Chandra's Parents Speak Out
Since the disappearance of their daughter Chandra nearly four months ago, Susan and Bob Levy have shared their very personal and painful nightmare with the public. The couple sat down with CBS News Early Show co-anchor Jane Clayson at their home in Modesto, California, and talked about the emotional toll it has taken on them.
Jane Clayson: I know some days it's difficult to even get out of bed, but how are you holding up?
Bob Levy: We just have to keep going day by day, and keep the investigation going and trying to find our daughter. We have to keep living also for each other also and our son and other relatives and friends
Susan Levy: And for ourselves.
Jane Clayson: Do you think about how long it could possibly go on?
Susan Levy: I try to be a Zen and just think in the moment. I don't think that far in the future so it's hard.
Bob Levy: We want Chandra. We want to know she's alive. That's really what we want to know. We don't want to know the other - know that she's not alive. It may be true; it may come to that. But we, you know —
Susan Levy: We don't even want to go think in that direction.
Bob Levy: We don't even want to think about that. We don't want to give up hope, just don't want to give up hope.
Jane Clayson: Do you now run through the scenarios, through possibilities, what could have happened? Do you piece it together in your mind?
Susan Levy: We try to. We don't know if we have the answers.
Jane Clayson: And what's the scenario that you have in your mind?
Susan Levy: Well, we'd like to know whoever has last seen Chandra and who has had communication with her to come forward and tell us what she was doing and where she might be and that stands out in my mind.
Jane Clayson: You believe that person is Gary Condit?
Bob Levy: Well, we know she was involved with him and he had seen her and talked to her.
Jane Clayson: Do you believe that person is Gary Condit?
Susan Levy: I think - yes, yes.
Bob Levy: Yes.
Susan Levy: I don't know what the truth is. But I'm concerned. And I know somebody knows the truth, somebody out there has to look themselves in the mirror and face themselves some year and tell the truth.
Jane Clayson: Tell me about your conversations with Chandra when she was home during breaks. In hindsight looking back do you wish you asked more questions, that you were more inquisitive, that you made her tell you what was going on?
Bob Levy: No matter how much we grilled her she wouldn't tell. Part of it was her, and part - she was told that if anyone found out about it - it would end. I don't know what would happen.
Jane Clayson: If she had told you what was going on, the relationship with him, and everything that was going on, the secrecy, all of it, what wold have been your advice to her?
Bob Levy: I'd tell her to stop. Called him up and talked with him about it.
Jane Clayson: Police say this is pretty much a cold case. You know that, and I know it's so hard for you to hear that. Would you rather know something, even if it's bad news, than go on never knowing?
Bob Levy: I think we would.
Susan Levy: It's hard, it's hard.
Bob Levy: Now we have hope, I don't know if we can continue that forever.
Jane Clayson: What does your intuition tell you has happened to her?
Susan Levy: I don't have any answers. My intuition is that some people need to come forward and tell us.
Bob Levy: I don't have a real feeling. I don't know. We have this hope and want to believe she's alive. We have all this evidence that says, you know, something terrible has happened to her. And she's met evil.
Susan Levy: Yeah.
Bob Levy: It's hard to believe. We just have to hope that she's alive. We don't have the same joy we had before looking forward to things, to seeing her and talking with her.
Susan Levy: It's very, very difficult. It's a feeling of emptiness. And you want answers.
Last week Susan Levy started a support group for mothers of missing children, along with another mother from Modesto whose adult daughter has been missing for two years.
© MMI, CBS Worldwide Inc. All Rights Reserved