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American Morning

'America's Most Wanted' Host Discusses Finding of Levy Body

Aired May 23, 2002 - 08:06   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: When the D.C. police made their grim announcement, the worst fears of Chandra Levy's family became reality, a reality they sadly share with many. Almost three quarters of a million kids were reported missing last year. According to the FBI, that is about 2,000 a day. And a survey just released by the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children says parents often lack information that is critical to recovering kidnapped kids and are also missing opportunities to ensure their child's safety.

Joining us now from Washington to talk about the Levy case and the crisis of missing children, the host of "America's Most Wanted," John Walsh.

Good morning, John.

JOHN WALSH, HOST, "AMERICA'S MOST WANTED": Good morning, Paula.

ZAHN: I wanted to warn you ahead of time that we're going to have to break away from this conversation when the president addresses the twin houses of parliament in Germany. But we're going to attempt to get started here.

Last night, the attorney for Gary Condit lashed out at police and essentially said they were incompetent, how could you have not searched all the major jogging trails? Obviously, he pointed out, that if you drew a line from Chandra Levy's apparent to the Klingle Mansion, which I guess was the last Web site she searched, there was a straight line -- Chief Ramsey telling me this morning that is ridiculous, you know, that she was found off the beaten path, that it was an area that they had searched close to, but you couldn't have searched this huge, huge area of the park inch by inch.

What is your analysis of the search?

WALSH: Well, I think people have the misconception that the police have unlimited resources to search large areas. That's not the case, whether it's a missing woman, like Chandra Levy, or a missing child. If you remember, the recent case of Danielle van Dam down in San Diego, it was the organized volunteer searchers who never gave up and actually found Danielle's body 30 miles from her home. So you know, there's a great misconception the police have the resources to search vast areas. They don't. And Rock Creek Park is a very large area, and it's something that they just couldn't do. ZAHN: And Chief Ramsey said this morning that he is hoping that they are going to be able to get clues from the remains that were found. What do you think happened to Chandra Levy?

WALSH: Well, I've said it to you, and I've said it for almost a year now, that I believe that she was taken and killed by a serial killer. This is the third unsolved homicide of a young woman in the Dupont Circle area in the last three years. We have Christine Mirzayan, a very accomplished young woman with a doctorate, a former Capitol Hill intern whose body was found in a canal in Georgetown badly beaten. She was walking home from a barbecue.

We have Joyce Chiang, an INS lawyer, a very accomplished young woman walking home from a Starbucks. She lived about a half a mile from Chandra Levy. Her body was found three months after she was missing, badly decomposed in the Potomac River.

I think when they get all the forensic evidence, when they're done, they will determine that this was a homicide, that she was taken, her body was taken there, and it was distributed by animals, which is the case in many cases of corpses put in rough areas, and that there is a serial killer of three women that is still at large.

ZAHN: Well, the police chief told me this morning they can't say for sure whether the body has always been there or whether she might have been murdered elsewhere and transported there.

WALSH: That's very possible. I mean because she is so decomposed, these are skeletal remains, I think they're going to have a very, very tough time determining the cause of death. I think they will come to the conclusion that it was a homicide. I don't think anyone will ever really know, unless they find evidence there at the scene -- and they have locked down the scene and are still working the scene as we're talking -- whether she was killed somewhere else and brought there or brought there and murdered there.

But they're not saying it's a homicide yet. But I say it is a homicide. I say when all the forensic evidence is in, in the next couple of days, that they will rule this an unsolved homicide. And we'll be following it. We'll be doing it on "America's Most Wanted."

ZAHN: And apparently, the Levys found out about the discovery of this body by watching television. Have you spoken with the Levys since this horrible discovery?

WALSH: No. I'm going to try to reach out to them today because now they have joined the horrible club that I belong to and my family and my wife, and that is the parents of a murdered child. And I know they're going through hell right now. But I think in spite of how difficult it was, they were prepared for the worst news. And the only good part of this is that they will, now can end their search for Chandra, that they know where she is. She's in a better place, that they can bury her and respect her memory, and now they'll be looking for justice -- and that's an important part of the healing process.

ZAHN: Now onto the issue of this day marking the number of missing children in this country. Since the Missing Children's Act was enacted in 1982, there has been a, what, 44 percent increase in the number of children that have gone missing. And I find this fascinating. This survey shows that 22 percent of parents do not know the height, the weight, and the eye color of their children, and only 39 percent have a child's fingerprints.

What type of information should we as parents have on our children in case of an abduction?

WALSH: Well, you know, this Saturday night, for example, we're going to be profiling six missing children, six stranger abducted missing children. And parents don't realize that it could happen to anyone. Certainly, you know, you and I have talked about this terrible case in Oregon, Oregon City, where these two 12-year-old girls are missing.

Parents need to have a recent picture of their children. The first thing when their child goes missing the police are going to say do you have a recent picture? We don't want last year's soccer picture. We don't want last year's class picture. We need a recent picture.

ZAHN: John, we've got to cut you off.

(INTERRUPTED BY LIVE EVENT)

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