November 10, 2022 • 40 mins
In May of 2001, 24 year-old Chandra Levy dissapeared while working an internship in Washington D.C. Her apparent affair with an older Congressman made the case a media sensation. But when her remains were found a year later, another suspect was arrested. So what happened to Chandra? Rasha and Yvette discuss the twists and turns of this very peculiar investigation.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of I Heart
Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in
the show and do not represent those of I Heart
Radio or Tenderfoot TV. This podcast contains subject matter which
may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Hi, everyone,
(00:29):
welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV and I
Heart Radio. We are your host. I'm Yvette Gentile and
I'm Rosha Peccarero and as always are fabulous producer. Mr
Trevor Young is with us. Hey, they're happy November. Happy November, Trevor.
I can't believe the years almost over. I know, I've
(00:50):
had this on my mind for you know, probably the
last couple of weeks. You know, we talked about you know,
Kenny Genovaz, right and a couple of weeks ago, and
it's just stuck with me, like how she kind of
got lost, you know, back then in that error because
you know, they were so focused on the thirty eight
(01:11):
bystanders that we really lost focus of who Kitty was
and what her story was about, you know, And today
we're going to be talking about Chandra Levy and again,
you know, another young woman taken too soon, and again
the media loses focus because they they get so fixated
(01:34):
on you know, the Gary condit, the political candidate, the
sensationalism of it. All. Right, I feel so proud you
know what we're doing, um here on facing Evil, because
we really want to highlight you know, who these women were,
(01:54):
you know, at the peak of their their career, just
about to get started, and then something horrible happens to them,
and again their story gets lost. Yeah, I mean, I
think that's definitely a thing we try and do on
Facing Evil, right, is strip away all the fluff and
try and get down to the stories of these victims,
(02:16):
right and talk about it from an angle that maybe
not everybody else talks about. And that is the person,
right that's getting to the real empathy of any of
these cases as talking about the victims. So, um, you know,
I think that's great and I think this case today
is probably a great example of that. Absolutely, Ta Trevor Um.
And with that being said, will you please take us
(02:38):
through today's case. The search is on in the district
for a missing woman. Her name is Chandra and Levy.
She is twenty four years old and hasn't been seen
since April. Susan Leevy came to our city with the
mission she wanted to know where her daughter was. What
(02:59):
happened a shock. A staffer for the congressman says there
was no romantic relationship between the congressman and miss Levy.
Chandra Levy was a twenty four year old woman who
disappeared in May of two thousand one. At the time,
she had just wrapped up an internship in Washington, d C.
And was getting ready to go back home to California.
(03:22):
But Schandra never made it home. On May six, Chandra's
parents contacted d C Police, saying they hadn't heard from
her in days and so as search began, but they
didn't find her. Months later, her remains were discovered by
a hiker in Rock Creek Park. The story of Chandra
Levy's disappearance and death became a national obsession when it
(03:45):
came to light that Levy had a romantic relationship with
a married congressman leading up to her death. The investigation
and eventual prosecution were marred by an aptitude, and to
this day, it's unclear who killed Chandra Levy, and so
who was Chandra Levie who was actually responsible for her murder?
(04:05):
And what does the story tell us about how police
handle homicide investigations when a high profile politician is involved.
So Russia, I remember that this was one of those
cases that was literally all over the media, and again,
people couldn't stop talking about it. And I remember living
(04:28):
in l A because this was in two thousand and
one night, yeah, together with mom, and I remember being
somewhat fixated on it because you know, again we're talking
about a young woman, a young intern, right and going
back years ago to the Bill Clinton error with Monica Lewinsky.
(04:48):
So I definitely was captivated by this particular case. Yeah,
I think we all were. And I remember, you know,
her face on every magage, seen on every news story,
every headline, and Trevor, like you said in the top
of the episode, you know, there was this young, smart,
(05:09):
you know, student just on the cusp of what seemed
like such a bright and sparkling future, and she likely
had this high profile affair with this lawmaker, and people
were talking about whether or not that had been a
cover up, if he was involved somehow it you know,
I mean, again, like you said, Evet, Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton, Like,
(05:32):
all these things go through all of our heads. And
I'll admit that's I think why I was captivated at first. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
I do think that unlike the Bill Clinton and Monica
Lewinsky scandal, this case had a relatively shorter lifespan. Um.
You know, there was definitely a period in the media
where this case was obsessed over because of the quote
(05:54):
unquote scandalous relationship with a politician. Um, but you know,
those leads connecting the politics and to her murder eventually
did go try and it became very clear that the
authorities had just kind of botched this investigation. Uh, and
that is kind of when the public's attention started looking
away from it, it wasn't as interesting anymore, right, And
(06:14):
that's kind of a big tragedy in this case. So
I think there are many moments where the police mishandled
their job. They mishandled this investigation. They try and pin
it on someone else, And I think you can't really
like help, but wonder like, had more of the public
eye state on them, would they have done a better job? Right?
Would this have gotten solved eventually? Right? True? True? True?
(06:38):
I mean, you know, let's just begin with our classic question.
Who was Chandra Levy? Shandra Levy was twenty four years old.
She was born in Ohio, but the family moved to California,
and actually it was Modesto where she went to high school.
She ended up graduating from San Francisco State Universe City
(07:00):
with a degree in journalism, and she briefly worked in
the office of the Los Angeles Mayor. She then enrolled
in graduate school at the University of Southern California for
a master's in public administration. In September of two thousand.
She ended up moving to Washington, d c. And it
was there that she worked as an intern with the
Federal Bureau of Prisons. And this is where she met
(07:23):
Gary Condit. Condent was a Democratic congressman from California. He
was also fifty two years old and married, and he
took a liking to Chandra. Yeah. I mean, obviously, this
is something we see a lot, right, is that older
politicians men almost always, right, almost always find themselves in
(07:45):
a position of power where they can potentially take advantage
of a young intern. Right. You heard about this a
lot in the nineties and two thousand's yes, that's right,
And apparently on a visit dream Thanksgiving, Chandra tells her
aunt that she's seen someone, but she refuses to name
(08:05):
any names. However, she did reportedly tell her aunt that
her boyfriend was in his fifties and he looked like
Harrison Ford, which he didn't. I'm just saying I think
he did a little bit. I think he looked a
little bit like Harrison Ford, I mean, just because he's older,
with salt and pepper hair. But she did reveal that
(08:29):
her boyfriend was in fact a congressman, So she's leaving
a lot of hints, but never said the name. Yeah,
she never said the name specifically to anyone that we
know of, right right. Anyway, the next month, over winter break,
she emails a friend and says, and this is her quote,
(08:50):
my man will be coming back here when Congress starts
up again, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again.
She's not naming the names, she's not being specific, right.
So in January, Schandra tells her landlord that she won't
be renewing her lease because she'll be moving in with
(09:10):
her boyfriend. But by February she changed plans and tells
her landlord that it hadn't worked out, Okay, So I
guess that's that and the relationship was over anyway. We
do know that April is the last day of Chandra's internship,
and we also know that on April nine, Gary Condit
(09:34):
actually called Schandra, and on the same day, Chandra called
her auntie in Maryland and left her a message saying
she has quote some big news. Yeah, but we just
don't know what was said on that phone call, right,
Nobody knows what the big news was, right, Yeah, I
mean I don't think we ever really do. Um. We
(09:54):
do know she said to go back to California for
her graduation from USC which is scheduled for May eleven
that year, and in April email to our landlord, she wrote, quote,
I'm moving back to California for my graduation and I'm
moving back there for good end quote. And then on
May one, she emailed her parents with her travel plans,
(10:15):
but again doesn't mention specific times or how she'll be
getting home. That email was sent at am Eastern time
that day May one, and that is actually the last
known communication from Schandra Levy. And we'll talk about what
happened after we take a quick break. Five days pass
(10:38):
and Chandra Levy's parents haven't heard anything from her, so
of course they're getting worried. They end up calling the police,
that's right, Rush. And of course this is in the
days before everyone necessarily had a cell phone, and I'm
thinking of her traveling across the country right without the
ability to get in touch with her parents or you know,
(11:01):
anybody whenever she wanted. It just seems a bit strange, right.
We used to do things like that. I mean, I
take that back. We really didn't do things like that
because we always had a cell phone when the cellphones
came out. But the thing is, did Schandra actually have
a cell phone, Trevor, do we know? Yeah? I mean,
(11:23):
as you're alluding to, not everybody had cell phones back then,
but Schandra did have one that we know of, and
it is one of the items that police find when
they searched her DC apartment after she goes missing. So
a couple of other things they find they find too
partially packed bags, a couple of clothes in the closet,
They find her running shoes for driver's license, a few
(11:44):
other things like receipts and credit cards. However, most notably
her apartment keys, are missing. Okay, so her keys were missing,
but her driver's license, her credit cards, and her cell
phone were still in the apartment. Right. It seems a
bit off right. It feels like if you're leaving the house,
(12:05):
like you would definitely take your driver's license at the
very least. It just makes you think, like, was she
abducted from her apartment? Yeah? Possibly? I mean, or you know,
like we've been seeing this entire time again in two
thousand one, not everyone you know had a cell phone.
They wouldn't necessarily carry them everywhere that they went. Um,
(12:26):
of course you know you've at night did um. It's
but it's nothing like today, right, So we are always
attached to our phones. There's location services on it, all
the things. But she could have left her apartment without
all of those things. Yeah, And I guess we'll never
really know. And the sad truth there is the reason
for that is that the police failed to obtain the
(12:48):
surveillance camera footage from the apartment building, even though it
was in fact readily available at least for a short period.
So there was a surveillance camera recording everyone who came
and left the building. Had police actually secured that footage,
then presumably they could have seen Chandra when she left
the apartment and that would have told them if she
was with anyone, what she was wearing, etcetera, etcetera. But
(13:11):
they did not secure that footage and it was recorded
over after a few days. So if you remember back then,
any sort of videotape recording, and this includes security footage
was all analog. It was on tapes, um and so
they couldn't just digitally save it to the cloud, you know,
days and days worth of it. They would have to
rerecord over the tape, you know, every week or month
(13:31):
or whatever it is, to save on tape. So because
they didn't get it soon enough, they lost it and
therefore we don't know what happened when she left the apartment. Gosh,
that I mean, that's just like when you think about it,
it's just you know, failed police work one oh one,
you know, to secure the footage like that would be
(13:53):
the first thing you would want to see is you know,
what time did she leave the apartment and who possibly
came into the apartment, Right, Yeah, I mean, I guess
there's may being an excuse there that CCTV and things
of that sort were much newer back in the nineties
and early two thousand's right. I mean investigators maybe didn't
have any uniform way to check for that sort of
(14:14):
thing at the time. But to me, it's just incompetence,
like if you know that exists, like do something about it. Yeah.
So I think it's just the first of many things
we see in this case that is very disappointing, right, Yeah,
very disappointing for sure. Okay, So around this time, Schandra's
mother calls Gary Condit herself and asks him for help
(14:35):
in finding Schandra. And it's during this call that she
also asks him if he was having an affair with
her daughter, and he says, quote unquote no, mm hmmm.
He also donates ten thousand dollars of his campaign money
towards the reward to find Schandra, and he releases a
(14:57):
news statement calling her an this is a quote from him,
a great person and a good friend. Okay, So, whether
or not he actually had an affair with Chandra, I believe,
in my humble opinion that this is definitely c y
(15:18):
O a cover your own ass language. We're trying to
save his marriage. If there was a relationship going on
more than just a friendship and he's trying to save
his political career because you know, I mean, I'm sure
he's he saw what happened with Clinton and other people,
but I don't know. It just feels it just feels
(15:39):
fishy to me. I totally agree with you, Russia. But
there's more. The next month, in June, a Washington Post
story is published and according to the story, law enforcement
sources say that Chandra Levy spent the night at Condit's house.
The report doesn't say which night, and you know what.
(16:01):
Condent's office also denied any romantic involvement, and his lawyers
demanded a retraction, but the paper wouldn't retract it. Yeah,
I mean, I can see why the press is obsessed
with this scary Condent a fair angle. It's fishy again, fishy, fishy, fishy.
I can see the obsession and why they were leaning
(16:23):
this way like that does not look good for him. Yeah,
I mean, going back again to the kind of obsession
that the media has with political scandals. You know, anytime
a young woman like this is killed, obviously that's horrible,
that's terrible, But when there's some sort of high profile
person involved, you can almost guarantee that's going to make
like front page news for days, weeks, even months. So
(16:46):
you know, Condents in the spotlight here and he's kind
of thinking like, I have to, you know, play this
right or it's going to ruin my career. And so
during this time, Condent agrees to kind of play ball
with the investigators. So he submits a DNA sample to police,
and then he takes and passes a lie detector test. Well,
that is very telling for sure. And meanwhile, the results
(17:10):
from search data on Chandra's laptop from May one are
finally revealed. They show that she used the Internet until
one pm that day and that she visited the site
for USA Today, the Drudge Report, and the Washington Post,
all of which you know you would expect considering what
she was interested in. Um, but it also reveals a
(17:32):
map quest search for a place called Klingle Mansion in
Rock Creek Park. So Rock Creek Park is Washington, d
C's big urban park, and Klingle Mansion is apparently this
historic house from the eighteen hundreds which is located in
a very secluded part of the park. And at that
time in two thousand one, the trail to get to
(17:54):
Klingle Mansion was actually closed, so you'd have to know
your way around to know where it was and that
it was even there or how to find it. So
maybe that's where she went right without her cell phone.
I mean, maybe she went on a run. Right, it's
a trail, it's a like an offbeaten trail. So possibly
(18:14):
she was just going for a run, didn't take her things. Yeah,
possibly possibly. You know. Um police end up searching the park,
but not until after nearly a full month after they
saw this search data from her computer. So they searched
the park in July, and these are United States Park
(18:35):
Police on horseback. They're joined by Police Academy cadets, and
throughout their search they end up finding zilch nothing. So
months end up going by. July becomes August, August becomes September,
and then I think a huge factor in the Chandra
Levy case is September two thousand one happened to the
(19:01):
United States, and I think that is exactly when, sadly,
the public's obsession with Sandra Levy went away. The whole
world was fixated on this horrible, tragic event, and Schandra
got lost in the shuffle. Yeah, and not just the public,
(19:22):
by the way, but you know, law enforcement, we're now
on high alert and directing all of their attention to
anything that might be considered you know, a terrorist or
international threat. Right, and so it's really um not until
the following year that there's any movement on this case whatsoever.
So on May two thousand two, a man is that
(19:44):
walking his dog in Rock Creek Park when he noticed
that his dog is very intensely sniffing this little spot
on the side of a bluff. So he goes up
to the spot where his dog is scratching and digging,
and he starts rubbing the dirt away, and that is
when he discovers a human skull in the ground. Yeah,
(20:05):
it's I can't even imagine what he was thinking. He
ends up calling the police, and investigators quickly found other
bones in the area, and they also found a jogging bra, panties,
tennis shoes, sweatpants, and a walkman or a portable radio
(20:26):
for those of you who don't know what a walkman is,
and sadly, dental records end up confirming that it is. Indeed,
Chandra Levies remains, So, Trevor, why did it take this
long for them to find Schendra? Yeah, I mean that's
the big question in this case, right, Yeah, Like supposedly
(20:47):
they searched the park pretty well, but you know, at
the end of the day, they found nothing, and it's
just kind of a random stranger who happens to stumble
upon this with his dog. You know. I wonder if
they used any canine units and searching the park. I mean,
clearly a dog would have been able to smell even
fresher remains a year earlier, but you know who knows, um,
(21:10):
So it sounds like they just didn't do a very
good job of searching. Yeah, right, Like it was right
there in the woods. It was right there, and you know,
I just have to say, like, to me, it just
seems like common sense, right because it seems like they're
just searching the roads, but in fact there are you know,
trails where people are running on these off trails, and
(21:35):
why they didn't go a little further to these trails
just baffles me because it was right there. Yeah. I mean,
they'll they'll probably tell you as a resource thing, right, like,
they could only dispatch a certain number of men for
a certain period of time before they had to call
off their search and move on to something else. Right,
That's a very common answer you hear from law enforcement,
(21:56):
and it's an unfortunate reality and why a lot of
cases don't get solved the way they should. So, you know,
who knows. But the reality is is that had they
discovered her sooner, they would have gotten a lot more
forensic evidence that they could have used when investigating her case.
You know, they might have been able to determine if
she had been raped, if there was any blood semen,
(22:18):
you know, anything under her fingernails that they could have
used as DNA evidence. Um, But you know, at the
end of the day, all they really got was a
few bones, some clothing. All of this has been weathered
away by months and months and months of erosion and
you know, decay and all these things, so they don't
really have a lot. I guess the only thing we
really do get is that we now know that Seandre
(22:40):
Levy is in fact dead, and that at least provides
a little bit of closure for the family. Yeah, yeah,
I mean you do have to feel thankful for that,
at least for her, her mother and her father and
her family they can now finally, you know, bury their
little girl. You know, but that's not the end of
the story. This is where things get kind of weird
(23:03):
for me, you know. I mean, it's just a few
months later after they found Chandra's remains that a five
time felon and a former gang member ends up coming
forward to tell authorities that he actually knows who Sendra's
killer is. Yes, and we will learn about who that
(23:24):
five time felon is after we take a quick break. So,
just a few months after Sandra's remains were found in
September of two thousand two, an incarcerated man named Armando
Morales ended up coming forward. So Armando said that his cellmate,
(23:45):
Ingmar Guandique had confessed to him that he'd killed Chandra Levy. Yeah,
so here's just a little pull from the Washington Post
article that reported this quote. Guandiq had been walking in
the Atmos Oregan neighborhood when a car pulled to the curb.
He claims Condit offered him money dollars to kill a woman.
(24:09):
So what Moralesis testimony is suggesting here is that Gary
Condit is involved and somehow responsible for the murder of
Sandra Levy by having hired an assassin. So Morales said,
quote the congressman provided Guandik with Sandra Levy's picture and
a location where he could find her. So he claims
(24:33):
that Guandick was just out for a stroll one day
when all of a sudden, Gary Condit stops him just
randomly right and offers him twenty five dollars two murder.
His intern is that what you're saying? Yeah, I mean
it leaves a lot up to chance, right there. Just
(24:54):
happened to stumble upon somebody who is willing to kill
somebody for right? Did he look like a killer? Like?
What's like? I don't even that doesn't make any sense.
I mean he's just, you know, randomly driving through the
streets of d C looking for someone who looks like
they look like a killer, and if they take money
to kill her. Yeah, that's super far pitched. I just
(25:15):
have to say, I don't buy it. Yeah, And the
more you read into it, the more weird it becomes.
So I'll read the rest of the quote here. The
informant said Guandika told him he took drugs and drink
alcohol to steal himself for the attack. He went to
the location cond gave him and saw Chandra running on
a path. Guandique hid in the bushes, and when Chandra
(25:37):
circled back, he jumped out and attacked her, stabbing her
in the neck and the stomach. She fell to the
ground and Guandiqa carried her body far into the woods.
He dug a hole with his hands and covered Gendre
with their leaves and sticks. He left the knife in
her body and later considered retrieving it, but never did.
He sent the dollars to his family in El Salvador.
(26:00):
End quote. So according to moralities account, there should have
been a knife found at the scene, and it was
a knife ever found Trevor, No, yeah, there was no knife.
So I mean this is making all of what Morales
is saying here to be really fishy. So what happens
(26:20):
then is that Morales agreed to tell this story on
the witness stand in return for better conditions in prison.
And I think that's when the full picture of what's
probably really going on here comes into view, right, Yeah, totally.
But do we know who guandi Gae is, Like, is
this the guy that killed Chandra Levy? I mean, I
(26:41):
don't think we're sold on that or are we I'm
not quite yet. Yeah, I mean we know that he's
an immigrant from El Salvador. We know he doesn't speak English.
That summer, he had actually been arrested earlier for attacking
two women in Rock Creek Park. So all of this
is going on in two thousand two, the year after
sendre Lee, he was killed, and Guandik went on to
(27:02):
be sentenced to ten years for said crimes. But he
did deny killing Chandra Levy, and there was still no
physical evidence connecting him to the murder. So there was
a bit of a pattern here that maybe connected him,
but that's entirely circumstantial. In the same part the year
after she was killed. Sure, I mean, I see how
you can maybe draw those conclusions or or how that
(27:24):
might set him up to look guilty, but again, no
physical evidence. That knife was never found, right right right?
I got another question though, what about I wonder if
they ever traced to see if there was ever any
money exchange, like was the dollars ever sent to his family? Yeah?
(27:45):
I mean the other thing you can check is whether
or not Gary condit you know, withdrew any large sums
of money close to grand on the days leading up
to her murder, which would also you know, back that
account up. I don't think he looked into that. If
they did, I don't know about it well. So then
in two thousand nine, a new DC Police chief decided
(28:07):
to reopen the case and investigators in DC Police announced
that they are charging Guandiq for the assaulted murder of
Chandra Levy. So his trial begins in October of two
thousand nine. The two women Guandique was convicted of attacking
in the park both testify at this time and they
describe how he attacked them as they jogged alone in
(28:27):
the park, so sounding a little familiar perhaps, One woman
says he dragged her down a ravine and attacked her
with a knife. Chandra Levy's father also takes the stand
and says he believes Gary Kanna is still the most
likely suspect, and he reveals that Chandra and Condit had
concocted a quote five year plan prior to her death
(28:49):
in which he would divorce his current wife and Mary Schandra.
So it sounds like maybe they were planning on running
away together and maybe something went wrong at least according
to the father, right right, right, So then Condent himself
takes the stand and testifies, and when asked whether he
and Schendra had a sexual relationship. He refused to answer
flat out, and he said he did this out of
(29:11):
respect for Chandra. So an FBI biologist also revealed that
semen found on a pair of Gendre's underwear match that
of conduits found in her apartment. That is so fishy
and I just fishy, is I accepted throw my two
cents in here like he in that he says out
of respect for Chandra. No respect for Chandra would be
(29:34):
telling the truth by saying, yes, we had a sexual relationship.
That is respect. Yeah, yeah, we know he's full of ship. Yeah,
he'd been married since I think nineteen sixty seven, so
he was trying to save everything from burning down. My
think that said, I mean, regardless of whether or not
he was having an affair, which it sounds like he was, right,
(29:55):
doesn't necessarily mean he killed her. I mean, the fact
that they find semen on the panties in her apartment
suggests they were having a sexual relationship, and frankly, nothing
more right. I mean, the fact that they were having
an affair near the time that she was killed is
certainly suspicious and fishy, but that's not physical evidence tying
him to her murder, right, right, it is a potential motive,
(30:17):
but it's not. Yeah, yeah, potentially. So anyways, the jury
finds Guandika guilty of two counts of first degree murder.
So Adjuror later claimed that their decision was mostly based
on Moralesis testimony that he gave, and Guandiqa was then
sentenced to sixty years in prison. I watched a show
about Chandra Levy this past week. I believe it was
(30:41):
on Oxygen, and they interviewed Schandra's mom and dad, and
when that verdict came down, you know, like they had
to have an interpreter for Guandique because again he didn't
speak English, and they asked him if he killed you know,
Sandra Levy, and you know, they were saying in this
documentary that they didn't even need an interpreter because he
(31:04):
was like, I am he said it in Spanish, but
he's like, I'm something along the lines of I'm so
sorry for your loss, but I did not kill Chandra Levy.
And like mom, dad, you know, like they had they
stated in this documentary that they had doubt, and it's
just I don't even know how they convicted him on
(31:25):
his cellmates testimony when there's no other evidence. But you know,
Guandique ends up writing a letter to a reporter at
the Washington Post after that verdict, and after he said
all that in the courtroom, he says, of course that
everything was false, the evidence presented by the government and
moenless testimony was false, and of course his attorney files
(31:46):
on appeal and in May two thousand fifteen, prosecutors agreed
to hold a new trial after the defense argued that
informant Morales had perjured himself on the stand. Dang, and
this is two tho fIF team, this is now a
full fourteen years after Chandra Levy was murdered. Yeah, I mean,
(32:07):
wrongful conviction puts people in prison for decades and decades sometimes.
You know, that said he was convicted of probably rightfully
attacking other women for which he should have been in prison,
so you know, maybe he was going to be there anyways.
But you know, at least in this case, um, it
seems like, at least from my perspective, Guandk is correct
(32:27):
in the fact that all of this was false and
that he was not actually guilty of murdering Schandra Levy.
So there's a pretty good quote from the ap that
sums us all up that I'll read very quickly. Quote.
Authorities acknowledged that they had no DNA evidence or witnesses
linking g One Decay to the crime, building their prosecution
instead around a jailhouse informant who said Guan Deck had
(32:49):
confessed behind bars that he was responsible for Levi's death.
They also said the attack on Levi fit a pattern
of assault spike, GWANDC on other female shoggers in the
same ocation where she went missing and during the same
time frame. So Guandiq, who was already in prison for
those attacks when he was accused in Leaves death in
two thousand nine, professed innocence at his sentencing hearing. His
(33:12):
lawyers said police and prosecutors made him escape go for
a botched investigation. And I do think that sums up
what we know about this investigation so far. Absolutely what
a freaking miss hot miss. Yeah. So what this appears
to be then is that morale is the person who
gave this testimony was looking for a lighter sentence and
(33:35):
saw an opportunity to rat out somebody else to get that,
and then something's happened that back this up. So when
prosecutors and the judge agree to hold a new trial.
It comes to light that Armando Morales had actually testified
in federal cases before, and that the prosecution knew this
but failed to disclose it. The defense argued that this
(33:56):
misconduct warranted the charges against Guandick to be completely dropped.
So this is something he had been doing frequently along
with investigators, to nail people who may not have been
responsible so that they could close their cases and Morales
could get shorter sentences. Yeah, well, it's horrible, totally horrible.
(34:19):
And you know, meanwhile, and this is this is a
little crazy, but Armando morales neighbor ends up coming forward
and she's made a bunch of secret recordings of her
conversations with Morals in which he talked about being the
key witness in the Chandra Levy case and flat out
says that he lied about Guandique's confession to improve his
(34:42):
prison conditions, just like you said, Trevor. And so in
light of you know, this development, all charges against Guandique
r indeed dropped again no physical evidence against him, and
without the testimony of Morales, they have not that nothing.
So basically they're back to square one, sadly. Yeah, yeah,
(35:05):
and where the story essentially ends is that in May
of Guandiq was deported back to El Salvador. Gary Kondit's
career was essentially destroyed by this. As you would imagine,
he was voted out of office in two thousand two,
very likely from all the negative press he was receiving.
He then moved to Phoenix, where he and his wife
attempted and failed at a couple of Baskin Robbins franchises
(35:29):
that they briefly owned. And so, yeah, nobody walked away
from this unscathed. Yeah, and you know, again, the sad
thing about all this is like we still don't know
who the real murderer is, Like we still have no clue. Yeah,
I mean again, because police were so hyper fixated on
(35:50):
Gary Kondit's involvement and the testimony, the false testimony that
they had from Morales right, that they really failed to
dedicate the time and resources to looking at a wide
range of suspects and looking at all of the evidence
in front of them. And so now it's years decades later, almost,
and you know, we have nothing really left to work with.
(36:12):
There's essentially no way to solve this space on where
we're at now, right, and that's what I think so tragic, right,
And you know, when I was listening to Chandra's mom
and dad speak in that Oxygen documentary, her mom said,
she's like, you know, even if we find out who
killed my daughter, it's not going to bring her back.
(36:35):
And that was like, like, it just broke my heart
even more, you know. And I will say one thing
with like Gary Condent being, you know, such a big headline,
and this is something her mom, you know, chimed in
about as well. She doesn't think that she would have
gotten as much media coverage if her daughter hadn't been
involved with him, because it was such a sensationalized media
(36:58):
story that you know, she was going her and her
husband were going on different news programs to talk about
their missing daughter because she hadn't been found for that
entire year. But through all of that and with nine
eleven happening, you know, we no one really got to
see who Chandra Levy was as a human being. She
was more of just a headline. And that's what's so heartbreaking. Absolutely,
(37:22):
I think what you said is absolutely true, you know,
and what we have to remember is that, you know,
she was more than a headline. She was a human
being just at the start of her life. So that
brings us to this week's our final message of hope
(37:44):
and healing. Our ima goes to Schandra Levy. If those
in charge of finding justice for her murder had paid
more attention to Schandra's actual actions in the final hours
of her life, then maybe her family might have some
measure of justice today. Instead, the police and the justice
system focused on innuendo, scandal headlines, and when all of
(38:11):
that failed, they ended up finding a scapegoat on which
to pen her death. And if you bothered to know
her in the weeks and months when doing so might
have made a difference. And so we'll take a moment
now to honor her life. Chandra and Levy was more
than the worst thing that ever happened to her. She
(38:32):
was a fun, loving and playful sister. She was prone
to being an occasional big sister bossy. She played Little
League and she loved the San Francisco Giants. And she
was a bright, brilliant young woman, you know, doing her
(38:53):
thing working in d C. Yes, And she was an
individual who didn't like being told what to do. She
was a very independent and vibrant young woman with a
bright future that should have been hers to claim today
and always we honor you, Chandra, onward and upward, Ima Ima. Well,
(39:22):
that is our show for today. We'd love to hear
what you thought about today's discussion and if there was
a case that you'd like us to cover, please find
us on social media or email us at Facing Evil
pod at tenderfoot dot tv. And one request if you
haven't already, please find us on iTunes and give us
(39:43):
a good review and a good rating. If you like
what we do, your support is always cherished. Until next time.
Uh loja m hmm. Facing Evil is a production of
(40:07):
I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The show is hosted
by Russia Peccarero and a Vetch Gentile. Matt Frederick and
Alex Williams are executive producers on behalf of I Heart
Radio with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk. Donald Albright
and Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV,
alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Claudia Dafrico. Original
(40:33):
music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on social
media or email us at Facing Evil pot at tenderfoot
dot tv. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio or
tenderfoot Tv, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
You're listening to Facing Evil, a production of I Heart
Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
this podcast are solely those of the individuals participating in
the show and do not represent those of I Heart
Radio or Tenderfoot TV. This podcast contains subject matter which
may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. Hi, everyone,
(00:29):
welcome back to Facing Evil from Tenderfoot TV and I
Heart Radio. We are your host. I'm Yvette Gentile and
I'm Rosha Peccarero and as always are fabulous producer. Mr
Trevor Young is with us. Hey, they're happy November. Happy November, Trevor.
I can't believe the years almost over. I know, I've
(00:50):
had this on my mind for you know, probably the
last couple of weeks. You know, we talked about you know,
Kenny Genovaz, right and a couple of weeks ago, and
it's just stuck with me, like how she kind of
got lost, you know, back then in that error because
you know, they were so focused on the thirty eight
(01:11):
bystanders that we really lost focus of who Kitty was
and what her story was about, you know, And today
we're going to be talking about Chandra Levy and again,
you know, another young woman taken too soon, and again
the media loses focus because they they get so fixated
(01:34):
on you know, the Gary condit, the political candidate, the
sensationalism of it. All. Right, I feel so proud you
know what we're doing, um here on facing Evil, because
we really want to highlight you know, who these women were,
(01:54):
you know, at the peak of their their career, just
about to get started, and then something horrible happens to them,
and again their story gets lost. Yeah, I mean, I
think that's definitely a thing we try and do on
Facing Evil, right, is strip away all the fluff and
try and get down to the stories of these victims,
(02:16):
right and talk about it from an angle that maybe
not everybody else talks about. And that is the person,
right that's getting to the real empathy of any of
these cases as talking about the victims. So, um, you know,
I think that's great and I think this case today
is probably a great example of that. Absolutely, Ta Trevor Um.
And with that being said, will you please take us
(02:38):
through today's case. The search is on in the district
for a missing woman. Her name is Chandra and Levy.
She is twenty four years old and hasn't been seen
since April. Susan Leevy came to our city with the
mission she wanted to know where her daughter was. What
(02:59):
happened a shock. A staffer for the congressman says there
was no romantic relationship between the congressman and miss Levy.
Chandra Levy was a twenty four year old woman who
disappeared in May of two thousand one. At the time,
she had just wrapped up an internship in Washington, d C.
And was getting ready to go back home to California.
(03:22):
But Schandra never made it home. On May six, Chandra's
parents contacted d C Police, saying they hadn't heard from
her in days and so as search began, but they
didn't find her. Months later, her remains were discovered by
a hiker in Rock Creek Park. The story of Chandra
Levy's disappearance and death became a national obsession when it
(03:45):
came to light that Levy had a romantic relationship with
a married congressman leading up to her death. The investigation
and eventual prosecution were marred by an aptitude, and to
this day, it's unclear who killed Chandra Levy, and so
who was Chandra Levie who was actually responsible for her murder?
(04:05):
And what does the story tell us about how police
handle homicide investigations when a high profile politician is involved.
So Russia, I remember that this was one of those
cases that was literally all over the media, and again,
people couldn't stop talking about it. And I remember living
(04:28):
in l A because this was in two thousand and
one night, yeah, together with mom, and I remember being
somewhat fixated on it because you know, again we're talking
about a young woman, a young intern, right and going
back years ago to the Bill Clinton error with Monica Lewinsky.
(04:48):
So I definitely was captivated by this particular case. Yeah,
I think we all were. And I remember, you know,
her face on every magage, seen on every news story,
every headline, and Trevor, like you said in the top
of the episode, you know, there was this young, smart,
(05:09):
you know, student just on the cusp of what seemed
like such a bright and sparkling future, and she likely
had this high profile affair with this lawmaker, and people
were talking about whether or not that had been a
cover up, if he was involved somehow it you know,
I mean, again, like you said, Evet, Monica Lewinsky, Bill Clinton, Like,
(05:32):
all these things go through all of our heads. And
I'll admit that's I think why I was captivated at first. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
I do think that unlike the Bill Clinton and Monica
Lewinsky scandal, this case had a relatively shorter lifespan. Um.
You know, there was definitely a period in the media
where this case was obsessed over because of the quote
(05:54):
unquote scandalous relationship with a politician. Um, but you know,
those leads connecting the politics and to her murder eventually
did go try and it became very clear that the
authorities had just kind of botched this investigation. Uh, and
that is kind of when the public's attention started looking
away from it, it wasn't as interesting anymore, right, And
(06:14):
that's kind of a big tragedy in this case. So
I think there are many moments where the police mishandled
their job. They mishandled this investigation. They try and pin
it on someone else, And I think you can't really
like help, but wonder like, had more of the public
eye state on them, would they have done a better job? Right?
Would this have gotten solved eventually? Right? True? True? True?
(06:38):
I mean, you know, let's just begin with our classic question.
Who was Chandra Levy? Shandra Levy was twenty four years old.
She was born in Ohio, but the family moved to California,
and actually it was Modesto where she went to high school.
She ended up graduating from San Francisco State Universe City
(07:00):
with a degree in journalism, and she briefly worked in
the office of the Los Angeles Mayor. She then enrolled
in graduate school at the University of Southern California for
a master's in public administration. In September of two thousand.
She ended up moving to Washington, d c. And it
was there that she worked as an intern with the
Federal Bureau of Prisons. And this is where she met
(07:23):
Gary Condit. Condent was a Democratic congressman from California. He
was also fifty two years old and married, and he
took a liking to Chandra. Yeah. I mean, obviously, this
is something we see a lot, right, is that older
politicians men almost always, right, almost always find themselves in
(07:45):
a position of power where they can potentially take advantage
of a young intern. Right. You heard about this a
lot in the nineties and two thousand's yes, that's right,
And apparently on a visit dream Thanksgiving, Chandra tells her
aunt that she's seen someone, but she refuses to name
(08:05):
any names. However, she did reportedly tell her aunt that
her boyfriend was in his fifties and he looked like
Harrison Ford, which he didn't. I'm just saying I think
he did a little bit. I think he looked a
little bit like Harrison Ford, I mean, just because he's older,
with salt and pepper hair. But she did reveal that
(08:29):
her boyfriend was in fact a congressman, So she's leaving
a lot of hints, but never said the name. Yeah,
she never said the name specifically to anyone that we
know of, right right. Anyway, the next month, over winter break,
she emails a friend and says, and this is her quote,
(08:50):
my man will be coming back here when Congress starts
up again, and I'm looking forward to seeing him again.
She's not naming the names, she's not being specific, right.
So in January, Schandra tells her landlord that she won't
be renewing her lease because she'll be moving in with
(09:10):
her boyfriend. But by February she changed plans and tells
her landlord that it hadn't worked out, Okay, So I
guess that's that and the relationship was over anyway. We
do know that April is the last day of Chandra's internship,
and we also know that on April nine, Gary Condit
(09:34):
actually called Schandra, and on the same day, Chandra called
her auntie in Maryland and left her a message saying
she has quote some big news. Yeah, but we just
don't know what was said on that phone call, right,
Nobody knows what the big news was, right, Yeah, I
mean I don't think we ever really do. Um. We
(09:54):
do know she said to go back to California for
her graduation from USC which is scheduled for May eleven
that year, and in April email to our landlord, she wrote, quote,
I'm moving back to California for my graduation and I'm
moving back there for good end quote. And then on
May one, she emailed her parents with her travel plans,
(10:15):
but again doesn't mention specific times or how she'll be
getting home. That email was sent at am Eastern time
that day May one, and that is actually the last
known communication from Schandra Levy. And we'll talk about what
happened after we take a quick break. Five days pass
(10:38):
and Chandra Levy's parents haven't heard anything from her, so
of course they're getting worried. They end up calling the police,
that's right, Rush. And of course this is in the
days before everyone necessarily had a cell phone, and I'm
thinking of her traveling across the country right without the
ability to get in touch with her parents or you know,
(11:01):
anybody whenever she wanted. It just seems a bit strange, right.
We used to do things like that. I mean, I
take that back. We really didn't do things like that
because we always had a cell phone when the cellphones
came out. But the thing is, did Schandra actually have
a cell phone, Trevor, do we know? Yeah? I mean,
(11:23):
as you're alluding to, not everybody had cell phones back then,
but Schandra did have one that we know of, and
it is one of the items that police find when
they searched her DC apartment after she goes missing. So
a couple of other things they find they find too
partially packed bags, a couple of clothes in the closet,
They find her running shoes for driver's license, a few
(11:44):
other things like receipts and credit cards. However, most notably
her apartment keys, are missing. Okay, so her keys were missing,
but her driver's license, her credit cards, and her cell
phone were still in the apartment. Right. It seems a
bit off right. It feels like if you're leaving the house,
(12:05):
like you would definitely take your driver's license at the
very least. It just makes you think, like, was she
abducted from her apartment? Yeah? Possibly? I mean, or you know,
like we've been seeing this entire time again in two
thousand one, not everyone you know had a cell phone.
They wouldn't necessarily carry them everywhere that they went. Um,
(12:26):
of course you know you've at night did um. It's
but it's nothing like today, right, So we are always
attached to our phones. There's location services on it, all
the things. But she could have left her apartment without
all of those things. Yeah, And I guess we'll never
really know. And the sad truth there is the reason
for that is that the police failed to obtain the
(12:48):
surveillance camera footage from the apartment building, even though it
was in fact readily available at least for a short period.
So there was a surveillance camera recording everyone who came
and left the building. Had police actually secured that footage,
then presumably they could have seen Chandra when she left
the apartment and that would have told them if she
was with anyone, what she was wearing, etcetera, etcetera. But
(13:11):
they did not secure that footage and it was recorded
over after a few days. So if you remember back then,
any sort of videotape recording, and this includes security footage
was all analog. It was on tapes, um and so
they couldn't just digitally save it to the cloud, you know,
days and days worth of it. They would have to
rerecord over the tape, you know, every week or month
(13:31):
or whatever it is, to save on tape. So because
they didn't get it soon enough, they lost it and
therefore we don't know what happened when she left the apartment. Gosh,
that I mean, that's just like when you think about it,
it's just you know, failed police work one oh one,
you know, to secure the footage like that would be
(13:53):
the first thing you would want to see is you know,
what time did she leave the apartment and who possibly
came into the apartment, Right, Yeah, I mean, I guess
there's may being an excuse there that CCTV and things
of that sort were much newer back in the nineties
and early two thousand's right. I mean investigators maybe didn't
have any uniform way to check for that sort of
(14:14):
thing at the time. But to me, it's just incompetence,
like if you know that exists, like do something about it. Yeah.
So I think it's just the first of many things
we see in this case that is very disappointing, right, Yeah,
very disappointing for sure. Okay, So around this time, Schandra's
mother calls Gary Condit herself and asks him for help
(14:35):
in finding Schandra. And it's during this call that she
also asks him if he was having an affair with
her daughter, and he says, quote unquote no, mm hmmm.
He also donates ten thousand dollars of his campaign money
towards the reward to find Schandra, and he releases a
(14:57):
news statement calling her an this is a quote from him,
a great person and a good friend. Okay, So, whether
or not he actually had an affair with Chandra, I believe,
in my humble opinion that this is definitely c y
(15:18):
O a cover your own ass language. We're trying to
save his marriage. If there was a relationship going on
more than just a friendship and he's trying to save
his political career because you know, I mean, I'm sure
he's he saw what happened with Clinton and other people,
but I don't know. It just feels it just feels
(15:39):
fishy to me. I totally agree with you, Russia. But
there's more. The next month, in June, a Washington Post
story is published and according to the story, law enforcement
sources say that Chandra Levy spent the night at Condit's house.
The report doesn't say which night, and you know what.
(16:01):
Condent's office also denied any romantic involvement, and his lawyers
demanded a retraction, but the paper wouldn't retract it. Yeah,
I mean, I can see why the press is obsessed
with this scary Condent a fair angle. It's fishy again, fishy, fishy, fishy.
I can see the obsession and why they were leaning
(16:23):
this way like that does not look good for him. Yeah,
I mean, going back again to the kind of obsession
that the media has with political scandals. You know, anytime
a young woman like this is killed, obviously that's horrible,
that's terrible, But when there's some sort of high profile
person involved, you can almost guarantee that's going to make
like front page news for days, weeks, even months. So
(16:46):
you know, Condents in the spotlight here and he's kind
of thinking like, I have to, you know, play this
right or it's going to ruin my career. And so
during this time, Condent agrees to kind of play ball
with the investigators. So he submits a DNA sample to police,
and then he takes and passes a lie detector test. Well,
that is very telling for sure. And meanwhile, the results
(17:10):
from search data on Chandra's laptop from May one are
finally revealed. They show that she used the Internet until
one pm that day and that she visited the site
for USA Today, the Drudge Report, and the Washington Post,
all of which you know you would expect considering what
she was interested in. Um, but it also reveals a
(17:32):
map quest search for a place called Klingle Mansion in
Rock Creek Park. So Rock Creek Park is Washington, d
C's big urban park, and Klingle Mansion is apparently this
historic house from the eighteen hundreds which is located in
a very secluded part of the park. And at that
time in two thousand one, the trail to get to
(17:54):
Klingle Mansion was actually closed, so you'd have to know
your way around to know where it was and that
it was even there or how to find it. So
maybe that's where she went right without her cell phone.
I mean, maybe she went on a run. Right, it's
a trail, it's a like an offbeaten trail. So possibly
(18:14):
she was just going for a run, didn't take her things. Yeah,
possibly possibly. You know. Um police end up searching the park,
but not until after nearly a full month after they
saw this search data from her computer. So they searched
the park in July, and these are United States Park
(18:35):
Police on horseback. They're joined by Police Academy cadets, and
throughout their search they end up finding zilch nothing. So
months end up going by. July becomes August, August becomes September,
and then I think a huge factor in the Chandra
Levy case is September two thousand one happened to the
(19:01):
United States, and I think that is exactly when, sadly,
the public's obsession with Sandra Levy went away. The whole
world was fixated on this horrible, tragic event, and Schandra
got lost in the shuffle. Yeah, and not just the public,
(19:22):
by the way, but you know, law enforcement, we're now
on high alert and directing all of their attention to
anything that might be considered you know, a terrorist or
international threat. Right, and so it's really um not until
the following year that there's any movement on this case whatsoever.
So on May two thousand two, a man is that
(19:44):
walking his dog in Rock Creek Park when he noticed
that his dog is very intensely sniffing this little spot
on the side of a bluff. So he goes up
to the spot where his dog is scratching and digging,
and he starts rubbing the dirt away, and that is
when he discovers a human skull in the ground. Yeah,
(20:05):
it's I can't even imagine what he was thinking. He
ends up calling the police, and investigators quickly found other
bones in the area, and they also found a jogging bra, panties,
tennis shoes, sweatpants, and a walkman or a portable radio
(20:26):
for those of you who don't know what a walkman is,
and sadly, dental records end up confirming that it is. Indeed,
Chandra Levies remains, So, Trevor, why did it take this
long for them to find Schendra? Yeah, I mean that's
the big question in this case, right, Yeah, Like supposedly
(20:47):
they searched the park pretty well, but you know, at
the end of the day, they found nothing, and it's
just kind of a random stranger who happens to stumble
upon this with his dog. You know. I wonder if
they used any canine units and searching the park. I mean,
clearly a dog would have been able to smell even
fresher remains a year earlier, but you know who knows, um,
(21:10):
So it sounds like they just didn't do a very
good job of searching. Yeah, right, Like it was right
there in the woods. It was right there, and you know,
I just have to say, like, to me, it just
seems like common sense, right because it seems like they're
just searching the roads, but in fact there are you know,
trails where people are running on these off trails, and
(21:35):
why they didn't go a little further to these trails
just baffles me because it was right there. Yeah. I mean,
they'll they'll probably tell you as a resource thing, right, like,
they could only dispatch a certain number of men for
a certain period of time before they had to call
off their search and move on to something else. Right,
That's a very common answer you hear from law enforcement,
(21:56):
and it's an unfortunate reality and why a lot of
cases don't get solved the way they should. So, you know,
who knows. But the reality is is that had they
discovered her sooner, they would have gotten a lot more
forensic evidence that they could have used when investigating her case.
You know, they might have been able to determine if
she had been raped, if there was any blood semen,
(22:18):
you know, anything under her fingernails that they could have
used as DNA evidence. Um, But you know, at the
end of the day, all they really got was a
few bones, some clothing. All of this has been weathered
away by months and months and months of erosion and
you know, decay and all these things, so they don't
really have a lot. I guess the only thing we
really do get is that we now know that Seandre
(22:40):
Levy is in fact dead, and that at least provides
a little bit of closure for the family. Yeah, yeah,
I mean you do have to feel thankful for that,
at least for her, her mother and her father and
her family they can now finally, you know, bury their
little girl. You know, but that's not the end of
the story. This is where things get kind of weird
(23:03):
for me, you know. I mean, it's just a few
months later after they found Chandra's remains that a five
time felon and a former gang member ends up coming
forward to tell authorities that he actually knows who Sendra's
killer is. Yes, and we will learn about who that
(23:24):
five time felon is after we take a quick break. So,
just a few months after Sandra's remains were found in
September of two thousand two, an incarcerated man named Armando
Morales ended up coming forward. So Armando said that his cellmate,
(23:45):
Ingmar Guandique had confessed to him that he'd killed Chandra Levy. Yeah,
so here's just a little pull from the Washington Post
article that reported this quote. Guandiq had been walking in
the Atmos Oregan neighborhood when a car pulled to the curb.
He claims Condit offered him money dollars to kill a woman.
(24:09):
So what Moralesis testimony is suggesting here is that Gary
Condit is involved and somehow responsible for the murder of
Sandra Levy by having hired an assassin. So Morales said,
quote the congressman provided Guandik with Sandra Levy's picture and
a location where he could find her. So he claims
(24:33):
that Guandick was just out for a stroll one day
when all of a sudden, Gary Condit stops him just
randomly right and offers him twenty five dollars two murder.
His intern is that what you're saying? Yeah, I mean
it leaves a lot up to chance, right there. Just
(24:54):
happened to stumble upon somebody who is willing to kill
somebody for right? Did he look like a killer? Like?
What's like? I don't even that doesn't make any sense.
I mean he's just, you know, randomly driving through the
streets of d C looking for someone who looks like
they look like a killer, and if they take money
to kill her. Yeah, that's super far pitched. I just
(25:15):
have to say, I don't buy it. Yeah, And the
more you read into it, the more weird it becomes.
So I'll read the rest of the quote here. The
informant said Guandika told him he took drugs and drink
alcohol to steal himself for the attack. He went to
the location cond gave him and saw Chandra running on
a path. Guandique hid in the bushes, and when Chandra
(25:37):
circled back, he jumped out and attacked her, stabbing her
in the neck and the stomach. She fell to the
ground and Guandiqa carried her body far into the woods.
He dug a hole with his hands and covered Gendre
with their leaves and sticks. He left the knife in
her body and later considered retrieving it, but never did.
He sent the dollars to his family in El Salvador.
(26:00):
End quote. So according to moralities account, there should have
been a knife found at the scene, and it was
a knife ever found Trevor, No, yeah, there was no knife.
So I mean this is making all of what Morales
is saying here to be really fishy. So what happens
(26:20):
then is that Morales agreed to tell this story on
the witness stand in return for better conditions in prison.
And I think that's when the full picture of what's
probably really going on here comes into view, right, Yeah, totally.
But do we know who guandi Gae is, Like, is
this the guy that killed Chandra Levy? I mean, I
(26:41):
don't think we're sold on that or are we I'm
not quite yet. Yeah, I mean we know that he's
an immigrant from El Salvador. We know he doesn't speak English.
That summer, he had actually been arrested earlier for attacking
two women in Rock Creek Park. So all of this
is going on in two thousand two, the year after
sendre Lee, he was killed, and Guandik went on to
(27:02):
be sentenced to ten years for said crimes. But he
did deny killing Chandra Levy, and there was still no
physical evidence connecting him to the murder. So there was
a bit of a pattern here that maybe connected him,
but that's entirely circumstantial. In the same part the year
after she was killed. Sure, I mean, I see how
you can maybe draw those conclusions or or how that
(27:24):
might set him up to look guilty, but again, no
physical evidence. That knife was never found, right right right?
I got another question though, what about I wonder if
they ever traced to see if there was ever any
money exchange, like was the dollars ever sent to his family? Yeah?
(27:45):
I mean the other thing you can check is whether
or not Gary condit you know, withdrew any large sums
of money close to grand on the days leading up
to her murder, which would also you know, back that
account up. I don't think he looked into that. If
they did, I don't know about it well. So then
in two thousand nine, a new DC Police chief decided
(28:07):
to reopen the case and investigators in DC Police announced
that they are charging Guandiq for the assaulted murder of
Chandra Levy. So his trial begins in October of two
thousand nine. The two women Guandique was convicted of attacking
in the park both testify at this time and they
describe how he attacked them as they jogged alone in
(28:27):
the park, so sounding a little familiar perhaps, One woman
says he dragged her down a ravine and attacked her
with a knife. Chandra Levy's father also takes the stand
and says he believes Gary Kanna is still the most
likely suspect, and he reveals that Chandra and Condit had
concocted a quote five year plan prior to her death
(28:49):
in which he would divorce his current wife and Mary Schandra.
So it sounds like maybe they were planning on running
away together and maybe something went wrong at least according
to the father, right right, right, So then Condent himself
takes the stand and testifies, and when asked whether he
and Schendra had a sexual relationship. He refused to answer
flat out, and he said he did this out of
(29:11):
respect for Chandra. So an FBI biologist also revealed that
semen found on a pair of Gendre's underwear match that
of conduits found in her apartment. That is so fishy
and I just fishy, is I accepted throw my two
cents in here like he in that he says out
of respect for Chandra. No respect for Chandra would be
(29:34):
telling the truth by saying, yes, we had a sexual relationship.
That is respect. Yeah, yeah, we know he's full of ship. Yeah,
he'd been married since I think nineteen sixty seven, so
he was trying to save everything from burning down. My
think that said, I mean, regardless of whether or not
he was having an affair, which it sounds like he was, right,
(29:55):
doesn't necessarily mean he killed her. I mean, the fact
that they find semen on the panties in her apartment
suggests they were having a sexual relationship, and frankly, nothing
more right. I mean, the fact that they were having
an affair near the time that she was killed is
certainly suspicious and fishy, but that's not physical evidence tying
him to her murder, right, right, it is a potential motive,
(30:17):
but it's not. Yeah, yeah, potentially. So anyways, the jury
finds Guandika guilty of two counts of first degree murder.
So Adjuror later claimed that their decision was mostly based
on Moralesis testimony that he gave, and Guandiqa was then
sentenced to sixty years in prison. I watched a show
about Chandra Levy this past week. I believe it was
(30:41):
on Oxygen, and they interviewed Schandra's mom and dad, and
when that verdict came down, you know, like they had
to have an interpreter for Guandique because again he didn't
speak English, and they asked him if he killed you know,
Sandra Levy, and you know, they were saying in this
documentary that they didn't even need an interpreter because he
(31:04):
was like, I am he said it in Spanish, but
he's like, I'm something along the lines of I'm so
sorry for your loss, but I did not kill Chandra Levy.
And like mom, dad, you know, like they had they
stated in this documentary that they had doubt, and it's
just I don't even know how they convicted him on
(31:25):
his cellmates testimony when there's no other evidence. But you know,
Guandique ends up writing a letter to a reporter at
the Washington Post after that verdict, and after he said
all that in the courtroom, he says, of course that
everything was false, the evidence presented by the government and
moenless testimony was false, and of course his attorney files
(31:46):
on appeal and in May two thousand fifteen, prosecutors agreed
to hold a new trial after the defense argued that
informant Morales had perjured himself on the stand. Dang, and
this is two tho fIF team, this is now a
full fourteen years after Chandra Levy was murdered. Yeah, I mean,
(32:07):
wrongful conviction puts people in prison for decades and decades sometimes.
You know, that said he was convicted of probably rightfully
attacking other women for which he should have been in prison,
so you know, maybe he was going to be there anyways.
But you know, at least in this case, um, it
seems like, at least from my perspective, Guandk is correct
(32:27):
in the fact that all of this was false and
that he was not actually guilty of murdering Schandra Levy.
So there's a pretty good quote from the ap that
sums us all up that I'll read very quickly. Quote.
Authorities acknowledged that they had no DNA evidence or witnesses
linking g One Decay to the crime, building their prosecution
instead around a jailhouse informant who said Guan Deck had
(32:49):
confessed behind bars that he was responsible for Levi's death.
They also said the attack on Levi fit a pattern
of assault spike, GWANDC on other female shoggers in the
same ocation where she went missing and during the same
time frame. So Guandiq, who was already in prison for
those attacks when he was accused in Leaves death in
two thousand nine, professed innocence at his sentencing hearing. His
(33:12):
lawyers said police and prosecutors made him escape go for
a botched investigation. And I do think that sums up
what we know about this investigation so far. Absolutely what
a freaking miss hot miss. Yeah. So what this appears
to be then is that morale is the person who
gave this testimony was looking for a lighter sentence and
(33:35):
saw an opportunity to rat out somebody else to get that,
and then something's happened that back this up. So when
prosecutors and the judge agree to hold a new trial.
It comes to light that Armando Morales had actually testified
in federal cases before, and that the prosecution knew this
but failed to disclose it. The defense argued that this
(33:56):
misconduct warranted the charges against Guandick to be completely dropped.
So this is something he had been doing frequently along
with investigators, to nail people who may not have been
responsible so that they could close their cases and Morales
could get shorter sentences. Yeah, well, it's horrible, totally horrible.
(34:19):
And you know, meanwhile, and this is this is a
little crazy, but Armando morales neighbor ends up coming forward
and she's made a bunch of secret recordings of her
conversations with Morals in which he talked about being the
key witness in the Chandra Levy case and flat out
says that he lied about Guandique's confession to improve his
(34:42):
prison conditions, just like you said, Trevor. And so in
light of you know, this development, all charges against Guandique
r indeed dropped again no physical evidence against him, and
without the testimony of Morales, they have not that nothing.
So basically they're back to square one, sadly. Yeah, yeah,
(35:05):
and where the story essentially ends is that in May
of Guandiq was deported back to El Salvador. Gary Kondit's
career was essentially destroyed by this. As you would imagine,
he was voted out of office in two thousand two,
very likely from all the negative press he was receiving.
He then moved to Phoenix, where he and his wife
attempted and failed at a couple of Baskin Robbins franchises
(35:29):
that they briefly owned. And so, yeah, nobody walked away
from this unscathed. Yeah, and you know, again, the sad
thing about all this is like we still don't know
who the real murderer is, Like we still have no clue. Yeah,
I mean again, because police were so hyper fixated on
(35:50):
Gary Kondit's involvement and the testimony, the false testimony that
they had from Morales right, that they really failed to
dedicate the time and resources to looking at a wide
range of suspects and looking at all of the evidence
in front of them. And so now it's years decades later, almost,
and you know, we have nothing really left to work with.
(36:12):
There's essentially no way to solve this space on where
we're at now, right, and that's what I think so tragic, right,
And you know, when I was listening to Chandra's mom
and dad speak in that Oxygen documentary, her mom said,
she's like, you know, even if we find out who
killed my daughter, it's not going to bring her back.
(36:35):
And that was like, like, it just broke my heart
even more, you know. And I will say one thing
with like Gary Condent being, you know, such a big headline,
and this is something her mom, you know, chimed in
about as well. She doesn't think that she would have
gotten as much media coverage if her daughter hadn't been
involved with him, because it was such a sensationalized media
(36:58):
story that you know, she was going her and her
husband were going on different news programs to talk about
their missing daughter because she hadn't been found for that
entire year. But through all of that and with nine
eleven happening, you know, we no one really got to
see who Chandra Levy was as a human being. She
was more of just a headline. And that's what's so heartbreaking. Absolutely,
(37:22):
I think what you said is absolutely true, you know,
and what we have to remember is that, you know,
she was more than a headline. She was a human
being just at the start of her life. So that
brings us to this week's our final message of hope
(37:44):
and healing. Our ima goes to Schandra Levy. If those
in charge of finding justice for her murder had paid
more attention to Schandra's actual actions in the final hours
of her life, then maybe her family might have some
measure of justice today. Instead, the police and the justice
system focused on innuendo, scandal headlines, and when all of
(38:11):
that failed, they ended up finding a scapegoat on which
to pen her death. And if you bothered to know
her in the weeks and months when doing so might
have made a difference. And so we'll take a moment
now to honor her life. Chandra and Levy was more
than the worst thing that ever happened to her. She
(38:32):
was a fun, loving and playful sister. She was prone
to being an occasional big sister bossy. She played Little
League and she loved the San Francisco Giants. And she
was a bright, brilliant young woman, you know, doing her
(38:53):
thing working in d C. Yes, And she was an
individual who didn't like being told what to do. She
was a very independent and vibrant young woman with a
bright future that should have been hers to claim today
and always we honor you, Chandra, onward and upward, Ima Ima. Well,
(39:22):
that is our show for today. We'd love to hear
what you thought about today's discussion and if there was
a case that you'd like us to cover, please find
us on social media or email us at Facing Evil
pod at tenderfoot dot tv. And one request if you
haven't already, please find us on iTunes and give us
(39:43):
a good review and a good rating. If you like
what we do, your support is always cherished. Until next time.
Uh loja m hmm. Facing Evil is a production of
(40:07):
I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The show is hosted
by Russia Peccarero and a Vetch Gentile. Matt Frederick and
Alex Williams are executive producers on behalf of I Heart
Radio with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Funk. Donald Albright
and Payne Lindsay our executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV,
alongside producer Tracy Kaplan. Our researcher is Claudia Dafrico. Original
(40:33):
music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Find us on social
media or email us at Facing Evil pot at tenderfoot
dot tv. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio or
tenderfoot Tv, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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