Student Vanishes Without a Word

An empty chair sat between graduates Michelle Yanez and Amy Peterson at USC’s commencement ceremony Friday.

Chandra Ann Levy was not with her two friends, waiting to walk the stage and receive her master’s degree. The 24-year-old was reported missing Sunday when she did not return from an internship in Washington, D.C.

Stunned friends are worried about the missing young woman, described as well-adjusted and highly intelligent.

“She is really solid,” said Peterson, adding that “it’s not like her at all” to disappear. “Everybody today was really shocked when we heard about this.”

Police say they have few clues to Levy’s disappearance.

Her parents, Robert and Susan Levy, told police that she was expected home the first week of May and that they had not heard from her since about May 1.

Robert Levy, a Modesto oncologist, and his wife could not be reached for comment Friday.

Police who searched Levy’s Washington apartment, where she lived alone, found her packed luggage as well as her driver’s license, credit cards, cellular phone and “all the things she would normally carry with her,” Metropolitan Police Det. Ralph Durant said.

She was last seen closing out her health club membership April 30. Levy is 5-foot-4 and 108 pounds with hazel eyes and dark brown hair.

Yanez said her friend is shy and “not streetwise.”

“I could see where she may have trusted the wrong person,” she said.

Levy’s six-month internship with the Federal Bureau of Prisons was part of her plan to launch a career in law enforcement, Yanez said. “She wanted to work for the FBI. She wanted to do detective work.”

She said Levy e-mailed that she hated Washington at first because she wasn’t making friends. Her attitude changed over time, Yanez said, and “she was very happy there.”

Yanez said Levy wanted to extend her stay beyond her internship because of a relationship she was involved in, but her parents “wanted her to come home.”

Levy was secretive about the man she was seeing, Yanez said, so much so that “it worried us.”

“She couldn’t say who it was. ‘Couldn’t,’ that’s how she put it. She was also extremely excited

about whoever it was that she was seeing. She said it was ‘someone in politics,’ ” Yanez said.

Levy did not own a car, according to Durant. But Steve Ward, USC’s police chief, said Levy was planning to drive from Washington to California. It was not clear whose car she would be driving or riding in.

During her internship, Levy worked for the prison bureau’s public information office. Her boss, Tracy Billingsly, said she took phone calls and handled paperwork.

“She is a very sweet person, very likable,” Billingsly said.

Levy earned her bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State, USC spokeswoman Zsa Zsa Gershick said. Her master’s degree studies included an internship in Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan’s office, friends said.

Levy’s parents have put up a $15,000 reward for information leading to her safe return. Rep. Gary Condit, who represents Levy’s hometown, contributed an additional $10,000 in reward money from his campaign treasury.

Police ask anyone with information to call them at (202) 282-0043.

Times staff writer Hang Nguyen and the Modesto Bee contributed to this story.