What happened to ex-DA Ray Gricar? Details explored ahead of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered

The upcoming episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on January 31, 2024, is all set to examine the infamous disappearance of Ray Gricar. He was an attorney who served as the district attorney of Centre County, Pennsylvania, from 1985 until 2005. Gricar went missing under mysterious circumstances in 2005, and despite consistent efforts from the police, no one could find out exactly where he went or what went wrong.

The upcoming episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered is from its current twelfth season, which will air at 8 pm EST, titled The Case of the Missing D.A. The official synopsis for the same reads,

"A district attorney in Pennsylvania went missing in 2005 under mysterious circumstances seven years after he investigated sex-abuse allegations made against Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky."

The case has also been linked heavily with Pennsylvania State football coach Jerry Sandusky, who was an alleged serial molester. During his tenure as the DA, Ray Gricar did not prosecute Sandusky. However, the coach did get charged and prosecuted 13 years later.

More details about Jerry Sandusky's case and Ray Gricar's disappearance can be found in the upcoming episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered on Oxygen.

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How did Ray Gricar disappear?

Ray Gricar was living with his girlfriend, Patty Fornicola, an employee of the Centre County District Attorney's office in 2005. His retirement was fast approaching, and he had built a sufficient bank balance to support the rest of his life. He had a seemingly thriving career, a beautiful girlfriend, and a successful daughter.

On April 15, 2005, Gricar took a day off from work and went on a drive. He informed Fornicola that he was driving northeast of Centre Hall through the Brush Valley area at around 11:30 am that morning. He failed to return home that night.

Fornicola reported him missing almost immediately after he failed to turn up. It would not be long before the police would discover Gricar's red Mini Cooper in the parking lot of an antique store in Lewisburg. The location of Gricar's car bore some similarities to that of his older brother's car, who reportedly died of suicide.

His car contained his county-issued cell phone but not his laptop computer, keys, or wallet. Initial investigation did not hint at foul play, but sniffer dogs allegedly indicated that Gricar could have gotten into another car after leaving his.

The FBI also got involved soon and went through Gricar's bank accounts, credit card records, and cell phone records, but none of them yielded any result whatsoever.

In July of the same year, fishermen located Gricar's county-issued laptop, with a missing hard drive, in the Susquehanna River beneath a bridge between Lewisburg and Milton. On a separate occasion two months later, someone recovered a hard drive on the banks of the Susquehanna River.

It was damaged beyond recovery and did not add sufficiently to the case. The only clue that investigators had close to this case is a set of search queries in Ray Gricar's home computer, with topics such as "how to wreck a hard drive," "how to fry a hard drive," and "water damage to a notebook computer," as per Wikipedia.

This has led to multiple theories over the years, but none of them have been proven right. Ray Gricar was declared "dead in absentia" on July 25, 2011.

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Catch the upcoming episode of Dateline: Secrets Uncovered, which will air at 8 pm EST.