CRIME HUNTER: Murder of DC intern Chandra Levy remains a mystery

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“Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac.”

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– Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State

And they come in droves, like moths to the light.

Nerds from all over the world are drawn to the power centers of Ottawa, Washington and London. For them, the gray-skinned men who rule their countries are gods who radiate animal magnetism.

But lurking in these political sewers are sex offenders willing to have sex with an intern before moving on to the next dreamy public policy groupie.

Chandra Levy of Modesto, California, was one of those girls. A well-read straight-A student with lush, curly hair, she embodied the word “sharper.”

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In the fall of 2000, Levy moved to Washington, DC, to intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She impressed the leadership with her skillful handling of the media during the upcoming execution of Oklahoma bomber Timothy McVeigh in 2001.

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But the internship stalled in April 2001 because her academic accreditation had expired. She told friends she was baffled why her local congressman, Democrat Gary Condit, did nothing to help her.

Levy grew up the daughter of a wealthy surgeon. Her parents were described as “super crunchy boomer, granola types.” Her rebellion was an obsession with cops and police work.

She was a fit girl who enjoyed being outdoors and working out at the gym. She didn't drink or do drugs and dressed frugally.

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In the fall of 2000, Levy and a friend met her local congressman, Gary Condit. She told family and friends that the Democratic Party Democrat looked like Harrison Ford, but as commentator Paul Begala once quipped, “Politics is show business for ugly people.”

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Not long after they met, Levy and Condit, who was three decades older and married many times, began a sexual affair. Without mentioning the politician by name, Levy raved about him to friends.

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After her internship fell through in April, 23-year-old Chandra Levy returned to California.

On May 6, 2001, Washington police were alerted by her parents that they had not heard from their daughter in five days, and this was unusual. Detectives searched hospitals and entered her apartment in the posh Dupont Circle.

Nothing seemed unusual, but her father revealed a curious piece of news to investigators: Chandra was having an affair with a congressman and he believed the politician in question was Gary Condit.

For the media, the story had everything: a pretty intern, a married congressman, and a secret. I should know, because the New York Post sent me to Washington to cover the story.

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Condit was not very forthcoming with police and reporters. He was evasive. A friendly detective revealed that the sinister congressman was actually having a sexual affair with Levy.

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We started to find out everything we could about Gary Condit. There was flight attendant Anne Marie Smith, who also had an affair with the perverted politician. She told investigators that Condit had ordered her not to talk to the FBI.

There were rumors that he was into BDSM and accidentally killed Levy after a rough sex session got out of hand. And the petulant politician refused to take a lie detector test.

According to a poll, 44 percent of Americans believed Condit had a hand in Levy's disappearance.

And then Condit had a chance: On September 11, terrorists carried out attacks in New York and Washington, and Chandra Levy's disappearance faded from the headlines as the nation's attention turned to terrorism.

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***

After Levy's disappearance, investigators searched Rock Creek Park. Their computer searches suggested she might have gone jogging there. They found nothing.

In the spring of 2002, Gary Condit's political career was over after he lost the Democratic primary.

More than a year after she was last seen, on May 22, 2002, a man walking his dog in Rock Creek Park discovered skeletal remains. The teeth matched the missing woman's dental records. Also scattered around were Levy's sports bra, sweatshirt, leggings and running shoes.

The coroner ruled Levy's death a homicide, adding that the cause of death would never be known, although he suspected she had been strangled.

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In September 2001, detectives received a tip from a prisoner that a man arrested for three rapes in the park had boasted that Gary Condit had paid him $25,000 to murder Chandra Levy.

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Police had doubts, but 20-year-old Ingmar Guandique, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, came into the public eye. He had not shown up for work on the day Levy disappeared, and his landlady told investigators that his face was scratched.

He was convicted of the rapes and the Levy case was put on hold until detectives re-investigated it in 2007.

On March 5, 2009, suspected MS-13 member Guandique was arrested and charged with the premeditated murder of Levy.

He pleaded not guilty.

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***

On October 18, 2010, nearly a decade after Levy's murder, he was put on trial. Condit was called as a witness, but still would not admit to the affair. An FBI forensic scientist said that semen from Levy's underwear found in her apartment matched Condit's DNA.

Condit said, “For privacy reasons, I will not protect my privacy or that of Chandra.”

Prison inmate Armando Morales said Guandique confessed to murdering Levy while trying to rob her, adding that he did not rape the intern.

On November 22, 2010, after three days of deliberations, the jury found Guandique guilty of the murder of Chandra Levy. However, it was later determined that Morales had perjured himself and lied.

Prosecutors dropped the charges and Ingmar Guandique was deported from the United States in 2017.

In 2001, Condit was interviewed by one of the FBI's leading cold case investigators.

“He interviewed Condit for about an hour,” Washington Post reporter Scott Higham told the New York Post in 2011. “He felt that the congressman didn't care enough about her to kill her.”

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@HunterTOSun

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