Police say arrest imminent in Chandra Levy killing

Prison inmate believed to be prime suspect

Chandra Levy's parents, Susan and Robert Levy, outside their Modesto, Calif., home yesterday, answered media questions. (Al Golub/Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - Police believe they have finally solved the killing of government intern Chandra Levy, eight years after her disappearance transfixed Washington and much of the nation and ended the political career of a prominent California lawmaker, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the investigation.

The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department has submitted evidence to prosecutors that it believes proves that a Salvadoran immigrant already in prison for attacks against two other women killed Levy in a remote part of Rock Creek Park in northwest Washington in 2001, the official said.

The remains of the 24-year-old Levy were found a year after she vanished, and police and federal authorities have been investigating the case as a homicide ever since. Police in recent days submitted their evidence to the US attorney's office in Washington, which prosecutes most local crimes in the capital, seeking an arrest warrant for Ingmar Guandique, a longtime suspect in the case, said the law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Levy's parents, Robert and Susan Levy, said yesterday that two top Washington police officials called them Friday to say an arrest was imminent. The officials said they could not disclose the suspect's name but that they had evidence that could pinpoint who killed their daughter and result in a conviction.

One of the callers, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier, said she considered it "the highlight of her career" to be on the verge of closing the case, Susan Levy said in an interview yesterday at the couple's Modesto, Calif., home.

"I think they have some new evidence but I don't know what it is," Robert Levy said. "We think it is the same person" convicted in the similar assaults, he said in a reference to Guandique. The couple "thought that a few years ago," he said.

Susan Levy said the news was welcome, but that it will never bring back her only daughter. "I was excited at first because it's been seven, eight years and there's no answer. We want answers, we want judgment," Levy said. "But it's a bittersweet excitement . . . . Why did it even have to happen?"

Federal prosecutors will review the police department's request for a warrant and determine if there is enough evidence to proceed. They would then forward the prosecution package to a judge for a second-tier review and approval.

Guandique is serving a 10-year prison sentence for attacking two female joggers in the same park at around the same time. The Washington police department said that it would not discuss the case and a spokesman for the US attorney's office also declined to comment.

Levy's disappearance in May 2001 set off a dragnet by the police and FBI that prompted headlines worldwide because it initially ensnared US Representative Gary Condit, a married man who was reportedly having an affair with Levy, a former Bureau of Prisons intern.

When last seen, Levy, 24, was wearing jogging clothes, and her possessions were found in her apartment as if she was planning to return soon.

Soon, Condit was being followed by reporters in Washington and his home district in California's Central Valley. He was cleared as a suspect, but the publicity was cited as the main cause of Condit's reelection defeat in 2002.

In a statement released yesterday to television station WJLA in Washington, Condit said: "For the Levy family, we are glad they are finally getting the answers they deserve. For my family, I am glad that their years of standing together in the face of such adversity have finally led to the truth."