Ingmar Guandique

Although I am far from totally convinced, to say the least, the Washington Post seems confidant that the man in the above photo is the long sought after murderer of Washington intern Chandra Levy, who went missing sometime apparently in the early morning hours of May 1st, 2001, her decomposed remains (basically by the time they were found a group of bones) discovered in the vicinity of the Klegle Mansion in Rock Creek Park more than a year later. Her disappearance was all the talk on the cable news channels for months, up until the time it, and virtually everything else, was overshadowed by the events of 9/11. The controversy served to end the Congressional career of Democratic House member Gary Condit, the blue dog Democrat from her district in California with whom Levy had been carrying on an affair for some time.

The news media, and for that matter, it seemed, the DC Police, focused on Condit to the exclusion of practically any other potential leads or suspects. To this day, in a section detailing the timeline of the main events relating to the mystery, Chandra Levy's own home newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, seems overly obsessed with the Condit connection.

Yet, Ingmar Guandique assaulted two different women in Rick Creek Park right around the time of Levy's disappearance, for which he is now serving time in prison. Upon his release, under normal circumstances he would be facing deportation, being that he is an illegal immigrant from El Salvadore. Below is his home. Charming as it might seem, it is actually a small house with no running water or electricity, in an area where work is scarce.




As a young child, he lived through a period of revolution in his country, a period of violent upheaval during which his father was kidnapped and murdered, his body found some days later.

Guandique made his way to America by way of the Mexican border through the aid of a coyote-a person who for a fee smuggles undocumented immigrants into the US. Many who know him claim he has a violent nature, including his former girlfriend and her mother with whom he lived for a brief period, and who ordered him out of the premises. He himself claims that he will tell himself to attack if he sees a person with something valuable in a secluded spot, but that he always feels bad afterward. Yet, he has consistently denied having anything to do with Levy's death or disappearance.

A former cellmate claims Guandique admitted to killing Levy, but on the other hand, yet another claims he told him that Gary Condit himself paid him twenty-five thousand dollars to murder Levy, having approached him on the street in his car out of the blue with the proposition. The police decided there was nothing to the story.

Now, in the aftermath of the Post series, the police have taken a second look at Guandique, and decided that he is their man after all, even though former assistant DC Chief Gaynor is satisfied Guandique was not involved-this based not just on his opinion, but on the opinions of the seasoned detectives under him who had questioned and investigated the hapless and obviously troubled immigrant.

My question is, why now? How can they be so sure? What do they have in the way of evidence they did not have before, and how could they have acquired it?

There is something funny about this investigation. For one thing, the Post articles assert that the police, in searching Levy's computer, made a mistake in assuming she had been searching for Klingle Mansion in Rock Creek Park. According to them, she was merely searching the general area of Rock Creek Park, evidently looking for various different places good for a walk or a jog. Klingle Mansion was just listed at the top of the page on which she searched, as it is the headquarters of the Park.

The only trouble with that explanation is, at that particular time, Klingle Mansion was not the headquarters or offices of Rock Creek Park. Klingle Mansion, at the time Levy disappeared, was nothing but a storage building. Why would a storage building be listed at the top of the page for a Park as the headquarters of its administrative offices-unless of course it was then also used as a park rangers outpost? This would seem not only plausible, but likely.

This brings me to my main point. I never considered Gary Condit to be involved with Levy's disappearance, and was mystified by the narrow focus of attention on the Congressman. There were always so many questions. I wasn't bothered that those questions were never answered, so much as I was bothered that they were never asked.

Chandra Levy was a young woman of twenty-four who in addition to carrying on an illicit affair with a Congressman who was a married father of two children roughly her own age, was also an intern for the Justice Department, specifically for the Bureau of Prisons.

Her goal was to seek a career in law-enforcement or in some other aspect of public life, but somewhere alone the way her goals were derailed. For whatever reasons, her internship ended, and earlier reports hinted that she was not happy about it. The question becomes then, who did she know at the Bureau of Prisons? Is it possible she might have threatened somebody with the power of her Congressman boyfriend? Why was her internship ended so abruptly, according to most reports well before it was due to end?

She was already supposed to be on her way home sometime soon with "big news". Why then did she take the time to go to Rock Creek Park, and who did she intend to meet there, if anyone? Did she have something on somebody that she unwisely attempted to use as leverage in a vain attempt to keep her position, maybe even possibly gain a promotion in the process?

I realize that there are many people who go way off the rails in their attempts to solve mysteries, and I don't want to come off that way. I have read everything imaginable about this case. I have seen examples where it was blamed on some wild, nonsensical conspiracy involving the Unification Church. Recently, I came across this Geo-Cities website. Here, Chandra Levy has morphed from a lowly intern to a modern day Mata Hari, with seemingly unlimited access to all levels of classified information. and in this capacity came across information about the future 9/11 attacks and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy MacVeigh's connections to government agents and Islamic terrorists, among other things. Naturally, since Gary Condit was a ranking member of the House Intelligence Sub-Committee, she used her feminine wiles to get him to tell her all the secrets that he had privy to.

Oh yeah, and lest I forget-Chandra Levy was an undercover operative for a rogue branch of the Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Yeah, I know it all sounds ridiculous, because it is, but conspiracy theories are only unhinged when they lose all sense of perspective and veer into the realms of the absurd. That doesn't prove the absence of a conspiracy, it only proves the need for common sense and rational perspective.

There was nothing earth-shattering at work here, just, quite possibly, the case of a woman who went too far to get what she wanted and crossed the wrong person.

Of course, it might even be more simple than this. It could very well be that a young illegal immigrant from El Salvadore happened across the unwary Levy and assaulted and killed her, possibly raping her in the process. It could actually be that her body went undiscovered for so long due to a simple fluke in procedure, as the police claim. They were told to check within a certain distance off the paths, yet somehow this was interpreted as meaning to search so far off the actual roads. It could well be that the glaring public spotlight on Gary Condit, fueled by media speculation and sensationalism-and the desire of prosecutors to make a name for themselves by bringing a corrupt politician to justice-caused them to overlook the possible complicity of the young Guandique.

Chandra Levy's parents seem satisfied at the prospects that the case might finally be solved, which is understandable, and have stated their desires that Chandra's killer not be executed, but spend the rest of his life in prison, with no comfort or amenities. To me, that would be far more against the spirit of Freedom from Cruel and Unusual Punishment than putting a murderer to death, which is my favored option, providing the proof of guilt is more substantial than "beyond a reasonable doubt". It should in fact be applied only in those cases where there is certainty of guilt beyond all doubt.

As far as I can see, as of now this case doesn't reach either threshold. I could be mistaken, and I certainly won't go out on a limb and say that, as the case unfolds, I won't be convinced of Guandique's guilt. I really wouldn't be surprised at his guilt under ordinary circumstances, given the apparent nature of this young man, who even from his prison cell sent sexually suggestive notes and pictures to a woman, an insurance agent whom he had only seen in an advertisement. He is obviously troubled and violent. He was in the vicinity at the time in question. He would at first glance seem to be the perfect suspect.

But, why now, after all this time?