The murder of Chandra Levy remains unsolved
July 30, 2016 8:56 AM Subscribe
This week, prosecutors dropped all charges against the convicted killer of DC intern, Chandra Levy. A new trial had been granted last year, after it was discovered that the primary witness in the case, a jailhouse snitch, had lied about prior jailhouse testimony. The Washington Post reports today that all charges were dropped after a secret recording of the witness was made this month in which he admitted to lying in his testimony.
Chandra Levy was an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., when she disappeared on May 1, 2001. Soon after her disappearance it was revealed that she had been having an affair with the Congressman from her district, Gary Condit. Her body was discovered in Rock Creek Park, Washington DC, more than a year later, at which point a murder investigation began.
Chandra Levy was an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., when she disappeared on May 1, 2001. Soon after her disappearance it was revealed that she had been having an affair with the Congressman from her district, Gary Condit. Her body was discovered in Rock Creek Park, Washington DC, more than a year later, at which point a murder investigation began.
I love how we immediately deport him back to a country he hasn't been to in fifteen years. /s
I really hope he gets compensation or a settlement.
posted by Talez at 10:48 AM on July 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
I really hope he gets compensation or a settlement.
posted by Talez at 10:48 AM on July 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
I always assumed it was Condit who was ultimately responsible (maybe procured a drifter). So sad.
posted by Pocahontas at 12:35 PM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by Pocahontas at 12:35 PM on July 30, 2016 [2 favorites]
So it still could be Condit?
posted by asockpuppet at 1:51 PM on July 30, 2016
posted by asockpuppet at 1:51 PM on July 30, 2016
Condit's alibi is airtight...he was in a meeting with Dick Cheney, discussing the California Energy Crisis, at the time she was last known to be alive.
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 3:28 PM on July 30, 2016
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 3:28 PM on July 30, 2016
How is that an alibi? She could have been killed any time after 1 PM, and according to that article Condit's location are only vaguely known from when he leaves Cheney at 12:50 until "sometime after 6".
posted by Now I'm Prune Tracy! at 3:50 PM on July 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
posted by Now I'm Prune Tracy! at 3:50 PM on July 30, 2016 [7 favorites]
Ingmar Guandique remains the most plausible killer. He was responsible for other assaults on women at the time of Levy's death. His guilt is no longer known beyond a reasonable doubt, so prosecutors are doing the right thing. There is certainly more evidence to suspect Guandique than Condit.
posted by humanfont at 4:18 PM on July 30, 2016
posted by humanfont at 4:18 PM on July 30, 2016
How is that an alibi? Where were you on May 1, 2001?
This is the story, that led news in the run up to 9/11.
The Bush Administration was just settling into the Whitehouse.
At the time, the energy de-regulation scheme pushed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1996 was back-firing, and bankrupting California.
Dick Cheney declined to permit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to look into the shenanigans that would bankrupt the state, and later lead to the dissolution of Enron.
Such was the outrage at the sorry state of affairs, that California Governor Gray Davis faced a recall election, and lost.
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 4:48 PM on July 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
This is the story, that led news in the run up to 9/11.
The Bush Administration was just settling into the Whitehouse.
At the time, the energy de-regulation scheme pushed by Gov. Pete Wilson in 1996 was back-firing, and bankrupting California.
Dick Cheney declined to permit the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to look into the shenanigans that would bankrupt the state, and later lead to the dissolution of Enron.
Such was the outrage at the sorry state of affairs, that California Governor Gray Davis faced a recall election, and lost.
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 4:48 PM on July 30, 2016 [3 favorites]
I happened to see this news break while in the company of a 20-something person who hadn't heard about the case. I explained a bit and she asked me some questions, and I was surprised by how much I remembered. But what does her mother think? I wonder how she'd have harnassed the power of social media against Condit.
posted by Room 641-A at 9:34 PM on July 30, 2016
posted by Room 641-A at 9:34 PM on July 30, 2016
I was Gary Condit's direct neighbour in DC. As in apartments on the same floor of the same small 4-story building in Adams Morgan. I lived this story, in that as I had seen her come and go when many didn't know about her.
I was left a message by the DC homicide detective in the highest profile missing persons case in America, as well as various media that figured out who I was. They were all over me having sleuthed that I was in the apartment next door, but the DC detectives were very hard to return calls to. I remember being amazed by that.
I once left town to visit my (then) girlfriend in London only to see a picture of my building on the front page of the Guardian.
9/11 blew the story off the front pages (which I also saw, as I remember deciding to ride my bike up to the MD suburbs after seeing the Pentagon smoke and being told another plane was on its way.
Its very odd to have this story come back this week. Only last week I was discussing this story for the first time in years, with an old colleague who runs a TV network based on investigations, and she was considering a new film on the topic.
I really want to know what the undisclosed information that emerged only this past week was that lead them to drop the charges.
posted by C.A.S. at 7:37 AM on July 31, 2016 [5 favorites]
I was left a message by the DC homicide detective in the highest profile missing persons case in America, as well as various media that figured out who I was. They were all over me having sleuthed that I was in the apartment next door, but the DC detectives were very hard to return calls to. I remember being amazed by that.
I once left town to visit my (then) girlfriend in London only to see a picture of my building on the front page of the Guardian.
9/11 blew the story off the front pages (which I also saw, as I remember deciding to ride my bike up to the MD suburbs after seeing the Pentagon smoke and being told another plane was on its way.
Its very odd to have this story come back this week. Only last week I was discussing this story for the first time in years, with an old colleague who runs a TV network based on investigations, and she was considering a new film on the topic.
I really want to know what the undisclosed information that emerged only this past week was that lead them to drop the charges.
posted by C.A.S. at 7:37 AM on July 31, 2016 [5 favorites]
Note that Gary Condit made a living on settling lawsuits over every media organisation's assumptions that he was guilty, from Vanity Fair to an episode of Law and Order that speculated the wife's involvement as their big reveal ending.
She was in the apartment that weekend, very unusually. I literally had no idea he was married, and had never seen his wife in the building before.
Gary Condit was the ultimate expression of a Southern Baptist approach to sin/sex, as the product of Okies who dust bowled to CA but brought their mindset with them.
posted by C.A.S. at 7:41 AM on July 31, 2016 [9 favorites]
She was in the apartment that weekend, very unusually. I literally had no idea he was married, and had never seen his wife in the building before.
Gary Condit was the ultimate expression of a Southern Baptist approach to sin/sex, as the product of Okies who dust bowled to CA but brought their mindset with them.
posted by C.A.S. at 7:41 AM on July 31, 2016 [9 favorites]
C.A.S., what are your thoughts on Condit's culpability?
posted by Room 641-A at 1:41 PM on July 31, 2016
posted by Room 641-A at 1:41 PM on July 31, 2016
I have no conclusive thoughts, really. Two factors make me suspicious of him - his taste for rough bondage sex (which I obviously only learned about in recent reporting) edging on violence, and his clear set-up of different worlds which threatened to collide. He was manipulative and secretive, used to use false names, send girlfriends out ahead of him or out the back of our building to the alley, etc.
On the other hand, he was looked at very hard as suspect number one and they cleared him. I bought that at the time.
The convicted immigrant's lawyers were about to assert this month that Condit was the murderer as part of their case, which in the end was not necessary. But their theory is that the knotted tights found near her implied either accidental death during bondage or murder. When I first heard that I was skeptical, but then its obvious that their man was convicted on nothing.
I forgot so much of this story, like how Condit went out to Luray VA and called his other mistress from a cellphone, telling her he had to lay low.
Weird to remember sharing a small elevator with her, and that this was all so long ago.
posted by C.A.S. at 8:56 PM on July 31, 2016 [3 favorites]
On the other hand, he was looked at very hard as suspect number one and they cleared him. I bought that at the time.
The convicted immigrant's lawyers were about to assert this month that Condit was the murderer as part of their case, which in the end was not necessary. But their theory is that the knotted tights found near her implied either accidental death during bondage or murder. When I first heard that I was skeptical, but then its obvious that their man was convicted on nothing.
I forgot so much of this story, like how Condit went out to Luray VA and called his other mistress from a cellphone, telling her he had to lay low.
Weird to remember sharing a small elevator with her, and that this was all so long ago.
posted by C.A.S. at 8:56 PM on July 31, 2016 [3 favorites]
This story is never going to end, it's just going to get grosser and weirder and more tragic. And I say this as someone who had voted* for Condit (the bluest of the blue-dog Democrats in a part of California where "not electing a Republican" was a feat in itself) and went to high school with Chandra Levy. I never once suspected that he killed her, figuring it was detestable enough to obstruct the investigation to preserve his (fictional) clean-cut reputation. But as C.A.S. points out, DC is shockingly cool with open secrets about people's affairs.
*In 2000. What's amazing is that he had the audacity to try running for reelection in 2002 - no surprise, he lost the primary in a blowout. Modestans are not keen on bad press.
I love how we immediately deport him back to a country he hasn't been to in fifteen years.
I have very complicated feelings about our immigration regime and particularly the rhetoric around "illegal" entry, but someone who's been in and out of our justice system for years for repeated sexual assaults is someone whose deportation I am not inclined to protest.
posted by psoas at 10:42 AM on August 1, 2016
*In 2000. What's amazing is that he had the audacity to try running for reelection in 2002 - no surprise, he lost the primary in a blowout. Modestans are not keen on bad press.
I love how we immediately deport him back to a country he hasn't been to in fifteen years.
I have very complicated feelings about our immigration regime and particularly the rhetoric around "illegal" entry, but someone who's been in and out of our justice system for years for repeated sexual assaults is someone whose deportation I am not inclined to protest.
posted by psoas at 10:42 AM on August 1, 2016
For what its worth, Chandra's parents were on tv this week reaffirming their belief that the freed El Salvadoran is the killer. Others have expressed the same despite the issues on evidence regarding his "confession".
After review, I probably lean that way myself.
Chandra's parents on Kelly File
posted by C.A.S. at 11:18 AM on August 2, 2016
After review, I probably lean that way myself.
Chandra's parents on Kelly File
posted by C.A.S. at 11:18 AM on August 2, 2016
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