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American Morning

Former Investigator Discusses Search for Clues in Levy Death

Aired May 24, 2002 - 08:08   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: We turn now to the Chandra Levy investigation. Police in Washington say they still don't know how Chandra Levy died. Her remains, of course, were found on Wednesday in a Washington, D.C., park buried under a lot of grass and brush. And the D.C. chief of police, appearing on our show yesterday, described the area where Levy's remains actually eventually turned up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. CHIEF OF POLICE: We can tell from the state of the remains and also the clothing that it had been exposed to the elements for quite some time. There was about a foot of underbrush that the body was underneath and very, very difficult and very well concealed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Levy, as you know, had been missing for more than a year, and forensic experts are now searching for clues that can tell them just exactly, they hope, how she died.

Joining us now from Los Angeles to talk more about that is Elizabeth Devine, a former crime scene investigator with the L.A. County Sheriff's Department. And she is now a story editor for the very popular TV series drama "CSI."

Thank you for getting up so early for us this morning. Good morning.

ELIZABETH DEVINE, FORMER CRIME SCENE INVESTIGATOR: Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: So Elizabeth, based on what you have heard about the amount of exposure that Chandra Levy's remains had to the elements, how successful do you think investigators will be in trying to figure out what happened to her?

DEVINE: Well, it really depends on the injuries that they're able to determine from looking at her remains. Bones actually can demonstrate quite a bit of information when looked at by experts. So I know they will be doing that. The more, obviously, the more of the remains they recover, the better chance they are, or they have, to find out what actually happened to Ms. Levy. ZAHN: What would they be looking for, you know, once they found these bones? Is it sort of the neck area that you would look to first to see if there was a potential strangulation involved?

DEVINE: Well, they're going to be looking at all the bones. Obviously, they have the skull, I understand. They would look for blows to the skull, any kind of injuries to the skull and the remaining bones. You would look at the neck. One bone that's very strong and very difficult to find in remains is called the hyoid bone, which, if broken, would indicate strangulation. So something that they would be looking for would be that particular bone of the neck to determine if strangulation had occurred.

But they can also from the bone look for sharp force injuries, blunt force injuries, obviously gunshot injuries. So that's the kind of thing they will be doing.

ZAHN: The police chief yesterday confirmed to me they also found a jogging bra and tennis shoes. What kind of clues can they glean from those items?

DEVINE: Well, they're going to examine them for any kind of trace evidence, any kind of biologicals. But again, they've been out in the elements for a year approximately, and it's going to be very difficult. What the experts at the crime scene are going to be looking for is anything that will indicate a suspect, an area that she may have been taken to, any kind of evidence that's not pertaining to the victim.

What they have now are evidence, is evidence that's directly pertaining to the victim. So it may have a limited probative value.

ZAHN: And Elizabeth, the police chief yesterday couldn't answer the question whether he believed the body has always been there or whether it was transported there. Will they be able to conclusively decide that?

DEVINE: That is a really difficult question. If she had been moved after, if she had been moved after a long period of time, there may be some tests that they can do to the soil underneath the grave site. But given the terrain and the elements, to find out that conclusively would be extremely difficult.

ZAHN: Elizabeth, we're going to go back to that picture of the crime scene for you to give us a better understanding of this pretty wide area they now have marked off. Walk us through the steps we'll see them take in the days to come.

DEVINE: Well, this kind of a crime scene, at least now they have an area to focus on. You always want to make your crime scene very, very large, and they are going to comb that area with very careful, methodical efforts. They're going to get as many people out there to look, and they are going to be looking for anything, anything that's not, pretty much not, vegetation, that they can take back to their laboratory and examine in hopes that it has some relevance to the case. ZAHN: D.C. police now saying there is a man already in jail for assaulting other two D.C. area women. He could be a potential suspect in this case. John Walsh yesterday on our show says he believes Chandra Levy was the victim of a serial killer.

Based on the information you've seen so far, do you have any theory at all as to what happened to Chandra Levy?

DEVINE: Well, I think based on just the limited information that I have, she appeared to have left the house. She appeared to have been wearing a Walkman. I don't know why anyone goes in a remote area with a Walkman on. I think it takes you out of the equation. And someone who is a predator, someone who preys on young people or people at a disadvantage, is certainly going to take a look at someone using a Walkman and think I can get up close to them and, you know, perhaps do whatever it is that they plan to do.

So I've always thought that it was some really tragic predator that had actually taken her as opposed to the other theories that were bandied about.

ZAHN: And including the theory of Gary Condit maybe having been involved in any aspect of this?

DEVINE: Yes.

ZAHN: You never even considered him a suspect from the get-go?

DEVINE: Not really. I don't think you can attribute great skill in crime scenes and great and very poor skill in thinking of an alibi to the same person. I mean he handled things poorly, but he behaved like a man that was covering up some activities outside the marriage that I think he didn't want revealed.

But as far as taking that to a larger step to be involved in this sort of thing, it was a big jump, I thought.

ZAHN: All right, Elizabeth Devine, good to have you on the air with us this morning again.

DEVINE: Thank you.

ZAHN: Thanks for setting that alarm so early for us this morning.

DEVINE: Yes.

ZAHN: You go off and have a great Memorial Day weekend. Appreciate your insights.

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