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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interviews With Sgt. Scott Fear, Helen Morrison

Aired May 25, 2002 - 07:53   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the Chandra Levy investigation. D.C. police are still looking for clues to the death of the Washington intern. There is a report she may have been tied up with her own running clothes before her death.

Our Jason Carroll joins us live now from Washington with more on the investigation.

Good morning, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Kyra. Just up the road about 100 yards, you can see a police bus there.

Chandra Levy's remains were found just about a hundred yards beyond that by a man who was out walking his dog on Wednesday. Investigators have set up a perimeter.

Joining me right now to talk a little bit more about what's going to be happening out here today is Sgt. Scott Fear; he is with the U.S. Parks Police.

Sergeant Fear, let's start out by talking about -- yesterday you told me that you had -- you were trying to gather information to put together some sort of a computer map of the scene that you've got out here. What is the status of that, and what do you hope to gain from that?

SGT. SCOTT FEAR, U.S. PARKS POLICE: They finished that. It's called the Total Station. They finished that part last night around 7 p.m. and that will be turned over to the investigators.

And what that does is gives them a very precise mapping of where all the evidence was found. It can distance each piece of evidence from each other, and also from landmarks. So, it's turned over to the investigation and they can use that however it can be helpful for them.

CARROLL: Yesterday there was some talk about the fact that D.C. police actually missed this spot when they were searching for Chandra Levy last year. Can you explain how something like that could have happened?

FEAR: Sure. This is, again, a 1,700-acre park. It's very big. The terrain is not level, it's hilly, there's a steep incline right here at this section, and it was off the beaten path. It's not on a path. So, it could be very easily missed -- a location like this.

CARROLL: There have been some reports that Chandra levy was perhaps restrained in some way. Can you give us any more indication about that, anything you've discovered about that that you can talk about?

FEAR: Yeah, that dives right into the investigation of the Metropolitan Police Department is handling. And when they're ready to release that information, I'm sure they will do that.

CARROLL: Very quickly, today, what will be happening out here today? I've been told that perhaps you might be brining out some cadaver dogs?

FEAR: They're in the woods as we speak. You can hear them in the background, actually. The dogs are in the woods, cadaver dogs, and just, again, searching for more evidence and a thorough search will be conducted by Metropolitan Police Department and U.S. Park Police.

CARROLL: Large perimeter that you've set up back there?

FEAR: Yes, it is a very large perimeter, and we're trying to get some of that perimeter taken care of so we can open it up to the public.

CARROLL: I guess one of the big questions that the medical examiner is going to be looking at, is not only how Chandra Levy died, but, in fact, was she killed here or was she killed someplace else and then brought here? Any evidence to suggest anything at all about an answer to either one of those questions?

FEAR: That's a question that's being asked throughout, the investigative team's asking that -- the medical examiners -- are trying to decide what took place.

CARROLL: All right, Sgt. Fear, thank you very much for joining us this morning, certainly appreciate it.

Investigators out here, D.C. police will be working with forensic experts -- they'll be working with anthropologists -- they'll be working with botanists as well. Again, to try to get answers to the questions such as what, exactly -- how exactly -- Chandra Levy died. And, again, was she killed here, was she killed some place else and then brought here -- Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right. Jason Carroll, live from Washington. Thanks so much.

Well, let's talk about the clues. What clues can skeletal remains provide in determining how Levy died?

We're going to talk about that now with forensic psychiatrist, Helen Morrison. She joins me live from Chicago. Good morning, Helen.

HELEN MORRISON, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: Good morning. PHILLIPS: Well, that is the big discussion now. Were the remains dumped there, or could police have missed the body. Let's talk about that. Could police have missed the body? Would that be difficult, to miss the body?

MORRISON: Well, it wouldn't be difficult to miss the body. But they also had a lot of dogs available. And the question would be if a dog picks up a scent, they don't have to be next to the body, but if the animals pick up a scent, they certainly would have told their handlers that, and indicated in some way that there was something over a hill.

I believe the last estimate was that they were only a hundred yards away from where the body was subsequently discovered. And that's been a question since day one for the police -- if they did search the park, obviously they couldn't search every inch, but the covered enough of it -- they had dogs -- could the individual -- if this was a homicide -- have waited until the search was completed and then brought her in.

But then there's the other side of that: If someone had taken her, why would they have carried her Walkman back? Why would that have been -- accompanied her -- if she was deceased, or murdered somewhere else -- if that indeed happened, why would a murderer bother with a Walkman?

So, there are so many conflicting clues, and that's what's such a struggle. They didn't have a whole body, they had bones. The cadaver dogs are probably looking for more bones that are scattered. And, we're not going to know until -- you know -- sometime down the road, and its still going to be speculation.

PHILLIPS: So with the conflicting clues, what can be determined from -- quick, we have to be real quick, Helen, I'm sorry -- breaking news this morning -- what can be determined from the bones that have been discovered? Is it possible to find out how she really was killed?

MORRISON: There may be; there may be signs on the bones, there may be something on the bones or in the bones that could tell the examiners a mode of death or a method of death.

We do know that she didn't have a skull fracture. They said that there were no signs of trauma. So there weren't any broken bones, nothing that could be seen grossly. But the anthropologist's will take a look at those bones and start saying we see something here that we never would have expected.

PHILLIPS: Forensic psychiatrist Helen Morrison, thanks for adding a little insight for us this morning.

MORRISON: Thank you for having me.

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