Cold case
After seven years and a storm of media attention — including an investigative serial by the Washington Post this summer — the final chapter in the murder case of Washington intern Chandra Levy still has yet to be written.
A group of southern colleges, led by the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute at Bauder College in Atlanta, have been working together since January to find new evidence and suspects. Their final report is due in December.
“There are three things we have found that have not been done,” by previous investigations, said the institute’s director, Sheryl McCollum. “And if they were,” she claims, D.C. police “would have new evidence and possible suspects.”
McCollum, who is also leading research simultaneously to solve the case of Natalee Holloway the college student who disappeared in Aruba in 2005, said the first would involve help “from one or both parents,” although she declined to elaborate. The final two discoveries are based on new technologies that were not available when the case started. “There are new forensics testing that was not available then that is [available] now and we think it’ll be a lead,” she told Yeas & Nays. “Technology has caught up with the case.”
And far from this summer’s series in the Post stealing their thunder, McCollum said it acted as a “validation” of their work.
She said the team will deliver their results to D.C. Police Chief Cathy Lanier. The police department is aware of the research project, said a spokeswoman, but has “no idea” whether or not they will consider its findings until they receive their report.
