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American Morning

The Search for Chandra: Will New Tip Lead to Answers?

Aired August 02, 2001 - 10:05   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: The search for Chandra Levy and a tip that leads about 120 miles outside of Washington. But will this lead to some answers in her disappearance? The FBI says it has no immediate plans to search the grounds of Fort Lee, a military installation near Petersburg, Virginia. A crime fighting group in California had received an anonymous phone tip that Levy's body was buried under a parking lot under construction. Investigators say that they're giving this tip a closer look, but they stress that such leads are usually unfounded.

Let's get the latest now from CNN national correspondent Bob Franken, who's standing by in Washington -- Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Leon, while the tips have proven to be unfounded, police, who have been so stymied in their investigation into the disappearance of Chandra Levy, continue to treat each one seriously, this one in particular because there was some credibility. It described parking lot construction at or around Fort Lee in Virginia and there had, in fact, been some.

Of course, each and every time that there is some tip about the body of Chandra Levy, investigators hope, of course, that the tip does not pan out. This is an investigation that operates on two tracks. One, a massive effort to try and find a tragic ending to the life of Chandra Levy, but at the same time a strong investigation into the possibilities that she might be in hiding, she might well be alive. And police say they give no weight to either one.

But this, of course, was the result of a tip that came in to this Web site. The D.C. police took it seriously enough because of the certain aspects and the details that they wanted to follow it up. And then on the ground at Fort Lee, of course, they're trying to assess where to go from here -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, thanks much Bob Franken in Washington.

And you mentioned Fort Lee. Let's go there right now. It's a 5,000 acre Army training site outside of Richmond, Virginia, and our national correspondent Eileen O'Connor is there. She joins us with the view from there -- Eileen.

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Leon, other than the fact that there is now a manned guard post here at the entrance of the base, which the public information officer says has, they have been doing over the summer, but normally this is not necessarily a controlled access point in and out of the base. So another point that could give this tip credence is that you can and could get on the base around the time of Chandra Levy's disappearance.

But again, public information officers here, the military, are not, they're saying that they have no immediate plans to search this. The local FBI office says they're looking into the validity, the credibility of this tip and only if they determine that it's warranted will they go forward with any other investigative action as they have said.

So right now they say no immediate plans for any kind of searches, even, according to military personnel, a cursory search by them of Fort Lee -- Leon.

HARRIS: All right, thank you, Eileen O'Connor, reporting live this morning.

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