Published: Apr 16, 2005 BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - With helicopters and road patrols, police searched across central Pennsylvania on Saturday for a prosecutor who was reported missing after he failed to return home from a drive the day before.
Posted on 04/16/2005 9:26:19 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
Police Search for Pennsylvania Prosecutor Missing Since Friday
Published: Apr 16, 2005 BELLEFONTE, Pa. (AP) - With helicopters and road patrols, police searched across central Pennsylvania on Saturday for a prosecutor who was reported missing after he failed to return home from a drive the day before.
Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, 59, had taken Friday off from work and said during a cell phone call at about 11:30 a.m. that he was heading toward Lewisburg on Route 192 in Union County, police said.
He did not return home that night and has not called his home or office since then, authorities said Saturday. There has been no activity on his cell phone or credit cards.
State police found Gricar's red-and-white Mini Cooper on Saturday evening in a dirt parking lot on the outskirts of Lewisburg, but found no sign of the missing man, Bellefonte Police Chief Duane Dixon said. The owner of an antiques store across the street said Gricar may have been in his shop earlier in the day, Dixon said.
Dixon said there were no signs of foul play but state police were processing the car for evidence.
"Right now we can't find any certain case that stands out that we believe would cause any problem," Dixon said earlier Saturday.
Authorities said they did not know if Gricar had any medical issues, although he had been working hard lately and had told others that he felt tired.
Police said Gricar was last seen wearing a blue fleece-type jacket, jeans and sneakers.
Pennsylvania authorities issued a bulletin to six neighboring states and used a state police helicopter Saturday to search the area northeast of State College.
Gricar, the county's district attorney for 20 years, recently decided not to seek a sixth term and said he planned to retire in December at age 60. He inherited a part-time office when first elected in 1985 but campaigned successfully to make the job full-time.
Among the more high-profile cases Gricar handled was the prosecution of a 21-year-old woman who opened fire with a hunting rifle on Penn State's campus in 1996, killing one person and wounding a second.
AP-ES-04-16-05 2345EDT
Odd---I sure hope he's okay.
Didn't another prosecutor in PA disappear a year or so ago under suspicious circumstances?
There was another male prosecutor that just disappeared last year. Went for a drive, found car, just missing. No credit card use or cell - much like this story. I don't think they found anything on him either. Odd is right.
I know crazy stuff happens to people all the time, but this is nearly the same story twice, my suspicions are raised and I am looking out for more information.
Ping!
OMG!!!
Look at this!
Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar who disappeared
Now look at this:
yup, thanks.
Thank you for the Luna link.
His story is as I recalled it and he did have connections to a Libya weapons case and strangely an ex-CIA agent, one Ed Wilson. See the last paragraph of your link.
Both in Pennsylvania. There was a later report on Mr. Luna, a few weeks ago, sorry, don't recall if it was that they had caught someone or still had not. I read it here, I think.
I wonder if Mr. Wilson is out of prison about now?
Penquin, that is too much, all those messages.
Below is the last paragraph of the Luna article.
Federal prosecutor Larry Barcella, now in private practice, was
the target of a thwarted murder-for-hire scheme by ex-CIA agent
Ed Wilson, whom Barcella had helped put behind bars for selling
weapons and explosives to Libya. Barcella lured Wilson out of
hiding and into federal custody in 1982.
I am not sure this is what I read before, but there are links here to a couple of the Luna threads.
On the second one, do take time to read the link in the last post.
With it, it is not difficult to understand the deaths.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/search?s=Jonathan+Luna&ok=Search&q=quick&m=any&o=score&SX=42622558c4b7df6fd0ca96ed0cc94dcb26f54874
Luna was a Fed though, wasn't he? What would he have to do with the local DA?
Is the other case in the same area as this one?
(No one answered the phone at the local paper so a bit of guesswork was involved and if you're not satisfied I'll gladly refund your entire viewing fee)
Had to go to Walmart last night and on the route through Lewisburg (along Water St.) that avoids Saturday night town traffic I saw 5-6 cops standing outside their cars across from what the clueless AP writer called an 'antique store' on the 'outskirts' of town.
The LEO-mobiles I saw consisted of a couple staties, a couple locals, and an unmarked or two. The guys were standing around in the 'dirt lot' (actually gravel-covered) talking and it struck me at the time as a huddle prior to swooping somewhere.
The location is actually on the east end of L'burg, next to the river, and the 'store' is a large building formerly owned by Pennsylvania House Furniture, currently called the 'Street of Shops' and home to around 40 craft/antique vendors frequented mainly by tourists/folks visiting Bucknell kids/etc.
The first pic is the lot where all the cops were and where the car is said to have been found (on the left, with the 'store' across the street).
On the way back home after snapping that one, the thought occurred that if the car had been taken anywhere it'd likely be to the local State Police barracks, which is about a 1/2mi from my house, and voila, one red MiniCooper.
I just checked the local paper's website again but they have zilch, ditto with WNEP, the Wilkes-Barre tv station that covers this area.
Hope the guy wasn't down by the river screwin' around on his own 'cause it's still pretty high after flooding recently and has been known to take people from Point A, Pennsylvania and deposit them nonchalantly at Point B, Chesapeake Bay...
Basil, it's not the same area, and also, Luna was from Baltimore and ended up dead in Pennsylvania somehow.
Wasn't posting to you.
In this case, I'm still thinking Gricar might've gone off on his own. His family issued a "statement" asking him to just please come home. Makes me think there might have been a family fight, and the guy took off.
I know a lawyer who did that. Prominent, pillar-of-the-community type guy, solid family man with several grown up children, active in his church.
Well, this lawyer faked his suicide by leaving some articles of clothing on the beach at the Jersey shore. Presumed drowned. Was found a few weeks later living in Mexico with his paramour, with whom he'd eloped.
Yes, a federal prosecutor.
That conclusion is not the 'official version' and is one that I find more than odd; though not impossible, I guess. The FBI still has a reward for information leading to an arrest for the murder of Jonathan Luna (Baltimore, Md). . .
He was stabbed 36 times, mostly shallow cuts. His head bashed. . .body was found, face down, in a creek in Pennsylvania. He drowned.
The did speculate whether this murder resulted from 'private life' sources as opposed to his job as Assistant United States Attorney. . . So far, no one knows.
That said, see no link here, whatsoever to connect his misfortune; with this missing DA. . .(his daughter on FoxNews tonight making plea for him to return. Very sad. . .)
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