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American Morning

The Search for Chandra: D.C. Police Continue Search; Gary Condit Expected to Appear on Capitol Hill

Aired July 17, 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're going to start this hour with the latest developments in the Chandra Levy case. More than 10 weeks after the former intern disappeared, a central figure is widely reported in this widely reported story, she's still missing from view.

We have the story here, a live picture from Capitol Hill, where we're expecting Gary Condit to show up, a key agriculture committee taking place there. Also, the search goes on in the park, in Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. and we are monitoring that, as well.

LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, in fact, let's get right to that. Washington police are combing that thicket of a park, as we said, Rock Creek Park. That's just about a block or so away from Chandra Levy's home. Let's go now to our Eileen O'Connor, CNN, who is standing by live. She's there, as the police have been, searching through that thicket in the park there -- Eileen?

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now what we're seeing, Leon, is searchers, the evidence collection team is right inside the park. They've just picked up what's been described by the sergeant from the special investigations unit as a box cutting knife. And next to it was a pair of new running shoes. There's also a box below us right here that could have been the box for those shoes.

Now, Sergeant Panizari has said that you're going to find a lot of items in this park. Rock Creek Park is a very wide park. There's over 1,700 acres. But the police, in fact, have narrowed the search here to an area that they say Chandra Levy was interested in. It was an area where maps taken off her computer, she had been online looking at maps of this area of Rock Creek Park and that is why they are searching all through this area of Rock Creek Park.

It's called Piney Branch Road and they're hoping to, with 28 police recruits, to go step by step through this area. They're looking for disturbed earth, bits of clothing -- as you've heard, we've found here running shoes -- and anything else, bones they found yesterday afternoon. And they say that this is obviously like searching for a needle in a haystack, but they are planning to conduct this very thorough search basically of a narrowed area, as I said, just about two miles north of Chandra Levy's apartment. Again, an area that she clearly was interested in because she brought up searches of this area on the Internet on her computer -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, thanks much Eileen O'Connor reporting live for us this morning. We'll get back to you later on -- Daryn.

KAGAN: As we said, this is a two part story, the search for Chandra Levy, also, in some ways, a search for Congressman Gary Condit. He is expected to show up on Capitol Hill at this hour. Let's go to the phone now. Our Congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl is standing by -- Jon?

JONATHAN KARL, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Daryn.

Yes, I'm just outside the committee hearing room here and this is a hearing of the Agriculture Committee, on which Gary Condit sits, about the 2002 Farm Bill, not exactly national news, except for those in the agriculture industry, but something very important to Gary Condit. He has not showed up yet at this committee, but his staff does say that he will be here, as he has been to committee hearings throughout this whole controversy.

This is also interesting because Gary Condit is the seventh ranking Democrat on this committee and he sits right between two of those whom he is closest to politically up here on Capitol Hill, Charlie Stenholm, another Democrat, a member of the Blue Dog coalition of conservative Democrats that Gary Condit helped start and also Collin Peterson on the other side.

So right now we're hearing from various people in the agriculture industry. Right now the National Cattleman's Beef Association is speaking. We'll be hearing from the egg producers, from the sheep industry, again, all talking about the agriculture bill but also a lot of attention, especially outside this committee room, on Gary Condit, everybody expecting him to show up. He has not been seen in public, as you know, Daryn, since last week.

KAGAN: Jonathan Karl on Capitol Hill, Jonathan. Also, we want to tell our viewers that later this hour we're going to talk with a former FBI agent who says sometimes you can judge a book by its cover. She has authored a book and helped write the closing chapter in many cases by relying on the skills of profiling. She says you can also profile potential victims. We're going to talk with her in about 15 minutes.

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