Who Killed Chandra Levy? Inside the Unsolved Murder That Still Haunts D.C. 24 Years Later By Elizabeth Rosner

In the spring of 2001, Chandra Levy was preparing to return home to California. The 24-year-old graduate student had just finished a prestigious internship with the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., and was looking forward to walking across the stage at her graduation ceremony.

But on May 1, she vanished — without a word, a warning, or a clear trail.

What followed was a case that captured national attention. Levy’s disappearance would end up destroying a congressman’s career, captivating cable news, and ultimately going cold. In 2002, her remains were found in a secluded section of D.C.’s Rock Creek Park. In 2010, a man was convicted — then later cleared.

Twenty-four years after her death, the case remains unsolved.

A Promising Future Cut Short

Born and raised in Modesto, Calif., Levy was known for her intelligence, drive, and curiosity. She was earning her master’s degree in public administration from the University of Southern California and had landed a competitive internship in D.C. with the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

During her time there, she helped manage media inquiries in the lead-up to the execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh — a high-pressure role that gave her a glimpse into federal law enforcement communications.

Her internship ended in April 2001 after her academic eligibility lapsed. She made plans to head home to California on May 5. She never made it.

The Summer of Suspicion

As soon as Levy’s parents reported her missing, police began searching for clues. In her apartment, they found her purse, credit cards, and uncashed checks — nothing that suggested she had planned to leave voluntarily.

Then came a bombshell: reports surfaced that Levy had been romantically involved with Rep. Gary Condit, a married congressman from California.

Initially, Condit refused to comment. He dodged questions from reporters, avoided interviews, and offered little help to investigators. Under pressure, he eventually admitted during his third police interview that he and Levy had been having an affair — though he never acknowledged it publicly.

The media coverage exploded. Night after night, Levy’s disappearance dominated headlines. But no arrest was made, and Condit was never named as a suspect.

Meanwhile, theories abounded: Many believed Condit was responsible for her disappearance. A serial killer was blamed. People speculated Levy had died by suicide. There was even a theory floated by Vanity Fair‘s Dominick Dunne that she was abducted by a Middle Eastern sex ring.

Then came September 11, 2001. The world’s attention shifted — and the Chandra Levy case faded from the spotlight.

The Discovery in Rock Creek Park

On May 22, 2002 — more than a year after she disappeared — a man walking his dog in Rock Creek Park, a sprawling urban forest, found human remains. Dental records confirmed the remains were Levy’s.

Her body was found in a remote, steep ravine, far off any trail. Police recovered her sneakers, clothing, and a pair of knotted black tights, which some believed may have been used to restrain her or possibly strangle her. The condition of the remains made it impossible to determine the exact cause of death, but authorities said she was the victim of a homicide.

D.C. Medical Examiner Jonathan L. Arden indicated he did not find conclusive evidence that she had been shot, beaten, stabbed or strangled — all of which often leave detectable damage. One problem was that Levy’s neck cartilage, which could show whether she was strangled, had already disintegrated.

Because Levy exercised regularly and her remains were found near a path used by joggers, some speculated she’d been out for a run. Friends say she usually ran on a treadmill at her health club, not outdoors. The site was about four miles from Levy’s apartment. Former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt noted that an eight-mile round trip would have been a long run even for someone as fit as Levy — unless she was killed elsewhere and her body was moved. Arden, the medical examiner, said he could not determine whether the body had been dumped there.

In a review of Levy’s laptop, investigators found that on May 1, 2001 — the last day she was known to be alive — she (or someone using her account) looked up general information about Rock Creek Park. Police say there’s no evidence she searched specifically for the Klingle Mansion — the image on the park’s homepage — which undercuts theories that she was headed there or lured there. The mansion is about two miles from where her body was found. Still, the discovery renewed attention on the case. And soon, police had a new suspect.

A Conviction — and a Collapse

In 2009, investigators charged Ingmar Guandique, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had been convicted of attacking two other women in Rock Creek Park around the same time Levy disappeared.

In 2010, Guandique was convicted of Levy’s murder and sentenced to 60 years in prison. But his conviction rested heavily on the word of a jailhouse informant — a man who later admitted to lying.

By 2016, the case against Guandique had fallen apart. Prosecutors announced they could no longer prove his guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The charges were dropped, and Guandique was deported in 2017.

And just like that, Levy’s case was back to square one. “I feel shattered,” her mother, Susan Levy, told PEOPLE at the time. “It’s hard to accept that my daughter’s death is a cold case again.”

Around the time Guandique was convicted, some local coverage and online chatter referred to a “Dupont Circle serial killer” — an unconfirmed theory that two late-1990s cases involving young professional women near Dupont Circle were connected: the 1998 homicide of Christine Mirzayan and the 1999 disappearance and death of Joyce Chiang. Police never identified a single perpetrator linking those cases, and the “serial killer” label has no official standing.

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Where Things Stand Today

Despite decades of investigation, no one has been held accountable for Levy’s death.

Gary Condit, once a rising star in politics, lost his seat in Congress in 2002. He later opened a series of Baskin-Robbins ice cream shops with his wife and children in Arizona and California. He has consistently denied any involvement in Levy’s disappearance and has never been charged.

The Levy family has mostly stepped back from the public spotlight in recent years. But for those who remember the case, the questions haven’t gone away.

“These wounds don’t heal,” Levy’s mother Susan told PEOPLE in 2016. “I only wish we could get the person who killed her. Someone knows something, and they need to come forward.”