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CNN Live Today

Interview with Mike Brooks

Aired May 22, 2002 - 14:01   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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: The Levy parents were taping an interview earlier today with Oprah Winfrey. Oprah was in Chicago, the Levys were in Modesto, California, in their home.

Through their family attorney, Billy Martin, they have issued a partial statement.

"The family is not commenting," through Billy Martin, that's what it says, "and there will be no statement until they know more."

And clearly, we are all waiting for more as well, but as the police chief said, it may take some time before a positive identification may come through here.

Let's bring in Mike Brooks again, former D.C. police detective with us here in Atlanta.

Nice to see you again. I wish it were under different circumstances.

But just -- let me get your take, in broad terms right now, about what we're watching and what we're hearing in Rock Creek.

MIKE BROOKS, FMR. POLICE INVESTIGATOR: Well, what we know is apparently a man walking his dog early this morning found skeletal remains in Rock Creek Park.

It's in an area that looks like it may have been a little bit north, almost to the Maryland line, from where the D.C. police were doing their searches last summer. So, this might have been an area that has not been searched before, but we want to find out for sure. But right now, it looks like it is a little bit north of Condit's apartment.

If you look, going to Rock Creek Park, where it shows the arrow, it'll be a little bit north up there, almost to the Maryland line, up at Broad Branch Road and...

HEMMER: So the far reaches of this park, then.

BROOKS: Very much so. And so the man found it. Called police. Police went out to investigate, of course.

Apparently wasn't in a shallow grave. It was just out in the woods. There was a skull and some other bones scattered.

But as Bob said, it wouldn't be unusual to have bones like that, scattered about, because of the animals that are in Rock Creek Park.

But you've got your D.C. police, you've got U.S. Park Police. U.S. Park Police have their evidence up there, because this is U.S. Park Police territory. Even though it's within the District of Columbia...

HEMMER: There's a zoological park in there.

BROOKS: There is a zoo there, also. And this is all U.S. Dept. of Interior land.

HEMMER: Tell me this -- if you look at this videotape, there is a substantial police presence there.

BROOKS: Yes.

HEMMER: Does that indicate anything?

BROOKS: Well, to me, when you have the D.C. police chief, you have the police chief of the U.S. Park Police, you have other high- ranking police officials there -- they don't show up just for any body found in Rock Creek Park.

So I think that they feel that this possibly may be Chandra's. But again, we don't want to speculate.

HEMMER: That's right.

BROOKS: It's a body. Unfortunately, over the past number of years there have been many bodies found in Rock Creek Park, but usually you don't find human remains that are this badly decomposed along with some clothing fragments.

HEMMER: I think the other point about the fact of the heavy police presence here, that dovetails on that same thing, is that investigators who have been working this case have been called as well.

BROOKS: Right, exactly. And you also have a couple of FBI agents. Two of the FBI agents have been working on this from the very, very beginning. They're up there also to lend any assistance.

HEMMER: Let's talk process, Mike. The work will be done as quickly as they can. That's the words from the police chief.

BROOKS: Right.

HEMMER: What work needs to be done? How do they do it?

BROOKS: Well, right now, Bill, they have the D.C. medical examiner on the scene, and he will determine -- try to look at the body. They'll take pictures. They'll go through the normal crime scene process. And then they will take the dental impressions from that skull -- hopefully, there are still mandible bones, jaw bones...

HEMMER: The possibility there could not be, is what you are saying.

BROOKS: There is that possibility. Without being there on the scene and seeing the crime scene, there may not be. But usually there are. Teeth usually last a long time. And they do have Chandra's dental records, so they -- and also other DNA from her parents. So they could make some kind of match.

Hopefully, we can find out. Because her parents, as you said earlier, they've been on an emotional roller-coaster for all these months.

HEMMER: Indeed they have.

Put on your detective hat, again. You arrive at the scene -- not particularly this scene, because you haven't been there -- you arrive on the scene to find human remains. How do you tell whether or not they were dumped there, placed there, or if indeed a human died there?

BROOKS: Well, if they were dumped there, it's going to be hard to tell, because so much time has gone past. You know, it's been over a year now.

But they'll go back and talk to the person that found the remains, who was walking his dog, and what exactly did he see. How was the scene when he found it. You know, were there leaves on top of it. Does it look like it had been dumped there recently.

Most likely, it had not been. This is a fairly remote area of Rock Creek Park, so there's a possibility it could have been there for sometime.

HEMMER: Is there a danger, Mike, in raising alarms, if indeed this is a false lead?

BROOKS: I think the people that suffer the most by this are the Levys, because they've been on such an emotional roller-coaster.

If you recall, back when the investigation first started, they thought they had found remains at a military base in Virginia, and everybody was excited about that, just maybe to bring some closure to that.

HEMMER: (UNINTELLIGIBLE)

BROOKS: Exactly. But right now, I think the people that are suffering the most from this are the Levys. But as I said, with the number of police officials there, I think there is a good possibility that this could be -- and, you know, it's sad. You hate to find her in this condition, if it is her, in fact. But it would help bring some closure to the family. HEMMER: I have spoken, Mike, today, with people who know this area a lot better than I do, that human remains have been discovered in Rock Creek Park before.

BROOKS: Absolutely.

HEMMER: You know the area. How often does that happen?

BROOKS: It used to happen on a regular basis, when D.C. was the homicide capital of the country.

HEMMER: Bodies were taken there and dumped, is what you're suggesting. But not necessarily murders taking place in that park.

BROOKS: Right. But usually not in this state of decomposition. Usually not bones.

HEMMER: You're suggesting that it's gone on for some time now...

BROOKS: And from what my sources are telling me, these bones look like they've been there for sometime. There are clothing fragments there.

So they'll go through this, there is no rush. There's no rush now. There's bone there. They'll go about the normal crime scene process in an attempt to find out exactly...

HEMMER: You're saying there's no rush because, as it relates to this case, anyway, you have the evidence that you need. It's just a question of time before you get the identification.

BROOKS: Exactly.

And you don't want to rush, you know, the crime scene. You take a look at the crime scene. You come on the scene. You look at the overall picture, get a size-up of the area, and then go about -- number one, are all the bones there and intact.

You know, it sounds like they were spread out a little bit, so I'm sure that they will do a grid search of that particular area, looking for more evidence and more clues.

HEMMER: Does it surprise you at all, knowing the extensive work that was done by investigators in that area, combing that park last summer, did not discover these bones?

BROOKS: No, it doesn't surprise me. This is on the far reaches of the park. They searched a good -- I mean, the park is huge. A lot of people don't...

HEMMER: Three times the size of Central Park we've been told. That's big.

BROOKS: Right. It is. It's very big. And so, keep that in perspective. To search every single square inch of that park would have been impossible. But they were going on some of the information they had, that she had looked up on her computer, with Klingle Mansion, so they kind of centered it around that, thinking maybe she had gone up to Klingle Mansion.

Now, this area, again, is the far-reaches of the park.

HEMMER: Thank you, Mike. Hang on a second. I'm going to get back to you. Always good to talk to you, too.

BROOKS: Thanks, Bill.

HEMMER: Especially because of your experience there, and knowing the area.

But we want to get to Washington again and Bob Franken again, working more stories and sources there.

Bob, what do you have?

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bill, it's something that I'm going to ask Mike to get involved in here, a little bit.

According to my sources, who are on the scene, investigators saying two things. They have found some remnants of something that might be, might be, plastic remnants from a Sony Walkman, one of those that are so much a part of the uniform of joggers.

And secondly, the source has told us a little bit more about the remnants of clothing that have been found. Not so much about the condition of the clothing, but that the remnants they found are, quote, consistent with clothing that could be used for exercise.

Now, I'm going to ask Mike to interpret that just a little bit. But it is that type of thing that is keeping the investigators hope alive that they're coming up with a break in this case. Clothing consistent with what could be used as exercise, and the possibility that they found the remnants of a Sony Walkman, or something like that.

Of course, one of the primary theories has been that since she was such an exercise person, that Chandra Levy had been jogging in Rock Creek Park when she came to her fate, whatever that is.

Mike, I'm just curious -- when you hear words like that, what does that say to you?

BROOKS: Well, it says that it's more evidence to go on. The more evidence they have, the better. You know, again, keeping in mind, we don't want to speculate that it is her, but it is looking more and more like it may be.

Is this close to a jogging path? This area where she is, if I recall correctly, isn't that close to a jogging path. So, you know, was she taken off of a jogging path in Rock Creek Park and dragged into the woods? That remains to be seen.

You know, how big of a crime scene are we dealing with right now? That also will kind of lead investigators to try to find out exactly what happened.

But with Walkman and exercise clothes, I think that would lend us to believe that she may have been jogging.

FRANKEN: The one thing that I want to intercede as always, it's the caveat, that they're saying that these are clothes that could be consistent, those are the exact words. And also, possibility of remnants of a Sony Walkman or something like that. And of course, the possibility, a possibility worth exploring, that this might be the remains of Chandra Levy.

BROOKS: Yes, you know, again, this is speculation, as we're talking about, Bob, and many people nowadays do wear jogging clothes to go out to do shopping, that just casual -- and could have been brought up to that remote area.

Along that area, Broad Branch and Brandywine and Grant Road, up by the nature center there, there are areas that aren't very heavily traveled in the nighttime. It's very remote in the evening, very dark -- I mean, it's extremely dark. No lights in that part of the park. Little picnic groves around there, not too far from where the remains were found.

HEMMER: It's interesting you say that, because you're looking at this whole story from the mind of a detective. And immediately, you are crossing things off to narrow down the possibilities, aren't you?

BROOKS: And that's what you do. It's a process of elimination. You go and -- not being there, at the scene -- if I was there at the scene, I'd be able to give you a little more perspective, but just remembering the area, knowing the area, having worked in D.C. for 26 years, that's a fairly remove area.

HEMMER: Bob, you still with us?

FRANKEN: Yes, indeed.

HEMMER: Do you know, have police moved any of those remains yet? Do we know that?

FRANKEN: Actually, no, we don't know that, but I suspect that Mike will agree that that is not something they're going to do for awhile, because there is a context that they need to establish between the remains and what other possible evidence is there.

That would be the normal investigative procedure, wouldn't it, Mike?

BROOKS: Absolutely. Before anything is moved, it'll be photographed from all different angles. That's the way you conduct a crime scene...

FRANKEN: But that does not stop them from doing some of the forensic tests. They can do that while the remains are still on the scene. BROOKS: Sure. I mean, there's some that could be done, but to do the forensic tests, they'll have to take whatever evidence from the scene back to the medical examiner's office over in southeast Washington, so they would have to take something from the scene there. They don't have a mobile lab to take out and do any forensic tests, so they would have to take it back to the medical examiner's office.

FRANKEN: And my sources are saying that the possibility is strong, they believe, that they will be able to in fact complete (AUDIO GAP), have a positive ID, one way or the other, by the end of today. Is that realistic in this particular case -- Mike.

BROOKS: I think it could be. Depending on how long they were going to remain there, with the added daylight now in the summertime, they'll be up there a long time. I guarantee they'll be there through the night. They'll probably bring in lamps and keep that whole area cutoff or cordoned off, because they'll, again, want to do another grid search of that area, to make sure that they aren't missing any piece of evidence that may be out there, especially since it could be scattered.

HEMMER: Interesting lead.

Bob, thanks. Bob Franken in D.C. Mike Brooks here, a former D.C. detective in Washington with us at the CNN Center.

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