PA PA - Ray Gricar, 59, Bellefonte, 15 April 2005 - #15

[J. J. in Phila]

OK, let me put it another way. I HATE the smell of cigarette smoke. If someone were to get into my vehicle and tried to light up, they would be back out of my vehicle faster than they thought humanly possible (they might be taking the door with them). I do not think that RFG would have willingly allowed a smoker in the Mini. Two choices; it was unwillingly or when he was not in it. If RFG were having a "last smoke", I would think it would have been a cigar. Someone was in the Mini that did not belong there. We don't know if they also re-positioned the Mini. We don't know who put the laptop and drive in the river. I can't help but feel that all the parts of the puzzle are here, we just can't see the pattern.

As far as I can tell, there was no first[/cigarette. RFG didn't smoke.

The smoker may not have been in Minim completely. The smoker either could have reached either reached in or leaned in while holding a cigarette. Either way, someone had to either lock the door or close the window.

I cannot come up with a reason why a killer would either lock the door or roll up the window.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

One possible explanation for the ash is that someone noticed the Mini sitting there for an extended period of time and decided to snoop or to loot it. That person could have stolen the laptop but tossed it later after finding out that it was connected to a missing person.

RFG's cell phone, county issued, was in the Mini.

There is that possibility with the laptop, as opposed to the drive. That would not explain why the looter would lock the door.

Two general theories.

1. The smoker was in not related to the the disappearance. The smoker was asking for directions, inquiring about how a Mini handles, asks if RFG is pulling out, or something like that. He taps lightly on the passenger side window; RFG rolls the window and the guy leans in and asks. The ash and the scent of smoke gets into the Mini. RFG answers, smoker leaves, and RFG raises the window.

2. The smoker leaned or reached into the Mini; the smoke got in at that point.

A. After that, RFG is still in control of the Mini, and closed the window or locked the door.

B. RFG tells the smoker to go to the car, probably to get something out. The smoker reaches into the car, dropping the ash and leaving the scent of cigarette in the Mini. He closes the door and locks it.

Under either of these theories, the smoker was, at least at that point in time, not planning to kill RFG.

Playing devils's advocate, any problems with my logic?

 

[J. J. in Phila]

I really believe Ray is 'Bloody Mary Poolside.'

How often, if ever; had he traveled to Mexico Bermuda or Bahamas? What were his stomping grounds and favorite holiday get away places? Where did he love?

New England, Cleveland, Europe, especially Slovenia.

 

[Ozoner]

RFG's cell phone, county issued, was in the Mini.

There is that possibility with the laptop, as opposed to the drive. That would not explain why the looter would lock the door.

Two general theories.

1. The smoker was in not related to the the disappearance. The smoker was asking for directions, inquiring about how a Mini handles, asks if RFG is pulling out, or something like that. He taps lightly on the passenger side window; RFG rolls the window and the guy leans in and asks. The ash and the scent of smoke gets into the Mini. RFG answers, smoker leaves, and RFG raises the window.

2. The smoker leaned or reached into the Mini; the smoke got in at that point.

A. After that, RFG is still in control of the Mini, and closed the window or locked the door.

B. RFG tells the smoker to go to the car, probably to get something out. The smoker reaches into the car, dropping the ash and leaving the scent of cigarette in the Mini. He closes the door and locks it.

Under either of these theories, the smoker was, at least at that point in time, not planning to kill RFG.

Playing devils's advocate, any problems with my logic?

I wouldn't assume that much thought went into locking the car door. That's something I do automatically--a reflex.

I also doubt whether a car would smell like smoke if someone merely leaned in with a cigarette. I think that someone must have been in the vehicle smoking for at least several minutes.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

I wouldn't assume that much thought went into locking the car door. That's something I do automatically--a reflex.

I also doubt whether a car would smell like smoke if someone merely leaned in with a cigarette. I think that someone must have been in the vehicle smoking for at least several minutes.

If it was the window, that would not be reflex.

I do agree that locking a car door can be a reflex, but this would be a special case. If it was someone pointing a gun at RFG though an open door/window, he will be keeping it on RFG. He stops to lock the door, RFG can bolt. If the smoker has committed murder, gone back to the car to put something in or take something , would he be stupid enough to smoke in the car and lock the door?

The smoker could have leaned in for several minutes, but a very good point is the length of time needed for the car have that scent in it.

 

[SeekingJana]

IMO, the presence of either a part of tobacco as ash and/ or the smell associated with the ash was still so common in 2005 that it cannot be used to rule out or rule in any scenario other than the statement that a non- smoker who is a total non- smoker would not have ash in their car from their own smoking, more than likely.

Could it be cigar ash if he sometimes smoked a cigar? And, I have to ask, with cigars having been banned from many nice restaurants decades ago because of the reeking stink, HOW could a non-smoker smoke stinky cigars ever but it's stated he never smoked cigarettes?

I have an anecdote here. I was married to a smoker who promised to quit. I am allergic to cigarette smoke and after a few years of him smoking on me and in my face in the car, in restaurants, in our home, and so forth, I divorced him because I was sick almost all the time.

Shortly after that time, I started dating a doctor who was believed to be the " poster child" for good health and healthy living habits. I sat in his car, and there were no scents at all. After a proper period of time, we were in love and we were mature adult lovers. I was with him in very close proximity, and if asked under oath, I would have said " He is a non- smoker'. He and his clothing were in direct contact with me in my apartment and various other places like on vacations, and there was no cigarette smell or even a hint that he'd been around a smoker. ( I can detect smoke if someone has been in a sports bar or other facility of that nature to pick up a takeout order, even).

I also never saw him do things like chew gum, use breath spray or the like. He DID have a fresh smell that smelled like some sort of after shave or some such that I couldn't place. At one time, I worked in his office to help him reorganize his medical practice, and as it had formerly been a health gym ( ha ha), there were lockers and changing rooms still in the back, which we did use. I realized one day that he had loaded every one of the lockers up with that powder called " Shower to Shower". That's what I had smelled on him, not being familiar with it before then, not unpleasantly, but not understanding why he was using all this body powder, you know? .. He was a very clean and fastidious man and would also take a shower in the employee ' locker room" area at the end of his work day because he was very fastidious. He would not have been smoking during that day. I was with him and there was no one smoking anywhere for any reason except a secretary he had who had to walk almost a mile to the area's designated smoking area. Needless to say, she didn't take many smoking breaks, unlike most of the smoking hospital personnel I knew at that time.
( Now all medical facilities in a city are No Smoking zones, of course). Oh, and in Texas, there are huge signs posted about no firearms, either visible or concealed on the premises. Not sure how well this is followed with the " concealed carry" part, but that's another matter.

I felt, then saw, a pack of cigarettes in his lab coat pocket ACCIDENTALLY when I was having a personal emergency and called him for help about 2-3 years after I'd been dating him. I recall asking him whose cigarettes he had in his lab coat, as sick as I was.
He told me straight out that he was a closet smoker. I agreed never to tell a soul, and I didn't.
You could have knocked me over with a feather, no kidding. I am super- sensitive to cigarette smoke smells. I have an acute sense of smell in general.

In all those many intimate years together, I had failed to detect any hint of the nasty habit. Neither he nor his clothes, nor his car, nor any of his belongings smelled like smoke, ever.
I don't know where he even kept the cigarettes and lighter on a routine basis, either, as the lab coat reveal was an anomaly, for sure.

HE smoked alone. My former spouse smoked, well, almost all the time. I've had patients in alcohol detox. who have told me they smoked only when enjoying a mixed drink, or other alcoholic beverage.

Is it possible that Ray was a closet smoker and Patty might not even have known? SOME people can smoke lightly, maybe when under stress, likely an old habit from college days, as my friend who was the secret smoker told me he started having a ciggie or two when he was cramming for exams in medical school and when doing the grueling hours of residency. ( He had a room close to the ER and back then, residents could do whatever they wanted to that was legal in their room).

Sorry this is so long, but as I was reading the posts today, the long- forgotten doc boyfriend who shocked ME after 3 or maybe more years together came to mind.
As a strident hater of all smoke, I'd not let a smoker in my car, much less light up. If they persisted and ignored me, they'd see me driving with my head out the driver's side window, which, as we know, would be a pretty scary thing to see. Most people would toss their cig, at that point, I think.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Jana, first of all, it is very good to see you post.

The smoke was cigarette smoke, not cigar smoke, according to LE. In my youth I smoked cigars (I quit in 1985), and father was a cigarette smoker for decades. The is a different smell that can be detected.

I do know about the doctor, but his first wife lived with him for about 20 years, and knew him in college. During that time, cigarettes were more socially acceptable than today. After that, he lived with his second wife for about 5 years. Then, RFG lived with PEF for 18-36 months. They all said he did not smoke cigarettes. It was also known that he didn't abstain from smoking, as there was the "celebratory cigar" comments; he did not hide that.

I have to conclude, from all of that, that RFG didn't smoke. Nobody even said that he smoked in college, and BG was with him in college.

There, however, was a sequence of events. The smoke and ash got in the car, and then, the car was locked with the windows closed. I have to see what scenarios that fits with, or doesn't fit with.

It does not fit with someone holding a gun on him from the passenger side. It would be difficult for someone to keep a gun on a driver from the passenger side. At some point, the car will be between the driver and the gunman. Even in that case, the gunman would not lock up the car.

There are inherent problems with someone holding a gun on a driver while he is driving; the driver can run into something. If the gunman is on the passenger side, the driver hit something with the passenger side of the car.

It is possible that the smoker could have killed RFG and returned to the Mini to get something out, or put something into it. He could have locked the door by reflex. However, if this was a planned, would a killer have been stupid enough to:

1. Return to the Mini where he could have been seen and later identified.

2. Smoke while he is doing it, knowing that he could leave some traces. The ash/smoke is the one clue that points someone, other than RFG, being in close proximity to the Mini.

One scenario was what I call the "brilliant killer" theory. Someone planned to get RFG to come to Lewisburg, isolated him, killed him, and hid the body so well that we still don't know where it is. Would that "brilliant killer" make such a stupid mistake as leaving smoke in the Mini (that would be second such mistake)? My answer is no.

It does not eliminate foul play, but it eliminates one foul play scenario.

 

[Owutatangledweb]

I am a smoker. I have leaned into my car to get something (on either side of the car) and the ash has dropped directly onto the floor mat on that side. The smell went right in with me. Depending on the weather/air pressure that day, the smoke and or smell can get locked in there even if I did that briefly. But if it is, it sure wouldn't linger for days. I think they found the car in a relatively short period of time after cigarette person had been there if this was the scenario, depending on if there was low pressure that day from the weather and little wind. I know that sounds silly, but I am very aware of this because of family members who hate that I smoke. I always feel bad if I drop an ash and wish I hadn't had the cigarette on my hand when i retrieved the item from the car.

 

[SeekingJana]

Jana, first of all, it is very good to see you post.

The smoke was cigarette smoke, not cigar smoke, according to LE. In my youth I smoked cigars (I quit in 1985), and father was a cigarette smoker for decades. The is a different smell that can be detected.

I do know about the doctor, but his first wife lived with him for about 20 years, and knew him in college. During that time, cigarettes were more socially acceptable than today. After that, he lived with his second wife for about 5 years. Then, RFG lived with PEF for 18-36 months. They all said he did not smoke cigarettes. It was also known that he didn't abstain from smoking, as there was the "celebratory cigar" comments; he did not hide that.

I have to conclude, from all of that, that RFG didn't smoke. Nobody even said that he smoked in college, and BG was with him in college.

There, however, was a sequence of events. The smoke and ash got in the car, and then, the car was locked with the windows closed. I have to see what scenarios that fits with, or doesn't fit with.

It does not fit with someone holding a gun on him from the passenger side. It would be difficult for someone to keep a gun on a driver from the passenger side. At some point, the car will be between the driver and the gunman. Even in that case, the gunman would not lock up the car.

There are inherent problems with someone holding a gun on a driver while he is driving; the driver can run into something. If the gunman is on the passenger side, the driver hit something with the passenger side of the car.

It is possible that the smoker could have killed RFG and returned to the Mini to get something out, or put something into it. He could have locked the door by reflex. However, if this was a planned, would a killer have been stupid enough to:

1. Return to the Mini where he could have been seen and later identified.

2. Smoke while he is doing it, knowing that he could leave some traces. The ash/smoke is the one clue that points someone, other than RFG, being in close proximity to the Mini.

One scenario was what I call the "brilliant killer" theory. Someone planned to get RFG to come to Lewisburg, isolated him, killed him, and hid the body so well that we still don't know where it is. Would that "brilliant killer" make such a stupid mistake as leaving smoke in the Mini (that would be second such mistake)? My answer is no.

It does not eliminate foul play, but it eliminates one foul play scenario.

Thanks, J.J. I've missed you. I think of this case every day. I just usually have nothing new to go on or to ask or say. It's been SO LONG now. Thank you for keeping the case discussion alive.

I agree with the majority of your conclusions and statements. Maybe I didn't make it clear that I was both working with, and spending all our shared off time in a living situation with the secretive smoking doctor, who was SO ashamed of his smoking once I found out accidentally by actually seeing the pack of cigarettes.
NO ONE KNEW he smoked!! I mean, I wasn't some naive weirdo who missed it. ALL I can come up with is that he smoked alone in his car with the ventilation systems on high and must have sucked the cigarette down in two puffs or so, because travel time when we were in separate cars was about 5 minutes or less.
Also, he'd be at the hospital on my unit working with me and talking with me and his patients for 3-5 hours per night, and he never left the unit.

It's really baffling sometimes what secretive smokers can learn to do to hide their smoking, but I do concur with you that Ray Gricar was a non smoker.

My personal theory is that it was one of the helpers he may have met somewhere, most likely late in Lewisburg.
I totally agree that a gunman doesn't hold a gun on a DA who might be armed as well and puff on a cigarette.

Back in the years of film noire', we had guys like Bogart cooly smoking their cigarettes while tailing someone, or maybe in a very tense situation ( thinking Casablanca here).
But in modern times, when a driver can perform maneuvers at high speeds which could disarm or even eject a gunman, cigarettes have become an anachronism.

I have never really thought a person wanted to do harm to Ray and somehow got part of a cigarette's dregs in his new Mini Cooper, but have wondered about the cops who opened it. In those years, many cops still chain smoked and drank gallons of coffee per shift on evening and night shift. Not sure about the day shift guys, as the shift workers used their hours as excuses to consume stimulants. ( Some older nurses did too, sadly).

Could the ash have come from a police officer?
Since we don't know that Ray himself locked the doors unless he had a key- only central locking system which some BMW autos have, is it not possible that John and Jane Public, of less than sterling manners, wanted to see inside a Mini Cooper, and if the doors were opened, had a look, dropping the ash without realizing it, and also locked the doors behind them?

There are so many ways to look at this without Ray being involved with a smoking person who was around his car, aren't there?

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Okay, does anyone know how long the scent of smoke would stay in a closed vehicle?

 

[Quisp]

If you are a non-smoker, you can probably smell it for weeks, if the car was all closed up.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

If you are a non-smoker, you can probably smell it for weeks, if the car was all closed up.

It would have been opened within the last 26 hours, if that helps.

 

[Owutatangledweb]

Okay, does anyone know how long the scent of smoke would stay in a closed vehicle?

Like I said previously, it depends on how heavy the air is and moisture in the air. It seems to linger longer when the air is damp and cold. JMO in my observations.

 

[SeekingJana]

It would have been opened within the last 26 hours, if that helps.

I can say that if someone had smoked in MY car 2 days ago and it had been opened up once, I'd smell it
That very thing has happened at a BMW dealer's repair shop, which has an excellent reputation and puts plastic AND their signature paper ( RME) all over the car before doing work.

I can smell just a tiny hint of cigarette smoke smell for days after someone smoked in a medium or small area. I can smell it in an office that's been closed up and empty for months and has great ventilation. I had to open an office like that once. Having the carpets and draperies cleaned professionally took 90% of the smell away as did industrial ventilation fans for a few days.

I totally agree with the poster who said that the humidity level plays a HUGE part. When our neighbors, who aren't close, burn wood in their fireplace, if it's a rainy or very humid day, I can't go outdoors. ( I'm that allergic to smoke). I don't have asthma or any other respiratory disease. I have inhalation allergic responses to fumes my body perceives as noxious. Now, at my age, my brain perceives the scent to be noxious as well, but this was not true as a child. I'd just end up in the hospital with pneumonia ( 3 times before the age of 2 years, which is extremely reactive and abnormal) and bouts of bronchitis and pneumonia throughout my life.

I have visited friends or toured open for sale condos and apartments before which had either an adjoining wall in the case of townhomes or had a downstairs or upstairs neighbor, and I'd not rent the apartment if the neighbor smoked. I could definitely smell it and NO ONE else could.
I'd be gasping, wheezing and truly physically reacting to the smoke, and the person showing the property, or my friends if I was a visitor, would be going " What the heck? Don't smell a thing here."

When we were house hunting for a week in this state, we were shown houses that were empty and had been empty for months. Hardwood floors, fresh paint. I could smell smoke even then if a smoker had been the previous owner or member of owner's family.

If my mail carrier smokes, I will get sick opening a package. My husband has to open most of my packages which are textiles ( clothing) as I get very ill.
I've received items direct shipped from Asia, and they were textile items which absorb cigarette smoke. They must have a love for the worst tobacco in the world there, because I've had to store many items from Amazon in the garage until hubby could get it to the dry cleaners.

I can smell it on the clothing of a FAMILY MEMBER of a smoker. In fact, I interviewed housekeepers two weeks ago, and did not hire the probable best candidate because her clothing was so horrendously full of cigarette smoke. My husband didn't smell a THING. I was about to gag, and she was sitting at the end of our long dining room table from me.

I am hypersensitive to all smells, I admit. It's a genetic thing, apparently.
The horrid stench of tobacco tops the list of normal, non- hospital noxious smells unless I'm in Europe, then it's the car emissions. I almost keel over in the streets of fine major cities from the pollution vehicles their vehicles are allowed to emit.

If we could do an in-person test, I think you'd be shocked. Men have a much poorer sense of smell than women. The percentage difference is really striking. Add the difference to a female who is hypersensitive to all smells, I don't single out tobacco, I smell everything that has a scent acutely.

The one bright spot about this is that apparently someone who was present when Ray's Mini was opened has the same hypersensitivity to scents. Ray, as an older male, likely didn't have it.

Doctors are now doing " smell tests" to test for dementia and other brain related disorders. Peanut butter is usually the first object used in the test. Loss of sense of smell is strongly associated with pre-dementia or early brain diseases of almost all types.
Maybe I'm going to escape that curse?

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Like I said previously, it depends on how heavy the air is and moisture in the air. It seems to linger longer when the air is damp and cold. JMO in my observations.

Here is the weather for 4/15/05: https: https://www.wunderground.com/histor...statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=

It is about 12 south of Lewisburg, so the temperature was probably slightly colder. Humidity was high on the evening of the 15th, but low on the afternoons of 4/15 and 4/16. Around the time that RFG was seen parking the car and when the police discovered the Mini, humidity was low.

Any help?

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Respectfully snipped

I am hypersensitive to all smells, I admit. It's a genetic thing, apparently.
The horrid stench of tobacco tops the list of normal, non- hospital noxious smells unless I'm in Europe, then it's the car emissions. I almost keel over in the streets of fine major cities from the pollution vehicles their vehicles are allowed to emit.

If we could do an in-person test, I think you'd be shocked. Men have a much poorer sense of smell than women. The percentage difference is really striking. Add the difference to a female who is hypersensitive to all smells, I don't single out tobacco, I smell everything that has a scent acutely.

The PSP trooper was male. Several people noticed it, so I'm guessing that all were not as sensitive to smells as you are.

We might be making a bit of progress.

 

[J. J. in Phila]

I've been look at the odds again.

From the last time I did this, about two and a half years ago, these were odds:

Voluntary Departure: 59%

Foul Play: 30%

Suicide: 10%

Something Else: 1%

Some things that I have been thinking about are that locked door, the smoke and ash, the financial situation, lack of a body, and looking at his desire to lose the data on his laptop.

Voluntary Departure: 60%

Foul Play: 24%

Suicide: 15%

Something Else: 1%

Voluntary: 75%

Involuntary: 25%

 

[SeekingJana]

Oh, this is neat. You added the totality of scenarios we have mostly considered into 2 categories this time: Voluntary 75% and Involuntary 25%.

I know my input is just one more opinion in the crowd, but I'd put it at
Voluntary 85%
Involuntary 10%
Fatal accident at the hands of a 2nd party- 5%

I decided to add the 3rd category separately rather than just add to " involuntary" because it was around 2005 that the USA had a rash of drivers who accidentally hit random pedestrians and so forth, and the drivers with extremely disordered thinking/ values left the gravely injured victims to die in their cars, garages or, in a couple of cases, windshields. Then concealed the bodies. Some apparently got away with the crimes, some made headline news. The act was accidental, the cover up was usually in conjunction with severe mental illness, or so I choose to believe, either pre-existing or situational on the part of the panicked driver.

I've given thought lately to the premise that Ray might have had something similar happen to him ( not the windshield people) but that an accidental fatality was covered up by burial away from Lewisburg.. Perhaps name and career recognition played into the horrible decision to bury the body unceremoniously.

It's what I consider to be the One/ Two punch in an unsolved disappearance or known unsolved murder.
One thing happens accidentally that might not result in death, then human temporary insanity or just evil takes over and the person committing the accident chooses not to get help for the victim.
The second part, of course, is that the body is well- concealed in the new patio, basement addition, or in granny's attic trunk. Something along those lines. Not by a known criminal but by an ordinary person who chooses a criminal pathway after the shock of an accident.

I've been look at the odds again.

From the last time I did this, about two and a half years ago, these were odds:

Voluntary Departure: 59%

Foul Play: 30%

Suicide: 10%

Something Else: 1%

Some things that I have been thinking about are that locked door, the smoke and ash, the financial situation, lack of a body, and looking at his desire to lose the data on his laptop.

Voluntary Departure: 60%

Foul Play: 24%

Suicide: 15%

Something Else: 1%

Voluntary: 75%

Involuntary: 25%

 

[J. J. in Phila]

Respectfully snipped:

I decided to add the 3rd category separately rather than just add to " involuntary" because it was around 2005 that the USA had a rash of drivers who accidentally hit random pedestrians and so forth, and the drivers with extremely disordered thinking/ values left the gravely injured victims to die in their cars, garages or, in a couple of cases, windshields. Then concealed the bodies. Some apparently got away with the crimes, some made headline news. The act was accidental, the cover up was usually in conjunction with severe mental illness, or so I choose to believe, either pre-existing or situational on the part of the panicked driver.

I've given thought lately to the premise that Ray might have had something similar happen to him ( not the windshield people) but that an accidental fatality was covered up by burial away from Lewisburg.. Perhaps name and career recognition played into the horrible decision to bury the body unceremoniously.

This is absolutely correct.

In mine, I list this under foul play. Early one, someone suggested that it could have been a hit and run, and the body flew into some vegetation along a road. That would be foul play, if the driver knew he hit someone (as opposed to some animal), but not murder.

Likewise, I've considered the possibility that RFG died as a result of an accident, or of accidental causes, while with somebody, and the person he was with covered up the death. That would be "abuse of a corpse," a misdemeanor, but not murder. https://law.justia.com/codes/pennsylvania/2015/title-18/chapter-55/section-5510

In the last 15 years, there have been a few prosecutions of that in PA.

I've considered a couple of possibilities. One is the "Nelson Rockefeller scenario." He had a fatal heart attack at his mistresses residence, while she was present. I've considered the possibility that RFG was with someone, possibly a lover, and that he had an accident or had an heart attack. That "someone" hid the body.

Looking at that "someone," it could be that she had a "significant other," and didn't want him to know that she involved with RFG. It could be that the "someone" was, of had previously been, a defendant or a witness in a case the DA's Office handled, or that the "someone" was connected to a defendant or witness. About 4 1/2 years after RFG disappeared, one of his ADA's, Marshall, resigned as a result of "sexting" the girlfriend of a defendant. That is in the realm of possibility.

Either a hit and run, or concealing an accidental or natural death, are foul play, but not murder.

If there was a split between homicide and other types of foul play would, tentatively, give the odd at:

19% homicide and 4% other types of foul play.

 

[SeekingJana]

Respectfully snipped:



This is absolutely correct.

In mine, I list this under foul play. Early one, someone suggested that it could have been a hit and run, and the body flew into some vegetation along a road. That would be foul play, if the driver knew he hit someone (as opposed to some animal), but not murder.

Likewise, I've considered the possibility that RFG died as a result of an accident, or of accidental causes, while with somebody, and the person he was with covered up the death. That would be "abuse of a corpse," a misdemeanor, but not murder. https://law.justia.com/codes/pennsylvania/2015/title-18/chapter-55/section-5510

In the last 15 years, there have been a few prosecutions of that in PA.

I've considered a couple of possibilities. One is the "Nelson Rockefeller scenario." He had a fatal heart attack at his mistresses residence, while she was present. I've considered the possibility that RFG was with someone, possibly a lover, and that he had an accident or had an heart attack. That "someone" hid the body.

Looking at that "someone," it could be that she had a "significant other," and didn't want him to know that she involved with RFG. It could be that the "someone" was, of had previously been, a defendant or a witness in a case the DA's Office handled, or that the "someone" was connected to a defendant or witness. About 4 1/2 years after RFG disappeared, one of his ADA's, Marshall, resigned as a result of "sexting" the girlfriend of a defendant. That is in the realm of possibility.

Either a hit and run, or concealing an accidental or natural death, are foul play, but not murder.

If there was a split between homicide and other types of foul play would, tentatively, give the odd at:

19% homicide and 4% other types of foul play.

We aren't just on the same page, we're on the same paragraph.
I sincerely hope he's alive, or was alive until natural death occurred, but we do consider all possibilities.

For some reason, the idea that a person who usually did the right thing, panicked and concealed death, or impending death, such as a severe heart attack or accident has been very much with me.
I have not really felt this way in the past, or if I did it was just one of many considerations of theories as to " What happened?"

The thing is- if the cover up was successful and NO ONE talks in the future, which is contrary to human nature, then his fate will be as murky as the now- legendary status of Judge Crater.

In fact, he may already be more " discussed" than Judge Crater ever was because of 21st century technology. This is doubly sad if he died on or near April 15, 2005....
No funeral, no final resting place of peace, no one remembering his life and passing, no lasting memorial to an important and good man in PA.

He deserves a memorial marker, even if the date of death is not listed. His life mattered, his daughter matters and she had the life she had because of Barbara and him, and he helped many people in Centre County, PA, and in Ohio prior to PA.

He was one of the good guys, or is one of the good guys, and he deserves to have his name and info about his life in a Bellefonte public park or the like, IMO.
Just a bronze plaque- doesn't have to be a cemetery.
Not sure who I'm asking, but I am asking for this.