America was just emerging from the Monica Lewinsky-Bill Clinton scandal when the Chandra Levy affair broke out in 2001. A young woman of 24, an intern in the federal administration, who had an affair with a parliamentarianDemocrat Gary Condit, possible presidential candidate.
A new sexual scandal except that in this case, the young mistress has suddenly disappeared. She began to gossip about her hidden affair, a relationship that was rumored to seem like an open secret.
A year and a half later, Chandra Levy’s body was found in a huge park north of Washington. A discovery that revives speculation, sets imaginations abuzz, but the investigation will hesitate and get lost and the arrest of a sex maniac will not help solve the mystery.
Gary Condit gets all the media attention
In the weeks following the disappearance, Gary Condit’s personality received all the media attention. “We talk a lot about him because he is very well known and as journalists’ investigations progress, we will realize that almost his whole life is a lie“, specifies Hélène Coutard, journalist and guest of The time of the crime.
However, Gary Condit is in no way considered a suspect by the police. “They don’t have not enough evidence to really accuse Gary Condit something legal and concrete. (…) He is monitored, he is harassed by the press, but he is still reluctant and he is not overly pushed around by the police either,” explains Hélène Coutard.
Seven years after the murder of Chandra Levy, a new suspect appears: Ingmar Guandique, who is serving a ten-year prison sentence at the Adelanto Federal Prison. He is described as a depressive, alcoholic and drug addict, as a man who followed women around Rock Creek Park to rob them and attempt to rape them. In 2010, he is found guilty.
However, six years later, the charges against the convict are dropped. Chandra Levy’s parents remain unanswered about their daughter’s death. “They gave up the idea that justice would one day give them an answer,” confides Hélène Coutard.
The guest of the show
– Hélène Coutard, journalist and author of the book The disappearance of Chandra Levy published by Editions 10/18, Society collection.
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