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American Morning

Theories on Levy Disappearance Developing

Aired July 13, 2001 - 11:31   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.
(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... Senator Boxer goes on to say in this written statement, quote: "He needs to with truthful and forthcoming with the authorities to help them find Chandra, and the authorities must get to the bottom of this disappearance.

Meanwhile, as this case goes forward, just this hour law enforcement authorities, police here in Washington, continue their search for the second straight day of abandoned buildings in Washington, D.C.

And in a sign of just how far and wide this investigation, this search is going, the police are also expanding their look into the possibility that Chandra Levy may be alive and intentionally trying to not be found. They are generating computer-generated images of Chandra Levy to show what she might look like if, in fact, she is trying to disguise her appearance so as not to be found. We expect the police here in Washington to release those computer-generated images some time today.

Back to you, Stephen.

STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: Well, that's the investigation news, Jonathan; any other developments from Capitol Hill?

KARL: Well, we also know that Dick Gephardt who is, of course, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives had an interview with CNN Radio's John Bisney a while ago. Gephardt reiterated much of what he has already said about this. He said that he apparently -- Condit seems to be cooperating. But John Bisney also did ask Congressman Gephardt about Condit's political future, and all Gephardt said was, look, that's something each and every one of us -- all of us members of Congress must deal with every two years, and Congressman Condit's political future will be decided by his constituents back there in California.

So not much in the way of a monumental statement from Congressman Gephardt, but that's what he is having to say. Most members of Congress simply not saying much about this case at all -- Stephen.

FRAZIER: Jonathan Karl from Washington. Jonathan, thank you.

More on this now from Daryn.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this weekend the case of the missing intern will be taken up by "America's Most Wanted." During the show, Susan and Robert Levy sit down for an interview and talk about their daughter's disappearance, and they talk about the struggle to find answers. Here's a bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED")

SUSAN LEVY, CHANDRA'S MOTHER: I'm not worrying about anybody's political career or anything like that. The main focus is to bring my daughter home. And it is important to find out who she's been with in the last few days, that the communication was there, and who -- the relationship she was with, and to build an understanding to what might have happened.

And so, I mean, everybody's talking about political things, and how it's affecting the rest of country, whatever, or who individually, or who is going to run for this seat or what -- I mean, I'm not out to hurt anybody's political causes or anything like that. I am just -- my husband are just -- we're parents and we want our daughter home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: There are several theories about the former intern's disappearance, but host John Walsh of "America's Most Wanted" says that he has discounted -- he, himself, discounts the possibility of suicide.

I had a chance to talk with him earlier today, and here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN WALSH, HOST, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": I don't think Chandra killed herself at all. I've talked to a couple FBI experts, and they say usually people who commit suicide, it's very easy to find their bodies; they leave notes.

This was a girl who was deeply loved by her family, and very close to her family. And all her friends agree that she was a very upbeat person. And she was on her way home; her bags were packed; her ID was in her apartment. She was leaving the next day to get a master's degree from college.

This was not a depressed young woman. This is not someone that would kill themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAGAN: "America's Most Wanted" airs Saturday night at 9:00 Eastern.

FRAZIER: We're going to spend a little more time on this now. Joining us to discuss the Levy case is former District of Columbia metropolitan police detective, and now CNN consultant Mike Brooks. Detective Brooks, thanks for coming back.

MIKE BROOKS, CNN CONSULTANT: Good morning.

FRAZIER: Let's talk first about these pictures that Jonathan Karl just made a reference to when he was reporting from Washington -- these digitally enhanced pictures. We have an awful lot of very recent video and still photographs of Chandra Levy; why, then, manipulate a picture?

BROOKS: Well, what they're trying to do is they're going to take the pictures, digitally enhance them using an original picture of hers and show her with her hair cut, with a different color hair, with a ponytail -- different hairstyles, these kind of things just to cover all the tracks, and dot all the "I"s, cross all the "T"s, if you will, to make sure that she is now out there somewhere and in a different mental state. And if someone ran across her she might have this kind of appearance.

So again, this is again just another lead that they're following up on. And they're trying to explore any possibilities at all that she could still be out there and still be alive.

FRAZIER: A lot of times spent rummaging through abandoned buildings yesterday, I mentioned 19 of them. And all they found were, you know, mattresses of squatters and other disappointing developments. Nothing of hers.

BROOKS: No, but it's something that has to be done. You have to go through, and there's -- if there's any possibility that there could be any of her belongings in any of these buildings -- her keys, that are still missing, that presumably that she had when she left her apartment. Those are the kind of things they're looking for.

And it's got to be done. Some of these buildings were probably gone in before early on. But this is a follow up, again, by the metropolitan police to go and to try and follow out and try play out any leads at all that they have.

FRAZIER: You've heard metropolitan police explain the theories that they're chasing down, and John Walsh mentioned in his comments to Daryn earlier today one of his own, which is that there's been a serial killer working in that part of the district preying on interns who come from other parts of the country to go to work in Washington. What do you make of that?

BROOKS: Well, if you look at the District and you look at the demographics of the District, it's very small. It's very difficult to say that there's a serial killer in that particular area preying on interns. No. 1, if you're going to make a profile of a serial killer you have to have -- unfortunately -- you have to have a body to go by. And then you take the facts from that particular case, compare them with the other case to so see if there is any parallels, to see if there are any similarity to say if you do have a serial killer out there. So unfortunately there's no a lot to go on on that particular theory right now, but that will be explored, should the evidence show itself.

FRAZIER: What else are you hearing that you think we ought to be discussing today?

BROOKS: I'm hearing that there might be some follow-up interviews done later on today with some folks. And, again, they went back last night and -- to try to do another canvass of the people in Ms. Levy's apartment building. As you know, D.C. is a very transient town; people have different, various hours.

The other thing that -- one of the things that I probably would do is, you know, in a building like that, when you go around and you're doing your interviews and you're trying to find out who lives in a certain apartment. It's also been reported that they're running name checks on some of these folks. Well, one of the things that you may want to do is to try and pull up the contracts of some of the people who either own or rent apartments in Washington.

Again, taking into -- Washington is a very transient city. A lot of people come to and from Washington, and they own an apartment and they may sublet it to someone else. So the apartment may be in one name, and the person living there in another. So that's something else that, as an investigator, they probably will follow up and see exactly who is living and if the name matches the contract that they have for that particular apartment.

FRAZIER: And if it doesn't, they've got to track down the name.

BROOKS: Absolutely.

FRAZIER: A lot more of the shoe leather work that we understand police do.

BROOKS: Sure; yes.

FRAZIER: Well, Detective Mike Brooks, thank you for joining us with those latest thoughts on this investigation as it goes.

BROOKS: Thank you.

FRAZIER: We have more on this on the Web site; but first let's talk to Daryn about what's happening.

KAGAN: Right; this certainly is a story that has captivated viewers across America. To find out more about how the public views this search for Chandra Levy, let's bring in Gallup Poll Editor in Chief Frank Newport.

Frank, hello.

FRANK NEWPORT, EDITOR IN CHIEF, GALLUP POLL: Hello, Daryn. In fact, we finished a poll where we asked Americans about this very, very big news story and, in fact, they are following it closely. Let's put this in some context for you. We ask this about a lot of stories. The assassination -- I've read that the death of John Kennedy Jr. was at the very top of list, for example, and Princess Di's death. But this year, here are some of the things we've followed. The Levy disappearance, 63 percent of Americans following it closely; up there with the Andrea Yates story in Houston, but way above some of the political stories like the Bush energy plan or stem cell research controversy. It is a story that Americans are watching fairly closely.

Now, when we ask Americans, how likely is it that Congressman Condit was involved -- "directly" was the word we used -- directly involved in the disappearance of Chandra Levy. Here's what we found: two-thirds say at least say somewhat likely. You can see the numbers here, actually up to about three out of 10 Americans hypothesize it's very likely that he was involved.

That leads to lie detector tests -- it's been requested. Americans say no question: 83 percent say, indeed, the congressman should take the lie detector test.

Will this ever be solved? You know, we have a little over half of Americans who still -- based on what they know say yes. By way of comparison, just a third said they thought the JonBenet Ramsey case would be solved when we asked about it after it occurred. So, on relative basis, a little more optimism.

Daryn, one final point. There's always a feedback of criticism -- is the media exploiting this and not playing this correctly? So we said, is the media handling this responsibly? Again, we put it in context. Here's the Levy case: 61 percent say yes. A little lower than the Kennedy plane crash or the Columbine shootings, you can see. But way above, for example, how the public reacted to the media's coverage of the Bush daughters. So we think so far Americans are saying it is worth covering, and the media are doing a fairly reasonable job.

Daryn, that's where the American public stands. Back to you.

KAGAN: Duly noted; Frank Newport, thank you.

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