, one after another got in front of the camera and said how much they admired her and missed her. One of these people was Krystine Dinh, who is the Le family spokeswoman. Dinh released an email yesterday that said:
“Tonight, our family has been notified that this weekend, we found Michelle. Please continue praying for and supporting Michelle as our family begins the journey to ensure justice in her honor.”
Michelle was working on a bachelor’s degree at Samuel Merritt University in Oakland, and I suspect was doing some sort of internship at Kaiser Permanente in Hayward, Ca. This internship assignment marks the time she disappeared, which can be dated to 7 PM on May 27th. Just at that moment, some utterly negative energies transpired in the Permanente parking garage.
Speaking on behalf of the university, Elizabeth Valente reiterated how much Michelle was liked on campus, and even characterized her as “a ray of sunshine” who was dedicated to the field of nursing. This dedication might be explained by the fact that her mother was a nurse as well.
A sizable collection of Michelle Le images have been published in articles that have covered Michelle’s case. In nearly all of them, Ms. Le projects a radiant smile that reenforces Elizabeth Valente’s description of the aspiring nursing student as a ray of sunshine. This has been my take all along also. While she probably wasn’t perfect in life (no one is), nonetheless she gives off an angelic aura of innocence!
Thus, the million dollar question: How could anyone hate this woman? Specifically, why did Giselle Esteban loath, ooze such hatred for Michelle? It’s hard to wrap your mind around it (a detached concept of hatred), even when you realize its nature is intertwined with an ugly stepsister, jealousy. For now, let’s forget about it, and remember the beaming smile of Michelle Le.
