A promising young intern vanished, a congressman came under scrutiny, and an accused killer was exonerated. Why was Chandra Levy's murder never solved?
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00:00A promising young intern vanished, a congressman came under scrutiny, and an accused killer
00:05was exonerated. Why was Chandra Levy's murder never solved?
00:09On Monday, April 23, 2001, 24-year-old Chandra Ann Levy completed her final day as an intern
00:14for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C. Five days later, she left a message for
00:19her landlord, explaining that she would be moving back home to Modesto, California on
00:23May 5 or 6. According to NBC Washington, Levy planned to return to California in time to
00:28attend her May 11 graduation from the University of Southern California, where she earned a
00:32master's degree. She canceled her membership at the Washington Sports Club on Monday, April
00:3630, and was last seen leaving the building shortly after 7 p.m. The following day, Levy
00:40sent her parents an email to tell them about her plans to return home. Unfortunately, Levy
00:45was never seen or heard from again.
00:47Chandra Levy simply vanished in May of 2001.
00:51More than a year later, on Wednesday, May 22, 2002, Levy's skeletal remains were found
00:56in Rock Creek Park.
00:58Medical examiner Jonathan Arden ruled Levy's manner of death a homicide. However, her cause
01:02of death could not be determined due to the level of decomposition. Early in the investigation
01:07into Levy's disappearance, rumors emerged about a relationship between the intern and
01:11Congressman Gary Condit. According to NBC Washington, Levy told her family she made
01:15a, quote, secret friend when she moved to Washington, D.C. Levy later revealed the friend
01:19was Congressman Condit.
01:21Chandra's mother, Susan, called Condit when her daughter went missing. During the call,
01:24she asked Condit whether he knew anything about her daughter's whereabouts and eventually
01:27asked the congressman whether he and Chandra were having an affair. ABC News reports Condit
01:32ultimately disclosed he last spoke with Levy on the telephone on Sunday, April 29. However,
01:37he vehemently denied having a romantic relationship with the missing woman.
01:40Condit was initially reluctant to discuss his association with Levy, fueling rumors
01:44they were having an affair. However, he was never charged or considered a suspect in her
01:48disappearance or death. In an attempt to quell the rumors, Condit voluntarily took a lie
01:52detector test, which reportedly concluded he was not involved in Levy's disappearance
01:56or death. Still, the nature of their relationship remains unclear.
01:59"'Congressman Condit, do you know what happened to Chandra Levy?'
02:03"'No, I didn't.'"
02:04In a statement, which was published by CNN, Levy's aunt, Linda Zamsky, said Levy confided
02:09to her that she was having a romantic relationship with Condit.
02:13CNN reports that Gary Condit's DNA was discovered on a pair of panties found in Levy's apartment,
02:18further fueling rumors that they were romantically involved. However, his DNA was not found at
02:22the murder scene. Condit insisted his relationship with Chandra Levy was platonic in a 2016 interview
02:27with Dr. Phil. During the interview, Condit said,
02:30"'I saw her one time outside the office, at a restaurant. She came by my condo once, maybe
02:34twice.'"
02:35"'There's nothing unusual about someone coming by my condo. A lot of people did.'"
02:39Although he was never considered a suspect, Condit's connection to Levy dominated media
02:43coverage of the case, and rumors of his involvement persisted for decades. However, the emergence
02:47of a new person of interest eventually took the focus away from Condit. In August 2001,
02:52authorities received a tip from a jailhouse informant, who said a man named Ingmar Guendique
02:56confessed to abducting and killing Levy. However, although Guendique had been convicted of attacking
03:01other women at the park, the information was deemed to be unreliable after Guendique passed
03:05a polygraph examination. Authorities turned their attention back to Guendique in 2008
03:09when re-examining the case.
03:11Amid their investigation, authorities searched Guendique's cell and ultimately found a photograph
03:15of Chandra Levy, which had been cut from a magazine article. The National Registry of
03:19Exonerations reports that authorities also interviewed Guendique's fellow inmates to
03:23determine whether he had discussed Levy's case. An inmate named Armando Morales informed
03:28the authorities that Guendique confessed to him that he killed Chandra.
03:31Guendique was arrested in March 2009 and charged with attempted robbery, kidnapping, and first-degree
03:36murder in Levy's abduction and death. Despite a lack of any physical evidence linking him
03:40to the former intern, he was ultimately convicted on all three charges and sentenced to 60 years
03:44in prison.
03:45In the years following his conviction, Guendique's defense team discovered evidence suggesting
03:50Morales' story was fabricated, including a recorded conversation in which he admitted
03:53he lied to authorities about serving as an informant in previous cases. The defense team
03:57also discovered that prosecutors unlawfully withheld information that may have assisted
04:01in Guendique's defense. Guendique's defense team petitioned for, and were granted, a new
04:05trial based on the evidence they presented. However, prosecutors determined there was
04:09not enough evidence to secure another conviction, and the charges against Guendique were dismissed.
04:14As he was an undocumented immigrant, Guendique was released to the Department of Homeland
04:18Security and deported back to El Salvador in May 2017.
04:21Guendique's attorney says that the dismissal of these charges vindicates his client.
04:27Following Ingmar Guendique's release, authorities never identified any other suspects or persons
04:32of interest in Chandra Levy's abduction and death. They also noted a number of unusual
04:36pieces of evidence and circumstances linked to this cold case that had never been explained.
04:40As reported by CBS News, authorities found male DNA on the clothing Levy was wearing
04:44when she was killed, but the authorities have never found a match for the DNA. And as noted
04:48by ABC News, Levy's cause of death is not known. Nothing was found at the scene to indicate
04:53how she was killed.
04:54During their search of Levy's apartment, authorities noted her cell phone, driver's license, credit
04:58cards, and checkbook were all found inside. Three days before she vanished, Levy left
05:02a voicemail message for her aunt Linda that has also become a point of speculation. As
05:06reported by CBS News, Levy let her aunt know that her internship had ended and she would
05:10be returning home to California.
05:13Authorities were also blamed for making several mistakes that might have influenced the integrity
05:17of the investigation. Time reports that a sergeant, who was attempting to read the search
05:20history on Levy's laptop, inadvertently cleared the history, which delayed the discovery that
05:24she was searching for information about the park where her body was eventually found.
05:28Officials also failed to check the apartment complex surveillance cameras until the footage
05:32from the day Levy went missing had already been erased. Critics have also suggested police
05:36botched the search for Levy, which likely delayed the discovery of her remains and made
05:40it impossible for the coroner to determine her cause of death. As reported by The Washington
05:44Post, officials who searched the park in 2001 were told to limit their search to the roads
05:48in and around the park.