DC DC - Chandra Levy, 24, Washington DC, 1 May 2001 *found deceased in 2002*

[Tsunami]

Just the other night, while unable to sleep, I did some sleuthing in regards to this case. I found this article very interesting!


http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/LEVY.html

 

[upallnite]

Tsunami
I read the article you posted.Sounds like one of those articles on whatreallyhappened.com. That was really bizarre,never heard any of this before.You know it really frustrates me to think how screwed up things have gotten in the U.S in the last 6-7 years.Geez.There aren't any words.

 

[Tsunami]

Hey upallnite,

Yes, it sure made me question a lot of things too. Whether it's true or not... I don't know. However, I'm sure there are a lot of things that go on within the government in which we'd all be shocked if we knew the real truth.

I'm up all nite also, and hubby is from Akron too. We have a lot in common!

 

[upallnite]

That article "IS" from whatreally happened.com.I had saved it to my favories and when I went to show it to someone else,it was listed on there as what reallyhap.Funny.They have a very distinctive paranoid view on just about everything.I don't know whether to believe anything on there or not.Anyhow I'm about to read "Murder on a Horse Trail." Maybe it'll shake me out of trying to figure out the Zodiac killer cypher once again.Maybe.

 

[Markco]

I have been looking back, lately, to the details of the Chandra Levy case. I hope not to upset anyone, but I have an alternate explaination for her death. It looks like to me that a simpler scenario would fit also. She was hiking in Rock Creek Park in a remote area. She stopped to take a break and have a snack. She choked on something she was eating. The location of her body was overlooked in the search for her. Time and animals scattered her remains.
The above is consistent with what is publicly known about the crime scene and circumstances. The damage to the bone in her throat and a possible cracked skull seem to indicate that she choked and struck her head during the suffering to try to dislodge food from her throat.
Then there is the leotard.
No stockings were listed in the items of clothing found. If the listing of her clothing is correct that I have seen, everything else was there. If I am correct, the leotard leg ends were tied on the inside of the leotard. I would say that she knotted them, turned them right side out, and wore them that way; hence no stockings. In the extended time that her remains were there, in is not inconcievable that they got turned wrong side out by acts of nature-- animals, etc.
Perhaps there never was a murderer.

 

[rd_jfc]

My understandiung is that the knotted leggings were attached to her limbs, disjointed as they were. For more on that and a description of the horse trail where Chandra was found, I invite true crime readers to read "Murder on a Horse Trail: The Disappearance of Chandra Levy" at http://www.justiceforchandra.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=32.

I look forward to other explanations from sharp eyed readers looking at the details of Chandra's disappearance.

rd

 

[Gozgals]

rd- I have put your forum in my favorites and look forward to joining. I must admit, I'm not "SHARP EYED @@" anymore but I may prove to be valuable.

My detective skills have been smashed, (sorry to say) but I hope I can at least be a welcome member on your board.

Markco- I like what you have proposed, and yes, accidents do occur, what sometimes does appear to be a crime, may not be but in this case, I feel the stockings and other indications lead one to believe your theory may be off base. I loved reading your theory though and found a different point of view refreshing. After all, this crime has not been solved.

Chandra Levy's case has always held my interest-- too many unanswered questions, the Congressman's involvement, (MO) and so many facts that don't add up.

I look forward to being a part of that forum and reading the board, and eventually your book. Reading skills are lacking at this time.

Thanks for posting. This case is one that holds more than the media splashed.


Good luck on your book- can't wait to start reading and I hope Chandra's family will one day get justice.

May all victims of crimes be set free!

 

[rd_jfc]

Looking forward to your thoughts, gozgals. Welcome. A lot of questions I am hoping that interested true crime readers can help answer since the DC police are sitting on it.

rd

 

[Gozgals]

Ah what a charmer rd, It's nice to be welcome. My reading skills are rusty, as well as the gumshoe skills after an accident but I do my best at re-learning (at a snails pace).

Maybe someday I can pose a question on what may be a cover up on an incident that may be a crime- in the future, of course. :doh: Too many legal aspects involved now.

Can't wait to run on over to the forum and start absorbing next week when I can. Checked it out while signing up. Yes, the DC boys seemed to be sitting on their azzes... They would be considered "gumshoes" right?

Thanks again rd.
.

 

[Markco]

I have read through the other material, posted elsewhere, that rd suggested. There is an awful lot of speculation. I couldn't find a direct quote from authorities that the leggings were tied onto any bone remains. What I did see was that the leggings were wrong side out and, as far as I can tell, tied at the leg ends. Of course details are obscured by authorites in an ongoing investigation out of necessity. The other direct reference appeared to be that they were found "very near" the remains.
A lot of this points to a petty thief with a Spandex fetish. In some 1700 acres of woodland I would tend to suspect a family of Racoons. They have a passion for shiny objects and intelligence and motor skills that rival that of primates. They are also omnivores.

 

[rd_jfc]

You have remarkable knowledge of the case, Markco. You are correct. The Washington Post reports that the leggings were found "near" her skeletal remains, the NY Post reports a knotted leotard found "next" to the remains. The police were at the same time reported to have speculated that the ends tied together suggest that she may have been restrained for a sexual assault.

The question is, were they just leggings tied together laying next to her on the ground or was the Washington Post deliberately reporting obscure information from the DC police? And were the ends merely tied together or were her leggings in fact found as a rope? Consider the following:


Knotted leotard clue to death of Chandra Levy
By Charles Laurence in New York
Daily Telegraph UK
May 26, 2002

Clues found at the Washington park where her skeletal remains were discovered last week included a torn leotard twisted into a rope.



Levy case likely to be filed as homicide
By Mary Shaffrey
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 28, 2002

Police sources say they are 90 percent sure Miss Levy was tied up with her own clothing, her hands bound by her tights.



GRIM PARK SITE IS REOPENED BUT CHANDRA
By NILES LATHEM
New York Post
June 1, 2002

The only clue is Levy's spandex legging, found inside out and knotted on both ends, indicating the possibility that she was restrained and sexually assaulted, police say.



Levy death may be classified as homicide
By Matthew Cella
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
May 25, 2002

Chief Gainer declined to comment on reports by WTTG-TV (Channel
5) that Miss Levy was bound, saying the source of that information
acted in an "immoral and unethical" manner in releasing it.



If the police are 90% sure Chandra was bound and felt it so important to the case that they thought it was "immoral and unethical" that it was leaked, I wonder with your extensive knowledge of the case Markco why you suggest otherwise?

rd

 

[Markco]

RD;


Please, please, no need to become so defensive. I was not attempting to topple other theories, or reduce anyone's book royalties, just searching for possible truth, like everyone else is. I do not claim special knowledge of the case. I was only hoping to clarify what it was that was released for facts about the leotard. And also to present another possible theory. If the facts about the leotard and other details of the crime scene are ever press released by the Washington Police department, I will be happy to accept them. And if a murderer is found I will be as pleased with justice as anyone will. :innocent:

Markco

 

[Markco]

...also I am not positive that Ms Levy would have sat passively by, while a killer removed her shoes and stockings, pulled the leotard off, turned it inside out, and knotted and twisted it into a rope to do whatever. Perhaps her stockings were taken as a souvineer? They were not listed among the retrieved clothing. And don't professional killers dispose of bodies, rather than making sure they are on display complete with murder weapon?

 

[rd_jfc]

I published Murder on a Horse Trail: The Disappearance of Chandra Levy for free on my web site at http://www.justiceforchandra.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=32

True crime readers can read it there but discuss it right here in Cold Cases on websleuths.com at no cost to them and no royalties to me.

I think very few people reading my post above would find it defensive. You raise a very good point that hadn't been addressed before on the Chandra sites as far as I know. That's why I say your knowledge of Chandra's case is remarkable, not necessarily special.

With the National Enquirer polluting information about the case with their special brand of ignorance, their description of the leggings found attached to the bones is in stark contrast to the very few actual mentions of the leggings as near the body as you pointed out.

So what does that mean? You imply in an earlier post that they are an article of clothing she was carrying, one can visualize tights tied around her waist perhaps. That's why the actual way they were tied, described as a rope, and the manner it was tied making the police 90% sure she was bound is important to distinguish from an article of clothing tied around her waist for example.

You suggest she was wearing stockings under what was described as sweat pants (Washington Post), running tights (Washington Times), leotards (Washington Post), stretch leggings (Washington Post) which was "a knotted piece of clothing that may have been used to tie up Chandra Ann Levy", knotted leotard (NY Post), leggings (NY Daily News), spandex legging (ABC News), and over that running shorts.

Why would she be wearing stockings or in my male ignorance what I presume to be pantyhose under spandex running tights as well as underwear?

Not only would she not be sitting passively while her tights were being taken off, she wouldn't willingly have been on the side of a mountain on a horse trail in a forest to start with. Which brings us to disposal of bodies.

Chandra's body was dragged down a steep hillside a couple of hundred yards back from and below a picnic area in Rock Creek Park on top of a ridge. I describe that crime scene in the Horse Trail chapter in my book. Muggers don't do that, but people who know the victim and want to hide their crime do.

rd

 

[rd_jfc]

The search hits starting coming in for Chandra Levy in the news, and I didn't look into them. They were all about a new show, Bones, and they all said about the same thing, that the show they were reviewing, apparently the series premiere show, was obviously a Chandra case rip off. I didn't read further to see if they liked it or not or when it was on. Everything so far along those lines have been extremely disappointing.

I was checking tonight what Nancy Grace was covering and as I flipped around I saw Bones on Fox TV. It appears to be a series and this first show sets up the characters as they deal with a skeleton found in water. This turned out to be a story that is obviously a hybrid of Chandra and Laci's cases.

The writer or writers were well versed in those cases, quite frankly dealing with it more accurately as a story than Court TV did with their special on Chandra's case a few weeks ago.

Of special interest was that the 22 to 25 year old girl, 5'3", 110 pounds (Chandra's description) was black. Yes, they hybrided Chandra and Jennifer Thomas and then had her buried in water as Laci was. Also similar to Laci's case was stuff about cement being found and used to convict the killer, the Senator whom she interned for.

I couldn't watch it straight through, I have a low threshold for bad writing, but suffice to say the Senator was nailed and convicted within an hour just like crime shows are supposed to.

The skull was shattered and they had pieced it together and determined it was shattered by a 20 pound sledgehammer, and lo and behold a search warrant for the Senator's home turned up a 20 pound sledgehammer. I didn't pay much attention but as usual there was indisputable forensic evidence linking the hammer and skull.

It is tv after all.

rd

 

[englishleigh]

Condit's lawyers are busy as bees
Former congressman sues newspaper, is sued by Baskin-Robbins
By Michael Doyle, McCLATCHY NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON — Former San Joaquin Valley congressman Gary Condit is now playing both offense and defense in the courts.

On offense, Condit is fighting a Phoenix-area newspaper he says defamed him. On defense, he's being challenged by Baskin-Robbins over his ice cream business. Taken together, several ongoing lawsuits reveal Condit's struggle to find his place since his involuntary departure from Congress in January 2003.

"I do believe that people are leery of being involved with me in a traditional way," Condit acknowledged in a deposition taken as part of a previous lawsuit.

Earlier this month, Condit sued a small Arizona paper thathe says hurt his reputation by how it characterized his handling of Chandra Levy's disappearance. A one-time Bureau of Prisons intern who was raised in Modesto, Levy disappeared in 2001. Her skeletal remains were found in Washington's Rock Creek Park a year later, in May 2002. Her murder has never been solved.

The weekly, free-circulation Sonoran News stated in a 2005 article that Condit was the "main focus in the Chandra Levy case in 2001, after lying to investigators about his affair with Levy."

In fact, police have neither identified any suspect in Levy's disappearance nor accused Condit of lying during the investigation.

"(The paper) intentionally published the defamatory article about (Condit) in a calculated effort to increase sales and increase corporate profits by falsely sensationalizing their tabloid coverage of the Chandra Levy case," the lawsuit contends.

Condit's Florida-based attorneys filed the lawsuit in Maricopa County, Arizona, where he now lives and where the 30,000-circulation Sonoran News serves residents of the Cave Creek community north of Phoenix.

Gary Condit and his wife, Carolyn, have filed multiple defamation lawsuits over press coverage of the Levy case. The cases have been settled privately.

"Everybody knows they have no intention of bringing this to trial," Sonoran News attorney Dan Barr said Monday.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_4096499

 

[KJERVIS]

She stopped to take a break and have a snack. She choked on something she was eating. The location of her body was overlooked in the search for her. Time and animals scattered her remains.
The above is consistent with what is publicly known about the crime scene and circumstances. The damage to the bone in her throat and a possible cracked skull seem to indicate that she choked and struck her head during the suffering to try to dislodge food from her throat.
murderer.

Her hyoid bone was broken which is consistant with strangulation. You do not see damage to this bone from people who have choked on food or other items.

Good alternative thinking though! Keep it up!:bang:

 

[Bluecat]

There was a report on the local NBC news station, channel 4, that an FBI profiler was still investigating the case. I think that the current theory now is that the location of the bones suggested that she was on the trail when the attack started, because of items found a short distance from the trail. He thinks that she was sexually assaulted, and that the leotards, which were inside out and knotted on the end, were used to restrain her. He is still actively pursuing the case.

 

[rd_jfc]

hi all, especially englishleigh. Nice to see you again.

The FBI Profiler would be Brad Garrett, who has been assigned to the case since summer 2001:

Condit submits to fourth interview
NBC NEWS AND WIRE REPORTS
July 27, 2001

Investigators have interviewed Rep. Gary Condit for a fourth time as part of their investigation of the disappearance of Chandra Levy, police said Friday.

FBI agents Bradley Garrett and Melissa Thomas, a specialist in profiling, posed most of the questions. Two Washington police detectives also attended, asking just a few questions, the source said, speaking only on condition of anonymity.

end quote

However, last I saw about him was that he was retiring in August. And yes, what he has said has indicated he thinks it's a sexual assault, but I will give him benefit of the doubt that he doesn't rule out Chandra being brought to the park by the person who assaulted her, which is my opinion.

The items left next to the path, and not obviously next to it but in some bushes, were her sunglasses. I examine that in chapter Found in Murder on a Horse Trail, link given earlier in thread. The sunglasses were on further inward on a path in the forest rather than closer to the picnic table and horse trail, and in my opinion was thrown there by the person who hid her to make it look like she lost them in a struggle coming out of the forest towards the picnic area, rather than from the picnic area into the forest, which would lend to speculation she was brought to the picnic area by car.

And we couldn't do that could we? Let's have her galavanting around in the middle of a spooky forest, so high up even the vagrants wouldn't climb that mountain.

Oh, by the way, did I mention the picnic area had a place to back up to the horse trail? But you're supposed to unload horses, not bodies.

rd

 

[close_enough]

ok....hubby's home & was on the phone, (sound turned down) but i saw a short bit on abc news .... something about "new clues" relating to the Chandra Levy case....anyone know anything about this????....

did a quick 'search' here on the internet, but didn't see anything.....

ETA....found this, but it's dated back the first of April.....

http://www.insideedition.com/ourstories/print/story.aspx?storyid=715

wonder what's up with the case as of today....