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Chandra Levy's remains found
By MARY JACOBY, Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON -- In the year since Chandra Levy's disappearance, Washingtonians who regularly hiked through Rock Creek Park often laughed nervously about keeping an eye out for her remains. They didn't want to seem macabre, but the heavily wooded park was, after all, the logical place for the body to be. On Wednesday morning, that logic proved true. A dog led its owner to a skull buried under a thick cover of leaves in a remote section of the park. Dental records later confirmed the identity. "The remains found today in Rock Creek Park are in fact those of Chandra Levy," District of Columbia police Chief Charles Ramsey said at a news conference. The 24-year-old Californian disappeared May 1 last year after completing a six-month internship with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons. The revelation she had been having an affair with her hometown congressman, Rep. Gary Condit, a Democrat from Ceres, sparked intense news media coverage. While D.C. police said Condit was not a suspect in Levy's disappearance, they interviewed him four times, took a DNA sample and searched his condo in the Adams Morgan section of Washington. Levy's parents, Robert and Susan, remained secluded in their home Wednesday. "Two parents have just received the most horrifying news they could ever receive," family spokeswoman Judy Smith said outside the family's home. "Certainly no parent would think they would ever bury their child. It's usually the other way." Reports conflicted about how the parents got the bad news. Family lawyer George Arata said word came via media reports. But Smith said Ramsey telephoned the couple beforehand to tell them that dental records had confirmed the identity of the skeletal remains. Until Wednesday, police had classified Levy as a missing person case. "This is no longer a missing person (case)," Ramsey said. But he stopped short of calling it a homicide investigation. He said D.C. medical examiner Jonathan Arden, who analyzed the dental records, will try to establish the manner and cause of death. The results of the examination will determine whether her death will be investigated as murder. Ramsey did not identify the man who discovered Levy's remains but said he had been in the remote hillside spot because he was looking for turtles. He discovered the body about 9:30 a.m. Police officers told reporters at the scene a skeleton had been found with its bones scattered. They said it appeared Levy's body had been buried in a shallow grave and unearthed by animals. Ramsey would not confirm the report of the shallow grave and cautioned that Levy could have died somewhere else and later been moved to the spot where she was found. "We don't know if this is the primary scene or the secondary scene," he said. Police recruits searched the 1,755-acre park last summer but found nothing. Wednesday's discovery seems to confirm key details of what investigators thought had happened in her final hours. Levy, an exercise enthusiast, was last seen April 30 canceling her membership at a gym near her Dupont Circle apartment in preparation for a return to California. On May 1, she looked up directions on her home computer to a secluded spot in Rock Creek Park called Klingle Mansion. The historic home now serves as a headquarters for the U.S. Park Police. Levy was known to jog in Rock Creek Park, which was near her apartment. A search of her apartment suggested that's what she had gone to do on May 1. She had left behind her purse, wallet and credit cards but apparently taken her keys. Among the items found near the remains were tennis shoes, a woman's jogging bra and a portable music device, the Washington Post reported. Investigators also wondered if she had gone to meet someone -- her killer, perhaps? -- at Klingle Mansion. The hilltop house is about a mile-and-a-half from where Levy's remains were found and within walking distance of Condit's apartment. Condit, who lost a Democratic primary election in March, appeared last month before a grand jury in Washington investigating Levy's disappearance. The six-term congressman has consistently denied knowing anything about Levy's disappearance. But Levy's parents say they don't believe Condit is telling all his knows. They say his past makes him untrustworthy. After Levy disappeared, a flight attendant came forward to say she had also had an affair with the married congressman. She said Condit had tried, through intermediaries, to get her to lie about it. In a television interview last year with Connie Chung, then of ABC, Condit appeared cold and evasive, saying in response to questions about his reported affair with the missing intern that he had not been a "perfect man." Condit has never publicly admitted having a sexual relationship with Levy, but her family says he did. Condit admitted the affair to police last year, according to news reports that Condit has never denied. He said Wednesday in a statement issued by his attorney: "Congressman Gary Condit and his family want to express their heartfelt sorrow and condolences to the Levy family. The Levy family will remain in our prayers." The Levys, of Modesto, Calif., had expressed hope throughout the ordeal that their daughter was still alive. "Although the discovery of Chandra's body closes one chapter and brings some resolution to this ordeal, it does not . . . solve the mystery of what happened to Chandra," Billy Martin, the family's lawyer said. "This is the worst nightmare that a parent can endure." The Levys did an interview Wednesday for the Oprah Winfrey Show before they received news of the remains. "When you're missing a child you have to maintain a hope unless you find out otherwise," Robert Levy said. When Winfrey asked if they believed Condit knows anything about Chandra's disappearance, Susan Levy said: "Oh yes, I think he does." Added her husband: "We have that idea. From his actions and his past history, we really believe that." -- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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