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CNN Live At Daybreak

D.C. Police Chief Charles Ramsey Discusses Disappearance of Chandra Levy

Aired July 16, 2001 - 07:32   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: We're going to bring you up to date on our top story here on CNN LIVE AT DAYBREAK: the disappearance of Washington intern Chandra Levy.

And joining us now for the very latest on this is D.C.'s police chief, Charles Ramsey.

Chief Ramsey, thanks so much for being here.

CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. POLICE CHIEF: Thank you.

MCEDWARDS: We've heard a little more in recent days about Chandra Levy's last hours before anyone had actually seen her, and that she spent a fair bit of time on the Internet surfing different sites. What more can you tell us about that?

RAMSEY: Well, about 3 1/2 hours were spent from about 9:30 to about 1:00 on the morning of the 1st searching various sites -- some travel sites, certainly sent e-mail to her mother, things of that nature.

MCEDWARDS: And clarify for me: Did she actually purchase a ticket? Did she have a ticket to go back home, as she was intending to do?

RAMSEY: No, we don't have any evidence of anything actually being purchased. And we have checked air, rail. And we continue to check to see whether or not -- under her name or an assumed name -- she could have made any kind of purchase. But we haven't seen anything yet.

MCEDWARDS: And does that strike you as strange at all: that she's on her way home, her bags are packed, but there is no ticket?

RAMSEY: Well, not really. I mean, her bags, first of all, weren't totally packed. There was some evidence that she may have been planning to stay another day or two. And the way that a lot of these travel agencies now, with the bargains you get for last-minute booking, I mean, there are people who just wait until the last minute to book a flight. So you can't read too much into that sort of thing.

MCEDWARDS: And I also understand she was looking for some information on a place called Klingle Mansion. What more do you know about that at this point?

RAMSEY: Well, there were a couple of locations here in the local area that she went to. But, again, we have gone through those areas. We're in the process now of going through them again to see whether or not there is anything that we may have overlooked the first time.

You know Washington, D.C.: There are a lot of pretty remote areas -- a lot of parkland here in the District. So we've got the dogs out once again to go through some more of the areas of our city.

MCEDWARDS: And I understand that that Klingle Mansion is in that park that's near her former apartment. Are you putting any special search efforts there at all?

RAMSEY: Well, first of all, we've already been there once. And that's an area that is traveled with bikers and joggers and so forth. So at this stage of the investigation, had something been there, odds are somebody would have come across it by now.

But it doesn't hurt for us to go over it again and again, because right now, we just don't have any clues that bring us any closer to finding Chandra. So we just can't afford to overlook anything.

MCEDWARDS: Her parents say that they were told that, when Chandra Levy had her meetings with Congressman Condit, that she was told to never bring any I.D. with her -- that that was the way they operated their relationship.

So what do police think? What do you think about the fact that she apparently went out that last time without identification? Do you see any significance in that at all?

RAMSEY: Well, again, you can't read anything into it. I mean, the only thing missing pretty much was her keys. We don't know if she had any money on her person at the time. She could have just gone to a nearby store. She could have just decided to go downstairs. We just don't know. So I wouldn't read too much into that sort of thing, although, obviously, we want to explore all possibilities.

MCEDWARDS: Chief Ramsey, do you think -- in your gut, do you think it was someone she knew or a complete stranger she encountered?

RAMSEY: Well, I don't know if it's either of the above.

I mean, the possibility still exists that she left of her own free will and just doesn't want to be found. We just don't know. We've got to wait until we get evidence. There's an awful lot of speculation going on. And I imagine the longer this thing goes, the more speculation we'll have. But what we have to do is just deal with evidence, deal with facts that we have available to us to try to figure out what happened to her.

MCEDWARDS: I want to ask you a little bit more about some of the tips that came in over the weekend after the "America's Most Wanted" program spent almost a full hour on this case. One of them was that there was a van spotted near her apartment the day before she went missing, and someone was apparently trying to lure girls to it. To what extent have you been able to check that one out so far?

RAMSEY: Well, again, all the leads that we get, we're going to check out extensively. We don't know whether or not that's going to lead us anywhere. We don't even know if it's true, quite frankly. Everyone who calls in to these kinds of shows don't necessarily have legitimate information. But we're going to take ...

MCEDWARDS: Can you tell us this morning what you have done on that tip, specifically?

RAMSEY: Well, we're going to back -- we're going to check our records, see if there were any calls that came in around that sort of thing.

Once again, we've talked to other people in that area to find out whether or not they saw anything suspicious. I mean, so we take it very seriously. And we're going to continue to work it to see if in fact that's true. If it's true, then does it have a connection? It may or may not have a connection.

MCEDWARDS: How satisfied are you with the polygraph that Congressman Condit has taken?

RAMSEY: Well, first of all, I haven't seen it. We haven't had a chance to analyze the results. I am not happy with how they did it. It had no input from us at all.

I don't know how an examiner could possibly give an exam like that without knowing all the facts in the case. They couldn't have known that, because we have that available to us. They didn't ask us. In fact, they actually misled us into believing that there was somehow going to be some kind of cooperative effort in trying to get this done. That didn't happen. So we need to take a look and review what they did. I don't like what they did, but it is what it is, so...

MCEDWARDS: Chief, how perturbed are you with the level of cooperation you are getting from Congressman Condit, from his lawyers, from his camp?

RAMSEY: Well, I don't know if perturbed is the right word, but sometimes it is disappointing at times. And the polygraph is a perfect example of that.

We were told that the congressman was busy attending sessions, things of that nature. Obviously, that wasn't true. So we would just like everybody just to be up front and honest. And if you're going to do a private exam, just say so and do what you're going to do, I mean, rather than go through all the motions of trying to make it look legitimate when in fact you're going to take another route.

MCEDWARDS: Chief Ramsey, there's been a lot made of a couple other disappearances in D.C., in the area around Chandra Levy, and some suggestions made by the "America's Most Wanted" program, for example, that there were some similarities in these cases, that the girls sort of looked alike, that some of the circumstances were the same.

I mean, to what extent are you investigating whether or not there is some kind of serial killer at work?

RAMSEY: Well, first of all, anything is possible. And we're looking at each and every thing that could possibly be the case in this particular instance.

But let me just say this: The three cases that they are talking about, one of which is obviously Chandra Levy -- Christine Mirzayan August of '98 left a barbecue walking home down Canal Road. Her body was found the next day with severe trauma -- blunt force trauma to the head. The body was found. The instrument used to kill her was found -- no arrests. But that's basically the circumstances there.

Joyce Chiang, an INS lawyer, who came up missing -- her body was discovered about three months later in the Potomac. We found some materials over by the Anacostia River. But the manner and cause of death has never been determined by the medical examiner.

And now we have Chandra Levy, where we have no tips and clues at all as to what took place and what happened to her.

Now, there are some serious differences when you're talking about patterns of crimes. And most profilers and others will tell you that there is many, if not more, differences in these crimes -- if, in fact, they are crimes -- than there are similarities. In the latter two, we can't even prove that we have a crime. The Joyce Chiang case has not been determined. And we don't know what happened to Chandra Levy.

So I think that's a tremendous leap, personally. But we did enter all the information into ViCAP, which is the FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. We did that two months ago to see if there is anything anywhere in the United States that might be similar in nature that might help us find Chandra Levy. So far, we've not found links. And unlike others, as police, we have to make sure that we find links, not create links to various types of crimes.

MCEDWARDS: Understood.

We have to leave it there, Chief Charles Ramsey. Thanks very much for your time this morning and for the update -- appreciate it.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

MCEDWARDS: All right.

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