|
The murder of a DC intern echoes two other murders.  Joyce had worked on Capitol Hill  Joyce’s credit card was found by the road CASE DETAILS The disappearance of Capitol Hill intern Chandra Levy caught the attention of the entire country in the summer of 2001. As pictures and home videos of the young brunette flooded the airwaves, the sense of tragedy only deepened. Thirteen months after Chandra vanished, police were called to a remote section of Rock Creek Park, four miles from her apartment. A hiker’s dog had uncovered a human skull halfway down a wooded incline, far away from well-used paths. Dental records confirmed that the search for Chandra Levy was over. Her death was ruled a homicide, but what exactly happened to Chandra remains a mystery.  Her body was found on the shore Few people know that another Washington intern, Joyce Chiang, mysteriously disappeared two years before Chandra. Although there was no national media coverage, the similarities between the two cases are disturbing. The two women lived in the same neighborhood and had worked for the same government agency. They were young, brunette, and petite. Could there be a connection between the murders of Joyce and Chandra? For Investigative Reporter Timothy Maier, the similarities were alarming:
Joyce was the only daughter in a close-knit Taiwanese-American family. While in college, she served as an intern for Representative Howard Berman of California. Gene Smith was the Chief of Staff for Representative Berman at the time of Joyce’s disappearance:
 Who wrote this mysterious message? After her internship, Joyce took a job as a lawyer at the INS. She lived with her brother, Roger, in the Dupont circle area of Washington, D.C. Chandra Levy would later move to the same neighborhood. A favorite hangout for both was the nearby Starbucks. It was there that on the night of January 9, 1999, Joyce Chiang was last seen. According to her brother Roger, earlier in the evening Joyce met up with several friends for a movie and dinner:
Joyce told her friend she would walk the four blocks home from the coffee shop but she never made it to her apartment. When she failed to return home, Roger called the police. Because Joyce was a federal employee, the FBI became involved. At first, the investigation turned up nothing.  Joyce was last seen at a coffee shop Then, spurred by local media coverage, a couple came forward with the first clue in the case. The couple was walking through Anacostia Park and had found a billfold with Joyce’s government credit card. They turned the card in to park police. But the credit card remained in the lost and found for four days until the couple saw Joyce’s picture in a news broadcast. They then contacted the FBI. Fearing valuable time had been lost, a 57 member search-and-rescue team scoured the area where the card was found. Other personal items belonging to Joyce soon turned up on the banks of the Anacostia River, including her apartment keys, video rental card and the jacket she was last seen wearing. Police also searched the river, but found nothing. Then, three months later, a canoeist was paddling more than eight miles downstream from where Joyce’s personal items were discovered. The spring rains had forced a body to the shore. After three months under water, DNA tests were needed to identify the body. It was Joyce Chiang. Roger Chiang was the first to receive the news:
 Chandra Levy The condition of her body made it impossible to determine how Joyce died. As a result, the cause of death was listed as undetermined. Without evidence of foul play, investigators felt there was nothing more to be done. Despite being unresolved, the case was closed. Then, two years later in May of 2001, Chandra Levy’s disappearance drew renewed media interest to Joyce. To many, similarities between the two were chilling. But the police suggested publicly that Joyce might have committed suicide. Joyce’s friend Amy was immediately critical:
But if Joyce did commit suicide, why was her jacket ripped? Why were her belongings left on the bank of the Anacostia River? And how did she get to the riverbank, almost five miles from where she was last seen? According to Gene Smith, Joyce never owned a vehicle:
Then, another mysterious clue surfaced. Just three days after Joyce was last seen at the coffee shop, a bizarre statement appeared on a nearby wall. It read, “Good day, J.C. may I never miss the thrill of being near you.” Roger Chiang believed this cryptic message was yet another foreboding clue that his sister was murdered:
If a serial killer is responsible for these murders, there are those who believe that he has taken not two, but three lives. Five months before Joyce’s disappearance, 28-year-old Christine Mirzayan was raped and murdered while walking home from a barbecue. According to Roger Chiang, Christine fit the same description as Joyce and Chandra, and had also been an intern:
To date, the deaths of Joyce Chiang, Chandra Levy, and Christine Mirzayan remain a mystery. UPDATE: Nearly seven years after the remains of Chandra Levy were found, police charged Ingmar Guandique with her murder. Guandique was sentenced to 60 years for Chandra’s murder. In 2016, there were new developments that caused the case against Guandique to be dropped. In the case of Joyce Chiang, the case was closed because police have identified her killers as two D.C. area males who abducted Joyce and took her to the Anacostia River where they intended to rob her. Police believe that Joyce attempted to run from her captors but slipped on the ice, fell into the river and drowned. One of the two men is currently in federal prison serving a life sentence. The other is believed to be in Guyana, which has no extradition treaty with the United States. In November of 2019, Giles Daniel Warrick was arrested in connection with the murder of Christine Mirzayan and the assault of several other women. We will bring you more information as this story develops. Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season eleven with Robert Stack and in season two with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina. Various seasons available now on Hulu. |
Fay
Joyce and Chandra’s are connected. Both disappeared mysteriously only to have their remains suddenly appear? Any surveillance videos of their last movements are recorded over or not working? Last computer searches are accidentally corrupted? Ridiculous.
Fay
Something or someone is connected to both Chandra levy and Joyce Chiang. Both women disappeared without a trace only to mysteriously re-emerge months later a heap of bones? Surveillance cameras in both Joyce and Chandra recorded over their last movements alive? Bullshit.
Bethany
What evidence do they have to connect these men to Joyce’s murder? I just don’t buy it. It’s too convenient and requires no further work from the police as both men are untouchable. First, they say there’s no foul play when all her stuff, including her government credit card, were scattered all over the park. Then, her jacket is discovered with a large rip in the back. Lastly, there’s the message with her initials, which sounds like they never took very seriously. All these things add up to foul play and definitely not a random robbery (or why not take her keys, her wallet, surely her credit card?!) Because she was a first generation Asian woman, and not a white woman, they dismissed it as suicide of all things. Now they’re saying she either slipped or was thrown over and drowned, when her body was too decomposed to even know how she died? They treat a missing white woman like Chandra (with literally no signs of foul play in her apt or anywhere else) as a huge case of murder before they even have a body, but Joyce was treated like there was no foul play?! Obviously, Chandra’s affair made it more mentionable, but let’s be honest, her looks had everything to do with it. They didn’t even draw that much attention to Christine’s murder, who was foreign (she came here from Canada), and didn’t look typically “pretty” by the media’s standards. In fact, if you google her, you can’t find much, if anything, about her life. I really pray the real killer of Joyce is found someday.
christopher wentworth
potomac river rapist could have been responsible for chandra levy and the other two from same neighborhood,
apparently charged and apprehended recently. Just a guess but, seems likely rock creek park is part of
potomac trails and tributary.
Unknown
Do u have a name for the one suspect supposedly in Guyana and pic. Guyana is very small . He would be easy to find .
Sherry
Commander Barrett was such an idiot saying she committed suicide. Either corrupt or incompetent.
Jordan
For the Christine Mirzayan case, her murder was later linked to the Potomac River Rapist, who attacked multiple women during the 90’s. However, the rapist himself remains unidentified.
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/seeking-potomac-river-rapist/potomac-river-rapist-cold-case
Anonymous
No random killer, someone hated her. Jilted boyfriend or something. I wish they catch the real killer.
Anonymous
I am from Guyana, my mother still lives there but is there more information about this possible suspect? who knows.. everyone in Guyana knows everyone…
FAy
So sad and creepy. I feel so bad for Joyce Chiang. She was obviously being stalked by the person who killed her. I don’t think it was some random thug lying in wait in sub-zero weather looking for a few dollars.
Viewer
May I never miss the thrill of being near you is a lyric from the Paul McCartney song “No more lonely nights”.
Felicia
Soo sad. Joyce chiang seemed like such a nice person. What a horrible end for such a hardworking promising life. I don’t believe this was a random thug lying in wait in sub zero weather.
Dave
Wished I knew who the one in Guyana was
Joseph D'Onofrio
All 3 women frequented the same coffee shop, Starbucks. A serial killer was responsible for their deaths. The so called suspect serving a life sentence for attacking a woman in Georgetown is probably Ingmar Guandique whose case was recently overturned. The real killer remains at large.
Anonymous
There is yet another woman hating psychopath on the loose. He has changed his mode of operation to throw cops of his trail.
Anonymous
I’ve watched that case file over the years on Unsolved Mysteries because I remember Joyce Chiang because she used to work for the Federal Government too & she later disappeared & her family or friends knew where she went until that body found in the river was later identified as hers & now I really discovered that some one’s been convicted of her murder because these people were then living in the country illegally but justice has been served.
stephen e. hansen
it is a shame that justice cannot reach out and terminate the Guyanese killer.