-Caveat Lector-
A Capital Mystery Heats Up
The cops are suspicious. The lawyers are aboard. Seven weeks after intern
Chandra Levy went missing, the search for answers goes on-and on
By Mark Hosenball and Michael Isikoff
NEWSWEEK
July 2 issue - Chandra Levy didn't realize it, but she'd just talked
herself out of a job. Last spring the now missing Washington intern was so
happy with her temporary post at the Federal Bureau of Prisons that she'd
told friends and family she hoped to be hired on full time after getting
her master's degree in public administration from USC. Then one day she
offhandedly mentioned to a personnel officer that, officially, she'd
graduated last December. She just needed to pick up her diploma at the May
graduation ceremony back home in California. The officer was taken aback.
Levy's internship was supposed to expire four months after graduation.
Now she would have to leave. Her friends and family told police that she
was upset at her sudden dismissal, NEWSWEEK has learned, and hastily
prepared to return to California. She e-mailed her landlord on April 28,
informing him that she would have to leave her apartment, and began packing
her things. Three days later she disappeared, leaving nearly all of her
personal belongings behind.
After almost two months of searching for answers, investigators are now
trying to assemble an hour-by-hour time line of the day Levy went missing,
interviewing friends, family and co-workers, scouring phone records and
e-mails and canvassing Washington's leafy Rock Creek Park-all in an effort
to identify patterns or clues that have so far eluded them. Police have
also contacted morgues across the country, establishing that no Jane Does
matching Levy's description have surfaced.
Authorities are trying to piece together a picture of Chandra Levy's state
of mind at the time of her disappearance. Police sources tell NEWSWEEK
that investigators are pursuing the possibility that she was suffering
emotional distress over her personal life. That, they say, combined with
the sudden loss of her job, may have led her to run away, or possibly to
commit suicide.
One question in particular continues to stymie investigators: was Levy's
disappearance in any way connected to her friendship with Gary Condit, the
married congressman who represents her hometown of Modesto, Calif.?
Since her disappearance, there has been heated speculation that Levy was
romantically involved with Condit-despite the congressman's repeated
statements through a spokesman that the two were just friends. Police
sources tell NEWSWEEK there is some evidence Levy may have been upset over
a recent breakup with an unidentified man-possibly, they believe, Condit.
They also say there is evidence that she felt let down when someone in a
position to help her keep her job didn't intervene. Police believe Condit
could be that person.
Levy's parents have said they had suspected that their daughter might be
seeing Condit. In one home videotape before her disappearance, Chandra's
father, Robert Levy, can be heard asking Chandra about her congressman
friend.
In February, the Levys told police, Chandra began wearing a bracelet, which
was from a man she refused to name. Guarded about her boyfriend's identity
even with family and friends, she gave them sparse details about him,
saying only that he was involved with Congress. When Chandra's mother,
Susan Levy, saw a newspaper article describing Condit as a teetotaler, she
remembered that Chandra had mentioned her boyfriend also did not drink
alcohol. Telephone records show that she repeatedly phoned Condit at an
unpublished voice-mail number.
Throughout the investigation, Condit has remained publicly silent,
occasionally issuing statements through a spokesman. "He liked her.
They talked a lot," says Condit's chief of staff, Mike Lynch. "But to my
knowledge there was no romantic relationship." Condit has met with police
twice to discuss the case, most recently for an hour last Saturday.
Executive Assistant D.C. Chief Terrance Gainer says there is no criminal
case and Condit is not a suspect. Police say that even if Condit and Levy
were seeing each other romantically, that does not mean he was in any way
involved in her disappearance. Yet privately, a source close to the case
tells NEWSWEEK, D.C. police have become increasingly suspicious of
Condit's behavior. Some investigators do not believe his denials of a
relationship with Levy and wonder if he is holding back potentially crucial
details about their relationship.
Recently they have begun quietly interviewing former Condit interns,
looking for a possible pattern of behavior. Yet the source stresses that
they have "nothing" on Condit that would implicate him in any crime.
As the search continues, Levy's parents have become impatient with the lack
of progress. In a move to pressure Condit into breaking his silence, the
Levys told reporters they believe it is a "possibility"
that Condit was involved in Chandra's disappearance. Last week the Levys
hired Billy Martin, a high-profile Washington attorney who represented
Monica Lewinsky's mother. Condit, too, signed up a Washington heavy
hitter-Abbe Lowell, the white-collar defense lawyer who defended House
Judiciary Committee Democrats during the Clinton impeachment hearings.
According to sources close to Condit, Lowell phoned the congressman, whom
he'd known for a few years, and offered his services. Late last week
Condit and Susan Levy got together at Washington's elegant Jefferson Hotel.
According to Lynch, Condit's spokesman, Condit assured Susan Levy that "he
wants Chandra found" and that he's willing to meet them "any time."
Meanwhile, police are pursuing other possibilities. Perhaps Chandra, out
running errands, was attacked or snatched off the street-hardly unheard of
in busy Washington, where hundreds of people have been reported missing
this year alone.
Levy's family told police that before she disappeared, a relative had given
her a check for less than $100. The check was missing from her apartment
but was never cashed. Investigators say this could support the theory that
she was abducted or killed. That's not much to go on, but in a case with
so many questions and so few answers, no scrap of evidence is too small.
With Suzanne Smalley and Karen Breslau
=======================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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