Gricar search goes on [Centre County, PA, Dist Atty disappears]

LEWISBURG -- Detectives investigating the disappearance of Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar concentrated their search Tuesday around an antiques mall near the Susquehanna River where they believe he was seen about noon Saturday.

Mall owner Craig Bennett, 48, said he has told Bellefonte and state police investigators in repeated conversations that he saw a man "very close" to Gricar's description standing in a passageway inside the mall about that time.

The man, wearing a blue vest or a fleece jacket, stood for a time in front of a storefront that is closed and under construction, Bennett told the Centre Daily Times Tuesday. Gricar was wearing a blue fleece jacket when last seen.

"It appeared as though he was waiting for someone," Bennett said. "It had all the look as if he was waiting for someone."

Bellefonte police detectives Tom Thal and Darrell Zaccagni, working from their car in a parking lot across the street, said the reports of Bennett and others appeared to establish a "visual on Ray" at the noon hour Saturday, called the Street of Shops.

Bennett said some mall employees have told police they saw Gricar's car, a red and white Mini Cooper, in the parking lot between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. Friday. The Saturday "visual" would be the most recent point in a time line reported so far in authorities' efforts to track Gricar.

Police on Tuesday continued to use helicopters to search nearly 50 miles of the Susquehanna River from Lewisburg to Harrisburg. Milton Fire and Rescue personnel in a two-man flat-bottom boat searched along riverbanks between Lewisburg and Selinsgrove, 12 miles to the south.

But police said there was no sign of the 59-year-old district attorney, who planned to retire after his fifth four-year term expired this year. Gricar went missing Friday after calling his girlfriend, district attorney office clerk Patty Fornicola, with whom he lived in Bellefonte, and telling her that he had taken the day off and was driving toward Lewisburg on state Route 192.

hmmm, wonder what this was about:

(snip)

X. Going Upstairs

With a new-found confidence, we decided to see if it were possible to
end this investigation entirely before charges were filed and it
became a criminal prosecution.

Dale called the Director of Police Services with the slim hope that
he had no knowledge of this investigation and might intervene to stop
it. No dice.

Dale and I composed a letter to the district attorney objecting to
the investigation, also in the hopes of avoiding the prosecution of
the case. I include the letter:

Dear Mr. Gricar:

We are writing to you because of our concerns regarding an investigation
being conducted by the Pennsylvania State University Department of
University Safety with respect to violations of Pa.C.S.A. tilde 3933
(Unlawful Use of Computer) alleged to us. We have enclosed a copy of
this statute for your convenience.

Despite recommendations from NASA security officials and concerned members
of the professional and academic computing community that we file suit
against the Pennsylvania State Universities, we have tried earnestly to
accommodate this investigation.

We have cooperated fully with Police Services Officers Wayne Weaver
and Jeffrey Jones at every opportunity in this unnecessary eight-week
investigation. However, rather than arranging for direct communication
between the complaining parties and us to make it possible to make clear
the nature of our activities, the University Police have chosen to siphon
information to these parties in an easily-misinterpreted and secondhand
manner. This has served only to obscure the truth of the matter and create
confusion, misunderstanding and inconvenience to all involved.

The keen disappointment of the University Police in finding that we have
not been involved in espionage, electronic funds transfer or computer
terrorism appears to have finally manifested itself in an effort to
indict us for practices customary and routine among faculty and students
alike. While we have come to realize that activities such as using a
personal account with the permission of the authorized user may constitute
a violation of an obscure and little-known University policy, we find it
irregular and unusual that such activities might even be considered a
criminal offense.

The minimal and inferential evidence which either will
or has already been brought before you is part of a preposterous attempt to
shoehorn our alleged actions into the jurisdiction of a law which lacks
relevance to a situation of this nature.

We have found this whole affair to be capricious and arbitrary, and despite
our reasonable requests to demonstrate and display our activities in the
presence of computer-literate parties and with an actual computer, they
have, for whatever reasons, denied direct lines of communication which
could have enabled an expeditious resolution to this problem.

This investigation has proceeded in a slipshod manner, rife with inordinate
delays and intimidation well beyond that justified by an honest desire to
discern the truth. While certain evidence may appear to warrant scrutiny,
this evidence is easily clarified; and should the District Attorney's
office desire, we would be pleased to provide a full and complete
accounting of all our activities at your convenience and under oath.

In view of the judicial system being already overtaxed by an excess of
important and pressing criminal cases, we would like to apologize for
this matter even having encroached on your time.

Sincerely yours,

Dale Garrison
Robert W. F. Clark

I just watched Gretta on the Fox News Channel at 10 PM EDT, and she went with retired NYC Detective Ted Williams to the mini-mall in Lewisburg (45-50 min drive from Penn State) where Ray Gricar's car was found and where he was seen inside the mini-mall on Saturday.

It was when they walked to the end of the parking lot and down a slope to a small tributary of the Susquehana River with 2 ft deep water and a bridge overhead when my mind immediately jumped to the thought of a homosexual relationship.

You may have nailed it. I bet that same thought was going through Ted Williams' mind at the same time. Probably Gretta's too.

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