Homicide Ruling Focuses Levy Probe D.C. Police to Ask FBI Lab's Help In Learning How Ex-Intern Died

The Washington Post ^ | 5/29/02 | By Sari Horwitz and Allan Lengel

[stlnative]

Key parts of the article as the whole article can not be posted here...

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

HHMMmmmmmm........A little "VD" maybe....... The reason both Chandra and Gary had also gone to see the DR. before their 'break up'?????

Herpes Simplex.

[stlnative]

PING... Here is a new Levy case tid-bit I found in a Washington Post Article dated May 31, 2001

Skeleton Keys - Smithsonian Anthropologists Unlock Secrets in Bones of Ancestors and Crime Victims

The three physical anthropologists at Natural History most active in forensics spend much of their time investigating modern-day mysteries. In addition to identifying bodies, they help excavate the scene where remains are found, as Smithsonian anthropologist David Hunt did in the Levy case. And, while D.C. Medical Examiner Jonathan Arden identified Levy's remains, Hunt corroborated the identification and -- along with colleague Doug Ubelaker -- separated postmortem trauma from injuries incurred before or at the time of Levy's death. (Arden gave these details; Hunt and Ubelaker declined comment, citing the open investigation.)


Are they trying to sweat someone out by releasing these little tid-bits??? So her bones did show unusual injuries, just not enough to prove they are what killed her?

[stlnative]

After thinking about this... I would say they did find injuries, but not injuries that were large enough or bad enough to have killed her. My guess is that they would know maybe if her arm was broken during the attack or not (no her arm was not broke as far as anyone knows in public, but they would know from looking at her bones if it had been broke during her attack and murder. This would be something that they would keep to themselves (the police) because if they bring someone in for questioning the killer would be the only one that would know if they possibly broke her arm or not during the attack on her. I wonder what they found?, maybe a broken wrist or ribs, maybe a broken finger? (from someone trying to remove her ring?)

Remember the Medical Examiner was looking for signs of injuries that "would have caused her death", they could not find any injuries from her bones that were bad enough to actually kill her, like a severe skull injury. Even though they found the skull in pieces and cracked... I would now assume that the crack to her skull may not have been big enough to kill her (maybe enough to knock her out?), if they found the crack in the skull to have happen at the time of death or right after death. The skull may have cracked from exposure or from animals moving it around also.

What ever damage they found on Chandra's bones, they are keeping quiet about it, which they should do. But I feel horrible for the Levy's and what Chandra may have gone through before her death. I pray that this case is resolved and is resolved quickly.

[Fred Mertz]

I love your posts, brigette, but don't add the total speculation into the cluttered scenery. We have to work with facts, evidence and clues. Theories from those sources are authorized.

Keep up the great work!

[ladyinred]

This mornings news says the paper had erroneously reported that the ring had been recovered on her remains. The bracelet also is missing according to todays news.
The fact that they are missing does not necessarily mean they were stolen in a robbery murder, someone might not want her to be identified easily.

[stlnative]

Postmortem = injuries to body after death, these injuries can be cause right after someone dies, for example a person dies by the hand of a killer and the killer decides to remove a ring from a finger and breaks the finger after the death of the victim, then this is a postmortem injury or if an animals drags remains around or chews on the remains and causes injury to the remains this also postmortem.


Perimortem = are injuries that occured right before death or what caused the actual death. This is what the Medical Examiner could not verify in the Levy case, because so much time had passed. I would assume they did not find a bullet hole or knife marks on the remains they found. This is not to say she did not die from a bullet or from being stabbed... there just was not enough evidence on the remains to give them a clear picture of how she died.


NOT FOR THE LIGHT HEARTED - Here is website that explains Peri & Post - Mortem, there are bone remains pictured on this website, so I am warning you now. They are not gross picture, but show bones and certain injuries on the bones.
Trauma Analysis

[stlnative]

I really believe who killed her, did not worry if she would be ID or not. Normally if a killer has the time and is really worried about the body being ID, they would have removed her teeth or actually dismembered her. (head, hands, and feet) Teeth last forever...even after the body is decomposed. Plus they left her clothes.

The missing ring, is just that... a missing ring. It may have been taken as a trophy or memento by the killer. It also may have been dragged off and has not been found yet. Raccoon's love shiney stuff and racoon could have dragged it off. I don't believe it was taken from the scene by the killer to hide who she was.

[stlnative]

CORRECTION

PING... Here is a new Levy case tid-bit I found in a Washington Post Article dated May 31, 2001.

Should have been typed as...

PING... Here is a new Levy case tid-bit I found in a Washington Post Article dated May 31, 2002

[stlnative]

Some Maps...


Chandra's Apartment = 1260 21st St, NW
to
Klingle Mansion = 354 Williamsburg Lane

Distance of 3.0 miles
See Map

*******

Chandra's Apartment = 1260 21st St, NW
to
Condit's Condo = 2611 Adams Mill Road
Distance of 1.8 miles
See Map

*******

Chandra's Apartment = 1260 21st St, NW
to
Location between Brandywine St NW and Grant Road NW (Remains were found about 100 yards from Broad Branch Road and in the park between Brandywine St NW and Grant Road NW, the yellow line traveling down between the two roads mention above is Broad Branch Road =
Distance of ? miles... I need an exact address number to get exact miles, but it is about 4 miles from Chandra's Apartment
See Map

*******

Condit's Condo = 2611 Adams Mill Road
to
Klingle Mansion = 354 Williamsburg Lane

Distance of 1.3 miles
See Map

*******

[stlnative]

Aspen Hill (Albert Cook's Town) to Klingle Mansion (What Chandra was looking up on the Computer)
= A total of 11.7 miles and probably easy to get to by taking public transportation. See Map

[stlnative]

Sorry I cannot post the full story since it is from the Washington Post, but more details are in the story.

Levy Search Site Reopened in Park - Police End Probe Of Scene Where Remains Found

Snippets from story...
The last pieces of evidence -- small bits of bone believed to be Levy's -- were found May 24, police said. But they searched the site again this week, including Broad Branch creek, using recruits and cadaver-detecting dogs.

On May 22, police search teams recovered a skull and other skeletal remains scattered over an area of about 30 yards, about four miles from her Dupont Circle apartment. D.C. Medical Examiner Jonathan L. Arden identified the remains as Levy's.

On Wednesday, police posted on their Web site a drawing of the 14-karat-gold pinkie ring bearing the initials CL.

Gainer said he hoped by Monday to have a drawing of the bracelet.

[stlnative]

From my Post #151, I forgot to add this...

The slope where Levy's remains apparently were found is as steep as 45 degrees and lies about 100 yards uphill from Broad Branch Road and 40 yards downhill from a hiking trail. The slope is covered with ferns, fallen trees and a slippery carpet of dead leaves. Tall trees block out much of the sun, and poison ivy grows along the ground.

So her remains were actually closer to the trail at the top of the hill, then the bottom of it. It just shows us that the earlier media reports were really off. Somebody was tipping of press with false information... If I recall correctly they first reported that remains were found a FEW 100 yards from the trail located at the top of the hill.

[MozarkDawg]

So her remains were actually closer to the trail at the top of the hill, then the bottom of it. It just shows us that the earlier media reports were really off. Somebody was tipping of press with false information... If I recall correctly they first reported that remains were found a FEW 100 yards from the trail located at the top of the hill.

I know those cadets did a crummy job in their search, but surely a decomposing body would have been pungent enough for even their less-than-adequate wander.

I'm still in doubt as to her actually meeting her demise in that park, especially now that the Walkman first reported found is no longer on the list.

[stlnative]

The lastest press releases/stories mentioning Chandra Levy for June 1st, 2002

Battered in Washington (click here to read Washington Post Article)

A tidbit from the above article...
Now meet the real Washington, where -- as of April 2 -- sexual assaults in the 3rd Police District, which starts a block away from where Chandra Levy lived, were up a whopping 78 percent over the same period last year. Taste and see warm and fuzzy D.C., where, as of yesterday, the homicide count, at 91, was running 34 percent ahead of last year's murders.

Interns Arrive With a Need for Housing. Can They Find It? (click here to read Washington Post Article)

Stories that were published on 5/31/02 while I was offline

Cops Need a Break to Find Levy Killer

(Full Story Posted Below)

Cops Need a Break to Find Levy Killer

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:28 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Police found Chandra Levy's remains through happenstance and, although they have concluded she was killed, they'll need another big break to find who did it and how.

For now, the most likely scenarios are that she was strangled or suffocated. Police are visiting pawn shops in search of her missing jewelry and talking again to cab drivers, hoping to find someone who dropped her off the day she disappeared 13 months ago.

Levy's knotted leggings, found near her remains, suggest she could have been sexually assaulted.

The uncertainty about so much of what happened to Levy, 24, of Modesto, Calif., underscores the difficulty police face in trying to solve the case.

``Was it a sexual assault? An attack by a stranger, by someone she knew? All of these are possibilities,'' Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said Friday.

Dr. Jonathan Arden, Washington's medical examiner, classified Levy's death a homicide not through his examination of her remains, but by relying on the circumstances of her disappearance on May 1, 2001, and the discovery of her remains in a remote area of Rock Creek Park last week by a man walking his dog and looking for turtles.

Arden said he could not determine how Levy died, noting he saw no evidence she was shot, stabbed or beaten.

Medical examiners have said the absence of any such evidence makes it more likely she was strangled or smothered. Either would be difficult to prove in Levy's case because the soft tissues of the body that could lead to such a diagnosis had completely decayed after more than a year, leaving only her bones.

The question of sexual assault could be answered by the FBI crime lab in Quantico, Va., which is expected to analyze the clothing found with Levy's remains for blood, hair, fibers and semen.

Clint Van Zandt, a former FBI profiler, said investigators are handicapped in their search for a killer by the lack of information about how Levy died.

``From a profiler's standpoint, I have to know my victim and then I have to know what happened to her to be able to develop a profile of who might have killed her,'' he said.

Police spent more than a week at the park site where Levy's remains were found. They recovered a University of Southern California T-shirt, an exercise bra and athletic shoes -- referred to by police variously as tennis shoes and jogging shoes.

Searchers did not find Levy's keys, which were missing from her apartment when they searched it a year ago, a 14-karat gold pinkie ring with diamond chips on either side of the inscribed initials CL, and a bracelet that, according to Levy's aunt, was a gift from Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif.

Police learned nothing from cab drivers when they sought help last year, but Ramsey said they have yet to check the trip logs that drivers are supposed to keep. Similarly, investigators checked pawn shop records last year without finding anything, Ramsey said.

But he said it is worth a second look because the jewelry could have changed hands in that time. ``If someone has it, they may not have had any idea where it came from,'' he said.

Just as likely, the jewelry remains somewhere in the park, despite the police search, said David Schertler, a former homicide prosecutor in Washington. ``It could easily have washed away and still be there somewhere under the mud,'' Schertler said.

The best chance for police to resolve the case is for an informant to come forward, Schertler and former U.S. Attorney Joseph di Genova said.

``They need a snitch and there is a snitch out there,'' di Genova said.

Police had no leads in the killings of three workers in a Starbucks store in Washington in 1997 until a tipster led them to the killer more than 2 1/2 years later, Schertler said.

Ramsey said there are no suspects. Condit reportedly admitted to police that he was having an affair with Levy, but he has denied any involvement in her disappearance. Police have repeatedly said he is not a suspect.

Ramsey also played down police interest in Ingmar Guandique of Washington and Albert Cook Jr. of Bethesda, Md. Both men were convicted of violent crimes in Rock Creek Park last year, but Ramsey said there are many differences between their crimes and the Levy case.

^------

On the Net:

Washington police Levy investigation

[stlnative]

Correct Link to Washington Police Site on the Levy Case

[stlnative]

Link to Washington DC Police Site on Missing Ring
Watch this site as the Missing Bracelet Picture is suppose to be released on Monday - June 3rd, 2002.

[John Jamieson]

The "hiking trail" is not the "jogging trail" at the top of the hill which is atleast 200 yards away. The article says nothing about "the top" of the ridge.

[SarahW]

What happened? They found her body actually in the park, in the area where he assaulted two other women. (as opposed to the banks of the Potomac, a cave in Luray, etc).

They shouldn't have discounted him. I doubt they seriously considered him in the first place.

I would not take the polygraph as the final word on his guilt, myself...I think the tests are NOT reliable, especially when you are dealing with a psychopath.

[SarahW]

Albert Cook didn't do this murder. But you are not correct about him being on trial May 1. He had not been arrested for any crime at the time Chandra was murdered.

[stlnative]

Yes... Donna helped point this out earlier to me that Cook was free on May 1, 2001. Also Cook attacked people near his home about 12 miles away from Klingle Mansion. I still think he should be looked into by police so that he can be ruled out completely as a possible suspect.