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CNN Live At Daybreak
The Search for Chandra: Still No Sign of Missing Intern
Aired July 16, 2001 - 07:01 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.
COLLEEN MCEDWARDS, CNN ANCHOR: There is still no sign of missing intern Chandra Levy.
CNN's Jonathan Karl brings us up to date now from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With the police investigation turning up no solid leads, Chandra Levy's family is trying to keep the attention on California Democrat Gary Condit.
BILLY MARTIN, ATTORNEY FOR THE LEVY FAMILY: The story here is a young lady is missing, and we have a congressman who seems to stall the investigation. The story is as much about Congressman Condit and his failure to tell the truth and to come forward earlier as it is about this missing person.
KARL: Police characterize Condit as relatively cooperative, pointing out that he has voluntarily turned over records and a DNA sample, giving free interviews and allowed his apartment to be searched.
TERRANCE GAINER, ASST. CHIEF, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: We are still in the process of talking to the congressman's staff, looking at some other vehicles, but that is just one small dimension of this case. I know it gets a lot of attention, but there is a lot of other things we are doing on the other theories.
KARL: Adding more theories, tips coming in from the television program "America's Most Wanted".
JOHN WALSH, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": We got 166 tips. The most promising so far is that there was a van in the Dupont Circle area the day before, trying to lure young women, about Chandra Levy's age, into the van and was unsuccessful. So, police will be following up on that tip today and talking to that tipster today.
KARL: Police say it's one of many tips they are looking into. They also plan to use police academy recruits to add manpower to their search of Rock Creek Park, the 2,800-acre wooded area located just blocks from Levy's apartment.
CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. POLICE CHIEF: We are going to more and more remote areas. Now, we have done some of that already, but it's so dense and so difficult to search that we are going to try again and see what we come up with. Not that we have gotten a lead, just that we have got to continue to explore all possibilities.
KARL: Regardless of what the investigation turns up, the Senate's top Republican says Democrat Condit should leave Congress if he had an affair with Levy.
SEN. TRENT LOTT (R-MS), MINORITY LEADER: Infidelity is always unacceptable, but particularly when you have an elected official involved in a position of trust with a young girl, an intern. If these allegations are true, obviously he should resign. And if he doesn't, the people of his district probably will not reelect him.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KARL: As people associated with this case fan out on the television talk shows, noticeably absent over the last couple of days has been anybody speaking for Gary Condit. I asked his spokeswoman, Marina Ein, why that was, and she said -- quote -- "Everything substantive we've already said. We have nothing more to say" -- Colleen.
MCEDWARDS: Jonathan, speaking of tips, there was also a report of a 911 call having been made. What more do you know about that?
KARL: Well, that's right.
There was a 911 call made from -- at 4:30 in the morning on May 1. That was the day -- the last day known that Chandra Levy was around before she disappeared. That 911 call came in at 4:30 in the morning from that apartment -- somebody reporting that they had heard screams. But police are discounting any connection between that, because five hours later, they say, Chandra Levy was in her apartment on her computer spending at least 3 1/2 hours surfing around various Web sites.
One of the things she was doing on those Web sites was looking for travel options to get back home to California.
MCEDWARDS: All right, CNN's Jonathan Karl, thanks very much for that update.
And then coming up in about 10 minutes right here, we're going to talk about missing women, some information on how it happens, how common it is. And then you will meet the Bish family. Their daughter disappeared a year ago. And then at the bottom of the hour, we will talk with Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey about the Levy case.
Stay with us.
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