The Chandra Levy Case

Washington, D.C., 2001: A vanished intern. A congressman implicated. A botched investigation.

On May 1, 2001, Chandra Levy, a young intern working at the Federal Bureau of Prisons disappeared. At first, police were unconcerned about the alleged disappearance of an adult in the nation’s busy capital. But Chandra had been having an affair with Democratic Representative from California Gary Condit. As this element of the case became known, journalists rushed to cover the story and the American public became outraged. The police investigation was riddled with errors and mistakes, as if someone might be trying to cover up the truth.

The disappearance of Chandra Levy had everything to raise the interest of the public: the exposure of the intimate lives of public people and a rich, young, white victim. The investigation gave way to a number of outlandish theories. Was the government involved? Was there a cover-up? What would that mean for American politics?

Hélène Coutard went to Washington and explored police reports, searching for the truth among many incoherencies and the intricacies of the investigation. This unlikely case has yet to reveal all of its secrets.

50 States of Crime: France’s leading true crime journalists investigate America’s most notorious cases, one for every state in the Union, offering up fresh perspectives on famously storied crimes and reflecting, in the process, a dark national legacy that leads from coast to coast.

Extremely extensive, competent and interesting. . . . People who thought they knew the story may well learn that they only got a fraction of the narrative from the news.”
—Crimespree Magazine

Hélène Coutard has been an independent journalist for ten years. She writes about American literature and current events, tapping into the country’s neuroses. She also covers stories related to women’s rights, from around the world. Over the years, she has reported on the #MeToo movement, the Parkland shooting, Donald Trump’s election and re-election, and the war in Ukraine. Coutard is the author of the 2021 book Fugitives: partir ou mourir en Arabie saoudite (Fugitives: Leave or Die in Saudi Arabia), about a diaspora of young Saudi women who have fled to escape the country’s male guardianship system. Her forthcoming debut novel will be published by Éditions Grasset.

Translated by Laurie Bennett