Michelle Le Ex-friend Arrested on Murder Suspicion

An ex-friend of Michelle Le, the nursing student of Kaiser Permanente Medical Center on Hesperian Boulevard in Hayward who has been missing for more than three months, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murdering Le.

Giselle Esteban, a former high school friend of Le, was arrested in Union City at 9:50 a.m. Wednesday morning, NBC Bay Area reported. According to the inmate locator tracker for Alameda County, Esteban's charge was listed as 187, which pertains to the code of murder.

Le went missing about 7 pm on May 27. It was reported that she left during a class break at Kaiser Permanente Hayward Medical Center. She told her classmates that she planned to drive to Reno, Nevada, to meet her friends over the weekend. But after she left, she never came back again.

Le's family raised $100,000 to search her, but it was in vain. The case was considered as a homicide, according to the evidence which was found, such as the blood in Le's car, surveillance camera footage, cellphone records etc.

Police believed that Esteban murdered Le though as of now Le’s body has not yet been found.

Esteban was a former high school friend of Le. However, the relationship between Esteban and Le soured afterwards. Esteban even said straightforward in an interview that she openly hated Le because Le made her and her ex-boyfriend split. However, she has denied doing involvement in Le's disappearance.

Detectives who have gathered evidence to arrest Esteban, said Esteban is a person of interest in the case.

There's been nothing in our investigation that supports anybody else's involvement in Michelle's demise, other than Esteban, said Police Lt. Roger Keener.

“Around 7 pm on May 27, Le left the medical center by telling a classmate that she was going to her car during her break,” Lt. Roger Keener said.

“The next morning around 9 a.m. Le’s car was found about a half mile away from the medical center, and investigators found bloodstains in her car and it was later proved that the blood was Le’s” he added.

The footage from security cameras at the parking garage of Kaiser Permanente showed that Esteban was present around the time of Le’s disappearance. Furthermore, there was additional physical evidence discovered inside Le’s car that confirmed that Esteban had been in Le's car, Keener said.

Keener said that Le and Esteban’s Cell phone records shown from wireless tower indicate that they had traveled the similar path from the medical center to the Niles and Sunol Canyon areas in Alameda County.

Armed with a search warrant, on May 29, the police found a pair of shoes in Esteban's house which contained Le’s DNA. The police will continue looking for Le until they find her, Keener said.

Esteban is being held at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin without bail. There's a court arraignment scheduled on Thursday afternoon. According to law enforcement sources, Esteban is pregnant now.