Condit Turns Over DNA to Police

ByABC News
July 13, 2001, 2:31 AM

W A S H I N G T O N, July 13 -- ABCNEWS has learned Rep. Gary Condit has turned over a DNA sample to the Washington police.

The sample could be useful because it would help to eliminate other DNA samples police may have found in Chandra Levy's apartment.

Meanwhile, police say they have expanded their search for Chandra Levy, looking in abandoned buildings around the city and today beginning preparations to scour landfills where trash from Levy's apartment building is dumped.

Cmdr. Mark Beach said 80 buildings will be searched "at least through the weekend," and said it was "just a natural part of the broader investigative search" for the 24-year-old former intern.

"We are assuming that these dwellings are open, a number of people may have access to them and we would be remiss if we didn't take a look at them," he said, adding that some of the buildings had already been searched.

When asked whether the decision to go through the abandoned buildings, many of them empty apartment complexes, meant that police expected to find a body, Beach said police were looking for "a body or anything at all."

Trying Out Other Looks

Investigators scoured some buildings on Thursday, accompanied by cadaver dogs looking for remains. In addition, a team of nine police officers who did not have cadaver dogs walked through a park near Condit's apartment.

Investigators are also testing several items removed from Rep. Gary Condit's apartment during a three-hour search carried out Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. After weeks of failing to disclose the true nature of their relationship, the 53-year-old married congressman last week admitted to police that he had had an affair with Levy.

In an interview with ABCNEWS, Assistant Police Chief Terrance Gainer said investigators have not ruled out the possibility that Levy is still alive and may have wandered off or purposely disappeared. Gainer said his office hopes to release new composite photos of Levy to the public, just in case the former intern has changed her appearance.

"Our hopeful theory [is] that maybe she's off on her own and we're still exploring that," Gainer said. "And in fact one of the things that we're doing now is doing a re-composite of her photo so that we can show her hair shorter, in a different style, in a different color because maybe she is hiding out from people."