PA PA - Ray Gricar, 59, Bellefonte, 15 April 2005 - #4
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EdinburghLass
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Any updates? This is such a baffling case.
OriginalJerseyGirl
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Centre Daily Times | 01/24/2007 | Officer to monitor school halls in Bellefonte
... With intentions of retiring later this year, Detective Darrel Zaccagni said he has decided to accept a part-time position as the school district's first school resource officer, a job the school board created for the first time Tuesday night.
But Zaccagni, who has been with the police department for 28 years, has just one regret.
"If things continue to go the way they go, I am not going to be able to see the Ray Gricar case closed and solved," he said. "That is always going to be a regret, if I am not going to be able to see closure on that before I leave..."
... With intentions of retiring later this year, Detective Darrel Zaccagni said he has decided to accept a part-time position as the school district's first school resource officer, a job the school board created for the first time Tuesday night.
But Zaccagni, who has been with the police department for 28 years, has just one regret.
"If things continue to go the way they go, I am not going to be able to see the Ray Gricar case closed and solved," he said. "That is always going to be a regret, if I am not going to be able to see closure on that before I leave..."
christine2448
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Very sad, so sad. Can anyone say cover up? I just can't understand how and why Ray just vanished, this whole case doesn't make a lick of sense!JerseyGirl said:
OriginalJerseyGirl
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New investigator chosen to head missing DA case
... Because of Zaccagni's approaching retirement, Bellefonte police have been prepping a new point person for the case -- Bellefonte Police Det. Matt Rickard.
Bellefonte Police Chief Shawn Weaver said the transfer will not affect the investigation "whatsoever."
"Rickard has been working with the case since the beginning," he said. "I envisioned this happening in the future so I made [Rickard] more involved in the case."
Rickard has followed up on leads for the duration of the investigation and was involved at a November meeting with Pennsylvania State Police, assessing the investigation thus far, Weaver said...
(Patty) Fornicola declined to comment on Zaccagni's retirement from the police force and the investigation...
... Because of Zaccagni's approaching retirement, Bellefonte police have been prepping a new point person for the case -- Bellefonte Police Det. Matt Rickard.
Bellefonte Police Chief Shawn Weaver said the transfer will not affect the investigation "whatsoever."
"Rickard has been working with the case since the beginning," he said. "I envisioned this happening in the future so I made [Rickard] more involved in the case."
Rickard has followed up on leads for the duration of the investigation and was involved at a November meeting with Pennsylvania State Police, assessing the investigation thus far, Weaver said...
(Patty) Fornicola declined to comment on Zaccagni's retirement from the police force and the investigation...
Bobbisangel
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It is pretty clear to me that Ray didn't commit suicide or his body would have been found by now. I doubt that he would have gone off somewhere so that he couldn't be found for a long time. He had a daughter and because of his brother's suicide he would have known how that would have affected her...especially if he had never been found or not for a long time anyway.
Did he just take off or was foul play involved? His body has never been found. His laptop was found without the hard drive...I think...and then the hard drive was found later...is that right? That doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense that he would have gotten rid of the laptop like that or that someone else would have either. LE found his car so if he just took off why would he leave his car behind unless he bought another car because he didn't want to be tracked down. But why would he want to just disappear? Would he do that to his daughter? It doesn't seem that he would have.
This whole thing is a big puzzle and I wish LE would find out some answers.
Did he just take off or was foul play involved? His body has never been found. His laptop was found without the hard drive...I think...and then the hard drive was found later...is that right? That doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't make sense that he would have gotten rid of the laptop like that or that someone else would have either. LE found his car so if he just took off why would he leave his car behind unless he bought another car because he didn't want to be tracked down. But why would he want to just disappear? Would he do that to his daughter? It doesn't seem that he would have.
This whole thing is a big puzzle and I wish LE would find out some answers.
OriginalJerseyGirl
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There are a couple of key things here, IMO. 1) His daughter lived on the other side of the country. 2) She was an adult. 3) They had recently reconnected. What this says to me is that this wasn't a Daddy's Little Girl situation - this was an adult woman that was living independent of (and quite far from) her Dad. It seems that they must have had some falling out at some point and had patched things up shortly before Ray went missing. Due to the above, I think that it is indeed possible that Ray would deliberately leave without his daughter knowing.Bobbisangel said:
Bobbisangel
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In earlier posts it was said that LE hadn't questioned neighbors...co-workers or friends of Rays. So who in the world did they question anyway? It just sounds like they didn't do much of anything. I wonder if anyone ever talked to the co-worker who say Ray in a different car. Did she see him on friday when LE think he had already left town? I don't think LE has done much with this case. It is as if they already knew where he was. Maybe he is in a witness protection program but LE had to make it seem that they are looking for him to pacify the family and friends. It really is a mystery.
If he was seen in the parking lot of his office in a different car then when did he ditch his own car in another town? I thought someone saw him talking to a woman in his car there and there were cig butts outside the passenger door. Wasn't he caught on tape in a store with a woman in the town his car was found in?
If he was seen in the parking lot of his office in a different car then when did he ditch his own car in another town? I thought someone saw him talking to a woman in his car there and there were cig butts outside the passenger door. Wasn't he caught on tape in a store with a woman in the town his car was found in?
izzyB
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without going back to the earliests posts of this case, i believe the store owner of the shop where ray was headed did indeed recall seeing him shopping that day with a woman.
another shop owner in the strip of shops claim they saw ray saturday afternoon, the day after he was missing, standing in front of his store and it looked like he was waiting for someone.
additionally, back home, a young woman attorney who worked in ray's office claims to have seen ray driving out of their work parking lot in a different car as she left work early on friday. she remembers thinking if ray can leave work early, then i don't need to feel quite so guilty for doing the same.
but of course at this very time, other reports have him miles away!
i have always thought the woman was credible, but now i wonder if she worked in ray's office, why didn't she know that he had not been to work that day at all? that would have been my surprise, not that he was leaving early, but that he was in the parking lot after having not been there all day.
part of me wants to believe that ray has not been found b/c he does not want to be. but another part suspects foul play.
i am certain that for whatever reason LE did not do a full investigation on this case. i think we learned month and months after his diisappearance that LE had not checked his financial records, but were allowing his daughter to handle his finances. what is that about????
another shop owner in the strip of shops claim they saw ray saturday afternoon, the day after he was missing, standing in front of his store and it looked like he was waiting for someone.
additionally, back home, a young woman attorney who worked in ray's office claims to have seen ray driving out of their work parking lot in a different car as she left work early on friday. she remembers thinking if ray can leave work early, then i don't need to feel quite so guilty for doing the same.
but of course at this very time, other reports have him miles away!
i have always thought the woman was credible, but now i wonder if she worked in ray's office, why didn't she know that he had not been to work that day at all? that would have been my surprise, not that he was leaving early, but that he was in the parking lot after having not been there all day.
part of me wants to believe that ray has not been found b/c he does not want to be. but another part suspects foul play.
i am certain that for whatever reason LE did not do a full investigation on this case. i think we learned month and months after his diisappearance that LE had not checked his financial records, but were allowing his daughter to handle his finances. what is that about????
OriginalJerseyGirl
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I guess that might depend on how big the office is, how many people work there, what each person's duties are, etc. We've heard that Ray wasn't very sociable so perhaps she only saw Ray when there was need to do so. He may have stayed in his office and she in hers.
Web site on Gricar case seeks to engage public
By Pete Bosak - pbosak@centredaily.com
A former prosecutor who worked almost 19 years with former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar broke her silence Monday on the investigation into his disappearance by launching a Web site in which she questions the investigation, the behavior of the Gricar family and the press coverage.
http://www.centredaily.com/116/story/148022.html
By Pete Bosak - pbosak@centredaily.com
A former prosecutor who worked almost 19 years with former Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar broke her silence Monday on the investigation into his disappearance by launching a Web site in which she questions the investigation, the behavior of the Gricar family and the press coverage.
http://www.centredaily.com/116/story/148022.html
OriginalJerseyGirl
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Odd and interesting. Karen Arnold is the one that saw Ray leave early that day in a different car, right?
I don't know what it is but something's striking me weird with all of this right now. Ray disappears with a book left on his desk about replacing a DA. She sees him in a different car but no one interviews her or many other people that worked with Ray, including his best friend. Michael Madeira becomes DA and chooses not to reappoint Arnold. Arnold then launches a website critical of the investigation.
Why would LE not interview these people? Why did Arnold not launch this site before now?
So much time has passed and no one seems to be doing anything. I'm hoping that Arnold's site will do some good but I couldn't even find it while searching just now. This case is so frustrating. I wonder if we'll ever know what happened to Ray.
I don't know what it is but something's striking me weird with all of this right now. Ray disappears with a book left on his desk about replacing a DA. She sees him in a different car but no one interviews her or many other people that worked with Ray, including his best friend. Michael Madeira becomes DA and chooses not to reappoint Arnold. Arnold then launches a website critical of the investigation.
Why would LE not interview these people? Why did Arnold not launch this site before now?
So much time has passed and no one seems to be doing anything. I'm hoping that Arnold's site will do some good but I couldn't even find it while searching just now. This case is so frustrating. I wonder if we'll ever know what happened to Ray.
OriginalJerseyGirl
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Here it is:
gricar.disappearance - LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY: The Ray Gricar Disappearance
The first line on the page under the heading is:
It would be great if something in this site, some minor detail, proves to be of assistance to those officially charged with finding answers. But its primary goal is to motivate ordinary Centre Countians to stand and demand the answers to which they are entitled.
Ray worked hard and long to make the voices of victims heard. It seems only somehow fair that at least one would be raised on his behalf.
gricar.disappearance - LADIES AND GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY: The Ray Gricar Disappearance
The first line on the page under the heading is:
[FONT=times new roman,serif]“It is not the function of our government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the government from falling into error.”[/FONT]
--US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (1950)
and part of the closing paragraphs:
It would be great if something in this site, some minor detail, proves to be of assistance to those officially charged with finding answers. But its primary goal is to motivate ordinary Centre Countians to stand and demand the answers to which they are entitled.
Ray worked hard and long to make the voices of victims heard. It seems only somehow fair that at least one would be raised on his behalf.
christine2448
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:clap: :clap: :clap:
I wish there were something I could do..I just don't know what.
Gina_M
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I was wondering that too, but then I found this on the previous page. It was Carolyn Fenton who saw him leave early:
Hopefully we will get some answers in this case soon!
Gina_M
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From this article from last year:
http://www.centredaily.com/news/ray_gricar/story/3802.html
Fenton said she was about 15 to 20 feet away. Gricar was driving a gold or silver, metallic-colored car, not his Mini Cooper or Fornicola's Honda, she said.
...
This always bugs me too:
Centre County Criminal Court Administrator Cheryl Spotts was never interviewed by police. But she has long been struck by what she says was odd behavior by Gricar about a month before his disappearance.
"I remember distinctly a meeting we had, March the 9th," Spotts said. It was a meeting in the chambers of Centre County President Judge Charles C. Brown Jr. They were there to talk about a potential death-penalty case and set a trial date.
"It just seemed that Ray wasn't with it," Spotts said. "He was just looking around, which kind of shocked me because this was a death-penalty case."
At one point, Brown told Gricar he had two weeks available in October for the trial.
"Ray just turned and looked at the bookcases," Spotts said. "He didn't even look at the judge when he said it.
"He just said, 'I won't be here,' " Spotts said.
What he meant is not known. That was a time of year Gricar sometimes would vacation in Vermont, Sloane said. Other sources also speculated that Gricar was referring to vacation plans. Gricar's 60th birthday was Oct. 9.
But his behavior left Spotts unsettled enough that she remarked on it to several co-workers at the time.
And now on Karen Arnold's page, she states that something seemed to be bothering Ray in the week before his disappearance. That she and her co-workers had all noticed it. :waitasec:
I have no doubt that Ray was deeply distraught about something the week of his disappearance. It went well beyond simple busyness or preoccupation.
Ray was always extremely busy, with people constantly in and out of his office running situations by him for input, preparing his own cases, and dealing with contacts by the public, police and media. He was sometimes abrupt in his answers, particularly when he was especially busy. But his mood during the week preceding his disappearance was of a different order of things. The very fact that it showed was unusual. Ray was normally good at keeping his 'game face' on regardless of what was occurring.
I was asked if I had noticed anything unusual about Ray's behavior that week, and told him that Ray had seemed distraught about something earlier that week. I was told that he had already talked to various other staff members before calling me and that "everyone is telling me the same thing". That response has stood out for me on each occasion when I have read media statements attributed to police that there was nothing unusual about Rays conduct that week.
http://gricar.disappearance.googlepages.com/gricardisappearance
http://www.centredaily.com/news/ray_gricar/story/3802.html
Fenton said she was about 15 to 20 feet away. Gricar was driving a gold or silver, metallic-colored car, not his Mini Cooper or Fornicola's Honda, she said.
...
This always bugs me too:
Centre County Criminal Court Administrator Cheryl Spotts was never interviewed by police. But she has long been struck by what she says was odd behavior by Gricar about a month before his disappearance.
"I remember distinctly a meeting we had, March the 9th," Spotts said. It was a meeting in the chambers of Centre County President Judge Charles C. Brown Jr. They were there to talk about a potential death-penalty case and set a trial date.
"It just seemed that Ray wasn't with it," Spotts said. "He was just looking around, which kind of shocked me because this was a death-penalty case."
At one point, Brown told Gricar he had two weeks available in October for the trial.
"Ray just turned and looked at the bookcases," Spotts said. "He didn't even look at the judge when he said it.
"He just said, 'I won't be here,' " Spotts said.
What he meant is not known. That was a time of year Gricar sometimes would vacation in Vermont, Sloane said. Other sources also speculated that Gricar was referring to vacation plans. Gricar's 60th birthday was Oct. 9.
But his behavior left Spotts unsettled enough that she remarked on it to several co-workers at the time.
And now on Karen Arnold's page, she states that something seemed to be bothering Ray in the week before his disappearance. That she and her co-workers had all noticed it. :waitasec:
I have no doubt that Ray was deeply distraught about something the week of his disappearance. It went well beyond simple busyness or preoccupation.
Ray was always extremely busy, with people constantly in and out of his office running situations by him for input, preparing his own cases, and dealing with contacts by the public, police and media. He was sometimes abrupt in his answers, particularly when he was especially busy. But his mood during the week preceding his disappearance was of a different order of things. The very fact that it showed was unusual. Ray was normally good at keeping his 'game face' on regardless of what was occurring.
I was asked if I had noticed anything unusual about Ray's behavior that week, and told him that Ray had seemed distraught about something earlier that week. I was told that he had already talked to various other staff members before calling me and that "everyone is telling me the same thing". That response has stood out for me on each occasion when I have read media statements attributed to police that there was nothing unusual about Rays conduct that week.
http://gricar.disappearance.googlepages.com/gricardisappearance
luthersmama
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I just visited Lewisburg for the first time yesterday as I was driving back from Williamsport. I forgot to check for the name of the antiques mall that he was last seen in, so I couldn't find the exact place.
However, my impression of Lewisburg was much different than I had imagined. It is a really nice town with lots of shops, rehabbed victorian houses etc. Very busy place. Lots of places you could walk to from any place else in town. Kind of a classic Victorian era factory town that has remained very active and vital.
It struck me that Ray might have been coerced by someone into walking to their house. Maybe someone that he had prosecuted? Someone who lured him there for blackmail purposes? In any event, Ray could be in someone's freezer in Lewisburg at this point and the killer threw the computer in the river in hopes that it would lead to a presumption of suicide.
However, my impression of Lewisburg was much different than I had imagined. It is a really nice town with lots of shops, rehabbed victorian houses etc. Very busy place. Lots of places you could walk to from any place else in town. Kind of a classic Victorian era factory town that has remained very active and vital.
It struck me that Ray might have been coerced by someone into walking to their house. Maybe someone that he had prosecuted? Someone who lured him there for blackmail purposes? In any event, Ray could be in someone's freezer in Lewisburg at this point and the killer threw the computer in the river in hopes that it would lead to a presumption of suicide.
OriginalJerseyGirl
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Sorry for the late notice but I'm watching Greta van Susteren on FOX News right now and on the bottom of the screen was a box saying that the Jonathan Luna case is coming up next. If anyone's out there reading, it might be an interesting segment that'll probably be on any minute.
christine2448
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So sad....
HAVE you sent in your "7 Wonders of Centre County" choices?
There's plenty of time, with the deadline Sept. 2, but hundreds of readers are making their picks.
And dozens of things are being picked -- Grange Fair, the Nittany Lion shrine, those grilled stickes, and many, many more.
There's even a vote or two for Ray Gricar.
So much time remains, so many potential "Wonders" are out there.
http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/179176.html
HAVE you sent in your "7 Wonders of Centre County" choices?
There's plenty of time, with the deadline Sept. 2, but hundreds of readers are making their picks.
And dozens of things are being picked -- Grange Fair, the Nittany Lion shrine, those grilled stickes, and many, many more.
There's even a vote or two for Ray Gricar.
So much time remains, so many potential "Wonders" are out there.
http://www.centredaily.com/news/breaking_news/story/179176.html
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