By Khalida Sarwari and Melissa McRobbie
Hayward police today announced that they have made an arrest in the case of Michelle Le, the 26-year-old nursing student who went missing in May.
The suspect, Giselle Esteban, 27, was taken into custody this morning as she was leaving her Union City home, Hayward police Lt. Roger Keener said. She was arrested on suspicion of murder, Keener said.
Le’s body has not been found, but police have classified the case as a homicide. Le’s family is still holding out hope for her safe return, family members said at a news conference at police headquarters this afternoon.
Le disappeared on May 27 from Kaiser Permanente Hayward Medical Center. She left the medical center around 7 p.m. that day, telling a classmate she was going to go to her car during a break, Keener said.
She never returned. Her instructor later went to the parking garage looking for her and called police to report her disappearance.
Le’s car was found the next morning around 9 a.m. parked on Ponderosa Court, about half a mile from the medical center, Keener said.
He said investigators found bloodstains in the vehicle, and it was later determined that the blood was Le’s.
Keener also said footage from security cameras at the Kaiser Permanente parking structure showed that Esteban was present around the time of Le’s disappearance.
Additionally, he said, evidence found inside Le’s car indicated that Esteban had been in the vehicle.
He said cellphone records show from wireless tower activations that Le and Esteban traveled along the same path leaving the area just after Le’s disappearance.
Police served a search warrant at Esteban’s house on May 29 and found a pair of athletic shoes, one of which contained Le’s DNA, Keener said.
He said police won’t stop looking for Le until they find her.
“It may only be Esteban that can tell us where Michelle is,” he said.
Esteban will be booked into Alameda County Jail on the murder charge.
Keener did not discuss a possible motive in the case.
“We could speculate as to the motive, but it may only be answered by Esteban herself,” he said.
Police believe that an assault occurred in the parking garage, but no weapons have been found.
The FBI assisted in the investigation by processing evidence at its Menlo Park crime lab.
Stephanie Douglas, special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco field office, said Le is the niece of a local FBI employee.
Le’s brother, Michael Le, and her cousin, Krystine Dinh, attended today’s news conference wearing T-shirts with Michelle’s photo on the front.
“No one should have to deal with a loved one missing,” Michael Le said. “We just want her home as soon as possible.”
He said Thursday is his 24th birthday, and that his sister would always call him on his birthday to say, “I love you.”
“I just want to hear her voice so badly,” he said. “The only thing I wish for is to have her come back home.”
Dinh said, “This isn’t over until Michelle’s home. We want her to graduate from nursing school in four months and celebrate her birthday next month and Thanksgiving and Christmas, and all the Thanksgivings and Christmases after that.”
