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CNN Live Today

Police Examine Possible Remains of Chandra Levy

Aired May 22, 2002 - 13:53   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.
HEMMER: Want to get back to Bob Franken. Bob broke this story live here on CNN right about 12:00 p.m. Eastern time, and if you watched the clock, Bob, that was about two-and-a-half hours after this jogger, police say, walking his or her dog through that park, located these human remains. Good afternoon again.

BOB FRANKEN, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Bill, and the police are not publicly telling us much more than we knew about 12:00 p.m., which is that they have higher interest than normal in the discovery of these human remains in Rock Creek Park, higher interest in the possibility that these are the remains of Chandra Levy.

But as we have been pointing out repeatedly, as have the police, this is just a possibility, a better possibility than so many other of the thousands of leads which turned up not to have any huge significance in the Chandra Levy case.

We are seeing Chandra Levy now with her family. This was a home videotape that was taken during a celebration of one of the Jewish holidays. This was a picture that was provided, ultimately, by the family. You see Sandra Levy sitting next to her daughter there. Dr. Robert Levy is her father. They were celebrating at the home of a cousin in Maryland, as I recall, in that particular video.

Well, Chandra Levy, as you pointed out, Bill, was an intern in Washington. Disappeared, last accounted for on May 1. She had been an intern, and as we found out had a relationship, by the Congressman's own admission, with Chandra Levy.

Congressman Gary Condit had a sexual relationship with her. He told investigators, according law enforcement sources, after they interviewed him three times.

His relationship with Chandra Levy had been one that fueled the story through the whole summer. Congressman Gary Condit in fact was followed wherever he would go, in spite of the fact he said virtually nothing until had retreated in August to his home in Modesto, California.

As a matter of fact, you will recall the famous interview, or some people say infamous, but the famous interview that was done at the time ABC News's Connie Chung, who of course now is with CNN, but that was an interview that the Condit supporters had hoped would settle things down, and all it did, because of questions about how forthright he was, all it did was cause this controversy to continue to fire.

What we have out of Rock Creek Park is the hope that this is a break in the case. Police officials, the top police officials, have gone out there, which sets this apart from so many of the other leads.

Rock Creek Park is the overgrown natural area of Washington, a beautiful park, as any number of people tell you that goes through Washington and much of the environs here. It is a park where any number of joggers would go out and run. Chandra Levy was a jogger, and much of the speculation has been speculation by the police that in fact she had gone out jogging.

They have investigated the possibility that somehow she had become the victim of foul play. That has always been one of the primary responsibilities. The police searched Rock Creek Park. You are seeing a map of it in relationship to the apartments of both Chandra Levy -- she lived in the Dupont Circle area of Washington off New Hampshire Avenue and 21st Street, in case you are keeping notes, and Congressman Gary Condit's apartment which was in another part of the city called Adam's Morgan.

His apartment, by the way, which has been sold -- he is going to be leaving Congress. He was in fact deposed by the voters, so to speak. Many people believe that it was because of the controversy that surrounded the Chandra Levy matter and his relationship with her.

But, I want to say again that the police are out at Rock Creek Park. A person who was walking his dog discovered this morning a human skull. Subsequently police went out to the area, and they were able to find another human remains separated somewhat, but that would not be surprising given how long that these remains had been exposed to the elements.

Because it was a skeleton, police say that after a year, that would be the condition of Chandra Levy's body. So they are looking very closely to see if they can compare the forensic evidence they have about her with this skeleton to see if in fact it turns out to be Chandra Levy.

Police are saying they are going to move very methodically about this. However, we are told by knowledgeable sources, those involved in the investigation, they have a hope that before the day is over today, they will have been able to make that positive identification.

The police chief, Charles Ramsey, has been out there. he has spoken several times with the press, and he emphasizes what we have been emphasizing, that all the findings thus far are preliminary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: We are not certain yet as to the sex or the length of time that the remains have been there. Our medical examiner, Jonathan Arden, is there now looking at the remains.

We have found bits and pieces of clothing, parts of skeleton. We do believe that it has been there for a period of time. So we are certainly looking into the possibility of the Chandra Levy disappearance, but we don't know right now whether or not the remains are in fact Chandra Levy's.

I have spoken with the Levy family just to make them aware of what we have because I did not want them finding out on television, quite frankly. I would rather they know exactly what it is we have, and we will be in touch and let them know what is going on as it develops.

We have the detectives that have been part of this case from the very beginning are here. The FBI team is here. I mentioned Dr. Arden. Our mobile crime will coming up soon with our mobile command bus as well as lighting, because we will be processing this scene for a period of time.

We do not know when we will have an identification of the remains, but we will work as quickly as we can to identify the remains. We do have dental records on file in the Levy case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANKEN: As I mentioned earlier there is a hope that they will be able to finish that -- finalize that identification by today because they have so much of the preliminary work done as far as the forensic evidence is concerned.

We are also told by sources that when the family was notified by the police they were somewhat distraught, which of course is understandable to everybody. They had become such a fixture on the news coverage, which just absolutely dominated everything that we were doing, dominated the world's interest.

I was reminded, however, Bill, in the story that preceded this one about what it took to get this story out of the public domination, and that was of course the events of September 11, which of course are still something that so dominate the news, but it was almost exactly a year ago that this story exploded into the public consciousness, a story that has gone on since then.

I want to emphasize here not only the emphasis that we have given to the very preliminary nature of the discoveries out at Rock Creek Park, but also, in spite of the fact that Congressman Condit was such an overwhelming story, police consistently have said, continue to say that he is not considered a suspect and that his appearance -- there has been grand jury interest in him, but there are any number of possibilities beyond naming him as a suspect, just that they might want to be questioning him about his particular knowledge of the case given his relationship, which might help in the discovery of Chandra Levy, and of course there were some ancillary things.

But I have to say that police have never said anything but Congressman Condit is not a suspect in this case. The case, of course, has been hampered so severely by the absence of the knowledge of what happened to Chandra Levy -- police, of course, are hoping that they are not discovering her body but they have some reasons to believe, that we have outlined, that it is at least worth a closer look than we have given so many of the thousands of leads which were really kind of far out there -- Bill.

HEMMER: That would be an amazing piece of irony. May 22, a year later.

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