Who Murdered Chandra Levy?

On May 6th, 2001, in Modesto, California, Bob Levy called Washington D.C police. He hasn't heard from his daughter, Chandra, in five days. 

She was born April 14, 1977 in Cleveland, Ohio to Robert and Susan Levy. As a child, she had a bold personality. She was also very bright. Later the family moved to Modesto, California, where Chandra attended Grace M. Davis High School. She then attended San Francisco State University, where she earned a degree in journalism. She interned for the California Bureau of Secondary Education and worked in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan. After that, she began attending the University of Southern California to earn a master's degree in public administration. She was interested in pursuing a law degree and had submitted her application for employment with the FBI.

On Friday, September 14th, 2000, as part of her final semester of study Chandra moved to Washington, D.C. and became an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. 

In October, 2000 she was assigned to the public affairs division at the bureau's headquarters. Her supervisor, Dan Dunne, was impressed with her work, especially her handling of media inquiries regarding the upcoming execution of Timothy McVeigh.


Chandra spent Thanksgiving weekend with her aunt, on the eastern shore of Maryland. Chandra revealed that she has an older boyfriend that is a congressman.

Saturday, December 23, Chandra sends an email to a friend saying,
"Everything in D.C. else in D.C. is going good, my man will be coming back here when congress starts up again."

Chandra called the landlord around mid- January 2001. She talked about the possibility of breaking lease to move in with an unidentified boyfriend. Weeks later she tells the landlord it didn't work out.

Her family came to visit her on Friday, April 6th. They join up at Chandra's aunts house for Passover weekend in Chesapeake. 

She tells her aunt that her boyfriend gave her a bracelet and he is Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif.

Her internship was terminated in April 2001 because her academic eligibility was found to have expired in December 2000. Monday, April 27th, was her last day of interning. She had already completed her master's degree requirements and was scheduled to return to California in May 2001 for graduation. 

Saturday, April 28th, Chandra left two messages on the landlord's machine saying that her job had ended. She also e-mails that she would like to move out by May 5th or 6th. She said that, "I have no real reason to stay around here."

Also, Condit's wife allegedly arrived in Washington.

Sunday, April 29th, Chandra's aunt received a phone message from her. She said in her message she needed to talk to her about something important.The aunt doesn't return the phone call.

Monday, April 30th, Chandra cancels her membership to the Washington Sports club and leaves the gym sometime after 7 p.m.

Tuesday, May 1st, Chandra decides it's time to return home to California and sends her last email to her parents. She sends them a listing with airline fares. She surfs the internet until 1 p.m.  Chandra then left her apartment in the Dupont Circle neighborhood of  Washington D.C. and then no one hears from Chandra ever again.

At the same time, Condit was allegedly meeting with the Vice President of the United States, Dick Cheney.

"It's about 6:30, i haven't heard from you, so maybe you are out of the country or something. Anyway, give me a call when you get this message. Bye," said Condit the first of of two messages he had left in Chandra's voicemail.

"It's 11:45. Um, sorry i've been tied up the last few days, um, on your end on that. So, uh, give me a call, give me a rundown on kind of what your schedule is. Things are looking pretty good for me today. Anyway, bye," said Condit in his second call.

Fast forward to May 6th. At 3 p.m., police searched Chandra's apartment for clues. It appears that she was packed up and ready to leave. Her driver's license, credit cards and cell phone were still in the apartment. Her keys were missing and her gold ring.

After looking at Chandra's apartment, it was clear to investigators that Chandra was planning on coming back. Thinking that she had possibly had been attacked, police started looking in trashcans and alleys for evidence.

A detective tried to look at Chandra's computer and somehow corrupted it in the process. So they had to take it to a forensic expert to try to salvage what they could.

One of the things that investigators failed to do was get the video footage of the surveillance camera outside Chandra's apartment. By the time they got around to it, the tape was recorded over.

Back in California, Chandra's parents looked at her cellphone bill. They found a phone number which had been called many times. The number was identified as belonging to California congressman Gary Condit, had been called many times. 

Even though it appeared that Condit was having an affair with Chandra, he claimed that they were just friends and that he was very fond of her. Condit quickly became a person of interest in her disappearance. When police talked with him, he was very secretive, but his alibi was very hard to poke holes in.

Investigators talked with everyone that Chandra knew and worked for in Washington D.C.

Friday, May 11th, Chandra misses her graduation ceremony.

Wednesday, May 16th, police say cadaver dogs have found nothing in parks or along the Potomac and Anacostia rivers.

Friday, May 18th, the Washington Post quotes a deputy police chief saying Chandra had visited Condit's apartment several times and then later denies the statement. Also, Chandra's friends, family and supporters hold a vigil in Sacramento, Calif.

On June 21st, Chandra parents went on T.V. to plead for their daughter's safe return.

"We are parents are very heartbroken, as we don't know where our daughter is. But i believe and continue to hope and pray that she will come back to us alive," said Susan Levy.

Chandra's parents had felt like they were getting stonewalled and they were hoping that she was alive someplace so they hired private investigator Joe McCann. Joe was a 30 year police veteran and the head of Washington D.C.'s homicide department for 15 years. From the beginning Joe knew that Chandra was murdered.

Friday, July 6th, Condit finally admitted to police that he had a sexual relationship with Chandra.

Tuesday, July 10th,  police and FBI forensics investigators enter and search Condit's apartment just before 11 p.m. Washington as investigators consider whether the congressman may have tried to obstruct justice in the search for Chandra. A witness told police that the night before the search they saw Condit throw something away in another neighborhood, in someone else's trash can. That object turned out to be a a watch box.

Wednesday, July 11th, forensic investigators wrap up a three-hour search of Condit's apartment.

Thursday, July 12th, Condit turns over a DNA sample to police, which matched semen stains found in Chandra's underwear in her apartment.

Investigators also search abandoned apartment buildings for signs of Chandra.

After information was finally retrieved from Chandra's computer, on Monday, July 16th, U.S. Park Police on horseback join police academy cadets in combing through the woods of Rock Creek Park in Northwest Washington, because Chandra surfed an Internet site for directions to a historic mansion in the park on the day she vanished. They believe she might have met someone there. They found nothing.

On May 22nd, 2002, around 9:30 a.m., a man on a morning outing with his dog in Rock Creek Park, near Broad Branch Creek, swept away loose debris and uncovered skeletal remains that later matched Chandra's dental records. Detectives found bones and personal items scattered, but not buried, in a forested area along a steep incline where they had not previously searched. A sports bra, sweat shirt, leggings and tennis shoes were among the evidence that was recovered. Chandra's remains were found about four miles from her apartment. 

At the end of Chandra's leggings, both sides had been tied in a knot on the end. This might indicate that it was used to restrain Chandra in some way. Her underwear and shirt had been turned inside out. Her shirt also had a weird pattern on it, like it might have been put in her mouth. One of her shoes had it's laces untied.

On May 28th, D.C. medical examiner Jonathan L. Arden officially declared Levy's death a homicide. Arden found damage to her hyoid bone.

On June 6th, the private investigator McCann found Chandra shin bone with some twisted wire about 25 yards from the other remains.

The Autopsy couldn't confirm she was pregnant, but before her death Chandra told at least one friend that she was and that it was the senator's baby.

In September 2001, an informant held in a D.C. jail, claimed to have knowledge of Chandra's killer. 

The informant said that Ingmar Guandique, a 20-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador also being held in the jail, told him that Condit paid him $25,000 to kill Chandra. Guandique had already admitted to assaulting two other women in the same park where Chandra's remains were found.
He failed to show up for work on the day of Chandra's disappearance. His face appeared scratched and bruised at around that time.The investigators on the Chandra's case did not interview the other Rock Creek Park victims. Guandique denied attacking Chandra.

In 2006, Cathy L. Lanier replaced the lead detective on the case with three veteran investigators who had more homicide experience.

In September 2008, investigators searched Guandique's federal prison cell in California and found a photo of Chandra that he had saved from a magazine. Police interviewed acquaintances of Guandique and witnesses of the other Rock Creek Park incidents.

On March 3, 2009, the Superior Court of the District of Columbia issued an arrest warrant for Guandique.

April 22, Guandique was charged in D.C. with Chandra's murder.
He was indicted by a grand jury on six counts. He pleaded not guilty. Prosecution witness Armando Morales, who shared a cell with Guandique at the U.S. Penitentiary in Kentucky, stated that Guandique, a fellow member of the Mara Salvatrucha gang, confided to him that he had killed Chandra while trying to rob her, but said that he did not rape her.

During closing arguments prosecutor Amanda Haines contended that Guandique bound and gagged Chandra after attacking her, leaving her to die of dehydration or exposure in the park.

On November 22nd, 2010, the jury found Guandique guilty of both remaining counts of first-degree murder.

On June 3rd, 2015, the defense said a new witness, a neighbor of Chandra's, called 911 at 4:37 a.m. on the last day Chandra's was alive to report hearing a "blood-curdling scream."

On June 4th, 2015, Judge Gerald Fisher granted a motion for the new trial.

On July 28th, 2016, prosecutors announced that they would not proceed with the case against Guandique and would, instead, seek to have him deported.

Chandra's case is unsolved.

Who do you think murdered Chandra? I hope that with the advancement in technology over the years, that her clothes will be looked at again and tested for DNA. And maybe once and for all we can find out #WhoMurderedChandraLevy