Chandra Levy Case Gripped Capitol, Nation Eight Years Ago

The case gripped the nation's capital, and the nation, through the summer of 2001. A 24-year-old Bureau of Prisons intern named Chandra Levy's disappearance sparked a media frenzy that thrust the obscure Democratic California Rep. Gary Condit into the national spotlight amid speculation over whether he had a role in her disappearance.

Her story, at the time, was soon eclipsed by the terror attacks of Sept. 11. Now the woman's murder is grabbing national headlines again after news broke that police are poised to arrest California prison inmate Ingmar Guandique in one of the country's most prominent, but nearly forgotten, cold cases.

"There's not a day or night it's not on our minds," Susan Levy, the victim's mother, told the Associated Press on Saturday. "When it comes to holiday time and family get-togethers, there's a big void."

Condit expressed relief at the news that a suspect would be charged.

"For the Levy family, we are glad they are finally getting the answers they deserve," he told the ABC TV affiliate in Washington by phone Saturday. "For my family, I am glad that their years of standing together in the face of such adversity have finally led to the truth."

In 2001, Condit was a wanted man in Washington -- at least by the press.

Scores of reporters, camera operators and photographers spent months staking out Condit at every corner in Washington. The police probe into Levy's disappearance had unearthed an affair between her and Condit, a married congressman from her hometown who was nearly 30 years her senior.

Condit was utterly reticent about his affair with Levy and her whereabouts, which only fueled speculation from pundits and retired police investigators about his possible involvement, even though the police never named Condit as a suspect.

"It was the most intense media scrutiny I have ever seen," said John Feehery , who at the time handled communications for then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill. "It was like a pack of wolves. A fevered pitch."

Few journalists tracked Condit as vigorously as Jim Mills, a former Capitol Hill producer for FOX News, who now writes a column for The Hill newspaper.

"It became a slow-speed chase," Mills said. "We were doing what we had to do. Early mornings, late nights, crews at multiple locations, 24-7 team coverage. This was a legitimate, local crime story that cut right into the U.S. Capitol."

Mills said Condit could have handled the media coverage better.

"All of the video was of us chasing a lab rat around in a maze. And it made him look guilty," Mills said. "If he had stopped one time and said, 'It's a horrible situation and I hope we find her but I can't talk because it's an ongoing investigation,' I suspect he would have defanged it. But he basically turned himself into a murder suspect."

Congressional aides struggled to do their work as the saga unfolded.

"It was the O.J. Simpson case on Capitol Hill," said Ron Bonjean, who at the time was press secretary for Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott. "It was very tough to get a message out. It was this drama that consumed Capitol Hill."

But after the Sept. 11 attacks, Levy's disappearance drifted out of the headlines.

"It went from red hot to invisible," said Jonathan Grella, a former spokesman for then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas.

Her body was found in 2002 at a park in the Washington area. Condit lost his job after Dennis Cardoza, who previously served as Condit's chief of staff, defeated him in a 2002 primary.

Now, with police pursuing undisclosed charges against Guandique, the developments finally may bring closure to Levy's family, as well as Condit and his family.

"The Condit case is clear evidence that people are sometimes guilty until proven innocent in the court of public opinion," Jeffrey Scott Shapiro, a Washington-based investigative reporter and attorney, said Saturday in a column in FOXNews.com's FOX Forum about media coverage of Condit.Shapiro has investigated Levy's disappearance and defended Condit in several newspaper columns.

"If any good can come from the Condit case, perhaps it will serve as a reminder that people always deserve a presumption of innocence until there is actual evidence they have committee a crime," he said.

FOX News' Chad Pergram contributed to this report.