He had gained control,he thought, relaxed for a moment, and the both savvy and lucky woman managed to get away. He didn't rape her and then leave her unharmed. She escaped, big BIG difference.
There is no question in my mind that the last victim was going to be killed when he was done, unless she got away from him.
Even Ted Bundy, quite practiced and skilled and luring, sexutally torturing and then murdering women, got scared away and had victims get away . This very young man - still on the rapist/murderer learning curve.
If you read Chandra Levy's bio, she was not exactly a push-over. In high school, she completed a wilderness program (when boys dropped out), she joined the Explorer Scouts Police Program, where she served as an undercover agent to catch retailers selling alcohol to youngsters, she kept in shape and she was nobody's fool. Maybe, according to your theory, she was the unlucky one, but I tend to think otherwise. There are too many loose ends to blandly assume that she simply went jogging that day, in an area she needed to look up on a map, with her bags packed, "some great news" for her aunt, and after having made numerous phone calls to a certain congressman, surfed the government websites of his committees -- and then randomly met her death at the hands of a serial rapist who returned to the area twice to repeat the crime (and failed) with her body lying nearby.
Exactly.
Why would a sexual predator kill the victim immediately unless he was a necropheliac.
A few additional points. It is possible that she was going there to jog or go for a walk. She could have taken a cab to the mansion and then went for a jog or walk from there. It appears to be only about a mile from the mansion to the location where her body was found. It is a long way to go from Dupont Circle but a fairly short cab ride. Cabbies tend to mind their own business. Unless their fare sticks out for some reason I doubt that they would remember every fare they picked up. It was several days and possibly a hundred fares later before she was reported missing.
The predator that is being looked at now made up a bogus story about the walkman. Would he rather be charged for attempted robbery and assault or sexual assault? The fact that the two women wore walkmans is a common thread but it makes them easier targets. If Chandra was wearing one she would have been an easy target (in the assailant's eyes) as well.
The fact that her body was found a good distance from the path makes sense as well. If someone wanted to rape someone wouldn't they try to drag them someplace secluded? It was a few hundred yards away from the path at most - not miles.
On the issue of the backpack - I have heard no details as to exactly what this backpack was. I doubt that it was a full-size pack for camping so that leaves a day-pack. Some of them are very small - just large enough for a jacket in case of rain or if it gets cool, a set of keys, some cash (for the cab ride ther and probably back as well), a map (for the trails that I doubt she memorized prior to leaving), energy bars, etc. If she was going someplace that she was unfamiliar with and planned to make an afternoon of it that makes sense.
The description that I heard from the police interviews with the media described the body as being on the ground - not buried in it. From what was said it seems as though it was picked over by animals and was covered with debris. In dense woods it doesn't take long for a lot of debris to accumulate. Also, since the body was on a hill erosion would explain what dirt was covering some of the skeletal remains.
If the predator that they are looking at is responsible for Chandra's death then the two other women were extremely lucky - if they hadn't gotten away they might not be here today either. The other young women that was murdered in that area in 1999(?) could have been killed by the same person. Additionally, there could have been other woman that got away from this guy but never reported it for one reason or another. And there could have been woman that were assaulted and let go but did not go to the authorities (this is not unheard of). If that is the case and he was responsible for Chandra's murder, maybe she put up a huge struggle once he got her to a secluded spot and ended up killing her when his original intent was to let her go after he had raped her. Also, the idea that this guy would never try to attack another woman in the same area where he (based on current speculation) murdered one of his victims (Chandra) does not, in my mind, seem out of the question. Anyone that could commit these types of crimes is not right in the head to begin with so why should I suppose that they would act rationally?
All of that said, the DC police are completely incompetent and Ramsey probably enjoyed all of the publicity surrounding Condit. It took most of the media attention away from their incompetence and put it on Condit.
The fact that they were unable to locate the body when they first looked does not surprise me at all. They couldn't find a Chin in a Chinese phone book. According to an article in the Washington Times last year 60 percent of murders go unsolved in DC (I could be off on that figure but I do recall it was very high and that number sticks in my mind). I also have a scanner and occasionally listen to the DC police channels. The amount of criminal activity is mind bogling.
At first I was a little puzzled at how someone who worked (interned) with the Bureau of Prisons would be naive enough to go jogging alone in Rock Creek Park. One would think that they would become aware that there are people out there that are not very nice. Then again, just look at her relationship with Condit.
I am not saying that this is definitely the guy, but nothing that I have seen or heard is inconsistent with that theory. I don't have all the facts and neither does anyone else (at this point neither do the police). Of course there is always the possibility that Condit did have something to do with it. I still think he is a complete scumbag and deserves everything that has gone his way as a result of her disappearance and now murder.