MODESTO, Calif., May 22 (UPI) -- The remains of one-time Washington intern Chandra Levy will be returned to her California hometown for burial in the coming days, some two years after she vanished from the nation's capital and ignited a scandal that disgraced a veteran congressman.
The Modesto Bee said Thursday the skeletal remains found about a year ago in Rock Creek Park would be brought back for a private burial in the San Joaquin Valley community within the next week.
"I think it's helpful, but I would not use the word 'closure,'" Levy's godfather, Charles Iseman, told the Bee.
It was not immediately known if Washington investigators would keep bone or tissue samples from the remains. Levy's Jewish faith requires the entire body to be buried promptly.
Officials at the District of Columbia Medical Examiner's office were not available Thursday to confirm the transfer.
Levy disappeared in May 2001 as she prepared to move back to Modesto following completion of a college internship at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. While in Washington, she had struck up an acquaintance with her local congressman, Rep. Gary Condit, D-Calif., that turned into a romantic affair.
The married 55-year-old Condit was never officially declared a suspect in the woman's disappearance, however he became the target of heated criticism from Levy's family and on news talk shows for his perceived failure to cooperate with investigators despite repeated interviews with Washington police.
The national headlines contributed to Condit's defeat in the March 2002 primary as he sought an eighth term in the office he had held since 1989. Condit has moved to Arizona since leaving Washington.
No one has been charged with the Levy killing.
