District prosecutors have dropped charges against the man who had been accused in the murder of Chandra Levy, saying in light of new information it has concluded it can “no longer prove the murder case.”
Prosecutors did not detail what that information is, saying only that it was received in the past week. The suspect, Ingmar Guandique, was set to go to trial in October.
Levy was a 24-year-old intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons when she disappeared May 1, 2001. The case gained national attention because police investigators at first looked closely at former California congressman Gary A. Condit, with whom Levy had an affair. Authorities later ruled him out as a suspect.
Levy’s remains were found in 2002 in Rock Creek Park. Guandique, who had pleaded guilty to attacking other women in the park, was charged. He was found guilty of Levy’s murder following a 2010 trial, but his conviction was overturned last year and he is set to be tried again in October.
The D.C. Public Defender’s Officer said in a statement that Guandique has “maintained since the beginning, when he passed an FBI administered lie detector test, that he did not kill Ms. Levy.”
“This dismissal vindicates Mr. Guandique. Finally, the government has to concede the flaws in its ill-gotten conviction,” the statement read.
So where does this leave the Levy family, who moved heaven and earth to locate their daughter’s killer? Will Gary Condit be considered again? Will he be considered a person of interest? Will Guandique be deported? What about the charges from the other women? There is much that has not been explained.
I have always been a little suspicious of Gary Condit.
We need to watch this story. So much is going on now with both political conventions and the Olympics beginning. I hope it does not become buried. This story is too important.
