Centre County judge declares missing prosecutor Ray Gricar dead after 6 years of mystery [July 2011]

pennlive.com ^ | 7/25/2011 | SARA GANIM

[PieterCasparzen]

Legally, Ray Gricar is dead.

A Centre County judge has ruled that the fruitless efforts of law enforcement to find the missing former prosecutor are enough evidence to legally declare him deceased.

That means his family can start distributing his estate and his county pension will be paid to his beneficiary.

But Bellefonte police -- and a task force of officers including some from the FBI -- won't stop trying to solve the mystery.

Gricar vanished April 15, 2005, after taking a day off work as the Centre County district attorney. His red Mini Cooper was found abandoned in a Lewisburg parking lot, and his county laptop and hard drive were found in the nearby Susquehanna River, too badly damaged to be read. Gricar was 59, and just about eight months away from retirement.

Pennsylvania law allows for missing people to be declared dead after seven years, but a judge can rule to have it happen faster if the family petitions. In this case, Gricar's daughter, Lara, who lives in Washington state and is her father's sole heir, petitioned the court earlier this month.

Her attorney said she is seeking closure.

Gricar's case has attracted national attention. He is frequently profiled on television crime shows, and several blogs and websites are dedicated to the mystery.

But despite creative efforts by law enforcement, there haven't been any credible leads since the four-year anniversary, when police revealed that Gricar's home computer had saved searches for "how to wreck a hard drive" and "water damage to a notebook computer."

[PieterCasparzen]

(Excerpted just to be safe).

A lot of investigatin' legwork to be done here, IMHO, with numerous people - in government, in the college, parents, law enforcement, etc.

With all left-wing, big-government spew about "protecting the kids" being used as an excuse to usurp parental authority and responsibility (COMPLETELY unconstitutional) - this is the results of big-government "protection".

[ken5050]

FYI..

[Vigilanteman]

For those not familiar with Pennsylvania geography, it should be pointed out that Centre County is home to State College and the Penn State campus.

[ColdOne]

I remember when this happened.

[bkepley]

Maybe it’s just me but Paterno looks suspiciously mafiosi.

[sodpoodle]

Posted this on another thread. One of the victims was clearly deathly afraid of Sandusky. What about kids who fought back?

Note the number of missing boys between the ages of 8-14 when they disappeared - during the last 20+ years.

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PubCaseSearchServlet?act=usMapSearch&missState=PA&searchLang=en_US

[John W]

For those who don’t know State College is located in Centre County Pennsylvania.

[henkster]

I have not really followed this story so your post does not make any sense to me. Could you provide some background on why a missing person has something to do with the loss of our freedoms?

[Rudder]

Centre County is home to State College and the Penn State campus.

And Lewisburg is home to Bucknell University.

[Explorer89]

Whoa, that was freaky. I just scrolled quickly through, and the little girl, Cherrie Ann Mehan jumped out at me. She disappeared from Pittsburgh in Feb, 1985. It must have been a huge story at the time, because I absolutely recognized the picture. So, I must have remembered the news stories. Crazy after 25 years.

[sodpoodle]

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2011/11/7/2545027/-jerry-sandusky-ray-gricar-prosecutor-1998-penn-state-missing

Centre County prosecutor Ray Gricar decided not to prosecute then-Penn St. Nittany Lions DC Jerry Sandusky in 1998 after charges of child molestation were made. He never fully explained his decision.

Seven years later, then-district attorney Gricar went missing. His car was found abandoned in a parking lot and his laptop was found in the Susquehanna River, damaged beyond repair. He was declared dead this past July after a fruitless search never turned up his body.

_____________________________________________

We are a Nation of laws not of men. When we are denied the protection of the law (as these young victims were) we are all in jeopardy.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

There is some suspicion that they found him in Utah, last July.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2011/07/could_this_be_ray_gricar.html

However, there was some hint that he intended to disappear, such as search words on his computer about the effects of water on laptop computers (his laptop was found in a river), as well as how to destroy a hard drive.

And, being a District Attorney, he probably had the ability to delete or exchange his fingerprints from the local system, along with other biometric data.

[MrEdd]

FYI stands for “For Your Information”

He was Pinging someone to the thread.

[Faith]

Wow. The two separate photos side by side sure look like the same guy. I wonder if the daughter was ever invited to investigate this possibility in Utah. If it is Gricar, perhaps he couldn’t handle the pressure of the Penn St. case and underwent an identity change to protect himself and her.

[PieterCasparzen]

We are a Nation of laws not of men. When we are denied the protection of the law (as these young victims were) we are all in jeopardy.

That's why a) individual citizens and b) a functioning free press are indispensible to freedom.

I asked myself this simple question: if I was the parent of victim 6 back in the 90's (the mother of that boy was involved with the discussions and there was a meeting where Sandusky offered a mea culpa) - WOULD I TOLERATE ANYTHING LESS THAN PROSECUTION ? I answered myself "self, if your child was raped, you would absolutely insist on prosecution NO MATTER WHAT".

Foxnews had a timeline of the case on their website which was ASTOUNDING.

Not only the parents - BUT ANY ONE OF MANY MANY PEOPLE THAT WERE AWARE OF THIS could have gone public to any news organization that would listen. They also could have knocked on the doors of different law enforcement agencies ceaselessly. They could have retained an attorney to do this for them or to make a big public splash press conference.

With all the people standing up making public shows about this and that today - is child rape in college showers a crime NOT worthy of taking a stand over ?

Did Sandusky's first alleged rape not merit prosecution but only an Andy Griffith-like admonition, in the way one would, say, warn a wayward teenager to make sure they're home in time for dinner ? "Sandusky, ya'll mind yer manners now". What if he murdered them afterwards and dumped the bodies in ditches ? Just how many crimes can one commit without prosecution if one's employer wants the ol' hush-hush ?

Now, all that being said - we can all feel safe. Because no matter what a child does wrong - commits violent acts, steals, deals drugs, whatever - if their father corrects them with corporal - or even verbal - punishment, that father can quite easily be jailed by "THE STATE" while the inexorable wheels of justice figure out how long a sentence the father needs to serve for the crime of punishing his own child's misdeeds. It's nice to know that the evil parents of American children are getting their punishments while the Sandusky's of the nation are free to enjoy molding OTHER PEOPLE'S children in their image.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Note that she filed to have him declared dead early right after they picked up that guy in Utah. I suspect there is a lot more to this story than meets the idea, perhaps a whopping big insurance policy that would only come into effect after he was declared dead.

[Faith]

It definitely is a tangled web. Gives me a very sad and sick feeling.

[Boogieman]

The Utah Mystery Prisoner has already been identified, and he is not Ray Gricar. Just some random dude from New Mexico.

[Faith]

Thanks for the update. Hope the LEO made an accurate ID of the guy. I’d still like to check the daughter’s phone records.

[mware]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2805495/posts?page=1