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American Morning

The Search for Chandra: Investigation Goes On

Aired July 20, 2001 - 11:07   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Turning now to the disappearance of Washington intern Chandra Levy: As police search area parks for clues, there is word of a past search, this involving Congressman Gary Condit.

Police sources say that they have traced a recovered watch case to a woman who says that she had given that watch to Condit. It was found in a trash can in Northern Virginia. The sources tell CNN the can was searched after a witness tip that the congressman was seen dumping something into it.

Meanwhile, the trail is getting colder in this case. Washington, D.C.'s police chief reportedly says that there is a fairly significant chance that Chandra Levy will never be found.

We get the latest in the case now from our national correspondent Bob Franken, who's been covering it for us from the get-go. He's in Washington live this morning -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, first of all, about 25 percent or so of missing person cases are never solved.

And the police chief is just expressing a pessimistic point of view. As we know, there are searches out in force looking at forest lands, trying to see if they can find some trace of Chandra Levy. Of course, that would be a very tragic result if they did find something. There are also efforts to see if perhaps she is in hiding somewhere. There is also the continuing plan to put out some more information about her last day on her computer, which was May 1 in her apartment, when she spent several hours.

And they're compiling the various Web sites that she visited. And they're going to be putting them out. It may take until Monday to do that.

HARRIS: Well, Bob, what happens at the point at which the police do decide, "OK, we're not going to find this person"?

What happens then?

FRANKEN: Well, that's, of course, somewhere down the road, I think they're saying. But they would just probably scale back. There are some people in the District of Columbia who believe that there are too many resources committed to this, who believe that it is taking away from the rest of the police work -- something, by the way, that top police officials pretty much deny.

HARRIS: Yes. I can't help but think that the media coverage of that is probably a big factor in that.

(CROSSTALK)

FRANKEN: I don't think...

HARRIS: Say again?

FRANKEN: I was just going to say, the police don't even bother to deny that. They say that all this attention of course has fueled this intense interest, which of course has caused them to develop resources we might normally not have done.

HARRIS: Yes, exactly.

Bob Franken in Washington, thanks. We'll talk with you later on.

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