Levys keep their hopes alive

(Published: Wednesday, August 01, 2001)

Shortly before Chandra Levy went to Washington, D.C., to begin her U.S. Bureau of Prisons internship in October, her mother offered a few words of advice.

"I said to Chandra, 'Don't you become a Monica Lewinsky,'" Susan Levy said Tuesday, standing outside her north Modesto home.

"It's become much, much worse," said her husband, Dr. Robert Levy.

Lewinsky, the White House intern who had an affair with then-President Clinton, can be found today hawking a book and a line of purses.

Authorities cannot find Levy at all.

For three months, they have searched for the 24-year-old Modesto woman. And today, the Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI admit that they are no closer to finding her than they were at the beginning.

Police have all but ruled out suicide, and are pursuing murder or willful disappearance. But the investigation is still considered a missing-person case, meaning that there are no suspects because, according to police, there is no evidence of a crime.

Shortly after Levy's disappearance, the investigation zeroed in on her relationship with Ceres Rep. Gary Condit. But investigators now say they are no longer focusing on that element. Condit, investigators said, probably will not be asked to take a police-administered lie detector test, which is something the Levys had wanted.

Now, they said, it does not matter.

"I really don't care about a polygraph," Susan Levy said. "I just want the truth to come out, and I want my daughter home."

Condit, police have said, is just one of about 100 people who have been interviewed in the case.

"My daughter is the central figure," Robert Levy said. "They have to find her."

But while the family has used Chandra Levy's relationship with Condit to keep the story alive in the media, it has come with a tremendous price.

They cling to hope from any source. The Levys cannot help but watch the news and cable shows. They read at least two newspapers daily.

They have been unable to avoid hearing "experts" predict that their daughter is dead, even though no evidence confirms that.

Searches of Condit's condominium, vehicles belonging to his aides and a foot search of Rock Creek Park in Washington proved unproductive.

Some media outlets, including the tabloids, have painted unflattering pictures of Chandra Levy, suggesting that she is power-hungry, promiscuous and possibly even pregnant.

That is a profile of her daughter Susan Levy refuses to believe.

"She's a private person, a bright lady," Susan Levy said. "She's not a slut, as some media (depicted). She was very much in love with this particular person."

Also Tuesday, Susan Levy said she simply does not believe that Otis Thomas, a minister who lives in Ceres, lied in early April when he told her that his daughter had an affair with Condit about seven years ago. Thomas was working as the Levys' gardener when he told Susan Levy of the alleged affair.

"I had him in my living room and he was full of tears," she said. "He told me later it was all made up, (but) I've never seen a man broken up like that."

Thomas recanted his story to the FBI last week, and an FBI spokesman told The Washington Post that the agency now believes Thomas fabricated it.

Bee staff writer Jeff Jardine can be reached at 578-2383 or jjardine@modbee.com.