In the months following the 2001 disappearance of Chandra Levy, her face was everywhere, from tabloid covers to cable-news reports.

The Curious Case of Chandra Levy

Twenty-five years ago, her disappearance dominated the news—until 9/11 diverted the nation’s attention. Few tuned in for the twists and turns that followed

By Joseph Rodota

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY CHOP CHOPPISH SHOP

The name Chandra Levy is now mostly forgotten, or prompts questions which begin: “Wasn’t she … ?” But in the summer of 2001, she was the most famous missing person in America.

Levy arrived in Washington, D.C., the previous September and began a six-month internship with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. She was 23, from the midsize city of Modesto, in California’s Central Valley. Bright and ambitious, she breezed through San Francisco State University in three years and was in her final semester of the master’s program in public administration at the University of Southern California.