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CNN Live Saturday
Chandra Levy Case: D.C. Policemen Meet With Cab Drivers
Aired July 21, 2001 - 13:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Police in Washington, D.C. continue trying to build a timeline surrounding missing intern Chandra Levy. She was last seen on April 30 and hasn't been heard from since May 1. For the latest on that, CNN's Jonathan Aiken is joining us from Washington -- Jonathan.
JONATHAN AIKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donna, that May 1 date is the focus of this entire investigation, it is the last day that police can account for Chandra Levy whereabouts for at least part of the day.
She was in her Dupont Circle apartment throughout the morning. Police say she spent about three and a half hours surfing the Web, checking out some online newspaper sites, a host of travel pages -- and here's lighthearted clue to her state of mind at some point -- the Baskin Robbins Web site. Baskin Robbins has a store right down the street from her apartment.
Police say Chandra Levy logged off the Web at about 12:30 in the afternoon. And coincidentally, that was when Congressman Gary Condit was meeting on Capitol Hill with Vice President Dick Cheney. Now, the vice president's staff tells us that it was a routine meeting, it was called at Mr. Condit's request to discuss issues related to California's energy problems.
A confirmation of this meeting offers some insight as to Congressman Condit's whereabouts, and once again, we need to stress, as we always have, D.C. police have said from the beginning and say again he is not a suspect in her disappearance.
There is one other item to pass along today: about half a dozen Washington, D.C. police detectives met with a few dozen of the district's 1,600 licensed cab drivers. They just wanted to get out there and remind drivers they are still looking for clues as to Chandra Levy's movements on May the 1st. They really wanted to jog the memories of the drivers who may have been working on May 1, maybe the day before, April 30, picking up fares in the Dupont Circle area. They want the drivers to know, we still want to see leads, we still want to hear anything you have to say so that we can check it out.
Well, it has been 82 days since Chandra Levy was last accounted for, and as the days go on, as the police investigation, attention is turning to less conventional means of uncovering information about this young woman and where she's gone. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AIKEN (voice-over): Police will tell you it's gumshoe work that cracks cases, slow and methodical, like the inch by inch search of Rock Creek Park. But when the clues yield nothing but more questions, curiosity can turn to frustration, and that's when families and police departments may turn to a psychic.
BEN ERMINI, NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN: The families will usually go to psychics before law enforcement, and that's usually because they become frustrated by the fact that their loved one or the missing person hasn't been found.
AIKEN: Psychics sometimes work with police in developing sketches or locating possible crime scenes, and they've been used in high-profile murders, like the 33 murders attributed to John Wayne Gacy in the '70s, and more recently, the still unsolved murder of JonBenet Ramsey.
Chandra Levy's parents have reportedly talked to psychics and heard the statements of others in news reports.
ROBERT LEVY, CHANDRA LEVY'S FATHER: It's not really accurate enough to give much credence, because I mean, anyone can guess something bad has happened.
AIKEN: Sylvia Browne is a psychic who has appeared on numerous TV shows, including CNN's "LARRY KING LIVE." Browne believe the 24- year-old former intern is dead.
SYLVIA BROWNE, PSYCHIC: The minute I heard about it, I knew she was gone. I mean, you just know.
AIKEN (on camera): The accuracy of a claim like that will be hard to prove until the mystery itself has been solved. There was one study that shows that up to a third of America's urban police departments have actually used psychics, but very little scientific evidence that proves psychics have actually helped the police, and a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest they have not.
ERMINI: I know of no case where a child was recovered as a result of psychic information.
AIKEN (voice-over): Psychics do get credit for sometimes asking more probing questions than police officers, but critics say they take from police more than they give.
BILL CLARKE, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: They're very, very smart. They observe everything in the office. They look for any type of charts that are up, with addresses.
AIKEN: Even skeptics agree psychics bring hope to the family of a missing person, and as formal investigation slowly moves forward, some might think hope is the only thing worth having, other than getting your child back.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
AIKEN: One final item, Donna, we are going to wrap up with the searches -- no searches of the city's major park, Rock Creek Park today, there are none scheduled for tomorrow. Police tell us they will resume those searches again Monday morning -- Donna.
KELLEY: OK, Jonathan Aiken in Washington with the latest for us, thank you.
Gary Condit isn't the only member of his family attracting police attention. Condit's brother was arrested today in South Florida, charged with violating probation. Police say that Darrell Condit gave them a phony ID and initially resisted arrest. Among the charges facing Condit is misdemeanor possession of marijuana.
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