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CNN Live Today

New Figure Emerges in Chandra Levy Case

Aired May 24, 2002 - 10:07   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: A new figure may be emerging in the Chandra Levy mystery.

Police in Washington say they are taking a closer look at a man already convicted of assaulting two women near the site where Levy's remains were found on Wednesday morning.

CNN's Jason Carroll joins us live now from Rock Creek Park. What's up?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you Carol.

I want to start out by setting the scene, describing exactly where I am. If you take a look right at the road there, you can see just about a hundred yards up. There is a police bus. Just beyond that, that is where Chandra Levy's remains were found. Investigators out here today will be collecting information so they can put together a computerized map of the area where Levy's remains were found. As you know, her remains were found in a dense section of Rock Creek Park on Wednesday by a man who was walking his dog.

Police also recovered a sweatshirt, tennis shoes, and other clothes, as well. At some point, police also will be reinterviewing a man by the name of Ingmar Guandeque. He is already serving a 10 year sentence for assaulting two women in the park, but police caution against drawing any conclusions at this point.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TERRANCE GAINER, D.C. EXECUTIVE ASST. POLICE CHIEF: The only real link is the fact that he was convicted of crimes in the park. We were aware of him, aware of the circumstances, monitored his conviction, and actually talked to him before.

But now that we know that where Chandra was found, where she laid for some apparent 12 months, we will go back and look at him, and others. He is just one of a number of individuals over these 12 months that we have looked at very closely who may have been involved in crimes with women, whether it was here in this metropolitan area, or across the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CARROLL: Chandra Levy, 24 years old, disappeared last year. Investigators will be working with anthropologists, they'll be working with biologists, trying to get as much information as possible. Trying to get that information to the medical examiner, so the medical examiner can then try to put something together, some sort of a case, in terms of exactly how Chandra Levy was killed -- Carol.

COSTELLO: There is also some information coming out about how police searched this area of the park and how they came to miss the body. Can you tell us more about that?

CARROLL: This morning, Carol, the "Washington Post" is reporting that DC police actually missed this area of Rock Creek Park when they were searching for Chandra Levy. But, just to point out, police are also saying that -- you have to remember -- this park is very, very dense. It is an extremely wide area. This park has some 1800 acres. They say, it is virtually impossible to search every section of the park.

COSTELLO: Not to be argumentative, but they only searched -- what-- 100 yards off the roadways. And is this really such a remote area of Rock Creek Park where this body was found?

CARROLL: Well, let me do this, if I can just sort of explain. Let's have the camera sort of pan off here so we can take a look at what some of the dense area is that I'm talking about.

You can see how dense it is. I mean, right over here, we have homes on the other side of that. But Chandra Levy's remains were discovered on the bottom part of a slope. So you would really have to come down several hundred feet from the main roadway; you have to be searching through all of this dense underbrush in order to find those particular remains. So you can certainly - you get some sort of a sense of what the police are talking about when they say, this is a dense area, it as wide area. It is extremely difficult to search.

COSTELLO: You just can't help but think, if they found the body sooner, there would be so many more clues. I don't know. Sad story.

Thank you, Jason Carroll, reporting live for us from Rock Creek Park this morning.

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