Levy police question park attacker

The remains were found in a wooded area

Police investigating the death of missing intern Chandra Levy say they have interviewed a man jailed for attacks on two female joggers in the park where her remains were found.

The man, Ingmar Guandeque, is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for the two knife-point attacks.

A US Park Police spokesman, Scott Fear, said the women were assaulted in Washington DC's Rock Creek Park in May and July last year.

Chandra Levy often jogged through the park

One attack took place just two weeks after 24-year-old Ms Levy disappeared, close to the place where her body was found.

Police have also said they may again interview California Congressman Gary Condit, who was questioned after her disappearance.

Mr Condit has said that he and Ms Levy were friends but has denied an affair and insists he knew nothing of what happened to her.

Police have said he is not a suspect.

Forensic experts are continuing to search the area where the remains were found.

Washington's deputy police chief, Terrance W Gainer, would not say whether evidence of foul play had been found but said it was reasonable to assume Ms Levy had been killed, based on all the evidence.

The skeletal remains were found on Wednesday by a man walking his dog in a densely wooded area of the park. Investigators also found a jogging bra, tennis shoes and a sweatshirt.

Dental records identified the remains as those of Ms Levy.

Her apartment was about four miles (6.5 kilometres) from the park and she often exercised there.

Washington DC police chief Charles Ramsey, said Mr Condit might be among the people investigators wanted to talk to again.

"Perhaps we'll need to talk again. I don't know. Those decisions have not been made," he said.

Mr Condit issued a statement through his lawyer, Mark Geragos, expressing his family's "heartfelt sorrow and condolences" to the Levy family.

Mr Geragos said Ms Levy's death seemed to parallel the cases of two other missing girls in Washington and supported Mr Condit's belief that she had been the victim of a serial killer.

"It is certainly not a red-letter day for the (Washington) DC police," he said.

"If, as reported, she left with her tennis shoes and her keys and was going jogging, wouldn't you look on the jogging trails? How do you miss somebody? It's mind-boggling."

Mr Ramsey said large areas of the park had been searched but added that the remains were away from any path and had been well concealed.

Lie detector

Ms Levy had struck up a friendship with Mr Condit after she moved to Washington from Modesto to work as an intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Mr Condit's California constituency includes Modesto.

After her disappearance, police searched Mr Condit's apartment with his consent and obtained a DNA sample from him.

Mr Condit submitted to a lie detector test arranged by his lawyer, who said the congressman was found to be telling the truth when he denied any knowledge about what happened to Ms Levy.

But the publicity surrounding the case helped to lose him the primary election in March this year.

A grand jury reviewing the case is trying to determine whether Mr Condit or his aides obstructed the investigation into Ms Levy's disappearance.