Chandra Levy was murdered soon after her disappearance last year, but forensic tests on her remains could not determine exactly how the former federal intern died, the District of Columbia’s chief medical examiner ruled Tuesday.
Despite reports indicating that Levy’s skull was cracked and that she might have been restrained by her own knotted clothes, chief medical examiner Jonathan Arden said he could not “conclusively ascertain the specific injury that caused her death.”
Arden said he based his conclusion of homicide on the “circumstances of her disappearance and discovery” and on personal effects found near the remains of the 24-year-old.
The items reportedly included a sweat shirt, leggings, a sports bra, one running shoe and a portable stereo and headphones. Deputy Police Chief Terrance Gainer said Levy’s keys have not been found.
Three thousand miles away, 1,200 mourners joined Levy’s family for a memorial service Tuesday in her hometown of Modesto, Calif., recalling her as a bubbly, compassionate young woman eager to explore the world.
The 90-minute ceremony in the city convention center included speeches from Levy’s grandmother, great-aunt, brother and friends.
There were no remarks from her parents, Robert and Susan Levy, who learned a few hours earlier that Washington authorities had ruled the former intern’s death a homicide.
A string quartet from the Modesto symphony orchestra played in the hallway as mourners streamed in, and volunteers handed out chocolate peanut butter cups–Levy’s favorite candy.
The stage included flowers and three photographs of Levy, including two baby pictures.
After a week spent analyzing Levy’s remains, Arden said he was unable to provide a precise date of her murder. But he said it was “consistent with the time frame in which she disappeared” from her Dupont Circle apartment some time after May 1, 2001.
Arden said he also was unable to determine whether Levy had been assaulted before her death.
The paucity of medical conclusions is a clear sign of the difficulties facing police as they attempt to detail Levy’s last hours and to track her killer.
The decomposed remains are the most immediate obstacle. Twelve months of erosion and exposure limited the usefulness of the nearly complete skeleton found last week on a remote slope in this city’s sprawling Rock Creek Park.
The absence of any remaining soft tissue, sources said, prevented forensic experts and detectives from narrowing in on the exact cause of death, a category Arden described Tuesday as “inconclusive.”
If Levy was strangled, for instance, there is nothing that forensic specialists could use to clearly establish that manner of death. And while Arden and other examiners looked for evidence that Levy may have died from deliberate “blunt force trauma,” a crack in the cranium found last week did not provide a clear answer.
“The fact is the body was deteriorated and there’s nothing you can do,” said one former Washington police official. “They’ve lost opportunities. Tying someone to that scene is going to be tough.”
Without telltale evidence and with no immediate suspects, the team of detectives working the Levy case has limited options, according to several former and current Washington police investigators and officials.
In the coming weeks, detectives likely will turn to more laboratory work and basic police procedures.
Police Chief Charles Ramsey said Tuesday that Levy’s recovered clothes and other belongings will be sent to the FBI’s crime laboratory in Quantico, Va., “to see if it has any evidentiary value.”
DNA tests on the items are likely, Ramsey said, and detectives are expected to canvass residents near the area.
