D.C. Puzzles Over Missing USC Student

Chandra Ann Levy is so private that she said little at work about her personal life. At the gym where she trained nights near Washington’s Dupont Circle, she rarely spoke to other members. Even one of her closest friends, who came to the nation’s capital from California on a similar internship program, had not talked to her for four months.

Levy is short and thin and--except for her thick curly hair--easily lost in the crowd in a fast-paced city like this. And now she has vanished. It’s been almost three weeks since she was last seen, preparing to return home to Modesto.

That is what continues to puzzle Washington’s Police Department: that a 24-year-old woman about to receive a master’s degree from USC--with her bags neatly packed and her cell phone, credit cards and computer still in her apartment--could suddenly disappear, as authorities said Friday, without a trace.

Despite a nationwide media blitz launched this week by Levy’s parents, authorities say they are no closer to finding any real clues about why she is gone or where she went--or worse, who might have taken her.

So frustrated are the police that they have not opened a homicide case, or even a kidnapping or assault investigation, into the whereabouts of the young woman who once said she hoped to become an FBI agent.

Levy remains simply a missing person.

“There are no suspects,” District of Columbia police spokesman Kervin Johnson said.

“It’s still a mystery, and it’s wide open,” added Monty Wilkinson of the U.S. attorney’s office here, which might be called on to prosecute any crime.

Levy’s parents returned to their Modesto home Friday while police here prepared for a second search of the woman’s Dupont Circle apartment. Police also announced that her laptop and cell phone were being turned over to the FBI for scientific analysis, in the hope that she might have left some clue.

Authorities Friday also clarified a report in the Washington Post that quoted an assistant police chief as saying Levy had visited the Washington apartment of Rep. Gary A. Condit, a Democrat from the Modesto area.

Rather, Assistant Police Chief Ronald Monroe said, the police have only heard rumors to that effect--rumors sweeping the capital about a congressman and a possible romance and a missing young U.S. Bureau of Prisons intern.

Condit appeared briefly Friday outside his office building and immediately was surrounded by camera crews. He repeated that he would have no comment while the investigation was proceeding. Condit missed three roll-call votes Thursday, and aides in his Washington office have shielded him from responding directly to questions about the Levy case.

Instead, allies on Capitol Hill--specifically fellow Democratic lawmakers from California--spoke on his behalf, saying that, while Condit knew Levy, the focus should not be on him but on finding the young woman.

Reps. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco and Mike Thompson of St. Helena brushed off questions about Condit’s relationship with Levy.

“I feel bad for Gary,” Thompson said. “But more important than anything else is the safety and whereabouts of this young woman. It’s tragic. This is tragic on a number of fronts.”

Levy arrived here in October. She was completing a master’s degree program in public administration and won a coveted internship to work at the Bureau of Prison’s public affairs office. Her duties often included dealing with the families of inmates, and she told supervisors that she hoped for a career in law enforcement--maybe even with the FBI.

During her internship, the agency was unusually busy as it prepared for the execution of two federal prisoners this spring, including Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh.

“It’s very puzzling to us,” her boss, Dan Dunne, said of her disappearance. “It’s very, very puzzling.”

He said she was the kind of employee--new, young, dedicated--who gave no hint of her life outside the office.

“There wasn’t a sign of trouble with her,” he said. “Chandra was always at work on time. She just always wanted to take this opportunity to learn more about law enforcement and the government.

“But when she first moved here, she was cognizant of the need to be careful. I know that because we talked about that. She was in a strange area. The District was brand new to her. She had mentioned being new to the city, and she wanted to make sure she knew her way around town.”

She was known to spend many nights working out at the Washington Sports Club on Connecticut Avenue, near her home in the Newport apartment building. There too she apparently kept to herself.

Joe LaBracio, who works as an intern for ABC News’ “Nightline” program, often saw her there on the abdominal machine.

“She was just a face I constantly saw,” he said. “For the past couple of months, I saw her repeatedly. She was usually by herself. She said nothing to me. But there was one trainer who always came over to say hello to her and they knew each other pretty well. He would be down training someone else and he would stop and come over.”

Employees at the club declined to talk about the matter. LaBracio said he was at an ATM when he noticed a missing-person flier posted nearby. “I saw the picture and the very distinctive, curly hair. I couldn’t believe it.”

Police have received dozens of reports from others who remember seeing Levy--not just before she was last seen on May 1 but also since her disappearance. One man called from Boston and said he thought he might have spotted her there. That prompted another lead for the Washington police to follow up.

But few of Levy’s neighbors in Washington could recall the young intern who lived on the third floor of the Newport, a building with tight security.

Andrew T. Elders, a law student three doors down from her, could not remember ever seeing her, even though, as he said, “the trash chute is literally right across from her apartment and the laundry room is right next to” his.

Gayle J. Baker, who also lives a few doors away, could not recall ever seeing Levy with other people. “She seemed like a nice, ordinary sort of person, nothing unusual. I saw her in the halls and we would say hi, but I didn’t ever talk to her.”

None of Levy’s neighbors interviewed by The Times reported seeing Condit there. But several people who lived near Condit thought they recalled seeing her in his neighborhood.

“She looks familiar,” said Chris Sporleder, who lives near Condit in the city’s Adams Morgan community.

Condit has told police that Levy frequently visited his office because a friend of hers, Jennifer Baker, had been an intern there until early this year.

While the congressman was secluded, his chief of staff, Mike Lynch, declined to discuss any visits between Condit and Levy. Condit’s office has denied there was any romantic link.

While they were in Washington, Levy’s parents did not visit Condit, although he is their congressman. Chandra’s father, Robert Levy, an oncologist, earlier said he first contacted Condit for help after their daughter vanished.

Asked why they didn’t see Condit during their visit--even though he put up $10,000 in leftover campaign money toward a $30,000 reward fund--Susan Levy said they were getting help elsewhere.

She added that she too did not know of any romantic involvement between her daughter and the congressman, a 53-year-old married man with two grown children, including a son, Chad, who is an aide to California Gov. Gray Davis.

In Sacramento on Friday, Jennifer Baker was among three dozen friends of Levy’s who joined for a silent walk around the statehouse, carrying placards sporting a yellow ribbon and Levy’s picture.

“I started calling everyone I knew and they came out for this,” Baker said. “I can’t think of anything but focusing on bringing Chandra home.”

Baker, 25, said she got an e-mail from Levy several months ago. Levy mentioned a boyfriend in the FBI but nothing more about it, Levy said.

Baker, perhaps Levy’s closest friend in Washington, has said she has not spoken to Levy since January. She declined to discuss the e-mail further.

Suzanne O’Keefe, an economics professor at the USC Sacramento Center, recalled Levy as a hard-working student. “It’s so frightening to think what may have happened,” O’Keefe said.

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Times staff writers Nick Anderson in Washington, Wendy Thermos in Los Angeles and Eric Bailey in Sacramento contributed to this story.