Killing of Chandra Levy
Chandra Ann Levy (April 14, 1977 – May 2001) was an intern who worked at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., who disappeared in the spring of 2001 and was subsequently found murdered in Rock Creek Park. The investigation into her disappearance uncovered an affair[1] with then-U.S. Representative Gary Condit, a Democrat representing California's 18th congressional district and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Though Condit was never called a suspect by police, the uproar led to his exit from Congress. The circumstances surrounding her death remain unclear.
Life and background
Levy was born in Cleveland, Ohio, and grew up in Modesto, California. Her parents are members of Congregation Beth Shalom there, a Conservative Jewish synagogue.[2] She attended San Francisco State University, earning a degree in journalism. After interning for the California Bureau of Secondary Education and working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, she began attending the University of Southern California to earn a Master's degree in Public Administration. As part of her studies, she moved to Washington, D.C., to become an intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, although shortly before her death, this was abruptly terminated when her academic eligibility was found to have expired. She had previously completed her degree requirements and was scheduled to return to California for graduation.
Case and scandal
Disappearance and search
On May 1, 2001, police said she had disappeared and controversy surrounding her disappearance was a main topic of the American news media for the months prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. The resulting publicity contributed to Condit's failure to win his party's re-nomination, and thus re-election, to his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Levy's parents, Robert and Susan Levy of Modesto, held numerous vigils and news conferences in an attempt to "bring Chandra home." (Mrs. Levy later participated in the efforts to find another Modesto woman, Laci Peterson.)
Condit, a married man who represented the congressional district where the Levy family resided, at first denied that he had had an affair with Chandra. His later statements left open the possibility of an affair. Even though police repeatedly stated that Condit was not a suspect, many in the popular media—along with Levy's family and much of the American public—suspected that Condit was still hiding important information about the intern's disappearance. This suspicion was deepened when Condit refused to submit to a lie detector test to be administered by the Washington D.C. police, which they requested on July 10, 2001. Additionally, Condit tried to avoid answering direct questions during a televised interview with news anchor Connie Chung on August 23, 2001. Condit later appeared before a District of Columbia grand jury investigating the disappearance.
Condit subsequently lost the Democratic primary election in March 2002, and left Congress at the end of his term in 2003.
Discovery of remains
District of Columbia Police Chief Charles Ramsey announced on May 22, 2002, that remains matching Levy's dental records were found by a man walking his dog and looking for turtles in Rock Creek Park near Levy's apartment in northwest Washington, D.C. Police had previously searched well over half the area of the 2,000-acre (8-km²) park, which Levy had visited on many occasions, after determining that someone had used Levy's laptop computer to do an internet search for the park's Klingle Mansion on the day police believed she went missing.
Police stated that they had not searched this particular area before due to its remoteness. Her remains were found a mile (1.6 km) north of the mansion and about four miles (6 km) away from Levy's apartment. After a preliminary autopsy was performed, District of Columbia police announced that there was sufficient evidence to begin a homicide investigation. Then on May 28, the District of Columbia medical examiner officially declared that Levy's death was the result of homicide.[3]
Police interviewed Ingmar Guandique, a Salvadoran national incarcerated for assaulting two women in the park. Washington police chief Charles H. Ramsey called him a "person of interest". Police administered a polygraph test, which he passed.
As of September 2006, the Levy homicide is listed as a "cold case" on the D.C. police website, and the FBI says that their investigation remains open.
Similar homicide of Joyce Chiang
Levy's disappearance came two years after the disappearance and declared homicide, under similar circumstances, of Immigration and Naturalization Service attorney Joyce Chiang. Levy's apartment building was four blocks away from Chiang's former building. Levy's remains were found in a D.C. federal parkland area, as were Chiang's belongings, and presumably her body, before it washed up in a nearby river. Both were young, brunette women of petite stature. These similarities have led to various theories that both women were killed by the same person.[4]
References
- ^ http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/07/07/condit.missing.intern/
- ^ "Chandra Levy’s Jewish Angle" by James D. Besser, July 20, 2001. Jewish Journal. Accessed December 18, 2006.
- ^ "Coroner says Chandra Levy was murdered". Associated Press. May 28, 2002. Retrieved 2006-08-09.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Unexplained Death: Joyce Chiang". Unsolved Mysteries. June 10, 2002. Retrieved 2006-10-05.
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