A Yale University lab technician was today charged with the murder of a graduate student whose body was found stuffed in a research building wall on what was to be her wedding day.

The killing of a Yale graduate student whose body was found stuffed inside a wall five days after she vanished was a targeted act, police have said, seeking to calm fears that a random killer is still at large.

Police launched a murder probe after finding the body of a missing graduate student from an elite US university in a college building where she had last been seen five days before.