23 replies to this topic

[Jenn]

http://www.fbi.gov/w...p/gricar_rf.htm

April 15, 2005
Bellefonte, Pennsylvania
RAY FRANK GRICAR

http://www.fbi.gov/w...jpg/image_thumb

DESCRIPTION

Date of Birth: October 9, 1945
Place of Birth: Cleveland, Ohio
Sex: Male
Hair: Brown (Graying)
Eyes: Green
Race: White
Height: 6'0"
Weight: 170 pounds

THE DETAILS

For almost twenty years, Ray Frank Gricar has served as the District Attorney for Center County, Pennsylvania. On the morning of April 15, 2005, he called his girlfriend and told her that he was going to go for a drive in his red and white Mini Cooper automobile along state Route 192 in Penns Valley, Pennsylvania. He was reported missing when he did not return. The car was located in a parking lot in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna River, on April 16, 2005; however, Gricar has not been located.

REMARKS

Ray Gricar may also use the names Ray Lange or Ray Gray. He was last seen wearing a blue fleece jacket, jeans, and tennis shoes. He has ties to Ohio and California.

Individuals with information concerning this case should take no action themselves, but instead immediately contact the nearest FBI Office or local law enforcement agency. For any possible sighting outside the United States, contact the nearest United States Embassy or Consulate.

FBI Office for Philadelphia, PA 19106
Phone: (215) 418-4000

[Jenn]

http://www.collegian...estigative.aspx

Ray Gricar case-DA announces new investigative board

Posted on April 1, 2010 4:59 AM By Greg Galiffa Collegian Staff Writer

Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller has created a review board to investigate the 2005 disappearance of former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar.

The case has become a top priority for Parks Miller, who did not name members of the board in her press release but stated that it is made up of several different investigators from Centre County.

"This review board is simply an extension of my review of the case and a natural format for investigators with many years of experience to lend their expertise to the ongoing investigation," Parks Miller said in the release, adding the board members are both qualified and "personally motivated" to tackle the investigation.

Parks Miller did not respond to calls for comment by press time Wednesday.

Gricar's nephew Tony Gricar said he had a conference call with Parks Miller a few days ago and thinks the gathering of these individuals will "put a whole new set of eyes on the case."

Ray Gricar went missing April 15, 2005. He called then-girlfriend Patty Fornicola while driving on Route 192 in his 2004 red and white Mini Cooper, according to court documents.

Gricar told her he wouldn't make it home in time to take care of their dog, according to court documents.

The next day, police found his car with no one in it near a Lewisburg, Pa., antiques market.

In July, Gricar's county-issued computer was found without a hard drive in the Susquehanna River. The hard drive was later found in October about 100 yards from the same location, but it was too badly damaged to recover any information.

Parks Miller confirmed in her press release the investigation ran "much deeper than was portrayed in the media" and that all leads -- even unlikely ones -- will continue to be investigated. Rest assured, the case has not gone cold, she wrote.

"From my understanding, there were tips and things followed up on in the past where the public didn't think much was being done on the investigation when everything really was being followed up on," Tony Gricar said.

Though the investigation continued, Tony Gricar said the reported sightings and leads into his uncle's disappearance never panned out.

"We haven't found a body or a preponderance of evidence to lead us in one direction," he said.

Tony Gricar said he has three theories -- a walk-away, a suicide or foul play. But despite his theories and the newly established board and fresh set of eyes, he remains pessimistic about the search for his uncle.

"I don't think we've ever been close to solving it," he said.

[Jenn]

Detailed Charley Project Profile for Ray: http://www.charleypr...gricar_ray.html




Ray's Mini Cooper

If you have any information, please contact the Bellefonte Police Department at 814-353-2320.

[Jenn]

http://www.timeslead...ticleID=4253522

Pa. DA forms review board for missing prosecutor

The Centre County district attorney has formed a panel of investigators to look into the disappearance of a former county prosecutor nearly five years ago.

Ray Gricar was reported missing by his girlfriend on April 15, 2005, after going for a drive on his day off. His car was found at an antiques market in Lewisburg.

Current District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said Wednesday in a statement that the new review board will be made up of seasoned investigators from the county. She calls the board an extension of her review of the investigation.

Police said this week were no new leads in the case, and that tips have dried up. Parks Miller said police and the board will continue to investigate and will treat Gricar's disappearance as a significant case.

[Jenn]

http://www.centredai...owing-cold.html

Gricar disappearance at 5 years: Trail growing cold

Thursday, Apr. 15, 2010 Sara Ganim

5 years ago today: District Attorney Ray Gricar calls his girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, around 11:30 a.m. and says he is driving through Brush Valley.

When he doesn’t return 12 hours later, Fornicola reports him missing to Bellefonte police.

Gricar’s car is found the next day in a Lewisburg antique mall parking lot. His cell phone is inside, and there is no forced entry. Two people report seeing him in that mall the day he disappeared. The case begins garnering national attention when Fornicola and Gricar’s daughter, Lara, plead at a news conference for Gricar to contact them.

“It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. In some ways, it’s worse than having a parent die, I think, because you have no closure. I just want to know where my dad is.” — Lara Gricar, July 24, 2005

Aug. 1, 2005: Two fishermen find Gricar’s laptop, missing its hard drive, in the Susquehanna River. Police say it may have been tossed from the state Route 45 bridge, a short walk from where his car was found.

October 2005: Gricar’s laptop hard drive is found in muddy banks of the river. Nearly four years later, it is examined using the latest technology, and found to be too damaged for any data to be recovered.

May 13, 2006: The Centre Daily Times publishes a report questioning whether the investigation into Gricar's disappearance missed some possible leads. For example, the CDT reported that investigators dismissed an assistant district attorney’s report that she saw Gricar in Bellefonte the afternoon he vanished, and that several people close to Gricar had not been interviewed by the lead investigator.

“I think he really cared for (girlfriend) Patty and, from what I’ve heard, for Lara. I don’t see him just leaving like that.” — Investigator Darrel Zaccagni, June 28, 2005

Spring 2007: Bellefonte Detective Matt Rickard takes over the case.

“It’s an aggravating and a frustrating case. What I think it is going to take, short of a body, is for that one person out there who may know something to come forward and be that needle in the haystack we’ve been looking for.” — Detective Matt Rickard, April 15, 2008

July 2, 2008: Montour County District Attorney Bob Buehner blasts the probe, thus far, saying not enough is being done and the Attorney General’s Office should be involved. By the third anniversary, investigators say leads are growing cold.

April 15, 2009: On the fourth anniversary, investigators disclose that before he disappeared, someone using Gricar’s home computer searched the Internet for information on “how to wreck a hard drive,” “how to fry a hard drive” and “water damage to a notebook computer.”

“To me, it looks like it absolutely knocks out the theory of foul play.” — Tony Gricar, April 15, 2009

March 31, 2010: District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller announces she will assemble a review board that comprises experienced local investigators and herself, to give the mystery of Gricar’s disappearance “new eyes.”

“Everybody, out of respect and deference for Ray Gricar, everybody is willing to do whatever it takes to solve the mystery. ... The only thing I will say is that I believe homicide is the least likely, but we rule out nothing.” — District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller, March 31, 2010

After five years of roller coaster emotions, deep investigation and sleepless nights for family and investigators, the question remains: Where’s Ray Gricar?

Since day one, there have been three theories: foul play, suicide, or that he simply walked away. Today, investigators still weigh those same scenarios, with few clues to point them in any one direction.

Both Gricar’s live-in girlfriend and co-worker, Patty Fornicola, and his daughter, Lara Gricar, took and passed lie detector tests during the first year of his disappearance. His bank records and cell phone records still show no activity.

Many sightings of Gricar have been reported, but were investigated and ruled out. Tips from strangers, from prison inmates, even from the author of a novel whose fictional story contained three strange parallels — all have led nowhere.

Three district attorneys have taken office since Gricar vanished. Two Bellefonte police chiefs and two lead detectives have worked the case.

The FBI, state police, NASA, the Fish and Boat Commission, even a psychic — all have assisted Bellefonte police at some point. The case has received national attention, being featured on TV, from national network news to cable channels, and even a drama.

The case also has a strong following of people simply intrigued by the mystery. Countless Web sites and message boards endlessly review published details and hash over theories.

Gricar’s family has expressed emotions about the investigation that have careened from hope to frustration. Five years later, the missing district attorney’s nephew, Tony Gricar, says the family is doing its best to move on.

“It’s just one of those things that everybody is sort of going back into their day-to-day lives as much as we can,” Tony Gricar said. “You start to move on. There’s definitely that aspect of it. Then you get something new, and there’s hope that we can get at least some closure on this. I think everybody has their opinions on it, but there’s nothing really factual that can lead to one theory over another.”

[Lori Davis]

http://www.centredai...to-friends.html

GRICAR MYSTERY
Task force reaches out to friends of prosecutor
Sara Ganim
August 11, 2010 4:51pm EDT

BELLEFONTE — The task force formed to take a fresh look at the mystery of what happened to former District Attorney Ray Gricar has started interviewing people who were close to the missing prosecutor.

The task force formed to look into the disappearance of District Attorney Ray Gricar has begun interviewing people who were close to him.

Detectives called it a “fact-finding mission,” Sloane said.

“They told me that they had never heard of most of the information I was giving them and that clearly I knew him better than anyone they had ever spoken with, and that I was telling them some very remarkable and interesting facts about Ray,” Sloane said in an e-mail.

Sloane had been interviewed in the initial hours after Gricar’s disappearance, and he said that the current lead detective on the case, Matt Rickard, also talked to him once for about an hour.

Sloane worked for Gricar for 18 years, tried several homicide and high-profile cases with him and developed a personal friendship.

Sloane often talks about one of his fondest memories of Gricar: After a serious car crash, Gricar visited Sloane in the hospital each day after work.

About a week before Gricar vanished on April 15, 2005, Sloane was at home recovering from a hospital stay. He was preparing to return to work when, he says, Gricar “came over and had a beer and said, ‘Make it as soon as possible. I can use the laughs.’ That was the last thing he said to (my wife) and me as he was leaving.”

After hearing Gricar was missing, Sloane said he initially thought Gricar was just on an extended vacation since he had disappeared for a few days in the past. Sloane said he suggested police contact the security office at Jacobs Field, where Gricar’s favorite team, the Cleveland Indians, plays.

“Personally, that is what I thought had happened,” Sloane said. “Just a hunch, but I was apparently wrong.”

Parks Miller said the team she assembled comprises officers from Bellefonte and State College, along with Ferguson Township, Penn State, state police and the FBI.

They’re sifting through files, conducting fresh interviews and working on other investigative tasks, she said.

When elected in November, Parks Miller promised to make the mystery of what happened to her predecessor a top priority. And, just before the April 15 anniversary, Parks Miller announced the review board.

She said she isn’t going to talk publicly about the case — what’s been done or hasn’t been done — but she said it’s still active.

Gricar hasn’t been heard from since April 15, 2005, when he took a drive through Brush Valley. His car was found the next day in the parking lot of a Lewisburg antiques mall.

The investigation, led by Bellefonte police, has seen two police chiefs, two lead detectives and three district attorneys. Still, three theories remain — Gricar met with foul play, committed suicide or chose to walk away from his life.

Sloane was fired from the District Attorney’s Office in January, on Parks Miller’s first day, after refusing to resign.

[Lori Davis]

https://www.findthem...g/cases/1982/9/
NamUs profile for Ray Gricar - case 1982

[Lori Davis]

http://www.aolnews.c...baffles-police/

Case of Missing Pa. District Attorney Baffles Police, Family

Jan 25, 2011 – 7:15 PM
David Lohr
Contributor

Authorities in Pennsylvania have spent nearly six years trying to determine the fate of Ray Frank Gricar, an esteemed district attorney who vanished without a trace. No one knows what happened, but family members are hoping a fresh look at the case could generate new leads.

"We're over five years now," Gricar's nephew, Tony Gricar, told AOL News. "[We've] been pulled in 900 different directions [and] my own theories vary, depending on which way the wind is blowing."

Ray Gricar was 59 years old in April 2005. He had served as the district attorney of Centre County for nearly 20 years and was preparing to retire at the end of the year. Gricar's career was a success, he was involved in a happy relationship with a woman who worked in his office and he was close to his 27-year-old daughter, Lara. Gricar, by all accounts, had lived a pleasant life and was looking forward to an ideal retirement.

Ray Gricar, the district attorney for Centre County, Pa., was 59 years old and getting ready to retire when he disappeared in April 2005.On the morning of April 15, 2005, Gricar called his girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, and told her he was going for a drive on Route 192, toward nearby Lewisburg. The trip was not out of the ordinary and Gricar reportedly had gone to the town on several occasions in the past to shop at an antique store.

Gricar failed to return home later that night, and calls to his cell phone went unanswered. Concerned, Fornicola contacted Bellefonte police and reported him missing.

The following day, Gricar's red and white 2004 Mini Cooper was found locked and abandoned in a Lewisburg parking lot, not far from the Susquehanna River. Gricar was nowhere to be found. A search of his vehicle did not indicate a struggle or any sign of foul play, but investigators did find cigarette ashes inside the vehicle.

"Now we're not talking a lot. [It was] some minute cigarette ash on the passenger's side," Bellefonte police officer Darrell Zaccagni told The Cleveland Free Times in 2005. "When they opened the car ... a cigarette smell came out of the car. Ray didn't smoke. And he never let anybody smoke inside his Mini Cooper. Ray was very fastidious about his car."

Gricar's cell phone was locked inside the vehicle, but his keys and other personal effects, including his wallet, were missing. Search dogs were brought in, but they were unable to pick up on Gricar's scent.

Investigators questioned nearby store owners about Gricar. At least one thought he had seen the district attorney inside his shop on the day he disappeared and another was certain he saw Gricar speaking with an unknown woman, but whether or not the man they saw was Gricar remains unclear.

A search of the Centre County home that Gricar and Fornicola shared also failed to produce any leads. None of his personal belongings was missing, but his work laptop was nowhere to be found.

Gricar, for all intents and purposes, had vanished.

"It's the hardest thing I've ever had to go through. In some ways, it's worse than having a parent die, I think, because you have no closure. I just want to know where my dad is," Lara Gricar said in a 2005 interview with The Centre Daily Times.

In the days that followed, the FBI, along with Pennsylvania State Police investigators, was called in to assist in the case. Speculation soon turned to suicide -- a subject the Gricar family is all too familiar with.

In May 1996, Roy J. Gricar -- Ray Gricar's brother and Tony Gricar's dad -- disappeared in Dayton, Ohio. His car was found abandoned across the street from the office where his son worked. A search of the area was conducted, but authorities found no trace of Roy Gricar.

"He was missing for a few days before his body turned up in the [Great Miami] River," Tony Gricar said. "He was a mile down the river. His body found one morning by joggers on a bike path that runs by there."

The coroner later ruled Roy Gricar's death a suicide by drowning. He reportedly had been fired from his job as a private contractor at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in the days leading up to his death and had suffered from bipolar disorder.

Tony Gricar is uncertain what to think when he looks back on his dad's death.

"He was not a swimmer," Tony said of his father. "He was not a fan of water. So, if there has ever been anything questionable about my dad's suicide, that is it. It's sort of like if you're afraid of fire, you're not going to set yourself on fire. So that is the one question that's always been in the back of my mind. Other than that, it's cut and dry."

Fearing Ray Gricar might have taken his own life, investigators conducted an extensive search of the Susquehanna River but were unable to locate any sign of the district attorney.

Tony Gricar admits the similarities between his dad's case and that of his uncle are eerie.

"When we got the phone call our uncle was missing, we headed down," he said. "When we got there it was exactly the same scenario in terms of proximity of the vehicles to the water. Geographically speaking, it was identical. It was, in fact, a mirror opposite as far as what side of the bridge the car was found."

Nevertheless, he is not yet ready to settle on that theory, noting that the water was not very deep and the drop from the bridge was only about 25 feet at the time his uncle went missing.

"It is not a drop that will kill you," Tony Gricar said. "He also had some swimming capability. That time of the year you're looking more at hypothermia than anything else."

He added, "It's a pleasure-boating river. A few miles down there are pontoon boats. So, between sport fishers, hunters and the sheer number of boats they had out there searching and the aerial searches, they would have found something."

Although Ray Gricar's body has not been found, two men fishing in the river in July 2005 found his missing laptop lodged against a support under the bridge. The laptop, while obviously severely damaged by exposure to the water, was complete -- minus the hard drive.

Roughly two months after Gricar's laptop was recovered, a woman walking along the banks of the river discovered the hard drive. It was near a railroad bridge, about half a mile from the parking lot where Gricar's Mini Cooper was recovered. Unfortunately for investigators, the hard drive was so severely damaged that they were unable to retrieve any information from it. Whatever clues the laptop might have held were long since destroyed.

After the missing hard drive was found, the case quickly grew cold. Sporadic sightings of Gricar were reported throughout Pennsylvania and other states, but none yielded any results.

Investigators explored a variety of possibilities but were unable to say for certain what might have happened. Polygraph examinations were given to several family members, but no people of interest developed.

According to Tony Gricar, the one thing that never made sense to police was his uncle's financial situation.

"He was making a fair amount of money; but, at least from a forensic accounting standpoint, the thought is there that there should have been more cash," he said. "But, for somebody from his generation, which [preferred to] deal in cash, what is the appropriate amount that should be sitting in an account?"

In April 2009, investigators made a startling announcement in the case when they revealed the context of Internet searches that had allegedly been conducted on Gricar's home computer. According to police, someone had researched various ways of destroying computer hard drives in the weeks leading up to Gricar's disappearance. A coincidence or a vital clue? No one knows.

The case again made headlines last March, when newly elected District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller announced that she had assembled a task force of investigators to review the Gricar case.

"Everybody, out of respect and deference for Ray Gricar, everybody is willing to do whatever it takes to solve the mystery. ... The only thing I will say is that I believe homicide is the least likely, but we rule out nothing," Miller told The Centre Daily Times.

Gricar's nephew is aware of the probe but says the family has yet to receive any updates from police.

There are three possible scenarios in the case and, according to Tony Gricar, none really fits.

Runaway: "The runaway doesn't make a lot of sense. It never has," Tony Gricar said. "I guess if you want to oversimplify it -- what's the point? There's been nothing. No scandal tied to the office or anything that would allude to that. If he wanted to do his own thing, why not wait the few months until his scheduled retirement? It really doesn't make much sense."

Homicide: "He was in the midst of being a part of the largest drug ring bust in central PA history -- a heroin deal," Tony Gricar said. "But it was a [small] amount compared to anywhere else, so there was no point to off a prosecutor or, as some have speculated, for him to go into witness protection."

Suicide: "If you want to go the suicide route, anybody can commit suicide," Tony Gricar said. "But there are none of those indicators that typically go along with it. He obviously could have had an undiagnosed or hidden depression -- it obviously runs in the family -- but why?"

Tony Gricar said he is constantly swinging back and forth among the theories. Asked whether he believes his uncle is still alive, he replied, "Alive? Hell, I don't know."

Neither District Attorney Miller nor Bellefonte police returned calls for comment from AOL News today. Lara Gricar declined to comment.

"I am not interested in participating in your story," she said when contacted by AOL News.

According to an article published earlier this month by The Centre Daily Times, the task force has started interviewing people who were close to the missing district attorney.

"They told me that they had never heard of most of the information I was giving them, that clearly I knew him better than anyone they had ever spoken with, and that I was telling them some very remarkable and interesting facts about Ray," former Assistant District Attorney Steve Sloane told the newspaper.

Gricar was also recently added to the Justice Department's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

"NamUs has a rich dental profile for Gricar and potential matches are actively being compared," Todd Matthews, NamUs' regional system specialist, told AOL News. "There's also a complete DNA profile for Gricar in the system. Cases are added to the system on a daily basis, so they stay in a constant state of comparison."

For now, the mystery remains, but Tony Gricar says it is one he would like to see end sooner rather than later.

"My dad was missing for a few days before his body turned up," he said. "We had the luxury of finding him -- which is sad to say -- but we haven't had that in this case. It is disappointing."

[Jenn]

Daughter Of Missing District Attorney Files Death Declaration

Posted: 12:56 pm EDT July 5, 2011 Updated: 1:30 pm EDT July 5, 2011

BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- In paperwork obtained by WJAC-TV, the petition cites the inquiries made by law enforcement into the disappearance, as well as the family's desire for closure, as reasons for the petition.

Lara Gricar has asked a Centre County judge for an order declaring the death of her father. President Judge David E. Grine has scheduled a July 25 hearing on the petition.

Gricar disappeared on April 15, 2005 after taking a day off from work. He told his girlfriend that he was going for a drive.


Read more: http://www.wjactv.co...785/detail.html

[Lori Davis]

Daughter of missing Pa. DA seeks death declaration

Published: July 6, 2011 1:32 AM EST
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BELLEFONTE -- The daughter of a district attorney who mysteriously disappeared more than six years ago has asked a judge to declare him dead, a ruling that would allow her to begin the administration of his estate.

Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar disappeared on April 15, 2005, about nine months before he was to retire as the central Pennsylvania county's top prosecutor. He had taken a day off from work and had told his girlfriend that he was going for a drive. His car later was found abandoned at an antiques market in Lewisburg, near the Susquehanna River, 45 miles from the Centre County seat.

Read more: http://www.goerie.co...69951/-1/NEWS05

[Lori Davis]

Six years later, district attorney's disappearance is still a mystery

By John P. Martin
Posted on Sun, Jul. 31, 2011
Inquirer Staff Writer

On Monday, a judge reached a conclusion about Ray Gricar, the longtime Centre County district attorney who vanished in 2005.

He's dead.

Hours later, word spread that a nameless vagrant locked up in Provo, Utah, just might be the missing prosecutor. His mug shot went viral.

Read more: http://www.philly.co.../126466848.html

[Lori Davis]

DA Who Refused To Prosecute Sandusky In '98 Missing Since '05

Posted: 4:33 pm EST November 8, 2011
Updated: 8:04 pm EST November 8, 2011

PITTSBURGH -- Channel 11 News is looking into the disappearance of the district attorney who chose not to prosecute former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky more than a decade ago.

Ray Gricar disappeared in 2005. Gricar’s car and laptop were found along the Susquehanna River, but police have yet to find the former district attorney.

In 1998, Gricar made the decision not to file charges against Sandusky after a mother told university police Sandusky had inappropriate contact with her 11-year-old son.

Read more: http://www.wpxi.com/...888/detail.html

[Lori Davis]

Questions on Sandusky Are Wrapped in a 2005 Mystery

By KEN BELSON
Published: November 8, 2011

One of the questions surrounding the sex-abuse case against Jerry Sandusky is why a former district attorney chose not to prosecute the then-Penn State assistant coach in 1998 after reports surfaced that he had inappropriate interactions with a boy.

In 2005, divers searched the Susquehanna River in Lewisburg, Pa., for Ray Gricar, who was a Centre County prosecutor.

The answer is unknowable because of an unsolved mystery: What happened to Ray Gricar, the Centre County, Pa., district attorney?

Gricar went missing in April 2005.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.c...ar-mystery.html

[Lori Davis]

Gricar's nephew on 1998 Sandusky case: 'Ray was not beholden to no one'

Published: Wednesday, November 09, 2011, 7:07 PM    Updated: Wednesday, November 09, 2011, 7:15 PM
By SARA GANIM, The Patriot-News

Tony Gricar, the family spokesperson for missing prosecutor Ray Gricar, said he's sure his uncle didn't have enough evidence to prosecute Jerry Sandusky when a report was brought to him in 1998.

Gricar, who went missing seven years ago and was declared legally dead over the summer, has come under fire as the Sandusky story evolves because a 1998 report that two boys were molested in a shower never led to charges.

"People ask why Ray did not prosecute, and I have no problem saying, because he clearly felt he didn't have a case for a 'successful' prosecution," Tony Gricar said. "... One thing I can say is that Ray was beholden to no one, was not a politician."

Read more: http://www.pennlive....98_sandusk.html

[Lori Davis]

Police: No link between long-missing DA, Sandusky

Published: Friday, Nov. 11, 2011 1:25 p.m. MST
By Joe Mandak, Associated Press

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Investigators and friends of a former central Pennsylvania district attorney don't believe there's any link between his 2005 disappearance and his decision to not charge then-Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky with child molestation in a 1998 case.

Still, Bellefonte police Det. Matthew Rickard told The Associated Press that he's planning to review former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar's handling of the allegations against Sandusky 13 years ago — just to be thorough.

"There's no evidence or anything that has ever come to my attention that in any way suggests the Sandusky investigation had anything to do with the disappearance of Ray Gricar," said Rickard, the lead investigator in Gricar's disappearance.

Nonetheless, Rickard said he'll review the case.

Read more: http://www.deseretne...A-Sandusky.html

[Lori Davis]

Prosecutor In Penn State Case Went Missing In 2005; Computer Found In River, But Body Of District Attorney Never Found

By CHRISTOPHER KEATING
8:18 p.m. EST, November 11, 2011

HARTFORD— The child sexual abuse case that led to the firing of famed Penn State football coach Joe Paterno has rocketed around the country with widespread media attention on national television every day.

But one aspect of the controversy that has gotten relatively little coverage is the unexplained disappearance of the prosecutor in the case.

FBI It is the strange mystery of Ray Gricar, the district attorney in central Pennsylvania who has been missing since 2005.

He had been investigating Jerry Sandusky, the longtime Penn State defensive coordinator who has now been charged by a grand jury that identified eight victims in a detailed, 23-page indictment.

Read more: http://www.courant.c...story?track=rss

[Lori Davis]

New leads in missing Sandusky case DA

November 18, 2011
Posted: 02:53 PM ET
Posted by: In Session's Jean Casarez

Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar investigated allegations that former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky molested a child in 1998. Gricar chose not to bring charges at the time and now that young man, who is an adult, is listed as "Victim 6" in the current child molestation charges the Pennsylvania Attorney General is pursuing against Sandusky.

Gricar went missing in April 2005 and his whereabouts are still a mystery. He is reportedly presumed dead.

Read more: http://insession.blo...ndusky-case-da/

[Lori Davis]

THE BAFFLING CASE OF DA RAY GRICAR

FEBRUARY 04, 2012 
By Victor Thorn

STATE COLLEGE, Penn.—Nearly seven years ago, Ray Gricar—Centre County, Pa.’s District Attorney for two decades—vanished into thin air. According to law enforcement officials, he hasn’t been seen since. Yet, is this official verdict accurate, or does the missing D.A.’s disappearance have direct ties to high-ranking politicians, Jerry Sandusky’s Penn State child molestation scandal, and even federal officials who are involved in the cover-up?

The Mystery Begins

On Apr. 15, 2005, Gricar told his live-in girlfriend that he intended to take a day off work so that he could take a leisurely drive out of scenic Happy Valley in his beloved Mini Cooper automobile.

Read more: http://americanfreepress.net/?p=2641

[Lori Davis]

http://www.pennlive....ve_psychol.html

Patriot-News exclusive: Psychologist's report might be reason Ray Gricar declined to bring charges against Jerry Sandusky in 1998

Published: Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 5:00 AM    Updated: Wednesday, March 21, 2012, 2:00 PM
By SARA GANIM, The Patriot-News

Since Jerry Sandusky’s November arrest and the revelation that now-missing district attorney Ray Gricar declined to prosecute a case brought to police in 1998, there have been hundreds of theories about why a seasoned district attorney would decide not to bring a case that state prosecutors would later pursue.

Information made public in a searing grand jury presentment showed that Sandusky allegedly admitted to touching the boy known as Victim 6 while they were both naked and saying, “I wish I were dead.”
   
What wasn’t made public until now was that two days before Gricar closed the case, a psychologist concluded Victim 6 was not sexually abused by Sandusky.
   
The psychologist — John Seasock — was identified in court documents by Sandusky’s attorney as he asked a judge to force prosecutors to hand over the document, along with juvenile records and current and past addresses and phone numbers of the alleged victims.
   
The judge ruled that the defense can have them. But he made an exception. Unless prosecutors can convince the judge otherwise within the next week, Amendola can read through the psychological evaluation, but he can “make no use of the information contained in the reports without prior authorization of the court.”
   
A source who reviewed the documents and has knowledge of the case said he believed Seasock’s report was the reason the investigation was closed.
   
However, the source said, Seasock was not the only psychologist to make an evaluation.

The day after Victim 6 came home from a tour of the football building with then-defensive coordinator and charity founder Jerry Sandusky and told his mom Sandusky had showered with him and a friend, the mother called police. She also called a psychologist.
   
“And that psychologist concluded that this incident, what the boy described, and I’m paraphrasing ... the psychologist concluded that what the boy described was a classic example of how a sexual abuser grooms his victim,” the source said.
   
Amendola confirmed that Seasock’s report and another psychologist’s report have been referenced in several other pieces of evidence turned over by prosecutors, but Amendola said he hasn’t yet seen the reports.
   
The source reviewed the entire police report from 1998. The investigation, which was done by Penn State University police, took a few weeks. It included a sting in which police set up a meeting between the boy’s mother and Sandusky as officers hid in another room.

During the conversation, Sandusky admitted to showering with the boy and touching him, and asked for forgiveness, according to prosecutors.
   
“This mother was extremely responsible in how she handled this, and then they just shut it down,” said the source, who has a law enforcement background. “The file is lengthy, but what’s in it is not much. It’s kind of repetitious.”
   
But there is no explanation of why Seasock was brought in, or any indication if he interviewed Victim 6 himself or just reviewed the notes of the first psychologist, the source said.
   
“One could speculate there was an effort to find someone who could contradict the first one,” the source said.
   
The lead investigator, former university police detective Ron Schreffler, told The Patriot-News this year that he would never question Gricar’s judgment. He declined to comment when reached Tuesday.
   
Children and Youth Services investigator Jerry Lauro told The Patriot-News in November that he didn’t feel there was enough evidence for charges solely based on interviews with the boys.
   
“At that time, the information that we had wasn’t sufficient enough to substantiate a case,” Lauro said. “I don’t want [the mother] to think we didn’t believe their kid back then. We did, but we didn’t have enough.”
   
Howard Janet, the attorney for Victim 6 and his family, said he has no comment about the report.
   
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office also had not comment.
   
Gricar disappeared April 15, 2005, and was declared legally dead over the summer. He was already subject of great conjecture because of his bizarre disappearance, which has stumped investigations for nearly seven years.
   
The national spotlight on his case only brightened when people learned his story intersected with Sandusky’s.
   
But those who knew Gricar say he wasn’t intimidated by high-profile people or Penn State cases.
   
And investigators have said repeatedly that they have no evidence linking allegations against Sandusky to Gricar’s disappearance, and little in the way of notes or documents from when Gricar reviewed the Sandusky case in 1998.
   
Amendola, who worked opposite the courtroom from Gricar for years, is likely to try to use Gricar’s character in his favor.
   
“We’re going to argue that it was investigated by Gricar, a seasoned, nonpolitical, professional prosecutor, and the jury can take it from there,” Amendola said. “No. 6 defies explanation why they are pursuing it, and I think the mother has something to do with that.”
   
The mother of Victim 6 has told The Patriot-News that prosecutors did not initially want to include her son in the grand jury presentment, but state police fought to keep the case since he helped investigators find many of the other alleged victims.
   
That, too, is part of the defense.
   
Along with the psychological reports, Judge John Cleland ruled that prosecutors must hand over current and past addresses and phone numbers for accusers so Amendola can check telephone records and see if they were communicating regularly with each other after the grand jury began to meet.
   
Several times since Sandusky, 68, was charged, Amendola has said he believes the accusers conspired against the former defensive coordinator. Although, at his most recent news conference following a court hearing, Amendola conceded he does not yet have any evidence of that.
   
Cleland also ruled that some juvenile records of accusers must be turned over, after Amendola wrote that Sandusky knows that several of them have arrests for drug-related crimes, and “if any of the accusers/alleged victims were adjudicated delinquent for drug violations during the time they were associated with [Sandusky] ... such drug use might well have affected their ability to adequately and accurately recollect their interactions with the defendant.”
   
Sandusky was charged with 52 counts of child sex abuse last year and is scheduled to go to trial May 14.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.pennlive....ar_mystery.html

Ray Gricar mystery: DA's privacy adds to intrigue surrounding his disappearance
Published: Sunday, April 15, 2012, 12:04 AM    Updated: Monday, April 16, 2012, 11:22 AM
By SARA GANIM, The Patriot-News

While Centre County prosecutor Ray Gricar has been declared dead, questions about his disappearance only seem to multiply. And the Jerry Sandusky scandal renewed the mystery's rumor mill. On the anniversary of Gricar's 2005 disappearance, The Patriot-News goes back through the timeline in detail.

BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- Among the first people investigators sought when Ray Gricar went missing seven years ago was a group informally referred to as “the women.”

He was married twice. He had a few serious relationships and some casual ones.

There was the nurse who Gricar met in the early 2000s and spontaneously asked to marry him. She turned him down.

There was the waitress Gricar always requested at The Gamble Mill restaurant here in the Centre County seat and would flirt with during his meal.

There was the dark-haired woman seen with Gricar the day he disappeared.

At 59, Gricar had a reputation for being fiercely private and, at the same time, a charmer and a ladies’ man.

So when Bellefonte police received a frantic 911 call from Gricar’s live-in girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, on April 16, 2005, their first task was to track down all the women — friends, ex-wives and lovers — who had come before her.

Some of them remain a mystery. Others are talking for the first time about the event that has anguished and gnawed at them for seven years.

For seven years, former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar’s disappearance has been an enigma. And that is true, more than anything, because the details of Gricar’s personal life remain mostly unknown — even to those who were closest to him.

It’s hard to talk about who Ray Gricar was. Maybe that’s why most people focus relentlessly on the few, tantalizing details that emerged after he vanished.

How Gricar’s red Mini Cooper was found 55 miles away from his home in Lewisburg, near an antique mall where he liked to shop.

How the inside of the car smelled like cigarette smoke, even though Gricar hated the smell.

How his county-issued laptop computer and its hard drive were found — separately and several months apart — at the bottom of the Susquehanna River, too damaged for information to be recovered.

Most of all, how someone had used Gricar’s home computer to search the Internet for two types of information:

How to fry a hard drive.

And how water can damage a laptop.

There have been more than 300 false sightings of the former district attorney. Hundreds of leads have sent local and federal investigators across the world, digging at the bottom of lakes, talking to psychics and enlisting the help of NASA scientists.

From day one, Gricar’s case drew national interest. Countless blogs sprang up, spouting unproven theories of suicide, murder or witness protection.

Real-crime, mystery, even paranormal TV shows featured the puzzling case.

But there were few leads, and interest slowly dwindled — until last November. Suddenly, Gricar’s story was linked to the furor surrounding Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State football defensive coordinator accused of sexually assaulting 10 boys.

The smoldering rumor mill exploded anew.

Those close to Gricar’s case have always wavered among three possibilities: suicide, walkaway or homicide. Most people, including investigators, considered homicide to be the least likely of the three.

But theories that seemed crazy and extreme suddenly were being discussed by reasonable people after it became clear that Gricar had played a central role in quashing a child sex abuse complaint against Sandusky in 1998. It would be 10 years until another boy’s complaint would lead to a second investigation and Sandusky’s arrest.

Why did Gricar decide against pressing charges against the legendary coach when, by many accounts, it seemed there was at least enough evidence to take a closer look?

Sandusky’s arrest and coach Joe Paterno’s firing in November were so completely unexpected in Happy Valley that, now, nothing seemed too weird to be off the table.

Theories spread like bad gossip and everyone had their own.

The reality is that investigators have no proof the cases are linked. Proof, in general, is so limited that police really haven’t made any progress since 2009, when the Google searches for wrecking a hard drive were discovered.

Barbara Gray, who spent more than 20 years married to Gricar and adopted a daughter with him, perhaps knew him best.

To her, none of it makes any sense.

“We are as eager as anyone else to have this solved,” she said of herself and their daughter, Lara. “But I don’t expect we will.”

The investigator

Amid all the theories, one man is starving for facts.

Gricar’s disappearance has consumed detective Matt Rickard’s work — and often his life — since he took over the case in 2007. Late last year, he took his first vacation in 24 months, to the Outer Banks.

He spent most of it juggling a fishing pole in one hand and a cellphone in the other, listening to details of an interview that eventually led to nothing.

Rickard has chased countless tips that have gone nowhere. And he’s had new, creative ideas for ruling out possibilities.

He has worked with international police force Interpol to distribute flyers in Slovenia — the country of Gricar’s roots, where he still has family.

He has done the same in other parts of Europe where there are battlefields that Gricar had talked about wanting to visit.

Every time new technology for finding people becomes available, Rickard puts Gricar’s face, fingerprints and DNA into the database.

He talks to inmates who say they heard whisperings about Gricar. He has listened to a machine used by a man to hear “voices.”

It’s a lot of time and effort spent looking for a man who was legally declared dead on July 25.

And after all that — seven years of new ideas, new technology, new witnesses and new tips — Rickard isn’t sure what to believe. But he knows who he’d like to find.

It’s not just Ray Gricar.

The mystery woman

She was tall and attractive. She had brown hair.

And she was spotted by a shop owner walking with Gricar through the Lewisburg antique mall, where his car was abandoned, on the day he was last seen.

She’s never been identified. That might be because the initial investigators didn’t publicize her sighting for 13 months.

When the description — 5-foot-9, with short dark hair, in her 30s or early 40s — was first given to police, they figured it was probably Gricar’s longtime friend and former State College television reporter Barbara Petito.

The two were close friends, and Petito was a regular at the shops since her parents sold antique soldiers.

She had also been a smoker when she was a reporter in State College. Police thought that might explain the cigarette smell.

“She matched the description of the lady, so we were looking for her,” said Darrel Zaccagni, a former Bellefonte police detective who was the original investigator of Gricar’s disappearance.

Petito had moved from State College and was living on Front Street in Harrisburg, working for then-Attorney General Tom Corbett’s press office.

Investigators showed up at her house. When they discovered she was neither there nor at work, they thought it might also be the reason Gricar was unreachable.

But when they called the attorney general’s office, they learned that Petito was on vacation. Police found her in New York state visiting relatives for her niece’s confirmation.

The lead was dropped.

Police made no public plea for the mystery woman to come forward.

Zaccagni said it was partly because so much was going on in the hours after Gricar’s car was found and partly because they were concerned the sighting would lead to suspicion that Gricar was having an affair.

“I thought she would have come forward if she were really there,” Zaccagni told The Centre Daily Times shortly after the information was made public in May 2006.

The missed lead became just one of the blunders for which Zaccagni would later be blamed.

Even though Gricar told his girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, on the morning of April 15, 2005, that he was taking a drive through Brush Valley, an assistant district attorney who worked for Gricar told police she was certain she saw Gricar near the courthouse at 3 p.m. that day.

It was dismissed because it didn’t fit the established timeline.

That assistant came forward herself, offering the information to police. But investigators never sought out others in the office to see if they could corroborate what she saw.

The photo

In the summer of 2008, after three years of false leads and cold trails, district attorneys Bob Buehner, Jr. of Montour County and Ted McKnight of Clinton County held a news conference on the Lewisburg waterfront. They berated Centre County for what they called a shabby investigation.

“Why wasn’t more effort put into finding that woman?” they asked.

Police should have sought records from every motel and hotel within 30 miles in an effort to identify the mystery lady, Buehner said.

The news conference accomplished only one thing: It ignited a war of words between prosecutors.

Then-Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira retaliated with his own news conference, flanked by several other county prosecutors. Some of them mispronounced Gricar’s name more than once.

Petito, who now works as a security-awareness strategist for Amtrak in Washington, doesn’t call the investigation a disaster. But she said that seeking her as the mystery woman made no sense.

Any shop owner at the antiques mall would have known it wasn’t her, she said.

“There was a potential for connecting dots that I’d been out there, but it was a loose one at that,” she said. “If it would have been me, they would have known it was me.”

Instead, she got a call while driving to New York from a friend who broke the news. A short time later, police called.

“They asked me if I knew anything,” she said. “I was more worried than anything else. This was horrible news to me. Ray was a dear friend.”

Petito was never formally interviewed, but as a friend and former dogged reporter she became obsessed with finding out what happened.

“Ray is a good, fair man. One of the best prosecutors I’ve ever met,” she said. “I don’t know that I’ll ever accept it.

Everyone runs theories around. I have no idea. I would put my life on the line that he didn’t just leave to go have another life. Without question, the two people who held the keys to his heart were Lara and Patty. Mention either and his face would just light up.

Dumping his laptop in the river would have been completely out of character as well, she said.

“Ray was a follow-the-evidence-where-it-leads kind of prosecutor. So disposing the computer into the river was completely foreign,” Petito said.

Petito kept in touch with Gricar after she left State College, and saw him just two weeks before he disappeared. They were at a news conference for a joint investigation with the attorney general’s office.

A photo of Gricar from that day has been used over and over in the stories about him. He stands tall, looks stoic and stares straight ahead.

The small town

Almost from the beginning, skeptics have asked why the small police department in Bellefonte, Centre County, is the primary investigating force.

Detective Matt Rickard, in an office smaller than most closets, crams as much evidence as he can fit into the space around his desk and among his tactical team gear. The rest is stored in the evidence room.

In fact, everything about the case has been unconventional.

Picture this: The day that Jerry Sandusky was brought into court for his first hearing on child sex abuse charges, the current Gricar investigator (Rickard) was on the roof of the courthouse on sniper duty, and the former investigator (Zaccagni) was at the front door manning the metal detectors for visitors.

Former District Attorney Madeira, who guided the Gricar investigation during his four years in office, now works at a home-improvement store.

Zaccagni was fired this year from his post guarding the doors at the sheriff’s office for unprofessional conduct.
He said it was the result of a falling out with the sheriff.

But odd as all that seems, there’s never been a successful argument for handing the case to a higher authority. Instead, current District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller in 2010 convened a task force of the county’s top investigators and the FBI to help Rickard.

No grand jury has ever met on the case. Rickard and Zaccagni say they never encountered anyone who refused to be interviewed, and never felt anyone with knowledge of the case wasn’t telling them the truth.

“State police didn’t want the case,” Zaccagni said. “They were helping us.”

Because of Gricar’s position as the county’s top prosecutor, police didn’t wait the typical 48 hours to start looking for him when he was reported missing. But Zaccagni said they didn’t really suspect anything bad might have happened until the next day, when Gricar’s Mini Cooper was found abandoned in Lewisburg.

Even then, the line of questioning by investigators was softer than in a case in which foul play is suspected. And there was no justifiable reason to get search warrants for information involving those around Gricar.

On the day that Gricar’s Mini was found, his longtime friend and assistant district attorney, Steve Sloane, remembers driving down to the river. He was standing in the parking lot with Ray’s nephew, Tony Gricar, and a few others who knew Ray. They had all returned to be interviewed by police.

A state police profiler began to ask questions, and some of them struck Sloane as pretty weird.

“Have you ever seen Ray’s underclothes?”

“Have you ever thought he was gay?”

Gricar, with his mysterious demeanor, had always been the subject of conjecture for the nosy, Sloane said. He chalked the questions up to that.

The class act

Ray Gricar started his career as a prosecutor in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, home to the city of Cleveland.

He fell in love with the city, often went to Indians baseball games. He had a deep admiration for his boss and mentor, who friends say he often talked about after he moved to Pennsylvania.

Penn State brought the Gricar family to Happy Valley.

His first wife, Barbara Gray, got a job at the university, where she still works today in the Smeal College of Business Center for Research in Conflict and Negotiation.

Gray and Gricar met as students at the University of Dayton in Ohio, and married in 1969. In Cleveland, Gricar worked for the county prosecutors office and Gray worked in academics. When she got a job at Penn State, the family decided to move. Initially, Gricar made the decision to stop working and be a stay-at-home dad for their adopted daughter, Lara.

But the county’s district attorney, David E. Grine — who later as a judge presided over the hearing to declare Gricar legally dead — heard there was an unemployed and formidable prosecutor living in town. He quickly hired Gricar.

Gray and Gricar divorced in 1991, and five years later, Gricar married again, to Emma.

Now living in Montgomery County, Emma Gricar declined to comment for this story, however she did say that she is working on a book about their relationship and Gricar's disappearance.

She also said she remembers Gricar talking about the now-infamous police investigation of Sandusky in 1998 which did not lead to charges until a grand jury met 13 years later but declined to talk about it.

Emma and Ray divorced in 2001.

About 18 months later, he moved in with Fornicola. The two met inside the district attorney's office, where they both worked.

When Grine was elected judge, Gricar became the county’s top prosecutor, working part time for many years before the county grew big enough for him to shift into a full-time position.

He became well-known in Pennsylvania after several high-profile cases.

Gricar prosecuted the woman who shot and killed a Penn State student on campus in 1996.

He put a suspected serial killer behind bars by solving the case of a Jane Doe who was murdered and dumped alongside Interstate 80.

And he prosecuted Penn State athletes who found trouble off the field.

Balancing his moral compass and loyalty to the duty of his office, he would try death-penalty cases in the guilt phase, then turn over the penalty portion to his deputy, Steve Sloane.

Working together, they formed a bond of friendship.

In 2000, Sloane broke his back in a car crash and nearly died. He was hospitalized for weeks. Every night after work, Gricar would drive to the hospital, sit by Sloane’s bedside and read to him.

Gricar was classy, Petito said. The kind of guy you never saw dressed more casually than in jeans and a button-down shirt.

He was a high-caliber prosecutor, smart as some of the best, with no ambition for political office. His sights were never set on being a judge or attorney general.

“He had an honest-to-God soul,” Petito said. “He would talk for hours to victims. He actually cared, which is a little bit surprising in this business.”

She remembers Gricar spending only about $1,000 during one re-election campaign.

Another time, he hired his opponent, attorney H. Amos Goodall Jr., to be his personal lawyer after beating him in a race for district attorney.

“There are so few people who know what doing the right thing is, and Ray was one of those people,” Petito said. “It was easy for him, which is why personally he was Superman for me.

The crazy talk

On the white stone steps of the Centre County Courthouse in 2009, one day before the fourth anniversary of his disappearance, Gricar’s successor, Michael Madeira, spoke with local reporters to explain the first significant piece of evidence to surface since Gricar’s laptop and hard drive were fished out of the Susquehanna.

Police had found Internet searches on Gricar’s home computer for “how to fry a hard drive” and “water damage to a notebook computer.”

They turned out to be the last hard pieces of evidence to surface — and seemed to lift the walkaway and suicide theories above the possibility that Gricar was killed.

But there were some caveats.

A courthouse colleague in the public defender’s office told investigators that Gricar had been asking about hard-drive-erasing software as he prepared for his upcoming retirement. Maybe he was looking to clean his computer of sensitive court-related files before handing it back to the county?

Rickard found the searches puzzling in another way.

“The biggest thing about that is, why did he search for that on the home computer?” Rickard said. “He knew we were going to find that. He knew.”

For Rickard, those searches all but eliminate a raft of scenarios.

“It’s like a circle,” Rickard said. “You go in one direction and then you throw in everything else and it leads you right back to the beginning.”

Read more: http://www.pennlive....ar_mystery.html

[Lori Davis]

http://www.wearecent...7OEiODv1CWM0cCg

 

Help Find Central PA Missing Persons

05/08/2013 10:27 PM05/08/2013 10:50 PM

 

ALTOONA, BLAIR COUNTY - Two women are now home after being held captive and missing for years. Another is still in the hospital.

 

A frantic 911 call Monday night from Amanda Berry led Cleveland Police to the house of Ariel Castro.

 

Police say he held Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight captive for the last decade.

 

Castro is facing four counts of Kidnapping charges and three Rape charges.

 

WTAJ News went to find out if somebody in our area be the next missing person found.

 

There are at least seven ongoing investigations in WTAJ's viewing area for missing people.

 

Some of them have been gone for decades.

 

We've talked with police, special investigators and family members. Everyone said they haven't given up.

 

The searches span from Clearfield to Huntingdon County.

 

We found that when the story out of Ohio broke, it only gave more hope that some of the missing people in central PA might be found too.

 

Huntingdon County District Attorney George Zanic's searching for Sherry Leighty. The Blair County woman has been gone for more than a decade.

 

But after three women were found in Cleveland earlier this week. Zanic says it shows that breaks can happen, even decades down the line.

 

"...Even if there is slim hope there is hope..."

 

In Tyrone, it's been more than 48 years since Kathleen Shea vanished on her walk home from school.

 

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children agedher photo to guess what she looks like now to help find her.

 

Perhaps the most famous missing person out of Centre County is Ray Gricar. The former Centre County District Attorney went missing in April, 2005. New Centre County DA Stacy Parks Miller says she's trying to get fresh eyes on the case, to spark new hopes of finding Gricar.

 

Staying in Centre County Cindy Song was out with her friends on Halloween night twelve years ago. She was last seen walking into her apartment on Clinton Ave in downtown State College. Song was 21 when she vanished. Ferguson Township Police released this statement on their search for Song.

 

"...The case remains open and active. Tips or leads still are occasionally received, but to date, none have led to her whereabouts..."

 

28 year old Brenda Condon disappeared in 1991 from Spring Township. She was working the late shift at a tavern but was gone when the morning crew showed up. Her boots were still in the bar, her car in the parking lot. Pennsylvania State Police in Rockview say

 

"People call,[and say] you might want to check it out... We're still investigating, we haven't given up on this case."

 

In Jefferson County, Joey Lynn Offutt are missing. Offutt since 2007, after her house burned in July of that year. Her baby's ashes were found in the basement, but Offutt was gone. There's a $25,000 reward out to help find her.

 

In Clearfield County 27 year old Justin Demko vanished while walking to visit his son on July 1st, 2011. There's still no sign of him.

 

As for Zanic, he says he doesn't need any more motivation to find Leighty. But the three survivors in Cleveland certainly inspire hope.

 

"...It does give me more hope, cause we know that law enforcement's out there... And hopefully even if people are missing for some time, that people still think about those cases."

 

Again all these people are still missing. Their cases are still open. If you have any information on where they might be, please follow the directions below:

 

Kathleen Shea - Blair County - Call Pennsylvania State Police at 814-696-6100

 

Ray Gricar - Centre County - Call Bellefonte Police at 814-353-2320

 

Cindy Song - Centre County - Call Ferguson Township Police at 814-237-1172

 

Brenda Condon - Centre County - Call Centre County Crimestoppers at  877-99-CRIME

 

Sherry Leighty - Blair County - Call Pennsylvania State Police at 814-627-3161

 

Joey Lynn Offutt - Jefferson County - Call Pennsylvania State Police at 1-800-371-4652

 

Justin Demko - Clearfield County - Call Clearfield County Crimestoppers at 1-800-376-4700

[Lori Davis]

http://www.wjactv.co...tion-1612.shtml

 

State Police taking over Ray Gricar disappearance investigation

 

Updated: Thursday, April 3 2014, 01:59 PM EDT By: Marc Stempka

 

BELLEFONTE, Pa. – It's a mystery that has puzzled investigators in the Centre region for years and has been the highlight of several documentaries and television specials: The disappearance of Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar. Now, after nine years, the Pennsylvania

 

State Police is now taking over the investigation from local authorities. State police announced the changes in the case Monday, stating troopers will be taking over as the lead agency to receive new tips and oversee a task force that was formed to investigate the disappearance.

 

Gricar was last seen in 2005 at an antiques business in Lewisburg, Union County. Gricar's family had him legally declared dead in 2011, seven years after his disappearance.

 

The task force was formed by current Centre County District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller and up until Monday, the Bellefonte Police Department was the lead department on the case.

 

State police said the Troop G Major Case Team, comprised of Troop G criminal investigators, will continue to work on the investigation with the assistance of the task force and Bellefonte police.

 

The team will be reviewing the investigation status and looking at ways to further the case, police said.

 

State police asked anyone with information relating to the case to call their tip line at 1-800-472-8477 (1-800-4patips).

 

Gricar's disappearance has resurfaced in the headlines over the past couple years, mostly surrounding the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse case and a story that Gricar was killed by a member of a motorcycle club.

 

Case related documents showed Gricar declined to prosecute Jerry Sandusky when initial reports about alleged abuse first surfaced in the late 1990s.

 

Sandusky was convicted in 2011 on 45 counts related to child sexual abuse.

 

In September 2013, a report surfaced that Gricar may have been killed by a former Hells Angels member who was upset about being in prison after being convicted in a road rage incident.

 

Letters were sent to local media by a man who was jailed in a state prison who claimed to have met someone while behind bars who had information about what happened to Gricar.

 

According to the letters, the man said Gricar ran a "corrupt DA's office" and was in debt the Hells Angels for a large amount of money.

 

Court records show a man was sentenced to four to eight years in prison for a road rage incident where he beat another man with a baseball bat near Port Matilda, Centre County. The records pointed to the man's past with the Hells Angels and a lengthy criminal record.

 

The letters claimed another inmate had knowledge of this and was willing to talk and lead police to where Gricar's body was put in a mine shaft somewhere in the middle of Pennsylvania.

 

The story did draw interest from the FBI who apparently looked into the information, but found nothing.

 

6 News reporter Gary Sinderson said investigators familiar with the case maintain they don't know if Gricar is dead or alive, and have no evidence to show either way.

[Lori Davis]

http://www.ktvq.com/...d-to-ray-gricar

 

What happened to Ray Gricar?

By Sara Ganim CNN

April 15, 2015

 

(CNN) -- Ten years ago, a prosecutor in Centre County, Pennsylvania, took a day off work and vanished.

 

Since then, the case of Ray Gricar has become one of the most intriguing and talked about missing persons stories in the country.

 

Investigators have taken dives to the bottom of lakes, dug up a grave, chased more than 300 reported sightings from Arizona to North Carolina, dropped fliers over Slovenia, consulted a psychic, interviewed a member of the Hell's Angels and enlisted NASA technology.

 

But no one has been able to find the veteran district attorney, who was 59 when he disappeared.

 

When he went missing that Friday morning on April 15, 2005, he left behind a live-in girlfriend, a beautiful and successful daughter and a bank account that was supposed to fund a fast-approaching retirement.

 

His red Mini Cooper was found abandoned near a bridge on the Susquehanna River about 55 miles away from his home. Months later his county-issued laptop and hard drive were found -- separately -- on the banks of the river, too damaged to read.

 

As far as hard evidence goes, that's about all police have. The best lead they got was the sighting of a woman who has not been identified, and information that he had searched online for ways to destroy a hard drive.

 

What's left is theory, speculation and a case that's been cold almost from the beginning.

 

"When a district attorney goes missing, you know, it's pretty big. It's going to catch people's attention. A lot of people don't have a large footprint. This guy had influential friends, he was well known," said Todd Matthews, director of communications and case management for the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, or NamUs.

 

Awash with theories

 

From the start, investigators have considered three possibilities: Gricar committed suicide, fell victim to foul play or deliberately walked away.

 

The prevailing theories have been suicide or walk-away, especially since 2009, when a search of his Google history on his home computer found that someone had been searching "how to fry a hard drive" and "water damage to a notebook computer."

 

Gricar, a private and quiet man, was spotted with a woman who was not his girlfriend the day he went missing, and cigarette ash was found near his car, even though he was not a smoker.

 

Friends and colleagues recalled him being distant in the weeks that led up to his disappearance, and recounted his fascination with another law enforcement official from Ohio who vanished in 1985.

 

Matthews said that NamUs has compared Gricar's DNA to unidentified bodies nine times since the database became available in 2009, but so far, none has been a match.

 

"Even if he chose to make himself go missing, it sounds like something was terribly wrong that caused a drastic change in his life. There's something wrong if he's Googled how to fry a hard drive. Did he Google it? Did someone else Google it? Was he threatened? Did he do something and is trying to cover it up? It's not a normal thing to Google that."

 

Matt Rickard, the former investigator who had been in charge of the investigation for several years, thinks that hard drive is the key to cracking the case. He said he's still holding out hope that someday technology will allow investigators to recover the damaged data.

 

"I think there is something out there. Whether it's evidence or a person, there's something that could lead us to something," he said. "In all honesty, somebody destroyed the hard drive and there was a reason. We have very few solid leads and the biggest one could be contained on that hard drive."

 

In 2011, when former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested and charged with sexually abusing boys, it was revealed that it was Gricar who decided not to charge Sandusky when the first victim came forward in 1998. Gricar cited a lack of evidence.

 

The intrigue already simmering in Gricar's case exploded. Sleuths desperately tried to find a link between the two cases, but investigators said there was no evidence that Gricar's disappearance had anything to do with Sandusky's crimes.

 

But some have stuck to the homicide theory, suggesting that Gricar was an enemy of mob-like gangs in central Pennsylvania who were upset at his drug and corruption prosecutions.

 

Cyril Wecht, a forensic pathologist, said he considered writing a book about Gricar, his ties to the Sandusky case, and whether it led to suicide. But, Wecht said, he abandoned the book idea when it became clear there was not enough evidence.

 

"I don't think it's a great stretch," Wecht said. "He was one of those guys with a very strong sense of justice and professional discipline and in light of what evolved and came to be disclosed -- I speak as a forensic pathologist who's done so many suicides over the years and what can bring someone to that point. It's pure conjecture, not based on any factual knowledge."

 

Plus, Wecht said, if it was a suicide, "I don't understand how they never recovered the body."

 

Bob Buehner, a former district attorney in Montour County, Pennsylvania, who was Gricar's friend, has never accepted a suicide or walk-away theory. He believes his colleague was killed.

 

Buehner has doubts that, 10 years later, state police can recover from what he considers a bungled start to the case.

 

"It didn't seem like there was any overall game plan that made sense in terms of a systematic investigation," Buehner said. "One of the things I'd asked them to do from the first couple weeks is now impossible to do -- to do a hotel-motel canvas looking for the mystery woman seen with Ray and then match the names with photo IDs which police have access to."

 

Buehner said those records are now gone and his faith in finding Gricar is dwindling.

 

"I give it a 50-50 at best and only because I'm an optimist and I hope that's what will happen," he said. "As a pessimist, maybe 1 in 10 that we'll find him."

 

Despite fresh eyes on the investigation when it was handed over to state authorities last year, the mystery woman has not been found.

 

"Pennsylvania State Police continue to chase down new leads and take a fresh look at old leads and we continue to hold out hope that something will break out in this case," said Centre County's District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller. "Everybody, regardless of what position they held, deserves this kind of attention. In any missing persons case, he's not the only one, we feel discouraged when we can't answer the questions for the family, but it doesn't change our dedication to the case."

 

Damaged beyond repair?

 

The case has gotten significant attention on the national level, appearing on several true-crime television shows, including HLN's "Nancy Grace." So it was strange to many in Pennsylvania that for years a case with such a high profile would be handled by the tiny Bellefonte Police Department, where one investigator was assigned to juggle Gricar's case along with several more.

 

In 2014, the state police took over, but that was nine years after Gricar went missing and two years after he had been declared legally dead.

 

Sources close to the investigation told CNN the case, as state police received it, was disorganized and porous. Evidence had been compromised in storage. Reports were missing. Evidence had been collecting dust in file cabinets. There was never a forensic audit of his finances.

 

Today, some of Gricar's friends believe the case is damaged beyond repair. They have lost faith that there will ever be any answers.

 

When asked if she thought things might change when state police got the case, Barbara Gray, his ex-wife and the mother of his daughter Lara, said no. "The evidence is the same," she said.

 

Lara declined to comment, and investigators said they've had trouble reaching her.

 

"There is always a remote possibility that we might never have an answer," said Lt. James Emigh, who leads the investigation for the Pennsylvania State Police after inheriting it last year. "We still hold out hope, and the state police will however continue to diligently follow up every possible lead and attempt to bring closure to the family and friends of Ray."

[Deborah]

Ray is still missing.

 

https://www.fbi.gov/...ay-frank-gricar