‘We’re parents that went through hell.’ Chandra Levy’s family, 20 years later
Modesto’s Chandra Levy was not seen or heard from after May 1, 2001. The 24-year-old former federal intern’s disappearance in the nation’s capitol city became a national mystery laced with intrigue as rumors swirled about a secret, romantic relationship with then-Congressman Gary Condit. He lost a re-election bid the next year and largely retreated from public life.
Chandra’s remains were recovered a year later in a heavily wooded park in Washington, D.C., a few miles from her apartment. Immigrant Ingmar Guandique, convicted of assaulting two other women in the same park, eventually was convicted of her murder, but it was later overturned. Prosecutors decided against retrying him and he was deported to his native El Salvador in May 2017.
On Thursday, I sat down with Chandra’s parents, Bob and Susan Levy, in the home where Chandra spent most of her childhood — the same home besieged by reporters and news trucks for months after her disappearance 20 years ago. He still practices medicine in Modesto, and she continues to advocate for women and against abuse, and Chandra’s brother, Adam, lives with them. Chandra would have turned 44 a couple of weeks ago.
Here are excerpts from our discussion.
Q: What are your thoughts on Guandique?
Bob: He claimed he was innocent, but I doubt it.
Susan: I don’t know. A lot of things, I wonder. I’m different from my husband.
Bob: The damned defense shysters got him off.
Q: What about Gary Condit?
Bob: He got punished somewhat, maybe not enough. I don’t think positively about him, but I can’t say he’s guilty.
Q: Other Condits have been in local news these days for their own political careers — Buck, Channce, Couper Condit. Does hearing the name bother you?
Bob: I don’t think about it. Good luck to them. They’re not him. It’s fine. If they get elected, it’s OK. They have nothing to do directly with him, and it’s not their fault.
Q: How do you feel about the media?
Susan: Some victims called me, wanting to know how we got so much media. They might have been a little jealous, unfortunately, with Chandra being who she is, and being involved with a congressional person — that if we didn’t have a beautiful daughter, intelligent and involved with Gary Condit, maybe we would not have had the media coverage we had. My heart goes out to people who have lost children violently.
We’re parents that went through hell. People judge my daughter as if she may have been a sexual object. We all need to speak up and stand up and fight against a value system that’s destroying positive traits.
Q: Do you visit Chandra’s gravesite?
Bob: No. I don’t go there because she’s not there. Nobody’s there. When you’re gone, you’re not in a cemetery. It’s OK if people go to cemeteries and talk to their family, but they’re off in spirit, not stuck in the ground.
Q: Do you do something else to remember her?
Bob: We talk about her, but not too much because it hurts too much.
Susan: Every morning, I get up and I have the same old feeling of incompletion. Something’s missing. I know right now so many people are feeling something missing in their family with COVID. Many people have lost their loved ones, I recognize that. For us, we just go through life as best we can. We’re wounded. Just like a limb’s missing.
I suffer from trauma. Everything I do is a little bit harder, to do the normal things. It’s almost easier to stay in bed, but I won’t do that. I can’t do that. My daughter wouldn’t want that to happen. But our family in our own way has gone through a war. Whenever trauma happens to other people, we look at each other and say, “Yep, we know what that feeling is like.”
Q: Do you have words for families of missing people?
Bob: Some do show up alive — Elizabeth Smart.
I don’t like the word “closure.” We hate that word; I don’t use it. It’s not really closed because they’re still missing and you don’t see them till you die yourself. Eventually we get to see everybody again.
Q: So what do you tell them?
Bob: You’re going to see them again. You don’t have to have a specific religion; you’ve got to have spiritual faith.
Susan: We’re all here just temporarily. There is a lot of suffering here on this side. We all suffer and it’s horrible pain. We want our loved ones back, we want to see them alive. If we’re not fortunate enough to have that, one day everyone in the world is going to go the same place as my daughter, Chandra. We’re afraid; some of us transition in terrible, terrible ways. But once we’re there, maybe it will not be as bad as what’s over here.
So, one day at a time. I’m not the same person. I don’t laugh the same way. I make jokes, but everything is really tough. What we do in honor of these children, we try to go forth in life.
Bob: We keep going.
Q: Will you do anything for the 20th anniversary?
Bob: No. I’m just pissed, at times. I cuss, at times. I do my spiritual things, at times. I’m not going to do anything special. I’m sure not going to go to the cemetery. You don’t want to hear me say something about God. God’s big enough to take it, though, that’s what everyone tells me.
Susan: So we’re not sure what we’ll do that day.
Bob: We don’t know what day it is (that Chandra died).
Susan: We have no idea when she died.
Bob: She’ll tell us later, when we see her. Or maybe she won’t, if she doesn’t want to. I just hope the guilty party gets his karma back.
This story was originally published May 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
