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American Morning
Now Months Into Search for Chandra Levy, Police Have No Leads
Aired July 20, 2001 - 09:13 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: After more than two months and hundreds of tips, police say they still have no hard leads in their search for the missing former intern Chandra Levy, and an item that was found in the trash apparently is not linked to the Levy disappearance.
Our national correspondent Bob Franken joins us, from Washington, with the latest.
Bob, good morning.
BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
It concerns Congressman Gary Condit, who, just moments ago, left his apartment, his apartment watched by news cameras constantly. Condit left the apartment a few seconds ago. This is the apartment that was searched 10 days ago, at the invitation of Condit and his lawyers.
Now police sources tell CNN that four hours before that search, Condit was spotted by somebody in Alexandria, Virginia, who recognized him from television, spotted depositing something in a garbage can.
There you see Condit leaving the apartment today.
Police were called. They retrieved a watch case. They checked it out at a store. They found that is was a gift, ultimately, a gift from a woman he knew in San Francisco. Police say the woman had nothing to do with Chandra Levy, as you pointed out.
They continue to say they have no indication whatsoever that he is involved, in any way, in the disappearance of Chandra Levy, although he's certainly the center of a lot of attention in the news stories that have developed around that.
What's going on today? It's going on again, for the fifth day, in various woodlands around Washington, D.C. In particular, the search focuses on Rock Creek Park. You see, just a few minutes ago, the recruits from the police academy fanning out, trying to see if they can find anything that would help with the disappearance of Chandra Levy.
Once again, they found a bone this morning. Technicians have been called in, but once again, the officials are pretty sure that these are animal bones. There have been several discoveries of that, and each time, technicians have taken them in and taken them back for tests, just to make sure.
With all of this going on, we have an investigation that has really gotten stuck.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FRANKEN (voice-over): One more day that Chandra Levy remains missing, and one more day the massive effort to find her ends in frustration.
CHIEF CHARLES RAMSEY, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: We still don't have a hard lead. We still don't have anything that causes us now to focus our investigation on one of the main possibilities that are still open to us. So right now, we're still wondering what happened to Chandra Levy.
FRANKEN: Police officers and recruits continue to search parks around the District of Columbia -- not covering every inch, but looking at sites where a body might be dumped or dragged.
SGT. BOB PANIZARI, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: We're going to get on the natural trails or the roads and go right off there.
FRANKEN: Meanwhile, investigators await the FBI analysis of Gary Condit's lie detector test, a test conducted by his own polygraph expert. Police remain very skeptical.
RAMSEY: There's nothing that's going to come of that that's going to be of particular use, because we still don't know exactly which questions were asked, what the graph represents. We had no input in it, obviously, and it's questionable as to whether or not it will be of any use.
FRANKEN: Still, investigators insist that Condit is not a suspect.
But he is the central media focus, surrounded daily by a crush of cameras as he walks across the capitol grounds, making his way to the days' often mundane Congressional business.
REP. GARY CONDIT (D), CALIFORNIA: Do you have any statistics, factual information, about, when we lose land under this program, what the economic impact to rural America is, or to any specific region?
FRANKEN: The House Agriculture Committee, with Condit as a member, was one of the Web sites that Chandra Levy logged on to on May 1.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Still to come, police release more of those Web sites, more of the surfing that Chandra Levy did on May 1. We already know that she spent quite a bit of time looking for items that involved Congressman Condit.
One other thing, Daryn, the House Ethics Committee has decided to respond to a letter from Congressman Bob Barr seeking an Ethics Committee investigation of Condit, to hold off on that investigation -- this is not unusual -- hold off until the police investigation is over -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Bob, we'll check back with you in a little bit. Thank you, Bob Franken in Washington.
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