WASHINGTON -- The Chandra Levy missing-person case ended and a death investigation began Wednesday, after discovery of her remains in a park about two miles from her apartment.
"Now we know her death is a reality," Police Chief Charles Ramsey said. "Now we have to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death."
A man and his dog, on a hunt for turtles, came across the skeletal remains shortly before 9:30 a.m. Police converged on Rock Creek Park, a focus of the search for Levy during the summer.
Within hours, the medical examiner's office used dental records to confirm the identification.
The 24-year-old Modesto woman had been missing for almost 13 months. Her disappearance caused a media furor when allegations of an affair with Ceres Rep. Gary Condit came to light. Those allegations ultimately brought down the Democrat's congressional career.
Ramsey placed a call to Levy's parents in Modesto and told them of the discovery of the remains. Robert and Susan Levy and their son, Adam, remained secluded in their home as dozens of news crews took up positions outside.
Wednesday night, the Levys' Washington attorney, Billy Martin, issued a statement from Florida: "Although the discovery of Chandra's body closes one chapter and brings some resolution to this ordeal, it does not, and I repeat, it does not solve the mystery of what happened to Chandra."
Martin said he is certain the death investigation "will shortly be formally classified as a homicide investigation."
In Modesto, Levy attorney George Arata, a longtime family friend who spent the day with them, said the Levys vowed to "continue their fight to find out who did this."
In Washington, police reported finding a skull and other bones. They planned to continue their search into the night, and portable lights had been set up.
Other items found at the scene, according to a law enforcement source, included a tennis shoe and remnants of a red sports bra and a University of Southern California T-shirt. Levy was a USC graduate student who had just finished an internship at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
By analyzing the bones and remnants of clothing, the medical examiner hopes to pin down the cause of death and the time, whether Levy died someplace else, and whether she had been sexually assaulted.
"There's a lot of work that has to be done," Ramsey said. "It's not something that's going to be easy."
Once the remains had been identified, Ramsey said, he had hoped to get word to the Levys before they heard about it through the media. The chief delivered the news to Stanislaus County Sheriff Les Weidman, and he planned to tell the family.
But with minute-by-minute cable television coverage, the Levys heard the news before Weidman arrived.
Media crews not only swarmed Rock Creek Park, but also made their way to Condit's Capitol Hill office.
Condit has said publicly only that he considered Levy a "good friend." However, the 54-year-old congressman, defeated in the March 5 primary election in his bid for an eighth term, has not denied published reports that he told police he and Levy were having an affair.
Condit remained out of sight throughout the day, but he issued a statement through his Los Angeles-based attorney, Mark Geragos, expressing "heartfelt sorrow and condolences" for the Levy family.
"The Levy family will remain in our prayers," the statement read.
Condit's Wednesday schedule went unchecked as he participated in routine votes and a hearing of the House intelligence committee, which was scheduled to receive a briefing on the FBI's anti-terrorism warnings.
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