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American Morning

The Search for Chandra: Police Cover More Ground

Aired July 16, 2001 - 10:01   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We continue our news this hour with the search for Chandra Levy. It is covering more ground today in Washington. Police say they are using 50 recruits to systematically hunt through parks and other public areas.

Our Jonathan Karl is monitoring the developments. He joins us live from Washington with the latest -- Jonathan, good morning.

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Daryn.

One of the places those recruits will be concentrating on especially is Rock Creek Park. That's Washington, D.C.'s largest public park. It's located just a block or so from Chandra Levy's apartment. They are going to be dedicating much of their time to going over that ground. Although this search is expanding, police are reminding us that they have been over much of this ground before. They're going in with more personnel. They're going to be looking at some areas that they have not looked at yet. But they say that Rock Creek Park is one of the places that they searched in in the early days of this investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. POLICE CHIEF: Well, there were a couple of locations here in the local area that she went to. But again, we've 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 park land here in the District. So we've got the dogs out once again to go through some more of the areas of our city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KARL: Now, one of the areas within Rock Creek Park that they will be looking at and that they have looked at before is the Klingle Mansion. The Klingle Mansion is a 19th century stone farmhouse located within Rock Creek Park. It's popular with the park's joggers, picnickers and it is a place that they are looking at because the police have found out that when Chandra Levy was looking on her computer the morning that she disappeared, she spent about three and a half hours on the computer. One of the sites she visited was the site MapQuest. And one of the things she was looking for on MapQuest was directions to the Klingle Mansion.

Now, again, this is an area that police have already looked at and they don't know, they don't have any solid clues or tips that she may have somehow been up there at the time that she disappeared, but it is, again, one of the places that they are going over once again.

As a matter of fact, police officials who are involved in this investigation have told me that they are baffled that at this point, this long into this investigation, they still do not have a single solid clue, they say, as to what happened to her. They really believe that she seems to essentially have vanished without a trace -- Leon? Daryn?

KAGAN: It's actually Daryn. That's amazing and tragic all at the same time. Jonathan, you mentioned that they went back and they're looking at the Internet use of Chandra's computer in those last hours. Any other sites pop up besides MapQuest?

KARL: Well, they haven't mentioned any specifically by name, but what they do say is that she was on the Internet looking at various travel options, travel options to California. Of course, that was May 1. she was graduating or to graduate on May 9. So she told her parents, she had told friends that she was going back to California for her graduation. So she was looking at various travel options.

But what the police say is there is no evidence that she actually booked either a flight or train fare or any kind of transportation to California. As a matter of fact, Ms. Chandra Levy's parents have said that one thing that concerned them is that they had never, that Chandra Levy had never told her parents exactly when she was coming home. They were, of course, anxious for a date of when they would see her.

KAGAN: Of course, as we now know, she never showed up at that graduation ceremony and that set off the alarm.

Jonathan Karl in Washington, thank you.

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