Report: Chandra's Family Believes Condit Did It

CNSNEWS.com ^ | 5/29/02 | Susan Jones

[kattracks]

The Chandra Levy murder remains in Wednesday's headlines, mainly because the "whodunit" has a political link.

According to The Hill , a newspaper covering the Capitol, the Levy family considers Rep. Gary Condit -- a California Democrat -- a suspect in Chandra's murder.

Chandra's family mourned her death on Tuesday, just hours after the D.C. medical examiner ruled that the 24-year-old woman had been murdered. Based on the skeletal remains found in a Washington park, however, the medical examiner could not say exactly how she was killed.

According to The Hill , Chandra's family is now redoubling their efforts to link Chandra's death to Condit, who lost the Democratic primary in March - and therefore, will lose his seat in Congress in January.

Condit is "in seclusion," according to his aides.

A Levy family source told The Hill , "We believe that in her final days on this earth that he [Condit] found out that other people knew about the affair, and we believe that he was trying to break off the relationship."

According to the police investigation, Condit's wife Carolyn was in Washington when Chandra disappeared.

[Fred Mertz]

Outstanding research Betty Jo!

[Terriergal]

lol!

[Terriergal]

Yeah but you stay married long enough to a nutcase like him and maybe she went over the edge and offed her hubby's girlfriend. Or maybe they did it together because he was getting tired of her and tired of the wife's jealousy. It feels totally bizarre to me to even think this way... but ... well there you go.

[harpo11]

You are so right in focusing on the first really strange reaction of many to follow, Condit displayed when confronted with the report of Chandra missing. It's almost as if he knew and expected the call that she was and he was prepared to offer that particular sum of money without any reason to do so. Moreover, he consciously delayed providing the authorities with relevant and critical information that may have immensely helped the investigation into her disappearance.

[cyncooper]

Um, a republican would have stepped down from office by now at the behest of his republican colleagues (and the hue and cry of the media, of course). A republican most certainly would not have been allowed to retain a seat on the intelligence committee or be assigned to the newly formed Homeland Security committee. That is as it should be, but there Condit still sits....

[The Great Satan]

I'd forgotten how bad that was. The watchbox was in his office, but he drives across town with Mikey to hide it in a McDonalds wrapper because he doesn't want the tabloids finding it in his trash. How absurd can you get?

He's guilty as hell.

[Howlin]

I know it's his job, but he does it so damn WELL, doesn't he?? I thought he was STRIDENT tonight. I guess he can't understand why nobody takes his word that Condit is innocent.

[terilyn]

Dang it, I just got home. I had to go to a school thing with my daughter. Any more details? Please...

[desertcry]

Who had the Motive, the Means, and the Opportunity? Answer these, and you have the murderer.

[SoCar]

I saw Geragos on Greta too. This seals it for me. The guy cannot account for his time and nothing that sleazy Geragos had to say could hide that fact. All he did was try to point fingers at those other guys. If Condit had an alibi he would release it. He doesn't.

Greta was pretty good but she cut that Mike Doyle from the ModBee off. I really wanted to know what his two questions were. And why desn't anyone ask Geragos WHERE IS THE WARCH? A simple but obvious question.

Another question I have, with Connie Chung he said that he threw the watchbox out in VA and not in his office because the tabloids were going through his trash. Since when do reporters have access to congressional garbage? I think that's ridiculous.

[beckett]

Can anyone explain why a man with so much to lose --- a man who's as familiar, or more familiar, with the methods of law enforcement and the American judicial system as any other American --- would leave crucial evidence of a crime lying on public ground for months and months on end?

The kind of evidence left available to the police at this crime scene will be invaluable in the hands of a skilled analyst. Condit surely qualifies as someone who knows that. Why --- if he bludgeoned her there and then fled --- didn't he find a way to clean up the scene in the intervening months? Why --- if he had a goon kill her --- didn't he ascertain from the goon the location of the body and have the scene cleaned?

The risks of not cleaning up that scene --- of having hard evidence found that can be used in court --- far outweigh the risks of being spotted in the area in the middle of night while cleaning it.

Condit would not have left that evidence lying out there --- it doesn't make sense. It's the kind of mistake a typical, lowlife, which-way-did-he-go-George criminal with a history of violent crimes against women might make. But Condit?

I don't buy it.

[The Great Satan]

Condit's no different from any other upscale murderer -- OJ, Einhorn, Capano, Blake, Skakel, etc. except that he appears to have been more effective at hiding the evidence of his crime than they were. It's unlikely the cops will ever be able to tie him to the crime on a forensic basis, both because of state of the body and crime scene, and because there are plenty of reasons for his hair, skin, semen, etc. to be found on her clothes, her body or in her apartment. Killing her and dumping her in the park was a no-brainer. Actually, doing something elaborate would have been the risky option -- because if you make one error, or have one bad break (think of Capano), it's gonna come straight back to you.

What is this silly thing people have about folks who wear a suit and tie commiting murder, anyway? It happens all the time. Get over it.

[The Great Satan]

Another question I have, with Connie Chung he said that he threw the watchbox out in VA and not in his office because the tabloids were going through his trash. Since when do reporters have access to congressional garbage? I think that's ridiculous.

Never mind the congressional garbage -- why not just leave it in his office? Of course, he's lying. Half the country thinks this guy murdered his girlfriend, and he goes on national TV and pulls this crap. Why? Because the truth is a very bad truth. That is the only reason that makes sense.

[Bonaparte]

" We each heard a different story."

There's been a lot of that in this whole Levy/Condit affair, and I should have known better by now. Thankyou for taking my rudeness so graciously, Ditter.

[Bonaparte]

"...before the Levys had any idea she was missing."

See my reply to rwfromkansas in post 151. We're essentially on the same page, except for whether the Levys had called the DC police with their concerns about the daughter before the evening of May 6. I tried to access the relevant May articles from the Modesto Bee but they wouldn't cough them up. I think I read about this around 5/16-18.

[beckett]

If Condit was the murderer, he could not have known how much of his own DNA was left at the scene, so your counter-argument that "[i]t's unlikely the cops will ever be able to tie him to the crime on a forensic basis" is not a position he would have had confidence in. I also doubt that there are "plenty of [innocent] reasons for his hair, skin, semen, etc. to be found on her clothes, her body." On the contrary, his skin under her nails would be damning evidence.

While the white hot glare of the public spotlight was on him, he may have been too pinned down to act, but after that spotlight swung away on 9-11, when he already knew that DC cops were finished with the park searches and that the only risk of discovery of the body was by some joker with a dog, a highly foreseeable event in an urban park, it would have been in his interest to remove Chandra's body and clothes. He didn't have to clean the scene perfectly. He just had to get the gross evidence of a crime out of there, so that even if a dog did alert on some residual odor, the dog's owner would see nothing amiss.

As for choosing to dump a body there --- again, a crowded urban park --- after committing the crime somewhere else, I disagree again. Why would someone drive to a city park to dump a body when there are hundreds of places within an hour's drive of Washington which are more suitable? If the killer had the time to move the body, surely he had the time to take her out to the woods in Maryland and bury her. I think it's far more plausible that her body was found there because she was killed there.

There is one circumstance that may have made it difficult for him to act. If the Levys were watching him, or he thought they might be watching him, he may have felt that it was too dangerous to return to the scene of the crime. That is only reason I can think of to explain why Gary Condit, if he murdered this girl and left her on public ground in a public park, would not have gone out there at some point post 9-11 and removed the evidence.

[hoosiermama]

Lot's of GOod points!

If the Levys were watching him, or he thought they might be watching him

Do believe it's the FBI that's watching him. Remember Anne Marie Smith was called in by SF agent (On order of DC) just days after CHandra's parents reported her missing. The watch box was dumped not because he was afraid that the tabloid were going through his trash. It was the FBI! The FBI sort of "volunteer" to help the DCPD.

[The Great Satan]

There is no way in hell Condit or any henchman of Condit would have been caught dead anywhere near Chandra's body once the police were aware of her disappearance. That's just silly.

As regards the deterrent effect on Condit of the possibility that he might leave forensic evidence on the body, well that is a very good argument for believing that murder is impossible. The 20,000 murders that occur every year in the United States alone are obviously just a figment of our collective imagination.

[LouisianaJoanof Arc]

#114

I agree with you. He would have called. He knew she was dead. To me, this is very powerful. He would offer up 10 grand but not dial a beeper number or cell number? Uh uh, just doesn't calculate.

[Woodstock]

Chandra Levey Case Chronology - Update #11)