CRIME HUNTER: Homicide of D.C. intern Chandra Levy stays an enigma

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“Energy is the last word aphrodisiac.”

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– Henry Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of State

They usually arrive in droves, like moths to a flame.

Nerdy ladies from across the planet are drawn to the corridors of energy in Ottawa, Washington and London. To them, the grey-skinned males working their international locations are gods exuding animal magnetism.

However in these political sewers lie predators, prepared to have intercourse with one intern earlier than slithering off to the following starry-eyed public coverage groupie.

Modesto, Calif. native Chandra Levy was one in every of these ladies. A bookish A-student with a mop of luxuriant curly hair, she embodied the phrase “keener.”

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Levy moved to Washington, D.C. within the fall of 2000 for an internship on the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She impressed the brass along with her skillful dealing with of the media within the upcoming 2001 execution of Oklahoma Metropolis bomber Timothy McVeigh.

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Nonetheless, the internship went off the rails in April 2001 as a result of her tutorial eligibility had expired. She advised friends she was perplexed why her native congressman, Democrat Gary Condit, did nothing to assist her.

Levy grew up the daughter of a rich surgeon father. Her dad and mom had been described as “tremendous crunchy boomer, granola varieties.” Her revolt was an obsession with cops and police work.

She was a match, outdoorsy woman who beloved understanding on the fitness center. She didn’t drink or do medicine and she or he dressed frugally.

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Within the autumn of 2000, Levy and a pal met their native congressman, Gary Condit. She advised household and pals the blue canine Democrat regarded like Harrison Ford however as commentator Paul Begala as soon as quipped: “Politics is present enterprise for ugly individuals.”

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Not lengthy after assembly, Levy and the three-decades-older and much-married Condit launched into a sexual affair. With out naming the politician, Levy gushed to pals about him.

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After her internship imploded in April, Chandra Levy, 23, was returning dwelling to California.

On Could 6, 2001, D.C. cops had been alerted by her dad and mom that they’d not heard from their daughter in 5 days and that was uncommon. Detectives checked hospitals and entered her residence in posh Dupont Circle.

Nothing appeared out of the peculiar however her father supplied up investigators a curious tidbit: Chandra was having an affair with a congressman and he believed the politician in query was Gary Condit.

For the media, the story had all of it: A reasonably intern, a married congressman and a thriller. I’d know, the New York Put up despatched me to D.C. to cowl the story.

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Condit was lower than forthcoming with cops and reporters. He was evasive. A pleasant detective spilled the beans that the creepy congressman had certainly been engaged in a sexual affair with Levy.

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We started digging up all the pieces we might on Gary Condit. There was the flight attendant, Anne Marie Smith, who was additionally having an affair with the pervy politico. She advised detectives Condit ordered her to not converse to the FBI.

There have been rumours that he was into BDSM and had unintentionally killed Levy after a tough intercourse session got here off the rails. And the petulant politician refused to take a lie detector check.

A ballot revealed 44% of Individuals believed Condit had a hand in Levy’s disappearance.

After which, Condit obtained a break: Terrorists struck New York and Washington on 9/11 and Chandra Levy’s disappearance light from the headlines because the nation’s focus turned to terror.

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After Levy’s disappearance, investigators searched Rock Creek Park the place her pc searches indicated she could have gone for a run. They discovered nothing.

By the spring of 2002, Gary Condit’s political profession was over after he misplaced the Democratic major.

Greater than a 12 months after she was final seen, on Could 22, 2002, a person strolling his canine in Rock Creek Park found skeletal stays. The enamel matched the lacking girl’s dental information. As well as, scattered within the space had been Levy’s sports activities bra, sweatshirt, leggings and trainers.

The health worker declared Levy’s demise a murder, including that how she died would by no means be recognized though he suspected she had been strangled to demise.

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In September 2001, detectives had been tipped off by a jailbird {that a} man busted for 3 rapes within the park was boasting that Gary Condit had paid him $25,000 to homicide Chandra Levy.

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Cops had been uncertain however the 20-year-old man, El Salvadoran undocumented migrant Ingmar Guandique, turned an individual of curiosity. He had failed to point out up for work the day Levy vanished and his landlady advised investigators his face had been scratched.

He went down on the rapes and the Levy case was headed to chilly storage till 2007 when detectives took one other look.

On March 5, 2009, reputed MS-13 member Guandique was arrested and charged with first-degree homicide within the demise of Levy.

He pleaded not responsible.

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He went on trial on Oct. 18, 2010, practically a decade after the Levy homicide. Condit was known as to testify however nonetheless wouldn’t admit to the affair. An FBI forensics investigator mentioned semen from Levy’s underwear present in her residence matched Condit’s DNA.

Condit mentioned: “I’m not going to answer that query out of privateness for myself, and Chandra.”

Jailhouse rat Armando Morales mentioned Guandique confessed to murdering Levy whereas trying to rob her, including that he didn’t rape the intern.

On Nov. 22, 2010, after three days of deliberations, the jury discovered Guandique responsible of murdering Chandra Levy. However it later emerged that Morales had perjured himself and lied.

Prosecutors dropped the fees and Ingmar Guandique was deported from the U.S. in 2017.

In 2001, one of many FBI’s high chilly case investigators interviewed Condit.

“He interviewed Condit for about an hour,” Washington Put up reporter Scott Higham advised the New York Put up in 2011. “He felt that the congressman didn’t care sufficient about her to kill her.”

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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