Chandra Levy's unsolved murder will now be investigated by criminal justice students at a small Georgia college, reviving a mystery that once captivated a nation and still torments a Modesto family.
The students at Atlanta's Bauder College will spend this year digging into Levy's 2001 disappearance. As part of the college's Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, they will weigh evidence, interview experts and, they hope, find connections missed by police detectives and FBI agents.
"They just go full bore because they know how important it is. They know they may be the ones to see something no one else has seen," institute director Sheryl McCollum said. "Civilians solve cases all the time."
Raised in Modesto, Levy was a graduate student and a former Bureau of Prisons intern when she disappeared in Washington, D.C., in the spring 2001. Her disappearance became fodder for widespread media coverage after reports -- ultimately undisputed -- that she had been romantically involved with married Rep. Gary Condit of Ceres.
Levy's remains were found in May 2002 in Washington's Rock Creek Park. Police have never identified a suspect. Most of the leading investigators in her case have long since moved on to other jobs. Condit lost his 2002 re-election bid.
"It's always good to have a fresh look," said her mother, Susan Levy, adding that "a lot of things still don't make sense."
College founded in 1964
Founded in 1964, Bauder College is part of the for-profit Kaplan Higher Education Corp. The college started its cold case institute in 2005.
Starting Jan. 31, McCollum said, some 50 students will pore over articles and books about Levy's case. They will cover a wall with butcher paper, taping up articles, timelines and sticky notes with questions about case elements that don't make sense. Students hope to visit Washington in June, seeing Levy's apartment and visiting the wooded park where her skeleton was found.
"The work is involved, but it's worth it," said Danielle Zayas, 25, a Bauder student from Mountain View. "You're not going to get an automatic outcome. You're never going to find the truth about something right away."
The students don't get college credit or grades for their cold-case work. At the end of the year, though, McCollum said, they will turn their conclusions over to prosecutors or police.
McCollum also runs the Cold Case Crime Analysis Squad for the Pine Lake Police Department in Georgia.
McCollum's students have previously examined such cases as the 1996 shooting death of rapper Tupac Shakur and the arrest of Wayne Williams, who police identified as the key suspect in more than 20 child murders in Atlanta from 1979 to 1981.
Will take up Holloway case, too
Students this year also will probe the 2005 disappearance of Natalee Holloway, a high school student from Alabama who vanished during a graduation trip in Aruba.
Students meet monthly to share insights from their research and hear from speakers who worked the case or have other expertise. McCollum has considered inviting former Washington, D.C., Police Chief Charles Ramsey to speak. He was chief during the Levy investigation.
She plans to bring in a technology expert to talk about Levy's computer and explain what Web sites she apparently visited before her disappearance might reveal. It's all about exposure to information sources officers regularly mine, she said.
There is a tradition of college students finding justice in old cases. At Northwestern University Law School in Illinois, for instance, the Center on Wrongful Convictions has exonerated death row inmates.
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