Convict Found Guilty of Murder in Chandra Levy Case

There has finally been a conviction in the May 2001 death of Washington, DC intern Chandra Levy, after years where it looked like a cold case. Jurors reached a guilty verdict yesterday against Ingmar Guandique. The 29-year-old Guandique, had been serving time for other attacks on women in Rock Creek Park—where Levy’s body was discovered—when he reportedly confessed to Levy’s murder during a conversation with a cellmate, the Washington Post reports. But Guandique supposedly told police he saw Levy in the park, but did not harm her, and no DNA or witnesses back up the accusation that he murdered Levy.

Levy, 24, of Modesto,CA had just finished working as an intern for the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in May 2001 when she disappeared from her apartment. A media frenzy erupted, centering on her affair with then-Congressman Gary Condit. He denied any involvement in or knowledge of Levy disappearance or death; however, he acknowledged to investigators that they had an intimate relationship. Condit was later cleared and eventually El Salvadorian immigrant Ingmar Gundique was arrested in the attack. Guandique, a gang member who entered the U.S. in 2000, is serving a 10-year sentence for assaulting two female joggers in Rock Creek Park, during the same time period that Levy was murdered, and at the same park where Levy’s remains were found one year from the time she disappeared. Guandique could face life in prison without parole, and will be sentenced in February on two counts of first-degree felony murder (one for the kidnapping and one for attempted robbery), the Post reports.