WASHINGTON (KRT) — Chandra Levy’s death was ruled a homicide Tuesday, but the city’s medical examiner said there was not enough evidence on her skeletal remains to determine how the 24-year-old former federal intern was murdered.
“It’s possible we will never know specifically the injury that caused her death,” said Dr. Jonathan L. Arden, Washington’s chief medical examiner.
Police expected to finish by Wednesday their search of the densely wooded section of a park where Levy’s body was found on May 22. Clothing found at the scene will be sent to the FBI crime lab for further testing and detectives met Tuesday to plan their next steps.
“We will solve this case, I guarantee you that,” Washington Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey said, bristling at questions about whether his department should have handled her disappearance any differently. “How long it takes, I don’t know. … We are not going to stop, whether it’s a day from now or 10 years from now, it doesn’t matter to us.”
The official homicide ruling came just hours before Levy’s parents held a memorial service for her in the family’s hometown of Modesto, Calif. The disappearance of Levy on May 1, 2001, touched off a nationwide search and led to the downfall of Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif. Condit, who reportedly told police he and Levy had a romantic relationship, has denied any involvement in her disappearance.
Ramsey on Tuesday said it was too early to call anyone a suspect and wouldn’t say whether Condit would be re-interviewed.
“We’ll speak to anyone who we feel we need to speak to further this investigation,” Ramsey said. “Right now we have a lot of people we want to interview or perhaps need to re-interview.”
Ramsey also would not rule out additional interviews with Ingmar Guandeque, 20, of Washington, who is serving 10 years in federal prison for two knifepoint attacks on women jogging in Rock Creek Park on May 14, 2001, and July 1, 2001. Police talked to him about Levy’s disappearance last year.
Although police recovered almost all of Levy’s skeleton, the bones — exposed to the elements for about a year — showed no conclusive evidence of a cause of death, such as strangulation, knife or gunshot wounds, Arden said. He could not determine if Levy was killed where her body was found.
“There’s less to work with here than I would like … but certainly enough to render some conclusions,” Arden said of the body. “The circumstances of her disappearance and her discovery, having been secluded in the park, and taking into account the personal effects that were found at the scene allows me to conclude her was death was homicidal in nature.”
Police also recovered at the site a jogging bra, tennis shoes and a sweatshirt from the University of Southern California, where Levy had earned a master’s degree.
Levy was last seen April 30, 2001, as she prepared to return to California after her internship with the U.S. Bureau of Prisons ended. The next day, she sent e-mail from her computer and searched the Internet for directions to an old mansion in the park.
Levy, a jogger, left her apartment sometime after logging off her computer at about 12:30 p.m. May 1, 2001. Only her keys were missing from her apartment, leading to speculation that she might have headed to the park for a run.
Ramsey said it helps police to know that Levy was murdered and did not somehow die accidentally in the park. He said the investigation would not necessarily be hindered by not having a cause of death.
“It’s always good to get a cause, but it doesn’t really stop us from moving from forward,” Ramsey said. “We know the manner of death was homicide. The questions still remain: How did she get there, was she going to see someone when she got there, was she
just out for a walk?”
© 2002, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.