On April 15, 2005, Ray would tell his girlfriend, Patty, that he was taking the day off of work and going for a drive- maybe even do some shopping. This was not too out of the ordinary for Ray, so Patty didn’t think too much about it.
Patty would speak to Ray around 11:30am that morning as he told her he was heading to Lewisburg, Pennsylvania to do some shopping.
Patty would not hear - nor see- Ray again.
Patty reported Ray missing at 11:30pm that evening when she failed to reach him.
Ray was 59 years old, and months away from retiring. He was the district attorney for Centre County, PA, and during his 20-years in that position had put his fair share of criminals behind bars.
As ‘one of them’, the police jumped on the case and began searching for Ray immediately. The next day they would locate his red Mini Cooper in the parking lot of an antique mall in Lewisburg. Ray loved antique shopping, so that seemed understandable he would’ve went there. However, there was no sign of Ray, his car was locked, and interestingly they found cigarette ashes on the floor of the passenger side of the vehicle. The car also smelled of cigarettes and they found discarded cigarette buts on the ground outside of the passenger door. Ray was not a smoker- in fact- he loathed everything about it, especially the smell.
DNA proved no useful results from the cigarette butts.
Some witness thought they recalled Ray in the antique mall with a tall, brunette, woman.
Ironically, in May 1996, Ray’s brother Roy was reported missing. His body was found a week later in the Miami River in Ohio, near where they found his car. Roy’s death was ruled a suicide.
Some people noted the similarities between Ray and Roy’s case, as his car was found near the Susquehanna river.
Months would go by with no sign of Ray. Until, some fisherman discovered his laptop under a bridge in the Susquehanna river. The laptop was in poor condition and the hard drive was missing. This was Ray’s county issued laptop. When the FBI searched Ray & Patty’s home computer, the found searches for ‘How to erase a hard drive’. They also found software in his office for erasing a hard drive. Patty said this was because he was going to be retiring soon, and planned to make sure all his personal information was off of his county issued laptop.
Shortly after, a woman walking her dog found the hard drive in a different part of the river. It was destroyed and no useable data could be recovered.
Was this a suicide? Ray had no signs of depressions, in fact everyone said he was happily looking forward to retirement.
Did Ray go off to start a new life? There have been a few ‘sightings’ of him through the years, but none were confirmed.
Recently, an inmate told a cell mate that he knew what happened to Ray. He said they were contracted to kill him, and dispose of a body. He had two accomplices, a man and a woman. Is this a possibility, considering he likely had some enemies as a D.A.?
What do you think happened to Ray Gricar?
Sources:
https://wherearetheypodcast.medium.com/the-unsolved-disappearance-of-ray-gricar-20a299e6a13a
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