Rock Creek Park Predator Interviewed by Police Investigating Levy Death

Drudge ^ | 5/23/02 | Roll Call Daily/ Drudge

[john in missouri]

PAPER: Rock Creek Park Predator Interviewed by Police Investigating Levy Death Thu May 23 2002 12:52:01 ET

D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officials investigating the death of Washington intern Chandra Levy have interviewed a man serving a 10-year prison sentence for attacking two women in Rock Creek Park last year, ROLL CALL DAILY is planning to report on Thursday.

MORE

D.C. Metro Police investigators have "talked to" Ingmar Guandeque, who was arrested in July 2001 after attacking two females (one in May and one in July) who were jogging along the Broad Branch trail in Rock Creek Park. Levy's decomposed body was found Wednesday along the Broad Branch trail in a heavily wooded area.

A second official close to the Levy investigation said that while Guandeque was interviewed after Levy's disappearance last year, investigators are now taking a closer look at him since the intern's body was discovered.

"Clearly there are some coincidences and links -- just because of the proximity of where he [committed his crimes]," said a source close to the investigation.

ROLL CALL's Amy Keller reports: Guandeque, who lived on the 1400 block of Somerset Place Northwest, was arrested last summer and sentenced in February 2002 to two concurrent terms of 10 years' imprisonment for a pair of assaults of female joggers in the Broad Branch section of the park.

The first attack occurred in mid-May 2001, at 6:30 p.m., about two weeks after Levy disappeared. In that case, Guandeque came upon an unnamed female jogger, attacking her from behind while brandishing a knife.

According to a press relea

[Elenya]

If that's the case then we better start praying for him....

[thinden]

Did he happen to have a shovel handy.

haven't really been following this one closely, maybe you can answer me this: was it ever reported that she was buried.

thanx

[rwt60]

It's possible that the perpetrator did not expect a park search. I assume the police searched the park primarily because they found a reference to it on Chandra's computer. Even though the park was searched, someone stated that the location of the body wasn't one of the areas searched because it was so remote. The body could have been where it was found the entire time beginning within a few hours after death.

[csvset]

I was being facetious. You've done a fine job over the years and I appreciate the work you've done.

I found it odd that the DOJ had a press release about a relatively "low-level" crime. Is the Rock Creek Park a fed. park? If not, why the press release from the DOJ?

[Reeses]

What percentage of suicides go out into unfamiliar woods and then kill themselves in such a way that their body won't be found for over a year? And also how many do it right after packing their bags getting ready to go on a trip? Plus there is the lack of a suicide note or anything else that might indicate why she would commit suicide. ... I can't imagine she would be so callous towards her parents and friends as to put them through the agony of not knowing what really happened to her.

I don't have specific research for you but many people go out in the woods to kills themselves, it's a popular place. That she wasn’t found quickly, just a few miles from her apartment, is not her fault but the fault of an incompetent police search. Many people, possibly most, do not leave suicide notes, for example Vince Foster. This happens in cases where the person wants to disappear and does not want to or can not rationalize their decision. One of the side motivations for suicide is to punish people, so being callous towards friends and family is hardly a deterrent in the mind of a suicidal person. Or she may not have left suicide clues because she did not want to hurt her family, wanted to leave them the benefit of the doubt. Unless Chandra was a drug user and tried to leave without paying off her drug dealer, or had someone else very angry at her, the odds appear to me to be very low that she was murdered.

Do an advanced google search on the phrase "no suicide note" and you'll find lots of similar cases to this.

[luckystarmom]

He could have returned with a shovel. My point is that if he did kill her he probably didn't care about the walkman.

[SarahW]

NO, he's not the unluckiest. He brought all the scorn and suspicion he's faced on himself.

Personaly I think he met her that day, or at minimum has heard from her and knew her plans and rough wherabouts. In the light most favorable to Condit, his secrecy divereted police effort and resources.

But he thought he'd save his own craven bony ass. In a well-deserved ironic kick in the pants, all that he feared came to pass - Scandal, suspicion, and a lost career.

[SarahW]

And to clarify - in the light most favorable to him *if he knew nothing about her whereabouts that day* his lies and secrecy caused diversion of police effort and resources.

[Astro Boy]

My question is why didn't the dog get the credit for finding the bones? Did the police really thorughly search the area?.....The turtles usually stay away from where the beer cans rest in waterways.

[aristeides]

So the Washington Post did report the story, although in a very inconspicuous way. Thanks. I wonder why my google search on the perp's name and "Rock Creek Park" didn't turn up this story.

[csvset]

I was being facetious. You've done a fine job over the years and I appreciate the work you've done.

I found it odd that the DOJ had a press release about a relatively "low-level" crime. Is the Rock Creek Park a fed. park? If not, why the press release from the DOJ?

[aristeides]

I think Rock Creek Park is under the National Parks Administration.

Notice that Wallaby found a brief item from the Washington Post in September reporting the park assaults (posted at #639 in this thread.)

[spectre]

WAS she buried?

Well, we don't really know for sure. Some say she was in a shallow grave, others say she was buried in leaves.

But they are keeping tight-lipped about it, or don't know much yet. Her remains were scattered over a large area.

I imagine the Smithsonian Forensic's Team can establish from the little "thingies" in her bones if she was buried in dirt...or not.

I can't buy the story the Predator in jail offed poor Chandra. Naahhh.

sw

[Elenya]

Welcome to FR, Astro Boy.

I don't know the answer to your question, but with a screenname like yours, I bet you could make a good prediction!

[ET(end tyranny)]

FNC reported that two pieces of laundry rope were found by the body.

[Katie_Colic]

Rope. Ugh.

Again, I wonder if whoever did this wanted it to look like a sexual predator, a random crime.

[Humbug]

Even disregarding the new bits of evidence (fractured skull or that she may have been tied up) i still think she was always an unlikely candidate for suicide. My point though was that when you take all the unusual circumstances surrounding her death, and not simply explain each of them away one at a time, but take them all in total then they dramatically shift the odds in favor of homicide. And from what i've seen and learned of Chandra since the time of her death she never struck me as the suicidal type but rather just the opposite, as a fighter and someone who would quickly rebound from life's disappointments rather than just giving up. And finally i simply can't believe that going to a park that you have never been to before and then going to a remote location at that park to kill yourself has ever been a common way for people to go about ending their lives.

[ET(end tyranny)]

There was an earlier post that mentioned screams coming from her apartment. It seems I do recall early reports of that nature. Do you know if anything ever came of that? And someone else had commented on a blanket being found on the floor near the door in the apartment. That sounds familiar, too. Do you recall anything like that?

[ET(end tyranny)]

Better look at this!

Boy scouts beautify park, keys among trash

[Katie_Colic]

I DEFINITELY remember hearing about the screams coming from the apartment. But that was extremely early in the morning, wasn't it? Like at 4:30 a.m.? This wasn't an unfounded rumor. I remember Fox covering it.

As far as the blanket goes, this is the first I've heard of it.