Levy investigators vow to find her killer

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Someone killed Chandra Levy, but there’s too little evidence to say how or who might have left her body on a rugged park hillside a year ago, Washington, D.C.’s medical examiner said Tuesday.

Six days after the 24-year-old former intern’s remains were found in sprawling Rock Creek Park, Dr. Jonathan Arden ruled the death a homicide but said the exact cause may never be known.

Three thousand miles away, about 1,200 mourners joined Levy’s parents at a memorial for the former U.S. Bureau of Prisons intern in her hometown of Modesto, Calif., a 90-minute ceremony in the city convention center.

Washington Police Chief Charles Ramsey emphatically said his investigators, who have been baffled by Levy’s disappearance for nearly 13 months, will find the killer. "We will solve this case, I guarantee you that," Ramsey said at a news conference outside police headquarters.

Arden said he did not have enough evidence to say conclusively how Levy died, or whether she was killed where the remains were found.

Later, in a telephone interview, he said Levy’s skull, which police reported was damaged, was fractured after she died. Among other potential causes of death, Arden said, "I did not see the evidence of a gunshot, stab wound or beating."

Other medical examiners said those telltale signs makes strangulation a more likely cause of death. Arden said strangulation is difficult to diagnose when examining only bones.

Ramsey said it’s too early to label anyone a suspect. Police have yet to begin another round of interviews with people they have talked to about Levy’s disappearance, he said.

Ramsey said most of the evidence found at the scene was clothing, including tennis shoes, shirt and a sports bra. He said there was nothing evident on the clothing — no apparent hairs, fibers or blood.

The FBI crime lab will analyze the clothing, he said.