Former FBI Agent Brad Garrett: How to Find the Missing Yale Student

Sept. 11, 2009— -- Editor's Note: ABC News consultant Brad Garrett is a former FBI agent who specialized in solving unusual and complex criminal cases. He helped lead the investigation into the disappearance of Capitol Hill intern Chandra Levy. Today he offers insight into how police in New Haven, assisted by the FBI, will go about searching for the missing Yale medical student, Annie Le.

Annie Le, the graduate student at Yale University who was reported missing this past Tuesday, left behind important clues for police – her cellular phone, her computer and her purse. Her cell phone can tell police who she talked to, chatted with, Twittered right before she disappeared.

Her computer will show her email records and her internet search history. If something was upsetting her or someone was bothering her, it is possible that her cell phone or computer will contain this information.

What is more, her cell phone records - which will show the nearest cell tower during her calls or the GPS location of the phone during her calls - will tell police where she was in the days and hours before she disappeared, often within a distance of within a couple hundred feet.

It is hard to believe that a 24-year-old in the U.S. would willingly leave her cell phone, so police may want to find out how often she used her cell phone and for what purpose.

It is also hard to believe a woman would willingly leave her purse behind. Her purse may contain additional clues for police. Le, like most of us, probably had debit or credit cards she used in the days and hours before she disappeared. Police can figure out what she paid for - from plane tickets to wedding gear to fling fees for restraining orders – in the days before she disappeared.

Le did not just leave her purse and cell phone behind. She left her friends, family and fiancé, all of whom need to be interviewed carefully by the police. They will have to figure out if she was happy and carefree before her disappearance, or if something was causing her anxiety and concern – something serious enough that it may have caused her hide out.

Unfortunately the overwhelming majority of women who are abducted or murdered were victimized by their own spouses or partners. Most police officers are aware of these statistics, so they will be obligated to reach out to Annie Le's fiancé and interview him at length. His cell phone, computer and credit cards will also be reviewed for clues into his whereabouts, communications and spending before and after Le's disappearance.

Unfortunately, if Annie Le was abducted by a stranger or acquaintance, it will be much harder for police since her phone and computer will not show communications with her abductor. Her cell phone, like her credit cards, will still tell police where she has been recently and may help them determine where the stranger may have first targeted her.