Media zoo's upside: Answers at last?

A smattering of television crews and other assorted media assembled in front of Bob and Susan Levy's north Modesto home Saturday. A neighbor came walking by to get a closer look.

The neighbor, Susan Levy said, led a pet miniature horse.

"It was weird," she said, assessing the atmosphere outside her home. "It was kind of like a carnival."

Or maybe a petting zoo.

The scene, Levy said Monday, seemed mildly reminiscent of what her family experienced during the spring and summer of 2001, after daughter Chandra Levy disappeared in Washington, D.C.

Because Chandra Levy was missing -- and because of her relationship with then-Rep. Gary Condit, D-Ceres -- the national media converged on Modesto when Condit came home during the congressional summer recess. Police in Washington had questioned him about her disappearance but never named a suspect.

Chandra Levy's remains were found in a D.C. park more than a year after she had vanished. Police officials called the Levys on Friday night to tell them they had made a breakthrough in the case, and speculation is that they'll soon charge a 27-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador with her murder.

But well into the summer of 2001, TV crews fed the voracious 24-hour cable news cycle by staking out two specific sidewalks in the Modesto area. One was in front of Condit's office at the time, on 16th Street downtown, where an MSNBC crew used electrician's tape to claim a chunk of concrete as its own. The other was in front of the Levy home a few miles to the north.

Each morning, afternoon and evening, crews waited for the Levys to emerge from their home or return to it. Most days, they would make a statement based upon some new bit of information or, often, a tearful plea for information about their daughter's whereabouts. Over the course of the summer, they became friends with the media regulars, some of whom had worked similar media sieges during the Montana Freemen standoff, the JonBenét Ramsey murder case and the Unabomber trial.

This was one of the rare cases in which the media pack and its targets maintained a cordial, if not friendly, relationship.

"We got to feed the press," Susan Levy said. "We had so much food from the neighbors -- they were so great -- that we gave (the media) the leftovers from our dinner."

Just as Condit headed back to Washington to resume the congressional session, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks seized the headlines. The hunt for Chandra Levy immediately disappeared from the national newspapers and cable TV , and didn't return until her remains were found the following May -- two months after Condit lost to Dennis Cardoza in the Democratic primary.

Nearly eight years passed with no arrest in the case. Perhaps that is why Susan Levy seemed energized Monday by the news of an impending break in the case and the return of a smaller media contingent to her front sidewalk. Sure, there aren't as many as in 2001. They stayed only through an impromptu news conference. And Levy can never forget the reason why they come.

"It put you right back to Stage One," she said: It dredges up the emotions of losing her daughter in the most horrendous way.

But it is different this time because there is no mystery as to Chandra's fate. The Levys have had eight mind-numbing years to deal with it. The only missing elements are who killed their daughter and why. The media provides the venue to press for those answers.

Levy's phone rang constantly Monday morning, and has ever since the story first broke. She's done so many interviews in the past three days that her voice is giving out. Every few minutes, she answers a call from a friend or family member, from her publicist in Washington or from media requesting interviews. She even got one from a Bay Area TV reporter wondering if she'd left a microphone at the Levy home Sunday.

One of the major network morning shows wanted her on Monday at 7 a.m. -- East Coast time. That's 4 a.m. here. No thanks, she told them.

The Levys have no plans to immediately fly to Washington once any charges are filed. Bob Levy, an oncologist, went to work as usual Monday morning to care for patients in his Modesto practice.

Meanwhile, Susan Levy remained home awaiting the news she's so anxious to receive: the call from the D.C. police confirming they've charged her daughter's killer at last.

"There will be more (TV) trucks here sometime today," she predicted. "I am expecting a call."

Sadly, she would have to wait at least another day after the D.C. police said there would be no announcement Monday. Still, you can understand why she welcomes the reporters and vans back to her front yard.

The zoo, if nothing else, is therapeutic.

Jeff Jardine's column appears Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays in Local News. He can be reached at jjardine@modbee.com or 578-2383.