Couldn't find a thing about RG from the news site. Could you link to the ARTICLE? Thanks in advance.
All I can do is copy and paste...it is long !!! (Me italicized).
aaArticle rank 30 Nov 2011 The Daily Item (Sunbury, PA)By Rick Dandes The Daily Item Witness: Missing DA with blonde ZoomBookmarkSharePrintListenTranslate“I never told police about it ... I looked and saw a man, and a woman with blond hair. I remember thinking about her, ‘Wow, big hair.’” — Ivy Butterworth, Milton resident
LEWISBURG — It took six years and the presence of Dateline NBC in Lewisburg on Tuesday before a Milton woman revealed that she had seen a young blonde with Ray Gricar the day he disappeared near the Street of Shops.
A Dateline NBC crew filmed inside the antiques mall, outside of which the former Centre County district attorney disappeared April 15, 2005. The segment producer would not confirm whether renewed interest in Gricar’s disappearance was associated with the DA’S early investigation into the Penn State child abuse scandal.
Ivy Butterworth was having lunch at the Street of Shops — where her daughter works — when business owner Craig Bennett told her about the Dateline NBC crew.
“Oh, I saw Gricar the day he disappeared,” she told Bennett, then walked over to the NBC producers. Butterworth, of Milton, said she saw a man she believed to be Gricar the day he disappeared in a car with a young blonde.
“I never told police about it,” she told Dateline NBC and The Daily Item. “But it was his car and later on I saw of photo of Gricar and I am convinced it was him.”
Montour County District Attorney Robert Buehner Jr., a friend of Gricar’s, confirmed Tuesday night that police interviews with witnesses revealed the DA had been seen inside the Street of Shops with a blonde, whom Gricar appeared to know.
Buehner, who was also interviewed this month about Gricar’s disappearance by Lester Holt of Dateline NBC, said he did not know who the blonde might be.
Minutes after Butterworth approached the news crew, Dateline NBC producers interviewed her on camera, a portion of which might be aired.
Butterworth was jogging on April 15, 2005, when she saw a parked Mini-cooper.
“I love cars and at the time there weren’t many Mini-coopers in the area,” she said. “I thought it was a cute car. So I looked and saw a man, and a woman with blond hair. I remember thinking about her, ‘Wow, big hair.’ And I didn’t think more about it. I remember later on all the questions came up ... was Gricar with a woman, or not with a woman?
“I knew the man I saw was Gricar. The abandoned car was the car that I saw and there was definitely a woman in the car. I never said anything to anybody because, well, what’s the point? I mean, the guy was never found. If he wants to run off and go to Mexico or wherever with his girlfriend and he’s got the money to do it, hey, I wish it was me.”
As Butterworth told her story, the Dateline NBC camera was running.
“(The Dateline interviewer) asked me again, ‘Why didn’t you say anything at the time?’ And I said, ‘It wouldn’t have changed anything,’” she said. “It wouldn’t have helped or hindered their investigation in any way, I thought. He was still going. In my personal opinion this was all very well thought out, very well planned, and he’s living a happy life somewhere.”
Segment producer Jay Young would not say when the piece would air. He was also secretive in explaining how the Lewisburg part of the story would be portrayed.
Gricar first investigated 1998 allegations of sexual misconduct by Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, whom he opted not to prosecute.
When the full-scale scandal came to light in early November, media outlets began to speculate on a connection between the early Sandusky investigation and Gricar’s disappearance.
Tuesday was not the first time Dateline NBC had been in Lewisburg, Bennett said. “They were here last week,” he said. Bennett said he was informed that Dateline NBC was working on the project and would be taping scenes outside and inside the Street of Shops.
“Last week,” he said, “they taped location shots of the area behind the building leading down to the Susquehanna River. This week, I didn’t know they were coming until about noon time, when they called me and asked for permission to tape indoors.”
Off camera, Bennett said, “We talked about a lot of theories. I said that every year about April 15, when Gricar disappeared, the amateur sleuths come out. ”
The TV crew stayed inside the Street of Shops until just after 2 p.m.
While Dateline NBC was working on some kind of Gricar story, Bennett said, “Beyond that, I don’t know if they were trying to connect the dots between the Gricar disappearance and the Jerry Sandusky case.”
Jessica Tornez, a cashier at the Street of Shops, said the Dateline NBC crew didn’t talk much with area residents.
“They seemed to be more interested in getting a sense of place, where Gricar might have been before he disappeared,” Tornez said. “They didn’t really ask for many opinions. They seemed to have a story in mind and were just getting some location shots. That’s the vibe I got. It was more scenery than anything.”
People started giving the Dateline NBC team their opinions about Gricar’s disappearance.
Young would not comment whether Dateline NBC’S was investigating a connection between Gricar’s disappearance and the Sandusky case.
He said that he could not say anything pending his New York supervisors’ approval of an interview with The Daily Item.
He also would not say who would be the voice-over host of the segment. “It’s yet to be decided,” he said. Although he provided a cell phone number to call for additional information, frequent attempts to reach Young on Tuesday night were unsuccessful.
During the fall Dateline NBC airs at 10 p.m. Fridays.
Email comments to rdandes@dailyitem. com
Printed and distributed by NewpaperDirect |
www.newspaperdirect.com, US/Can: 1.877.980.4040, Intern: 800.6364.6364 | Copyright and protected by applicable law.
Vote for this story