Chandra Ann Levy (April 14, 1977 – c. May 1, 2001) was an American intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., who disappeared in May 2001. She was presumed murdered after her skeletal remains were found in Rock Creek Park in May 2002. The case attracted attention from the American news media for several years.
Due to a miscommunication, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) failed to follow its own search parameters in Rock Creek Park, leaving Levy's body to decompose for a year. Further, the MPD had been informed, but soon dismissed the information that Ingmar Guandique, already arrested for attacking women in Rock Creek Park, had confessed to attacking Levy. The MPD instead put much of its focus on the revelation that Levy had been having an affair with Congressman Gary Condit, a married Democrat then serving his fifth term representing California's 18th congressional district, and a senior member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Condit had an overwhelming alibi (he was in meetings with the Vice President), was never named as a suspect by police, and was eventually cleared of any involvement in the disappearance. However, due to the cloud of suspicion raised by the intense media focus on the missing intern and the later revelation of the affair, Condit lost his bid for re-election in 2002.
Following a series of investigative reports by The Washington Post in 2008, the MPD followed up and finally obtained a warrant, on March 3, 2009, to arrest Ingmar Guandique, the illegal immigrant from El Salvador identified and dismissed by the MPDC eight years earlier. He had been convicted of assaulting two other women in Rock Creek Park around the time of Levy's disappearance and was still in prison on those convictions when the arrest warrant on Levy's death was issued. Prosecutors alleged that Guandique had attacked and tied up Levy in a remote area of the park and left her to die of dehydration or exposure. In November 2010, Guandique was convicted of murdering Levy; he was sentenced in February 2011 to 60 years in prison. In June 2015, however, Guandique was granted a new trial. On July 28, 2016, prosecutors announced that they would not proceed with the case against Guandique and would, instead, seek to have him deported. In episode 3 of "An American Murder Mystery" on the case, it is mentioned that in March 2017 Guandique lost his bid to remain in the United States and was deported to his native El Salvador on May 5, 2017. The murder remains unsolved.
Life and background
Levy was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Robert and Susan Levy; the family moved to Modesto, California, where she attended Grace M. Davis High School. Her parents are members of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative Jewish synagogue. She attended San Francisco State University, where she earned 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 final semester of study, Levy moved to Washington, D.C., to become a paid intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In October 2000 she began her internship at the bureau's headquarters, where she was assigned to the public affairs division. Her supervisor, bureau spokesperson Dan Dunne, was impressed with Levy's work, especially her handling of media inquiries regarding the upcoming execution of Timothy McVeigh, convicted of bombing the Oklahoma City Federal Building. Levy's internship was abruptly terminated in April 2001 because her academic eligibility was found to have expired in December 2000. She had already completed her master's degree requirements and was scheduled to return to California in May 2001 for graduation.
Homicide case
Disappearance and search
Levy was last seen on May 1, 2001. The Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia was first alerted on May 6, when Levy's parents called from Modesto to report that they had not heard from their daughter in five days. Police called hospitals and visited Levy's apartment in Dupont Circle that day, finding no indication of foul play. On May 7, Levy's father told the police that his daughter had been having an affair with a U.S. congressman, and said the next day that he believed the congressman to be U.S. Representative Gary Condit. Levy's aunt also called the police and told them that Chandra had confided in her about the affair. Police obtained a warrant on May 10 to conduct a formal search of Levy's apartment. Investigators found her credit cards, identification and mobile phone left behind in her purse, along with partially packed suitcases. The answering machine was full, with messages left by her relatives and two from Condit. A police sergeant tried to examine Levy's laptop computer and inadvertently corrupted the internet search data, as he was not a trained technician.
Computer experts took a month to reconstruct the data to determine that the laptop was used on the morning of May 1 to search for websites related to Amtrak, Baskin-Robbins, Condit, Southwest Airlines, and a weather report from The Washington Post. Her final search at 12:59 p.m. was for Alsace-Lorraine, a province in France. A particular search at 11:33 a.m. was for information about Rock Creek Park in The Washington Post "Entertainment Guide", then at 11:34 she clicked a link to bring up a map of the park. Detectives later theorized that she might have met someone at the Pierce-Klingle Mansion which houses the park headquarters. On July 25, 2001, three D.C. police sergeants and 28 police cadets searched along Glover Road in the park but failed to find evidence related to Levy. Later, a second attempt found nothing.
Levy's parents and friends held numerous vigils and news conferences in an attempt to "bring Chandra home".
Relationship with Condit
Controversy surrounding Levy's disappearance drew the attention of the American news media. Condit, a married man who represented the congressional district in which the Levy family resided, at first denied that he had had an affair with her. Although police stated that Condit was not a suspect, Levy's family said they felt Condit was being evasive and possibly hiding information about the matter.
Unidentified police sources alleged that Condit had admitted to an affair with Levy during an interview with law enforcement officers on July 7, 2001. Condit described her to police as a vegetarian who avoided drinking and smoking. He thought that Levy was going to return to Washington, D.C. after her graduation and was surprised to find out that the lease on her apartment had ended. Investigators searched Condit's apartment on July 10. They questioned flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, who claimed that Condit told her she did not need to speak to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his personal life. Federal officials began investigating Condit for possible obstruction of justice, as Smith was also involved in an affair with him. (She was not acquainted with Levy.) Upset by leaks to the media, Condit refused to submit to a polygraph test by the D.C. police; his attorney asserted that Condit passed a test administered by a privately hired examiner on July 13. He avoided answering direct questions during a televised interview on August 23, with news anchor Connie Chung on the ABC News program Primetime Thursday. Intensive coverage continued until news of the September 11 attacks superseded the media's coverage of the Levy case.
In a nationwide Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll of 900 registered voters conducted in July 2001, 44 percent of American respondents thought that Condit was involved in Levy's disappearance and 27 percent felt that he should resign. Fifty-one percent of the respondents believed that he was acting as if he were guilty; 13 percent felt that he should run again for office. A poll sample taken from Condit's congressional district held a more favorable view of Condit. On March 5, 2002, Condit lost the Democratic primary election for his Congressional seat to his former aide, then-Assemblyman Dennis Cardoza, with the Levy controversy being cited as a contributing factor. He was subpoenaed to appear on April 1, 2002, before a District of Columbia grand jury investigating the disappearance. The date was kept a carefully guarded secret to avoid further leaks. Condit left Congress at the end of his term on January 3, 2003.
Discovery of remains
On May 22, 2002, around 9:30 am, skeletal remains matching Levy's dental records were discovered by a man walking his dog and looking for turtles in Rock Creek Park, near Broad Branch Creek. Detectives found bones and personal items scattered, but not buried, in a forested area along a steep incline. A sports bra, sweat shirt, leggings and tennis shoes were among the evidence that was recovered. Although police had previously searched over half the 1,754-acre main section of the park (2.74 mi2, 7.10 km2), the wooded slope where Levy's remains were eventually found had not been searched. Police commanders ordered the search perimeters to 100 yards of each road and trail but a miscommunication had the officers only searching within 100 yards of every road. The remains were found about four miles (6 km) from Levy's apartment.
After a preliminary autopsy was performed, District of Columbia police announced that there was sufficient evidence to open a homicide investigation. On May 28, D.C. medical examiner Jonathan L. Arden officially declared Levy's death a homicide, but said, "There's less to work with here than I would like. It's possible we will never know specifically how she died." Arden found damage to her hyoid bone, suggesting possible strangulation, but did not deem it to be conclusive evidence of such a cause of death. On June 6, after the police completed their search, private investigators hired by the Levys found her shin bone with some twisted wire about 25 yards (23 m) from the other remains. Police chief Ramsey said, "It is unacceptable that these items were not located."
Memorial services
On May 28, 2002, the Levy family organized a memorial service at the Modesto Centre Plaza that drew over 1,200 people, some from as far as Los Angeles. Speakers at the 90-minute ceremony included Levy's brother, grandmother, great-aunt and friends. In a eulogy delivered in Hebrew and English by Rabbi Paul Gordon, Levy was described as "a good person taken from us much too soon". About a year later, on May 27, 2003, Levy's remains were buried in Lakewood Memorial Park Cemetery at Hughson, California, near her home town of Modesto. Attended by about 40 of Levy's friends and family members, the private ceremony concluded with the release of 12 white doves.
Identification of the prime suspect
In September 2001, D.C. police and federal prosecutors were contacted by the lawyer of an informant, held in a D.C. Jail, who claimed to have knowledge of Levy's killer. The informant, whose identity was protected for his safety, said that Ingmar Guandique, a 20-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador also being held in the jail, told him that Condit paid him $25,000 to kill Levy. Investigators ruled out the story about Condit, because Guandique had already admitted to assaulting two other women in the same park where Levy's remains were found. Guandique failed to show up for work on the day of Levy's disappearance. His former landlady recalled that his face appeared scratched and bruised at around that time. The investigators on the Levy case did not interview the other Rock Creek Park victims. Police Chief Ramsey avoided calling Guandique a suspect and described him as a "person of interest", telling reporters not to make "too big a deal" about him. Assistant chief Terrance W. Gainer said that if Guandique had been considered a suspect, D.C. police would have been after him "like flies on honey".
Guandique was incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary, Victorville for assaults against two other women in Rock Creek Park.
Guandique denied attacking Levy. On November 28, the FBI had the informant take a polygraph test, which he failed. A polygraph test on Guandique, administered on February 4, 2002, returned inconclusive results that were officially ruled "not deceptive". Because neither the informant nor Guandique was fluent in English, D.C. chief detective Jack Barrett said that he would have preferred polygraph tests to have been administered by bilingual examiners, who were unavailable at the time. When Judge Noel Anketell Kramer was asked about Guandique's potential connection to the Levy homicide, she responded, "This is such a satellite issue. To me it doesn't have anything to do with this case." Kramer sentenced Guandique to 10 years in prison for his attacks on two other women at Rock Creek Park. Guandique was sent to the U.S. Penitentiary, Big Sandy near Inez, Kentucky, and was later transferred to the U.S. Penitentiary at Victorville, California.
D.C. police Chief Cathy L. Lanier in 2009
The Levy homicide remained listed as a "cold case" until 2006, when Cathy L. Lanier succeeded Ramsey as D.C. police chief. Lanier replaced the lead detective on the case with three veteran investigators who had more homicide experience. In 2007, the editors of The Washington Post assigned a new team of reporters to take a year to re-examine the Levy case. The resulting series of articles, published during the summer of 2008, focused on the past failure of the police to fully investigate Guandique's connection to the attacks in Rock Creek Park. In September 2008, investigators searched Guandique's federal prison cell in California and found a photo of Levy that he had saved from a magazine. Police interviewed acquaintances of Guandique and witnesses of the other Rock Creek Park incidents.
On March 3, 2009, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia issued an arrest warrant for Guandique. He was returned to the custody of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections on April 20 via the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. Two days later, Guandique was charged in D.C. with Levy's murder. He was indicted by a grand jury on six counts: kidnapping, first-degree murder committed during a kidnapping, attempted first-degree sexual abuse, first-degree murder committed during a sexual offense, attempted robbery, and first-degree murder committed during a robbery. Guandique pleaded not guilty at his arraignment, where a trial date was initially set for January 27, 2010. His lawyers argued that Guandique's federal prison cell was outside the jurisdiction of a court-ordered search. After errors in processing contaminated some of the gathered evidence with DNA from employees of the prosecution, the start date of the trial at the H. Carl Moultrie Courthouse was moved to October 4, 2010.