Prisoner accused of killing intern in '01

The killing of Chandra Levy is believed to have been random.

WASHINGTON - An arrest warrant was issued yesterday for an imprisoned Salvadoran immigrant in the killing of federal intern Chandra Levy, nearly eight years after the case captivated the country and ended the career of a congressman.

The warrant accuses Ingmar Guandique of killing Levy on May 1, 2001, as she jogged through Washington's Rock Creek Park. Guandique, 27, is already serving time in a federal prison in Adelanto, Calif. for attacking two women in the same park in the weeks following Levy's disappearance.

"We take solace in the fact that the search for the person responsible has ended and our daughter can finally truly rest in peace," Levy's parents, Bob and Susan Levy, said in a statement.

The break was a long-awaited development in an investigation that had gone cold for years after destroying the career of former US representative Gary Condit of California. Authorities questioned Condit, Levy's congressman, in the disappearance, but he was never a suspect. Conditwas reportedly having an affair with Levy.

Levy was 24 and had just completed an internship with the US Bureau of Prisons when she disappeared after leaving her Washington, D.C., apartment.

The warrant suggests that the killing was a random act of violence.

Witnesses claimed Guandique had bragged to them about killing Levy. A magazine photograph of her was found in his cell.