It should be taught in all police investigative departments: The
Chandra Levy Case: Or How NOT to Investigate a Major Felony.
In May of 2001 the 24-year-old Californian, an intern for the
Federal Bureau of Prisons, disappeared from her District home. It
quickly developed that she was having an affair with a married
congressman from California, Democrat Gary Condit. Media and
police attention fastened on Condit like a horsefly on a hot day.
A massive search was undertaken to find Levy who, it was
believed, had wandered into Rock Creek Park. It took the cops two
months to unravel her computer and learn that, yes, she had been
computer-exploring the park and probably went there. Police teams
were sent out but they searched within a hundred yards of the
roads, not the trails. It would be more than a year
later that a man walking his dog discovered Levy's remains
in the park less than 80 yards from where the police teams had
swept through. The botched search was only the low point in a
series of goofs committed by D.C.'s finest.
The case was revived due largely to a
13-part series in July by the Washington Post.
Attention now
centers on a Salvadoran doing prison time for attacks on
a couple of women in the park at the time of Levy's
disappearance. He denies any part in the Levy case.
We shall see. But we have already seen a couple of things:
investigative incompetence and the continuing need for
newspapers.
