Suspect in Michelle Le Murder Is Pregnant, Misses Court Date

The suspect in the murder of East Bay nursing student Michelle Le is pregnant, police confirmed, and missed her first court date Thursday due to a medical emergency.

Police arrested Giselle Esteban, 27, at her Union City home on Wednesday. She is Le's former high school friend, according to the Oakland Tribune. She will be charged by Alameda County prosecutors with Le's murder as early as 2 p.m. today.

Esteban, who is reportedly seven months pregnant, was scheduled to be arraigned with Le's murder Thursday when she was rushed to the hospital with a non-life threatening medical emergency, according to reports.

Esteban and and Le were former friends in high school, but had a falling-out over a love interest. Esteban openly admitted to investigators in June that she hated Le, but denied any connection with her disappearance.

Yet a body of evidence appears to connect Esteban to Le's disappearance, and there is evidence of violence, as well.

Police found Le's DNA on one of Esteban's shoes in late May, shortly after Le's May 27 disappearance from a Kaiser hospital in Hayward, where Le had been completing a nursing program.

Surveillance footage put Esteban at the scene of Le's disappearance that day, and police also say there is evidence that Esteban was in Le's car sometime between its disappearance from a parking garage at the hospital and its recovery the following day.

Bloodstains matching Le's DNA were found in the car. But her body has not been found, and her family is continuing to search for her, offering a $100,000 reward for information leading to her discovery.

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