NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, June 29, 2001

But this is not history, it's not Bill Clinton. So far, it's just a missing persons case.

"We have no evidence of foul play. We have no evidence of suicide," Metropolitan Police Department Chief Charles Ramsey said. "What we have is a missing persons case."

Much like the 1,500 or so missing persons cases reported so far this year.

Chandra Levy, a 24-year-old intern, last contacted her parents by e-mail on April 30. She said she'd be home in several days to attend her grad school graduation at the University of Southern California. She had just lost her internship at the Federal Bureau of Prisons because she had technically graduated in December when all her course requirements had been fulfilled and could only work four months past graduation.

She went to her health club on April 30 and cancelled her membership, then apparently went home to her apartment on 21st Street in the trendy and lively Dupont Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

No one has reported seeing her since she left the health club. On May 5, her worried parents reported her missing when she didn't return home and they hadn't heard from her.

When police went to her apartment, they found much of her belongings already packed. She even left her purse, credit cards and cell phone. The only things apparently missing were her keys.

And Chandra.

In the seven weeks since, police have canvassed neighbors, scoured the neighborhood and nearby parks - even using corpse-sniffing dogs. They have talked to friends and co-workers.

And twice, police have interviewed Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., whose aides have repeatedly denied suggestions that he was having a romantic relationship with Chandra.

Most missing persons cases don't get this level of attention, say members of the Metropolitan Police Department: attention, as in congressmen, television, local and out-of-town newspapers all following the case, coverage on cable news outlets and national magazines.

But one detective in the department's Second District - the area where Levy was last seen and the district assigned to the case - said each missing persons case is investigated on its merits.

"Each case is different, we look at it all," the detective said, asking that his name not be used. "I've been able to use lots of department resources, outside agencies including (U.S.) Park Police, Secret Service, and helicopters. We've used volunteers before."

Many missing persons cases are children and the elderly.

Any child 17 years old or younger is declared a critical missing person, as are some senior citizens and people with certain medical or mental conditions, by department policy.

An official - sergeant or above - must go to the scene of any missing juvenile report, according to a police lieutenant who often has served as watch commander in his district, which has many runaway reports. In some cases, police will set up a command post and an official will monitor communications and search efforts.

For missing persons 18 and over, the cases usually are less critical unless there is obvious evidence of foul play - or a suicide note - said Sgt. Robert Garaflo, leader of the juvenile missing persons detail.

"They are adults, they are free to move around," said the Second District detective.

In fact, police normally won't take a missing persons report abut a healthy adult until at least 48 hours has passed.

Garaflo said, "our load, its 95 percent runaways. In Boston, they run to New York, in New York they run to Philadelphia or Boston. Here in D.C. they run from Northwest to Southeast (different quadrants of the city).

"Most of our cases are wrapped up in 48 to 72 hours," Ramsey said. Garaflo, though not working on the Levy case, acknowledges there might be some pressure. He remembered one case several years ago involving a 16-year-old who already was a junior at Georgetown University who didn't make it home to New York after semester break.

"This kid got a 'B' in a course. He'd always gotten 'A's before," Garaflo said. "His mother in New York called a congressman and they got all over my back. We found him in Houston several days later … he'd just never gotten a 'B' before…"

Levy's parents have been the squeaky wheel.

They have hired a lawyer, who in turn has hired his own investigators. The Levys have come from Modesto, Calif., several times and appeared on local and national television. They also have met with Condit.

Condit's office and several other groups have posted rewards that now top $40,000 for any information about the missing intern. The Internet is full of Websites, newsgroups and forums about the Chandra Levy case. The Web posters offer sympathy, advice for the police, and all kinds of theories. Psychics have chimed in with their ideas.

Suspicion swirls around Condit. Levy met him when she visited a friend working in his office.

Levy reportedly told friends and family she was having an affair with a politician. Condit's pager number reportedly showed up on Levy's cell phone bill in the days before she disappeared. Condit's wife was in town and at his apartment from April 28 to May 3.

In a similar case two years ago, Joyce Chiang, a 27-year-old lawyer for the Immigration and Naturalization Service disappeared in the same neighborhood after meeting friends for coffee.

Chiang's jacket and some identification was found near the Anacostia River, in Anacostia Park - "across the river" in D.C. parlance.

Chiang had many friends, and her brother and roommate, Roger, organized an effort to find her. They posted flyers in the Dupont Circle area and went to the press, keeping the case in the headlines.

In the Chiang case, the squeaks kept the police looking. They even dragged the Anacostia River and came up with a body - but not Joyce's, it was a man's.

Then, weeks later, her body was found miles away on the bank of the Potomac River.

A Washington private investigator, who has experience in homicides and cases with political overtones, said the police are handling the case properly. "You keep an open mind until you have reason to narrow your focus," he said.

"We have no idea where this woman is. She may be dead. Or she may be in Mexico with a margarita laughing all the way," he said. "All we know for certain is she isn't at her apartment."

The lieutenant, who didn't want to be identified, said pressure from outside often helps in missing persons cases.

"The Levys are doing what they have to do," he said. "Most of the people in my district don't know they can do that, or don't have the pull," he said.

Meanwhile, "I can only pray, though the signs are not good, that God will find her alive and well," the 85-year-old rabbi emeritus of Modesto's Conservative Congregation Beth Shalom, where Levy's parents are members told the Modesto Bee, Chandra's hometown newspaper "It's difficult to see a positive outcome …"

Copyright 2001 by United Press International. All rights reserved.