Chandra Levy

On May 1, 2001, 24-year-old Chandra Ann Levy, an intern at the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Washington, D.C., disappeared from her apartment in the Dupont Circle neighborhood. Her disappearance was reported by her parents on May 6 when they could not reach her. The case became a media sensation when it was revealed that Levy had been having an affair with U.S. Representative Gary Condit (D-CA), who initially denied the relationship.

The investigation into Levy's disappearance dominated the news throughout the summer of 2001, overshadowed only by the September 11 attacks. Her remains were discovered on May 22, 2002, by a man walking his dog in a remote section of Rock Creek Park in northwest Washington. The remains were skeletal, and the medical examiner could not determine a definitive cause of death, though homicide was suspected.

In 2009, Ingmar Guandique, an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador who had been convicted of assaulting two other women in Rock Creek Park around the same time as Levy's disappearance, was charged with her murder. He was convicted in 2010 based largely on the testimony of a jailhouse informant. However, the informant later recanted, and in 2015, prosecutors agreed to a new trial. In 2016, the charges were dropped entirely, with prosecutors acknowledging they could no longer prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

With Guandique's charges dropped, Chandra Levy's murder is once again officially unsolved. Gary Condit, while never a formal suspect, saw his political career destroyed by the scandal. He lost his 2002 primary election and has maintained he had nothing to do with Levy's disappearance. The case remains one of Washington, D.C.'s most prominent unsolved homicides.