THURSDAY, May 23, 2002 — In a deeply wooded patch of Washington DC’s Rock Creek Park yesterday, a nature enthusiast and his dog discovered the remains of former Washington intern Chandra Levy. Scrutiny remains focused on out-going California congressman Gary Condit — as it should — but the press seems to be missing another important angle: the possibility that there may be a serial killer on the loose in Washington. With the exception of the heroic and laudable John Walsh, the host of Fox Network’s " America Most Wanted, " most in the media seem to want to avoid what seems to be an important angle in the Levy case.

In addition to Levy, the bodies of two other young professional women — one, an intern — have been found in wooded areas in the nation's capital. On August 2, 1998, the body of 28-year-old Christine Mirzayan, a National Academy of Sciences intern, was discovered in a green patch of Georgetown. In early April 1999, the body of Joyce Chiang turned up in the Potomac River. Chiang, also 28, was a lawyer at the Immigration & Naturalization Service. A prescient Washington City Paper story, published July 30, 1999, outlined the similarities between these two murder cases — even before Levy vanished. The disappearances of all three women took place relatively nearby one another in the Northwest section of Washington, DC.

Up to this point, the investigation has focused on Condit, a famous liar who lost his seat in Congress due to his admitted "friendship" with Levy. Certainly, he seems to know more than he is letting on. But pressuring Condit should not preclude pursuing other angles in the case. The most logical, given the similarities between the above cases, is one involving a serial killer. Here’s one other: Her purported paramour, Condit, was a member of the House Intelligence Committee. Now that we know that Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda was in the midst of planning the biggest terrorist act of all time against the United States, it makes sense to ask whether this gang of thugs might not have had its own reasons to keep its eyes on Condit. It’s not out of the question that there could be an Al Qaeda link to Levy’s killings. And if that’s possible, why can’t we reexamine the Mirzayan and Chiang killings in the same light. Mirzayan’s origins, after all, were Middle Eastern. She was born in Iran and spoke Farsi. Chiang, in turn, worked at the INS. It’s not out of the question that she could have stumbled onto an Al Qaeda–related matter in the course of her work there. I don’t know, but I don’t think anybody’s even looked into this pattern.

Now that Levy’s body has been found, it’s incumbent on law enforcement authorities to pursue all leads in connection with her death. It certainly looks like a murder case. And it could be even more than that.