Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live At Daybreak

Police Search Resumes Today for Evidence in Levy Death Case

Aired May 23, 2002 - 06:19   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.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: We have more for you now on the Chandra Levy case. Police will resume their search for evidence in the death of Chandra Levy this morning.

CNN's David Shuster is at the Washington park where the body was found.

Good morning, David.

DAVID SHUSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning.

Police and forensic pathologists actually worked through part of the night using floodlights that they borrowed from the National Guard. Investigators plan to spend a few days digging through the layers one by one looking for some sort of evidence as to why and how Chandra Levy died.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHUSTER (voice-over): Levy's body was apparently left on a steep and thick forest floor. Police say that in addition to retrieving a skull and some bones, they found a jogging bra, panties, tennis shoes and a portable radio.

CHARLES RAMSEY, POLICE CHIEF, WASHINGTON, D.C. POLICE DEPARTMENT: It's going to really take a forensic pathologic to really tell us exactly the manner and cause of death. We did get the skeletal remains. They were able to confirm it was Chandra Levy through dental records, but now a lot of work still has to be done to determine exactly what happened to her.

SHUSTER: Levy's parents are said to be shattered by the discovery. The lawyer said he expects this to turn into a homicide investigation with a renewed focus on Gary Condit.

BILLY MARTIN, LEVY FAMILY ATTORNEY: I've said all along that we do not have evidence to accuse Gary Condit -- Congressman Gary Condit of Chandra's disappearance and now her death. But we do have reason to believe that he knew a lot more about Chandra, her state of mind.

SHUSTER: Condit was summoned to a grand jury earlier this year and has allegedly admitted he was romantically involved with Levy, but he has repeatedly denied knowing anything about her disappearance.

Last night, Condit issued a statement saying, "the Levy family is in his prayers."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUSTER: Investigators say they have no immediate plans to talk to Gary Condit again. Instead, they are focused on a heavily wooded area here in Rock Creek Park. It's a small area, but the police are hoping to find some blood or DNA that might not be connected to Chandra Levy but might help solve the mystery of her death -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Be able to expand this investigation beyond Gary Condit, though, right?

SHUSTER: Well that's right. The first task, of course, is to go layer by layer to try to determine if there's any sort of a forensic evidence that does not belong to Chandra Levy, any sort of fragments, any tissue, that sort of thing. At that point if they can make the determination that there is some blood or DNA that does not belong to Chandra Levy, at that point they would take the analysis and run it through a criminal database. If there's reason then at that point to believe that there's something here that doesn't belong to Chandra Levy, at that point then they might have the grand jury make a request that Gary Condit deliver a blood sample and then try and see if there's any match.

But there's -- there are a lot of other people that they have in mind other than Gary Condit that could be possibly linked to this if in fact there is some evidence that they can somehow scour out of this heavily wooded area, some evidence that clearly shows there was somebody else with Chandra Levy at the time that she was killed.

COSTELLO: Got you. David, we're kind of wondering about something that's going on behind you. It looks like somebody spraying water. Why would they be doing that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The other way.

SHUSTER: That's because of where we're set up. We're actually in a residential area just on the edge of the park. And yes, people here watering their plants.

COSTELLO: Oh OK, because the place where the skeletal remains were found were by -- or are by a residential area and then the park goes right through it, right?

SHUSTER: Yes, I mean maybe what I can do is describe the scene. A couple of hundred feet down the road from us and into the woods another a couple of hundred feet is the -- is the scene where they actually found the body. It's on a sloped area just off of a jogging path, heavily wooded. It's -- the scene, it's very loud, actually, down there because the police were using this very large portable generator to keep the floodlights going through the night. And they've actually put up some police tape around in this area that's perhaps 20 by 20 yards or so, 60 square -- 60 square feet.

And then in that area you see people working with some of the plastic gloves and sort of digging sort of through some of the rubble and the debris to try to see if there's anything both on the surface but also anything underneath the leaves. They have apparently already removed some of the -- some of the different objects that belonged to Chandra Levy, but they're looking for more.

COSTELLO: All right, David Shuster, thanks for clarifying. We appreciate it.

SHUSTER: Sure.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com