Jennifer Levin

Jennifer Levin (May 21, 1968 – August 26, 1986) was an eighteen-year-old woman who was killed by nineteen-year-old Robert Chambers in New York City's Central Park on 26 August 1986. The case became sensational and divisive.

Ms. Levin and Mr. Chambers knew each other and dated briefly. Known in some news reports as "The Preppie Murder," both came from privileged backgrounds. Ms. Levin had been born on Long Island and lived in California briefly following her parents' divorce. She graduated from the Baldwin School, a private school in the Upper East Side neighborhood. She worked as a waitress and planned to begin studies at Chamberlayne Junior College (now part of Mount Ida College) in Boston later that year.

A cyclist spotted Ms. Levin's body two hours after she and Mr. Chambers left a fashionable nightclub. She was nearly naked and showed wounds consistent with strangulation. Mr. Chambers explained the deep scratches on his face as cat scratches to police investigators. He claimed she had raped him. Physical evidence was not consistent with his story. Nor was their substantial difference in height and weight. His good looks won him a measure of public sympathy until a videotape from a later private party became public. He appeared to be reenacting the crime by twisting a doll's head from its body while four young women wearing only underwear cavorted around him.

Robert Chambers was tried for second degree murder. Under a plea bargain agreement entered into in the midst of jury deliberations during his trial, he pled guilty to, and served out a fifteen year prison sentence for, first degree manslaughter. He was released from prison on 14 February, 2003.

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